Red's Account Of Life With Her Boys...: Video Post

Thomas was tongue-tied when he was born, but it was not extremely bad. He was able to nurse with the assistance of a shield for the first two weeks, and then we stopped using the shield. A lot of pediatricians do not recommend doing anything when a baby is tongue-tied because a lot of kids out grow it, or it doesn’t end up causing them any speech problems. It is a very, very simple procedure to clip the part of the tongue that is being restrained. The absolute worst part of it is seeing your baby in a hospital gown.

They shouldn’t even make hospital gowns that small.

He had to have very light anesthesia, and was a little disoriented for about ten minutes after the surgery. He refused to nurse, but luckily I had packed a bottle just in case, and he took it fine. We were back home by about 10:00 in the morning, and by about 10:30, Thomas was playing on his activity mat. If you had not told me that the child had surgery three hours before, I never would have known it. So, anyways. Here’s a short video showing that Thomas was alive and well that same day of the surgery!

*****ATTENTION ALL MOTHERS: WHAT I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN: If we would have made an appointment with the ENT doctor within the first 10 days/2 weeks (I can’t remember exactly which one!) he said that he would have been able to do this simple little procedure in his office. Since Thomas was already older than 10 days/2 weeks by the time we saw him, we had to do it as an out-patient surgery, which includes a trip to the old hospital, anesthesia, nurses, baby hospital gowns, and bills, bills, bills!

There is so much going on around us right now that I hardly have time to unpack my bags from one trip before I am packing them again for the next adventure! Everything is so fun and so exciting that we don’t want to miss out on a single minute of it. However, traveling every weekend has put my weekdays being spent playing catch up! And playing catch up keeps me pretty busy because a certain little red headed boy demands a lot of my attention during the day:)

I have so many pictures that I want to share. Life is so fun with Thomas, and I can’t even begin to describe the unconditional love we for this child. I truly believe that Daniel and I understand a different side of God now that we have a son of our own. Our desire for Thomas to grow, mature, be disciplined and self-disciplined, have compassion, experience joy, and endlessly love another soul one day runs deep. It effects our every thought about him, and hopefully, our parenting will reflect it. We want more than anything for our parenting and our relationship with Thomas to guide him and equip him with the tools he will need to walk humbly with our God and to love others freely and passionately.

Recently, Thomas has developed this habit of only wanting to nap during the day if he is being held! It is awful and awfully sweet all at the same time! He will be dead asleep in my arms and the minute I lay him down, POP!! His eyes are open! But if I continue to hold him after he’s fallen asleep, then he will sleep for several hours. These days I feel like I have conquered the world if my teeth are brushed by the time Daniel comes home for lunch. I think he appreciates my morning breath being gone when he kisses me good-bye after lunch too:) I really can not complain though. Thomas is a WONDERFUL sleeper at night. He has been this way from the beginning, too! At a week old, Thomas was already sleeping 4-5 hours at a time at night. Now, he goes to sleep anywhere from about 8:00-10:00p.m. and wakes up again around 3:00-4:00a.m. for another nursing. Then, he goes back to sleep until anywhere from 6:30-8:30a.m. We have been so blessed to have such a sound sleeper! For many examples on Thomas’s snuggling techniques, please see the following album:

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Here are a few random snapshots from the past few weeks: (don’t forget that you can see all the pics by clicking “view full album”)

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I really enjoy photographing Thomas. Most of the time he just stares in the opposite direction despite all my best efforts to capture his precious face at the right angle, resulting in many, many horribly awkward photos. But every once in a while, I can catch a great shot of that innocent little face that melts my heart right into a puddle.

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We were in Valdosta this past weekend for Summer’s baby shower. And by “we”, I am talking about: Me, Daniel, Thomas, Katie, Andrew, Mary Frances, Jenna, Ryan, Summer, Scott, and Momma and Daddy. And “we” all stayed at Summer and Scott’s house. Daniel and I slept on a blow up mattress, and it truly was a lot of fun. I love when we all pile into a house like that together. It reminds me of my childhood. I shared a room with Jenna and Summer and Katie shared a room together.

Summer’s shower was a lot of fun, and she of course got a lot of great stuff for Kennedy (whom we can’t wait to meet!). There was great food, good friends, and adorable babies. Nearly everyone at the shower either had a baby or was expecting! Seriously, I think Jenna and Ryan were the only ones who didn’t fall into one of those two categories! In between dinner and opening gifts, the boys snuck off and shot skeet. Conveniently, the shower was at a plantation:) Imagine that! Thomas cried during the blessing and later refused to take his bottle from Papa Tom and his Daddy. Unexpectedly, he took the bottle from me! We are still trying to get him established on bottles of expressed milk so that Mommy and Daddy can leave Thomas with a babysitter for a short while and go out on some dates.;)

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Francie turned twenty-one last week, and we celebrated her birthday Saturday night at Scott and Summer’s when we were all together. Since it was her big 2-1 birthday, all the sisters went in together and got her a date night with Ryan on the Savannah River Boat Dinner Cruise. Momma and Daddy pitched in and gave her money to go shopping with for a special outfit for that night. They also gave her the ring that my Daddy gave my Momma when they were dating.

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Thomas and Mary Frances got to meet for the first time this past weekend. Due to all of the flu viruses going around this winter, Mary Frances was not allowed on the maternity floor at the hospital when Thomas was born. Even though they are only about twelve weeks apart, there is a really big difference them! Those twelve weeks mean a lot developmentally for a baby. Mary Frances seems so much bigger than Thomas, even though he is a chunky monkey! He is about seven and half weeks old today, and he weighs 12lbs. 5oz.! We enjoyed watching them stare at each other. I can’t wait to see them grow up playing together!

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We spent Easter on the road back home. Thomas slept the whole way home! We pull over once to wake him and nurse him if we are on a long road trip, but other than that, he is o-u-t! I think the hum of his Daddy’s diesel engine keeps him asleep:) We pulled into Aunt Cindy’s for a quick surprise visit, since no one was expecting us. All of Daniel’s family was together doing an Easter egg hunt. Thomas had just missed the hunt, but of course, he didn’t miss out on a single minute of getting loads of kisses and attention from his Smith Grandparents and family. It was a beautiful day at Aunt Cindy’s lodge, and I absolutely love taking pictures outside with all of the natural sunlight. Thomas’s grandparents and great-grandparents were there, and I am so thankful that I got some pictures of all of them with Thomas. We finally got the picture we had been waiting for: the four generations of Smith men! And the scary thing is, they all live within one square mile of each other!:) And I love it! And I know you are not supposed to start a sentence with the word “and”, but sometimes it just sounds right. And really, are you judging my grammar right now!? Seriously? Enjoy the pictures!