WEEKEND UPDATE & A PHOTOSHOOT!

(slide show courtesy of Good Golly Photography)

Can't believe it is already Monday. We had a great weekend! Friday night Kenny and I watched Red. That movie with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren. It was just okay. Nothing to great and honestly Kenny and I weren't real sure what was going on.

On Saturday morning I ran to the grocery store for a fruit run. Can I just say that it is rocking my world that fruits are 0 points with the new Weight Watchers Plus program. It makes it so easy to get full now because you can add an apple or Cuties or berries to any meal and really bulk it up. Even bananas are 0!

Then Saturday afternoon we had Elting's newborn photos taken by Molly with Good Golly Photography. Did you see the sneak peak slide show? I love that she knew that I was just dying to see some of the pictures so she gave us a little preview! Cannot wait to see more!

The way Good Golly photography does the shoot is they come to your house. So she brings all of her props and backdrops and then pulls from your house and surroundings to. So I love that our house and even Elle's nursery is in the background of the pictures. It makes it so much more personal to me. I was amazed that she kept Elting asleep through the whole thing(with one bottle in the middle) and managed to pose her so many ways without her crying once. We plan on doing pictures throughout the year also. She really did such a great job and for a great price!


Saturday night Kenny and I decided to carefully take Elting out and eat dinner at a restaurant. We wanted sushi. My sister had stopped by to see the baby and so we invited her to come along. We got to the restaurant pretty early and were home and in our pajamas ridiculously early. But I was worn out!

So yesterday was my official due date. I told Kenny that if we had gone the whole time we would be going in for an induction this week. Crazy to think about. Instead I am going for my checkup and Elting has her first appointment with the therapists to track her development. To celebrate the day we were lazy with a capital L and then it was Oscar time. Watched the entire Red Carpet and then of course the award show and schooled Elle on the do's and don'ts of award shows. It was lovely.

HI MY NAME IS MALLORY...

And I am...

ADDICTED TO GOOGLE! More like the act of Googling. Google and me have been great friends for a while now. I would be sitting with my work bff and we would get into some ridiculous debate(and their were some doozies)and Google always always settled those petty little discussions, most of the time with my other best friend Wikipedia.

But now with this child OH LAWD! I am not kidding I seriously might Google something once an hour if not more. What did our parents do with us without Google. In random order here are some things that I have been Googling.

- Grunting in preemies
- Snorty noses in newborns
- Constipation in newborns
- Formula causing constipation?
- How to put your newborn on a schedule
- What is baby wise?
- What is the Baby Whisperer?
- How much tummy time should you do with a preemie?
- How many Weight Watchers points in McCalister's Chicken Tortilla Soup
- What does green poop mean?
- How many Weight Watchers points in the Fuji Apple salad at Panera
- How to talk to your newborn.
- Is it normal for a newborn to sleep this much?
- Norwegian Cruise Lines
- Best place to stay in Miami

And the list goes on and on and on. A question pops into my head and I reach for my laptop, smart phone, anything!

MUST HAVE GOOGLE!

WEEKEND UPDATE

Well another fantastic weekend spent mostly at home with our little newborn who is still sleeping majority of the day. Because she was born 5 weeks premature then we are getting lots more of this newborn/sleepy phase. I am enjoying it because its easy and pretty dang cute. But at the same time I am ready for her to start being awake a little more. As the days pass she is gradually waking up. So nice to see her eyes.

Kenny was out of town last week and this past weekend so my mom was thrilled to come stay with me to keep me company. This was the first time she had seen Elle not in the hospital. And the first time for her to hold her because she had limited access to her in the NICU. Needless to say she ate it up!
We watched movies and ordered take out all weekend. It was so fun. Even managed to get in a nice relaxing and much needed pedicure. On Sunday Kenny came home and my mom cooked my favorite meal and we watched Life As We Know It with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. I really thought it was cute and funny.

It is so nice having these weekends where we do nothing but spend time with each other. I am sure once we can take Elting out a little more life will get busier again but just enjoying it all right now.

I AM LOVIN...

American Idol!

