Baby Boot Camp

We are almost 3 weeks into this whole parenting thing and people have been asking me how things are going, are we getting sleep, is the baby crying alot, etc.  The best way I can describe the situation at Casa de Parnell is a little like Baby Boot Camp and our little bundle of joy is the drill sergeant.

"I said to feed me NOW stupid!!!"

Sometimes when Brody is dictating his orders you could close your eyes and possibly envision R Lee Ermey.

O.k. maybe that was a stretch and of course it's nothing like the first scene of Full Metal Jacket but let me explain the comparison.  Basically like the military enforces a strict daily schedule on its recruits during boot camp so does our 7 lb mini human on his new "recruits" (aka parents).  It is an ongoing learning project with plenty of cause and effect or actions and consequences.  Here is an example...

Cause:  A military recruit is late to formation or roll call. 

Effect:  The drill sergeant makes him do push ups. 

Cause:  Laying a just fed baby with the hiccups flat in the bassinet.  

Effect:  You get to clean projectile spit up off of the baby and bassinet.    

In boot camp there is no such thing as an alarm clock to wake you instead the drill sergeant takes care of that by making loud noises such as banging a trash can beside your head.  Same goes for us, since becoming parents Bill and I have not used out alarm clock.  Instead Brody will alert us when it is time to rise and shine and jump into action.  Now before you start to think I am complaining, I'm actually doing the opposite and am really pleased with how things have been going.  Brody is eating on a schedule...every 3 hours during the day and then every 4 hours at night.  Bill and I are a team in this endeavor and seem to have developed a pretty good system.  During the day I run this ship (i.e. make sure the house chores are done, get showered, dressed and put on make up, keep the baby alive, etc) and then at night Bill comes home and takes the reigns so I can get a little reprieve.  Don't get me wrong - we've had our moments of frustration especially in the midst of one of Brody's massive meltdowns but for the majority of time we have been really good.  I have a theory that people sometimes expect way to much from a newborn and in turn are disappointed or start to doubt their parenting abilities.   Right now Brody has three modes:  sleeping, eating, crying and understanding that has helped keep sanity in the forefront.  To sum it up we may have a little live in drill sergeant but we're both really happy that we decided to enlist in the parenting branch of service. Because even though you may hear this often at loud decibels:

to change me, feed me, swaddle me...

The dictating person actually looks like this:



And how could you not want to do whatever this little guy orders?   



The Girls (minus two) meeting Brody

If you read my blog often you have heard me refer to "the girls".  If you are new to the blog "the girls" are 5 girls:  Abigail, Kristy, Natalie, Sarah and me.  We started our friendship while attending UTM and joining the same sorority.  After graduation we all moved to different places:  Abigail to Atlanta then to Africa and now back to ATL, Kristy to Franklin, Natalie to Knoxville and Sarah to Memphis.  Even though we aren't in close proximity and only see each other a handful of times each year we have been able to keep our strong bond with one another.  The thing that I love about our friendship is that on paper we are all different.  In fact if there was a website like match.com that paired up friends I don't know that they would've put our group together but to me that is what makes it so special.  We are each strong opinionated individuals and sometimes we can get on each other's nerves but underneath it all there is this strong bond that no matter what especially when one of us needs something we are there no questions asked.  We have seen each other through some of life's best and worst moments:  marriages, birth of children, loss of parents, etc.  They have helped to fill a void in my life and that's why I often don't refer to them as "like family" but "my family".  I don't think I will ever be able to tell them how much their friendship has mean to me in my life.  This week half of "the girls" came to visit and meet Mr. Man this week.  I can't wait for Abigail and Natalie to meet Brody this fall.  Here are some pictures from Sarah and Kristy's visit:

Sarah and Brody (Sarah is preggar with a little Moskette)

Kristy is definitely a natural.  She has lots of baby experience.

Cuddling the new addition to our group

Wow! That's Really Weird...

