Back in the Swing

Things are slowing down a bit now that mom and dad are getting used to the new sleep schedule. Ames is starting his daycare this week as Suzanne is getting back to work. We found a great place for him to be watched in home and luckily it's just a couple miles from home. Ames shares his time with 3 other toddlers and 4 infants. There are two full time ladies that watch the children plus several other part time or fill in relatives. All the children love Ames and he seems to be handling it well. He's starting to fill out in his face. It seems like all of his eating just hit him all at once. And he's definitely heavy enough he's starting to work on mom and dad's beach muscles :) He usually sleeps through the night with one pit stop around 2:00 or 3:00. But overall he is very good and we probably couldn't ask for a more mild mannered baby. Here are a couple pictures of laundry time and a little mommy/baby quality time.

Where does the time go!

Well Ames is 3 weeks and 1 day old already! Crazy to believe and kind of sad. I don't want my baby boy to grow up because he is so cute and little and I know one day I won't be able to hold him up on my shoulder or hug him without him pulling away as boys do when they grow up.

As hard as this has been and don't get me wrong I have Many moments still, I am starting to really enjoy watching him make faces all the time and just admiring his every day changes. Each morning I wake up thinking maybe today he will recognize me and smile, I truly cannot wait for that moment but I don't want to wish time away so patience it is.

Ames is continuing to eat like a champ and only cries when wanting to eat or needing a clean diaper. He definitely is like his daddy, goes with the flow, which is a blessing for me! We have his one month check up next week and I cannot believe that date is already approaching.

I have to start looking at daycare options which I am Not looking forward to doing. Agg if only my mom lived here, she would take up the position of watching him in a heartbeat. I am hoping she can't stand being away from him and will talk my dad into moving to KC eventually!

Other than Ames being our lives lately, things are slowly going back to normal. I started my second semester of grad school yesterday with a good ole Statistics class! Yay me... it really isn't that bad but it was day one. I have class Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the first 8 weeks of the semester and then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays the second 8 weeks. I don't go back to work until the end of February / beginning of March depending on how things go. Easing back to the craziness of last year but not being pregnant helps a lot! Where did all this energy come from! And having normal feet again is the most amazing feeling ever, not gonna lie!

Matt is seriously super Dad and husband between Ames's needs and my crazy mood changes I don't know how he is staying sane but he is and thank goodness! Work is pretty stressful right now with inventory which is a huge deal at Ferguson. Lots of extra hours in addition to his normal work load. But Matt seems to be coping well. We try to have the guys over on the weekends so he can relax a bit from the crazy week. Other than that, we are taking life day by day and sleep whenever we can get a few minutes.

Anyways here are some pictures of Ames lately. My mom has a ton of him from family and friends visiting us and holding him that I need to get ahold of and post so I'm hoping next week I can get those. But in the meantime, enjoy :)

PIctures of Baby Ames

Ames Stephen McFadden

12/27/2011 -- 8 lbs 4 oz -- 19.5 inches

Blog? What Blog?!?

It was recently brought to our attention that we haven't updated this in a while. Honestly it had just got away from us. We've been busy for sure. But I guess we should just get used to being busy and not having time on our hands :) Here's a quick update on everyone:

Matt - Work is going well. Spends free time putting together bassinets, dressers, swings, strollers, etc. But he has got plenty of football time lately with some friends (Thanks Suzanne), trying to take advantage of the last few free weekends.

Suzanne - School is DONE!!! At least for the next month :) She just finished her last test of the semester yesterday (Tuesday). It has been very challenging and we are proud of the fact that she's been able to balance work and school all while "manufacturing a child". It's been rough but time for a little break. She will be starting her maternity leave starting this Friday. So hopefully she can get a little relaxation in before baby is here. She has been extremely uncomfortable lately and has trouble getting around sometimes. She is ready for baby to show up whenever it's ready :)

Baby ______ - Is running a 24 hour karate dojo. Apparently trying to punch or kick it's way out right now. We just had a check up today and everything seems to be progressing well to this point. Head is down at this point and has been, so hopefully he/she decides to stay that way. We'll try to do a better job of keeping everyone updated when we actually remember to update this :)

Other than that, we've just been decorating for Christmas and missing everyone. Hope to see everyone sooner than later. Love you all.

Baby Showers, Birthing Class & Weekend Fun

Our weekends have been full lately. Two of the last three weekends we've been in Andale and Olathe for Suzanne's baby showers. Needless to say they both went great and were a lot of fun. We want to thank everyone for everything they did to make them both special days. It was great to see everyone and be able to share that time with you. And the gifts were pretty sweet too :)

This last weekend we had a birthing class that was an all day affair. We started at 8:30 and left the hospital around 6:00 that night. It was an in-depth class discussing and explaining the birthing process and what to expect during labor. It was a lot of good information and helps you feel a little more confident in the process. At least you don't feel 100% lost, just partially :) We got a tour at the end of the day and now will be looking at possibly doing a couple classes on infant care, etc. We're both excited and obviously a little anxious for the big day. Not too far off - at 34 weeks today! We've had a couple check ups recently and everything seems to be going well at this point. After this Wednesday we'll start to go every week until Baby is here.

And lastly, at the end of our day long class, we got to come home to watch K-State continue it's dominance of Texas. We hosted a little get together and got to watch the game with some family and friends. It was a great weekend all in all.

We are blessed to be able to spend the time that we do with all of the people in our lives and don't take it for granted. We'll try to stay up on this a little better. Hope to see everyone soon.

Ok, so right now the blog is being difficult and not letting me upload pictures. So once I figure that out, I'll be posting some pics of the showers. And if any of you can tell me why I can't upload this I would appreciate it :)

House Work

We've been busy lately and haven't taken the chance to update our blog. Obviously. So we'll try to catch you up on the highlights of what's been going on. First off, we've been working on a few different rooms in our house (think nesting phase on steroids) and have seen some progress over the last month or so. We finally got around to painting our dining room and found a good deal on some furniture for the room. And we're finishing our basement. This one will be a long term project but we've been able to knock out a wall and start framing. Probably be a while before I pick back up on this project but it's started. No going back. I'll get pictures of that process up once we have some more progress. Baby's room in the next to be worked on.

Before.

After.