When the season ended last year(I barely watched anyway) I decided I was no longer going to watch AI anymore. In my opinion it had gone downhill and Simon was leaving and I love Simon. Then to top it all off I thought the choices of new judges was all wrong. Jennifer Lopez and Stephen Tyler so random.

But I was all wrong. I am not sure if I started watching this season because there wasn't anything else on or maybe I just couldn't resist the audition episodes. I love watching auditions. But I am thoroughly enjoying this season. If you had asked me my opinion before American Idol I would of told you I didn't really care for Jennifer Lopez at all. I mean her music was kind of fun in high school and college but otherwise don't really like her. But this season of American Idol has made me really really like her a lot. She is empathetic, cutthroat and honest all at the same time. Plus she's pretty. Ha!

And Steven Tyler is funny and crazy and I have always been a huge fan of Aerosmith.(random fact about moi)

Don't really have any favorites for the contestants just yet but I am officially hooked now and will be tuning in for the rest of the season. I don't even really miss Simon.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Well hello! Kenny and I had the best weekend. It was the perfect balance of relaxing and getting things accomplished.

Friday night we rented Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. I have never seen the original but we both really liked the new one.

On Saturday morning I had a hair appointment that I was in desperate need of. What is funny is that this was the appointment that I scheduled so I wouldn't have roots when I delivered. Priorities right? Ha! So my hairdresser was expecting me to waddle in about to pop. Not the case. It is still so strange moving through these days where I thought I would be very very pregnant and I am not.

After I got home from my hair appointment my sister came over to let Kenny and I run some errands together and GO ON A DATE!!! We were so excited and thankful to be able to have some "us" time after only three weeks. So we ran errands and then went to see Just Go With It. The movie was very silly but funny. It was lighthearted and we both enjoyed it. Then after the movie we went and ate Mexican and had some margaritas. We considered this our Valentine's Day date. Nothing fancy but so so nice!

While we were away my sister sent me this picture.It is nice being able to leave the house and know that we have someone to take care of her that loves her and thinks she is just as cute as we do.

On Sunday we decided to take our stroller out on its maiden voyage. The weather is being crazy and it is warm and feels like spring so we had to take advantage. We took Lena with us which she loved. Kenny and I actually argued over who got to push the stroller. Mature. (not a real arguement of course)
It felt incredible to be able to excercise and be outside and have energy. I foresee lots of strolls in our future. After we got home I cooked dinner and then we watched Paranormal Activity 2 which I thought was pretty good.

On Monday I was a lucky girl to have Kenny stay home for an office day and he cooked me breakfast and we just hung out while he did some work. We went for another walk. We don't really exchange gifts for Valentine's Day but we did exchange cards and some sweet treats and it was the perfect day!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

WHAT WE'RE UP TO

Sleeping Beauty herself

So I am sure I will look back at these days(and this post) and laugh because right now I have to say...this is easy. This whole motherhood thing.

All she does is sleep for the most part. Now granted she sleeps in 3-4 hour increments before she is hungry again, so that still has me up at all hours of the night. So by morning time I can be exhausted. But then all I do is sleep once she goes back to sleep after she eats her morning meal. So we snuggle while she sleeps, or I do stuff around the house, make bottles, watch movies, cook dinner, shower, read blogs, watch daytime television which is absolutely horrible by the way.

Yesterday I watched Single White Female after having a conversation with a friend about it. I told her I kind of wanted to see the new movie The Roommate and she told me that it was based on the original Single White Female movie. Uh have yall seen it? That movie is crazy!

We also got several inches of snow and with it being so cold here I literally have not been outside since Monday. I am excited to see that next week it is going to be in the 60's and I cannot wait because I think we are going to be doing some walking with the stroller!

Believe me. I KNOW this will get much much harder. And she is a newborn which is why all she does is sleep. I know that in mere days this could all change. But in the meantime I will enjoy these precious peaceful "easy" days.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Kenny and I had such a good relaxing weekend at home. Technically this was our first real weekend at the home with the baby. And it was really nice.

Friday night Kenny and Elting had their first daddy/daughter date while I went to dinner with some friends. When I was pregnant Kenny and I talked about how he was going to take Elting out on dates all the time so that they would have a good bond. So they hung out at home together and watched movies.

