1 Month Old - January 18, 2012

I took lots of picture when Lola turned one month!  I am just now getting to post them!  She will be turning 2 months this Saturday, so I hope to be able to blog when things happen and not after the fact! 
We will see...

1 Month

You are pretty much sleeping all through the night! 

  

You love your pacifier!!

You eat about 6 times a day and take your last feeding around 11 p.m. 

  

You usually sleep 3-4 hours between feedings during the day and at night can go 6-8 hours before waking up to eat again. 

 

 You nurse at every feeding except the night one.  Daddy feeds you a bottle of breastmilk before bed!

 

You love taking a bath and getting dried off with the hair dryer.

  

Your hair is light brown and looks like it has a little red in it in the sunshine. 

 

You have beautiful blue eyes.

 

 You smile at us and turn when you hear our voices.

You are such a good baby!

Thanks Aunt Lo for my monthly stickers!
These are literally in the order that I took them.

Sweet Angel!

No pictures, please.

 Are we done yet?

Ok then....I'll just take a nap.

Mom, come on now....I took a nap and you still aren't finished?

Ok....I'm going back to sleep, wake me up when your done.

And my personal favorite...What the heck is this thing on me?!? 
Can you take it off now?

We love you to the moon and back Lola! 
I can't believe you are already a month old!

Baby's First Christmas!

Yes, I know I'm behind, but I wanted to get all caught up with Lola's life by the time she was 2 months old.  WELL.....that would be this Saturday, so needless to say I'm going to be busy this week. 

Merry Christmas Baby Lola!

With the blessing of a new baby the week before Christmas, we kind of started forgetting about Christmas.  I had completed all of my shopping and wrapping before I went into labor, but after she got here it was almost like we already had Christmas.  She is the best Christmas present EVER! 

Here are some pictures of her very first Christmas!

 On Christmas Eve, we get together with the whole Eubanks family at my parent's house.  We eat, read the Christmas story, sing Christmas carols and visit.

Usually the youngest kids (that are able to read), take turns reading parts of the Christmas story.  We are getting to the end of grandkids, so soon Landry, Lola, and Graham (my cousin Jen was expecting at Christmas and he came the week after) will have to take over reading!  This year, Karoline and Maribeth read the story. 

They did a great job!

We started singing and Landry danced!  She was the center of attention!  So sweet! 

Lola slept in a pack and play in my parent's bedroom.  She missed the whole thing!  After we sang, we took family pictures.  I put on her "doll" Christmas dress for our picture.  My sister and mom found this smocked dress for her and it literally had a tag on it that said "Size:  Doll."  It fit her perfectly!  She still wanted to sleep!

 Here is our first family Christmas picture with Lola in it!

All the girls!

After my parent's house, we went to John's parent's house.  We opened gifts with his sister Kim, brother-in-law Joe, their girls (Meredith and Addison), Nana, and Papa!

We all got lots of good stuff!

Addison opening her gifts!

The girls!

Everyone loving on Lola.

Papa holding Lola.

After all the festivities we finally made it home.  Lola needed to get in the bed so that Santa could come!  She got this pillow from Grammie and Papa.  If you can't see it says, "Twas the night before Christmas..."

Christmas Morning!

LOOK WHAT SANTA BROUGHT LOLA!  She must have been a good girl!

She got lots of good stuff that she can use all year (because she won't have another big holiday until her birthday).  That is the only bad thing about a December birthday!

Daddy bringing Lola to see what Santa brought.

She will appreciate all these things later I'm sure!

We also checked out our stockings to see what Santa brought us.

Santa stuffed Lola's stocking with lots of goodies!

WE LOVE SANTA!

This is about the only picture of me from Christmas Day.  I didn't feel very well that day, but I really think I was exhausted!

After we checked out what Santa brought, we ran to my Mama Jo and Papa's house to have breakfast.  Because Christmas fell on Sunday we went early so everyone could go to church afterwards.  Once again, because I wasn't feeling well, there aren't pictures of that.  For lunch we went to my Emmie and Papa Gene's House and then opened presents there.

Landry tearing into a present!

Emily, Landry, Loren, and Chad checking out what everyone was getting!

Emmie and Papa Gene

Landry was using the banana as a telephone!  SO CUTE!  Grammie and Papa thought so too!  Lola slept through all of this! 

After their house we ate dinner at my mom and dad's house and opened each other's gifts. 

Grammie and Papa

Loren always manages to get a smile in when I'm trying to take a candid picture!

Emily, Alex's girlfriend, drew a picture of our Papa for us.  She is such a special girl!

Grammie and Papa gave Landry a fun swing set and slide to play on.  I'm sure Lola will get good use out of it too!

Lo and I took some pictures of the girls in their matching outfit.  These were sweet shirts with an ornament applique on them.

The Best Christmas Present Ever!

Sweet Baby!

 They are so cute in their Christmas Pajamas!

