Happy Anniversary

Greg and I celebrated our 3 year Wedding anniversary on Wednesday.
I feel so lucky to have so much in my life.  And so many amazing things to celebrate over the last year.
A loving husband, our new son and a beautiful home.

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
-St. Augustine

" Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you' re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have YOU... The one who turns to his friends and says, thats her... "
-- Unknown





We celebrated our anniversary on Saturday by treating ourselves to some "mommy and daddy" time at La Costa Spa. Jim and Candi offered to watch Luke for us for a few hours so Greg and I could enjoy some alone time.
Then on Wednesday the whole family headed to Bates Nut Farm to hunt for the perfect pumpkin.
After walking around in 85 degree heat searching for any pumpkin we could find without any imperfections we finally settled on a 100 pounder.

We tried to capture the moment and just as we had the perfect shot lined up our camera died. But we were able to get a few family photos before that all happened.

6 weeks and Smiling... Some of the time

6 weeks
Here we are at 6 weeks already. I cant believe how fast it is going.
I know the is biggest cliche about babies is how fast they grow but it is true.

Well at 6 weeks old a lot is happening in a babies life
Eating, Playing for a bit, Early morning walks, pooping and changing a diaper and then sleeping.

Now that would be ideal in a perfect world- and this is how I will remember these early weeks.
But the reality of the situation is we have a "fussy baby".
A fussy baby that I love with all my heart and know no different.

He has his moments or should I say hours that he crys- between 6-8pm where we do whatever we can to soothe him
So what do we do for our fussy beautiful baby Luke..

We Swing

We Swaddle

We Sling

We Soap up in the Tub

We Suck


We dance and Shhsh

We lie down.. we sit up.. we lie on our side.. on our bellies

We do just about everything until he falls asleep.





Our little angel boy sleeps from about 8-12:00am then from 1-3 then from 3-6:30am. I have to admit that is fantastic and I feel like at least I know what I can count on for sleep. I am really getting use to the schedule and feel like for the most part I am pretty functional

And the biggest reward is his beautiful smile..

My Birthday.. One Month

Luke made it through his first month. Or should I say we made it through the first month.

Each day brings new discoveries and problem solving challenges with him.
Our newest discoveries are

1. His Gas- He must have gotten the Holt gene.
Thanks to good advice from friends who have babies I have discovered gripe water cures most ailments as well as hiccups. Thank you Laura!
2. Diaper Rash sometimes dosnt look like a rash at all and more like blisters... ouch!
3. He actually will follow some sort of a schedule which is so amazing and allows me to get a few things done around the house!
4. He loves car rides!

Greg and I are settling into our routine more and more each day. We even get to go to lunch dates and celebrate birthdays with friends.

Lunch Date with Daddy

Greg works the next few nights and boy do I miss the help while he is gone.

We have our anniversary coming up and I think he is planning something for us and it may be our first time out on our own. Oh Boy!

Here are a few pictures to celebrate the month.

Lunch Date with Auntie Laura to Celebrate her Birthday

Are you noticing a sleeping trend here

And of course he gets lots of Love from Grandma and Grandpa Johnston!

Weeks 2 and 3.. Quite a blur

The first week of life with a baby seemed so easy.


Then came week two and three.



It all started with finding out Luke was not gaining the weight he was suppose to. Which lead to a crusade to make as much milk as possible. Too bad it just was not so possible.

I spent every minute of every day thinking about milk for the next two weeks. Only to find out in the end that I just was not making enough. First I would feed him for 40 minutes then use a syringe to feed him supplemental formula which took 30 minutes then pump for 15 minutes. Only to do it all over again every 2 and 1/2 hours. So there I sat on my couch, and slept on my couch and really didn't move from my couch for about 5 days.
This really is not the best course of recovery for someone who just had a baby dealing with all the post partum hormones and sleep deprevation. But luckily I have a very supportive husband, friends and family who were here to steep in and help in any way.

