The Many Faces of Drew

This kiddo is going to have some major personality. Here are a series of pictures I took one afternoon in early October when he was feeling especially expressive. They were all taken over a 5-minute period of time. I think you can get the drift without captions, so enjoy!

Tiny hands, tiny feet

The month of September seemed to fly right by. My Mom went home on the 3rd, so John and I were settling into a new reality of just the three of us (and of course Sadie). So, I'll share a few pictures and memories of that month.




Happy birthday to John! To celebrate his 27th, my Mom kept Drew so we could go out to dinner. We tried to talk about other things at dinner, but when you have a 2-week old son, what else do you really have to discuss? We scarfed down our steaks and headed back home, where I think Drew had slept the whole time.




Here's a picture of Drew at about 10 days old. To me, his eyelids still look a little swollen, and you can see how skinny his chest is. It probably took a dozen pictures to get this one, since his eyes are only open about an hour a day at this point. By the way, his eyes are a beautiful slate blue-grey.

Here is Drew enjoying his first Baylor game. I'm pretty sure this picture was taken right when we got home from the hospital, but I'm putting it in our September memories, since I forgot it in the last post.
For the first few weeks, we would move Drew's bassinet to the living room where it was lighter and noisier so that he would get used to some activity while he slept the day away. The bassinet was made by my Papa before I was born, so it's somewhat of a family heirloom. We got a new mattress for it, and it's as good as new!

As you will notice, Drew's favorite pastime is napping. It's like a Seuss book: Drew naps in the morning, Drew naps in the evening. Drew naps when it's quiet, Drew naps when it's noisy. Here are a few of our favorite sleepy time pictures:



Drew naps with Sadie, who is happy to nap with anyone who is willing to join her.

Drew naps with Mommy (and Sadie), who was so tired that she could nap for a year.

Drew naps with Daddy (and Sadie, again, napping with anyone available) during a Sunday afternoon football game.

Tummy time! Since babies aren't supposed to sleep on their tummies anymore due to the risk of SIDS, Drew sleeps on his back. So, tummy time is used as a fun playtime where baby learns how to lift his head and develop neck and shoulder muscles. The first tummy time was not too successful. Here's Drew on his tummy, with a great shot of that full head of hair.

We put drew on his face for a moment to see if he'd try to lift his head. All he got was a face full of blanket. Attempt unsuccessful.

Here's some Mommy and me time. I was trying my best to burp him, but all he wanted to do was pass out on me. I love these pictures because you can see just how tiny he was.



I don't know why I love this picture, but I think his eyes are saying, "Mom, put away that camera. Can't you tell I'm trying to get some sleep?" I also love his sweet newborn pajamas with the puppies on them.

Here is a rare eye-sighting, as he was awake and happy for a while. I took several pictures, and every time the camera flashed, he's blink his eyes, then scrunch his forehead like he was trying to figure out where the awful light was coming from.
Here's Drew at 3 weeks, on our loveseat in the study. He does not seem terribly happy to be having his picture taken, but you get a good idea of his size.

Here's Drew in his crazy socks. I'm just including this picture so you can see the tiny bird legs at about 3 weeks old. When those thigh folds start happening, it's hard to remember when he was this skinny.

Here's the rare picture of Drew actually awake during September. He looks like such a little boy in this photo! You can see that quite a bit of his hair has fallen out on top and is being replaced by soft blond peach fuzz.

First "real" bath:

At about 2 weeks, Drew's umbilical cord fell off, so we were free to give him a bath the old-fashioned way. I was still a little iffy about it, so we did sponge baths for another week or so. Here we are braving the real infant bathtub. He already has some cool toys, like a rubber ducky that tells us if the water is too hot and a terry cloth frog that says "Ribbit" and you can use to wash him off. Unfortunately, he is too busy screaming at the bath to enjoy the fun tub toys.

Here is John getting him all ready for his bath. We've just gotten him naked and in the water, so he's starting to realize that he's mad but hasn't quite worked himself up into a frenzy yet.

Here's Mom doing the washing part. By now, we have fully realized that we are wet and naked, and we are making sure everyone knows we are mad.

Here's Drew and Daddy after the bath. He's all wrapped up in his ducky hooded towel and is deciding if it's safe to stop crying.

Success! A clean baby who is worn out from the bath and ready to take a nap.

My sorority Little Sis, Rachel, came by to visit for a weekend in September. She's his surrogate aunt, so naturally she came armed with hugs, kisses, and lots of new toys.

More Tummy Time! Here Drew is about a month old, attempting more tummy time. Here, he seems pretty content to just lay on his tummy and move only his forehead muscles. But...

when we rolled him onto his tummy, he tried to lift his head! (you can tell by the fuzzy picture that his head was in motion. Granted, I'm not sure it came off the couch any more than a millimeter, but as a first-time mom, it was a momentous occasion for me!)

Here's our little man at about a month old. He was wide awake and alert, so of course I grabbed the camera! You can tell that his chest has filled out a bit in the last few months, and he seems to be channeling Robert DeNiro. "You talkin' to me?" We included this picture on his birth announcement that we sent out.