First Trip to the Doctor

Here are some pictures of Lola's first trip to the doctor.  We went the Friday after she was born for them to check her out!

 On the ride there!



Getting weighed!  Almost exactly back at her birth weight!  The doctor asked what we were feeding her!  She has always been a good eater and sleeper since she got here!

Waiting on the doctor come in.  She is thinking, "Hurry Up!  It's cold in here!"



Daddy holding Lola!

Cousins

Lola is my sister's first niece and Landry's first cousin.  Lola has two other sweet cousins, Meredith and Addison.  Here are some pictures of them!

They are so in love with my sweet Lola and they are all going to be great friends!

The Road to Here - Part 2

I feel like I need to give a little bit of background before going forward.  Lola was due on December 18th the Sunday after the last day of school before Christmas Break.  I teach so I was trying my best to make it until the break.  I had everything planned for my students after Christmas for while I would be out on maternity leave so I was ready.  I had a wonderful pregnancy and loved every minute of it.  The last week of my pregnancy I had a LOT of lower back pain so I started feeling ready for Lola to make her appearance. The Wednesday before her due date I went to my regular doctor's appointment early that day because I woke up and my face and hands were very swollen.  I was afraid that my blood pressure had gone up or something, but they said it was normal towards then end to start swelling.

The  next day, Thursday  I began having very regular and strong contractions all day and even worse back pain than I had been having.  I came home after work and continued to have regular contractions.  When John got home from work I told him I thought I was going into labor so we headed to the Doctor's office.  I called on the way and the doctors had already left for the day so they told be to go straight to the hospital.  After getting checked out.......FALSE ALARM.  They said I was having strong and regular contractions, but they weren't making me progress any.  John said he was not bring me back to the hospital unless my water had broken (remember this...).  I went to work for my final day before the break and continued to have contractions and major back pain.  Luckily I made it through the day and said goodbye for a while to all my friends at work.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

My Papa's Birthday

I started the day by releasing balloons at his graveside with my family.  After that my mom and I decided to go do some last minute Christmas shopping (by the way I was done with Christmas presents and had them wrapped under the tree before this day).  I wanted to get just a few small extra gifts to be completely done.  We walked all over the mall!  I was so ready for her to come and my back was hurting so bad, I wanted to "walk her out!"  I ate lunch at Ice Cream and Coffee Beans with John, Loren, Mom, Chan, and Lisa.  John and I went home and took a little nap.  My mom called and asked if we wanted to eat at Lake Bowen Fish Camp, so we got ready and went to Loren and Chad's to ride with them.  I made the comment that they would have to drive us to the hospital if my water broke!  We ate and then rode back to their house to hang out for a little while.

Side note...
At this point in my pregnancy I was going to the bathroom every 5 seconds so I had been to the bathroom about 10 times at their house that night within an hour or so. 

I got up once to go to the bathroom and said, "Oh, my water just DIDN'T break."  It took them all a minute but then they were mad and told me to quit joking.  I went and came back.  About 5 to 10 minutes later around 8:00 p.m. I had to go again, so I went to the bathroom and Landry (18 months or so old at the time) wanted to go too.  I got up to go out of the bathroom and I heard a noise and it felt like someone had popped a balloon in my belly.  I yelled out LOREN (which I don't call her in real life unless something is wrong).  She and John came running in screaming what's wrong.  I said, "I think my water just broke."  Of course, because I had been joking all night they did not believe me.  I finally convinced them that I was serious and off we headed to the hospital.  (John and I in our car and Loren, Chad, and Landry came not too far behind us in their car)

John drove WAY too fast, but we made it safely to the hospital.  After having trouble at the gate (crazy people) we finally parked and made it up to the maternity floor.  They confirmed that my water had broken and moved me to a birthing room and got me hooked up.  Around 10:00 I began having very strong painful contractions that were so close together.  I never had a chance to breath in between.  I dealt with them for about an 1 hour before John called the nurse.  She came in and looked at the monitor and immediately ordered an epidural for me before I asked for it.  She said they were very hard contractions.  I received the epidural around 11:30 and was in heaven.  The nurse told us to try to get some read, so John laid down and fell asleep.  Around 2:00 I called the nurse in because I was feeling a lot of pressure.  She told me they wanted to get the last bag of antibiotics in me so she would come back in an hour to check me because she didn't want to "stir the pot" right then. 

When she came back around 3:10 I was fully dialated and she said that she could see Lola's head.  John by the way had been asleep so he was trying to get himself awake at this point and he was not quite ready!  She called the doctor and we did some practice pushes while we waited on her to arrive.  Dr. Beck, my doctor (who by the way was also like 8 months pregnant at the time) got there and delivered our beautiful baby girl at 3:45 a.m.  I had a wonderful labor and delivery experience!

Lola Kate Boyter

born December 18, 2011

at 3:45 a.m.

7 lbs.

20 1/4 inches long