I went to a new Mexican restaurant called Las Delicias. This place opened while I was pregnant and everyone has just been RAVING about their margaritas with fresh squeezed lime juice and their really fresh guacamole. I went with my friend Susan and her really good friend Krista who I was so glad to finally meet because she had passed down some of her maternity things to me while I was pregnant. Let me tell you the margaritas, the guacamole and the company did not disappoint. It was so nice to get out and felt amazing to come home to my little girl.

On Saturday, I went grocery shopping. I know, sounds so mundane and boring but it once again it was nice for me to be able to get out of the house and most of all it was so nice to have my energy back and to be able to do the shopping after having to get Kenny to do it the last few months because it just wore me out to much.


Saturday night we ordered take out and watched Buried. Have yall seen this movie? We both really liked it and it had a surprise ending.

On Sunday, Kenny and I planned on having our own little Lacey family Super Bowl party since we couldn't go to any of our friends party's. So we grilled wings and made some dips and watched the game. I enjoyed it because I could hear all the commercials and actually pay attention to the game instead of talking. And apparently people hated the halftime show but I kind of enjoyed it. All in all it was a great weekend spent as a family.

And of course here are a couple pics!
She sleeps with her hands up by her face majority of the time.

Getting ready to go to her two week check up. I took her by myself today and of course there was a blizzard outside. But I managed okay. And we found out she gained more weight. She now weighs a whopping 6lbs!

IRRATIONAL FEAR

So with motherhood comes lots of fears. LOTS! Some of them extremely rational, some of them not so much. But the one that I am dealing with on a nightly basis these past few days is completely and totally 100% irrational. What is it???

I am terrified I am going to hear a ghost/spirit/poltergeist/creature/something in the nursery on Elting's baby monitor.

Where in the world did this fear come from? I have no idea. Maybe there might have been something about hearing things on a monitor in that Paranormal Activity 2 preview. But I am not sure and I never even saw that movie. But with every bump, creak and static moment on the monitor I cringe, envisioning some ghostly being standing over her crib.

The other night as I was falling asleep I started hearing this guy talking over the monitor. It was just static and then a few words and then the monitor would go back to working normally. The rational side of me knows that this was just the monitor picking up some sort of radio activity nearby. The manual even said this might happen and if it bothers you, you can just change your channel. But the irrational side of me kept thinking "It's a ghost! It's a ghost!" Seriously what is wrong with me??

Is it that with a newborn I have so many other important things to worry about that my brain is coping by obsessing about ghosts.

And to make matters worse in writing this post I googled creepy baby monitors looking for an image and there is an entire site dedicated to people hearing creepy things over baby monitors. I did not click but this is a real thing!!! Oh crap!!

OUR WEEK IN THE NICU

Everyone just dies at this picture because the flash picks up on all that blonde hair that isn't noticeable in person. Plus what State fan doesn't think that onesie is adorable.

So after they let me see Elle for just a little bit the NICU team who were required to be there because she was not 36 weeks yet took her to be looked at. She was having a little problem breathing and so they decided to keep her for the time being. Elting fell into this weird in between stage gestationally speaking. She wasn't so early that they gave her the steroid shots for her lungs but she was early enough that they couldn't send her right to the well baby nursery. Thus began our week in the NICU.

I was discharged on Monday and from Tuesday to when she was discharged we pretty much lived at the NICU. The hospital that I delivered at built a new women's center last year and their NICU is composed of pods of rooms. So Elting had her own room that we could of slept in but we chose not to. But it did allow for privacy and bonding. Plus we were able to do most of the caring for Elting. We changed her diapers, fed her, cuddled her, kangaroo cared. We were able to do it all. Even though we did not see our house except to go there and sleep we were blessed that the facility she was at was so incredible.

One of the many feedings.

We had one somewhat bad day the whole week we were there and this was a picture taken that night. Hence the puffiness and no makeup.

When they told us we might be going home we brought one of the hospital blankets home for Lena.

Before we were discharged Elting had to pass the car seat challenge. They had to put her in it with all her monitors on and make sure she breathed okay and her heart rate stayed normal for an hour. We were so anxious for this to be over because it meant we could leave.