As promised I wanted to update you on all of our Christmas happenings! Now that the madness seems to be over, I will post about all of our Christmases (plural Christmas?) in a single post!
On Tuesday the 21st after Eric worked a half day we set off to Texas with Nolan's Uncle Al and Aunt JJ (Austin and Jill, they wanted those names...). Yes, we drove. Yes, we are a bit crazy to travel 10+ hours in a car with a nursing newborn, but it was the only way we were going to have a TX Christmas this year so we did it! For those of you wondering about the nursing logistics, we simply decided to see what Nolan would do, we weren't sure if he would take a bottle in his seat or at all, but he did! He was a wonderful traveler! I pumped in the car using a converter thing and he took a bottle from me or his Daddy, it worked perfectly, we made the same amount of stops as we would have anyway!
So we got to Daddy and Gail's late Tuesday night. We relaxed on Wednesday and celebrated with Eric, Nicki, Jack, Jason, Daddy and Gail on Thursday night! We were disappointed that Nolan didn't get to meet his cousins Presley and Quaid and Aunt Keeley but so thankful that Keeley didn't bring strep throat to Nolan! Friday, I had a day of pampering with a manicure and pedicure! It was wonderful, however as I type, I am noticing my manicure is long gone....We had a great (very short) trip! We left early Saturday (Christmas Eve) to head back in time for Eric's Grandmomma's Christmas. And Nolan's mom failed to take many pictures in TX...but here is proof we were there!
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| This is on PP and GiGi's chair |
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So glad someone took this one...we didn't sleep very well in TX,
pretty sure this is in the middle of the day!
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Grandmomma's Christmas was next, and we were very tired when we got there but we were so glad to make it back in time! We had a great meal and opened presents and guessed the toothbrush color (a yearly tradition, Eric, Nolan and I all guessed right this year!!). No pics from there...sorry, I really am trying to improve on my picture taking abilities!
Christmas morning we woke up in our own beds, opened presents! Eric and I got each other the same thing...great minds think alike....then we headed to Nolan's Grandma and Grandpa's to open more presents and have a traditional Christmas feast! I was well rested this day so I have more pics!
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| Grandpa opening the speciality nuts |
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| Uncle Twav with his Red Rider gun... |
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| Uncle Al got us a Snuggy, I love it, and am modeling with the remote... |
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| Christmas tort, from Grandma Ward |
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| Sampling the speciality nuts |
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Not great quality but here is Nolan exercising on Christmas
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After Grandma's and Grandpa's we headed to Nana and Pawpaw's for more presents and more food! Nolan meet Stef, Chad, Gavin, Gage, Brooklyn, Nathan, Zack and Pawpaw for the first time! There are so many people at Nana's and soooo many presents, there was no room for a camera but I did sneak this one before we left:
The day after Christmas we celebrated Christmas with Nolan's Grammy and Grandpa, Uncle Adam, Aunt Crystal and Uncle Ryan and cousin Caelum! We opened more presents and ate more food! Here is a picture of all of Nolan's loot (Grammy likes to buy for her grand babies).
Finally, as a special treat, Grandma Ward and Aunt Karen came to visit/meet Nolan! They got here on the 27th, and we celebrated Christmas with them too! More presents and more food also, Nolan saw his first dinner and show and got to tour a mansion! We had a great time on their visit! Here is Nolan with his Great-Grandma Ward:
We had a wonderfully, blessed Christmas this year! Thank you to all our friends and family for making Nolan's first Christmas so special!
It was recommended by some mommies whom I know have wonderful sleepers, so we are trying it out! It is a bit early for sleep training according to the book but so far Nolan has been a really good, easy temperament baby (don't get me wrong Nolan and I talk about patience everyday, he has to be patient with his brand new, very slow Momma and Daddy and I have to be patient when I don't know what he wants, but for the most part he is happy and rarely cries-yes, we thank God everyday!). So the book says for these type kids we can start as early as 6 weeks! What is sleep training? Honestly it is training for baby's parents, not the baby, you simply learn your baby's sleepy cues and put him down to sleep before he is overtired and cranky. For Nolan's age, he should only have 1-2 hour wake periods at a time before he is tired! All this seems simple enough when I was reading, but it's tougher than I thought! Nolan's cues can be vague and sometimes, his parents are a bit selfish and try to keep him awake to play with us instead of put him to bed like we are supposed to...but I will say since I started this on Tuesday, his sleep periods are already more regular, AND...he is sleeping 6 hours at a time at night (you would think I was sleeping that long but not the case, Momma still has to watch her shows...I know, ridiculous....but normally I do get 5 hours which is soooo much better than 3 or 4! Nez mentioned the term "pregnancy haze" to me this week, and it's so true, I think I am finally coming out of it and Nolan is 6 weeks old today, sleep like this is the only way out!!!). We still have more work to do (I'm a little worried that Nolan only naps in bouncy seats or the swing or car seat at this point) but so far so good! Any Mommies reading this with sleep advice for us very brand new parents, please comment, we need all the help we can get!