After 5 days of this routine- where pumping would yield 10cc (1/2 an ounce) I was advised by my pediatrician that this may just not be happening for me and I need to consider giving up and bottle feeding Luke.
I was so discouraged but relieved at the same time. I just needed someone to tell me either way what to do.
So I came home packed up the pump, put away the supplements and got out the formula.

Now for all of you who do not have babies I am so sorry to bore you with this problem. And for all of you that do have babies please tell me you have been there and know what I am going through.

I never in all my life thought I would not be able to breast feed my baby. In fact for awhile I could not understand why other women did not or could not breast feed. I thought oh anyone can do it you just have to try hard enough.
So let me just say this... I am so so sorry for passing any judgement on any of you who struggled in the breast feeding world as I now join you in the ranks.

But in the end formula is not poison and in the grand scheme of things many babies are formula fed, including myself, and turn out just fine.

Between all the pumping and lactation visits I was also able to spend time with my Mom, Aunt and friend Paulette visiting from Iowa. Unfortunately we were limited in what we could do because of all the pumping but we still managed to have fun.







Luke got to spend the night on Adventure-
He even got to witness his first crime scene.

(Two P. Garcia's on the boat)

My poor mom showed up to the boat only to find someone had broken in and blown a hole in her safe with a shot gun. Very random but no one was hurt and we got to play detective for the first night she was in town.








We also got to watch the Charger game.

Greg was very excited to dress Luke in his Charger gear and watch the season opener with his son.





After a week my mom left and my Aunt Donna stayed to help us out a bit. It was such a blessing as Greg returned to work that same week. She made us dinners, cookies, helped with Luke and allowed me to get a little extra sleep.



It was sad to see her leave.

Now Greg and I are beginning to settle into our routine and having a lot of fun with the little guy. He is so perfect!

The first week home

My First Week Home... It's exhausting being a baby



I made it through my first week.

Mommy and Daddy brought me home on Wednesday and I dont think they quite knew what to do with me. But I quickly showed them I'm not that hard to take care of. All I need are a few things.
1. Boob
2. Boob
3. Boob


Ok well after all that I also like
4. Swinging
5. Sleeping

6. Pooping
7. Having my back rubbed while we dance around the house.
8. Lying on Daddy's chest while we watch football.

9. And just snuggling up close while you talk to me.

Mommy and Daddy even took me to the beach on Friday


They brought along my brother Charger who I think is slowly starting to like me.

He gives me lots of kisses on the head but they don't seem to bother me, in fact I kind of like them. I don't think Charger is too fond of my middle of the night wake ups but he will get use to me eventually.


Daddy takes Charger to the park almost every day so he dosn't get sad.
We have tried to go on walks as a family but I don't really like them yet- So I cry until they turn around and then we go back home.

I also cry when I am hungry. Mom was breastfeeding me every 30" x3-4 hours at a time throughout the day. She didn't think this was quite right so after a little help from the lactation nurse and some reassurance that I was getting enough food she finally surrendered to the pacifer. HELLO... Why didn't you give this to me sooner Mom. I LOVE TO SUCK!!!!

Now I sleep for 3 hours at a time at night allowing Mommy to get a little sleep.


We also had a professional photographer come to the house on Tuesday of last week. I didn't like that too much. Mom and Dad kept trying to take my clothes off for the pictures and I wasn't having it -so I just cried and cried. The photographer was there for 3 hours trying to catch me in the right mood when i wasn't crying. I decided to cooperate a little bit because it seemed to stress out Mommy. I think they were able to get a few good pictures of me and I know they will be excited to show them off when they are done.

My umbilical cord fell off this week and Mommy was very excited to give me my first bath. I liked it a lot- I didn't even cry once. And when it was over I smelled so nice!!










We have many more first's to come but so far this first week has been great
- I am just so happy to be here!
Mommy and Daddy keep telling me how perfect I am and that they love me so so much!

Grandma Holt comes Monday and I am excited to hang out with her.
I also have my next doctor appointment next week so I'm sure Mom and Dad will keep everyone updated.

Love Luke