"Wow! That's really weird" the first thing I said when seeing my child as he entered the world. Throughout my pregnancy I wondered what I would say the moment I saw my son - surely it would be something profound and dramatic like in the movies....nope not me. As I saw the doctor lifting him from my body all I could say was "Wow! That's really weird" followed by "Look at that cone head!" As you can imagine the statements got a quite a laugh from everyone in the room. Leave it to me to take a perfectly good potentially mushy sappy moment and turn it into a joke. Any who, it has been one week since I delivered my son but it seems so much longer.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about the labor but here is a very brief synopsis.  Bill and I checked in to the hospital to begin my induction on the morning of Tuesday, July 26. We were supposed to be there at 6 a.m. but in true Bill and Beth fashion we were running late arriving about 6:15 a.m. We settled into the room, started IV but didn't start the induction process until 9:00 a.m. The labor clock officially began but we were cognisant that induction can be a really long process and potentially could take 2 days before I delivered.  I just remember how the entire day I was extremely calm and at peace. Even with a few moments where things weren't going as planned; I never got nervous or anxious about what was occurring. Fast forward from 9 a.m. to midnight. My good friend Ashley was visiting, typical me was freshening up my makeup (Bill has video of me taking off my oxygen mask to put on more mascara - pretty funny to watch). After Ashley left I told Bill to turn out the lights because he needed to rest and there was no telling how long it was going to take. One hour later when the nurse checked me she said I was complete - dilated to 10 and fully effaced. She said she would go ahead and start to get everything ready in the room. I woke Bill up and told him it was time and to tell his parents who were in the waiting room that there had been good progress but not to tell them I was going to begin pushing (I had several friends that had to push 2-3 hours and didn't want them worrying on pins and needles for that long). At around 1:30 I began to push and at 2:39 my baby boy had arrived.

Pictures taken right after delivery

Morning after delivery - we were so happy to finally meet Mr. Man.

Our little boy

It's no secret how much I hated being pregnant.  You really have no control over what is occurring with your body and there are so many restrictions on what you can or can not do.  For those of you that know me well, I am quite the control freak so I think that fact combined with all of the bad symptoms made pregnancy even harder.  Maybe because of this I just didn't consider labor to be that bad.  The main thing that I think helped me is to just listen - listen to your body and listen to the medical staff because their goal is for you to have a safe delivery.  

Things that surprised me about labor and delivery: 

• How amazing the medical personnel was.  Don't get me wrong I didn't expect them to be bad but I seriously had the BEST doctor, day and night nurse.  They really tried to make sure I was as comfortable as possible, were so supportive and did a great job at explaining things.   
• How much of a cone head babies have right out of the womb - really I had never seen a "fresh" newborn and as Mike Myers would say in his best Irish accent "That cone head was freakin' huge man"!
• How gruesome things can be.  No matter how many books or experts tell you until you see some of the things that occur "down there" there's just no way to fully prepare yourself.  For some reason the movie SAW pops into my head.  (Sorry to be graphic but this is a post about Labor and Delivery).
• How your body kicks into gear and can function without sleep.  After Wednesday night when our last visitor left I realized I had not slept in 48 hours and I wasn't even that tired.
• How great staying in the hospital can be - really I don't understand why some are so eager to leave quick.  I had someone come and take my food order for the day each morning and they delivered snacks throughout the day.  If I was in pain a nurse would bring medication.  When I needed something or needed someone to watch Mr. Man all I had to do was call the nursery to come pick him up.  Speaking of the shower - it was bigger than any I had at my house!   

But alas all good things often come to an end..so after 48 hours in the hospital we were finally released to come home and begin adjusting to our new life.  How are things going?  Surprisingly really well.  I think partly because I have always been a "glass half empty" kind of person so since I was expecting the worst I've been pleasantly surprised.  Don't get me wrong - we've definitely had our share of nerve rattling moments during massive meltdowns but so far neither of us have packed our bags and jumped shipped.  We even survived the first bathing experience:

Motherhood for me may have started with a typical quirky Beth comment but it has definitely evolved into each day being filled with plenty of amazing moments. Stay tuned...