Here's more snuggle time with Mommy. Why am I the only person awake in this photo?

Sadie and Drew have a special bond. Sadie's pretty protective of the little man. When he gets to wailing, she'll start barking at me to take care of things. She often sneaks up to him to sniff (and I'm sure some of the diaper odors are pretty interesting smells), but if the arms start to flail or he makes a peep, she's out of there quick. In this photo, we had played with Sadie outside for quite a while, so she was just too tired to move away from him. (Notice the tax deduction t-shirt. Some accountant humor for you!)

The First Church Trip:

When Drew was four weeks old, we made our first trip to church at First Baptist Euless. He has to be 8 weeks old to go to the nursery, so we took him with us to our Sunday School class. Incidentally, our class is having a baby boom right now. We had 3 babies born in 2008 before Drew, 2 more born in September, and 3 due in January. So he was in great company. He was all gussied up for the trip.

Here he is in the car seat. His tiny little denim sneakers might be my favorite part. He was a very good boy and slept through the whole class, so we took him home and rewarded him with his two favorite things -- milk and a nap.

"What? Daddy feeding me instead of Mommy? Has the whole world gone crazy?" Yep -- I started pumping milk so John or someone else can feed Drew and I can have more than two hours "off." Plus, we wanted him to get used to the bottle for when I go back to work. It seemed to work because the boy chugged down that bottle.

Another visit from Grandmommy and Grandpa Mills. They came back to visit at the end of September and were impressed at his growth. When we took him in for his one-month checkup, he was 9 pounds 9 ounces, which is an impressive growth in one month from 6 pounds 8 ounces. I walked into the living room to see them both huddled over him in his pack and play, talking to him. I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice me taking their picture.
Here's one of the photos we took when they were here visiting. He's propped up on his Boppy pillow, just checkign things out. He's getting more and more alert.
Grandpa volunteered to burp and rock Drew to sleep. I think he had to pry him from Grandmommy's arms, but he does have a magic touch at rocking. Such a sweet photo.
The hat says it all...

The weekend wasn't all about Drew. We took a few moments to play some Rock Band on the Xbox.

As promised, the pictures of the tiny hands and tiny feet:

Drew's first week

We came home from the hospital on Friday, two days after Drew was born. We were ready to be back in familiar surroundings, but I will admit that I was holding out hope that we could bring a couple of nurses home with us to keep him at night and dole out the pain pills. No such luck. Although my Mom stayed for the first week and was a major life-saver. When John went back to work, she stayed up with Drew several nights so I could get some much-needed sleep.

Here's Dad dressing Drew for his trip home. I'm still amazed at how tiny he was.

Here is Drew in his going home outfit. I took three or four outfits since we didn't know how big he'd be. He ended up wearing the smallest outfit, which was actually preemie size. Notice the Baylor cap. Couldn't resist!

Here's the happy family ready to head home.

Here is Drew in his car seat. He just looked so tiny that I was a little afraid he'd slip right out. We had all the seat belts on the tightest settings. Yes, it was August and about 100 degrees outside, but I put the blaket over him in the hospital room because he looked cold.

Ready to leave the hospital. I rode in the back seat with Drew on the way home and probably only looked up once or twice. I'm sure it was the slowest and safest that John has ever driven.

The Slatons Visit

Dale, Gerre, Jim, and Jaclyn made the trek from Oklahoma City down to meet and visit Drew. They brought us lunch and took turns passing around Drew, who I think slept through most of the visit.

Gerre holding 4-day old Drew

Jim and Jaclyn meeting Drew

Dale meeting Drew for the first time

One more exciting adventure during our first week was a power outage on Monday night. Yes, with a 5-day old baby, in 104 degree heat, we had no power. For some reason, about 8 houses on our block lost power at around 5:30 pm. For a while, we were ok. The house was still fairly cool, and we left the doors and windows closed. By about 7 o'clock, it was getting noticeably hotter. We had been calling TXU all evening, and the recording said power should be restored around 8 pm. So, we called on our good friends, the Reynoldses, to go play at their house. We packed up the bare necessities, loaded up the car, ran through Taco Bueno for dinner, and went over to their house. At about 8 o'clock, John went back to our house to see if power was on. Nope. He talked to the TXU workers who said that it looked like a blown transformer and would take about 2 more hours. So about 10 o'clock, he made another trek home. Still nothing. The TXU guys seemed to have no idea why the power was out or how to fix it. By this point, we have figured out that it's only a few houses effected, and we've made it clear to the workers that we have a tiny newborn son and need power ASAP. I also figured out that I could call our house phone to see if the power was on. If the answering machine picked up, we would know that power was restored. We went to bed about midnight, still with no power. By then, the TXU message didn't have any information about when the power would be restored. Needless to say, it was a rough night. Mom and I slept downstairs with Drew and Sadie, John was on the couch, and sweet Damien and Christine were in the guest room. I slept with Drew up against me, and really didn't sleep much since he was still nursing every 2 hours and I wanted to make sure I didn't roll onto him or cover his airway. Sadie was the worst-behaved one of the bunch, because she could smell the Reynolds' dogs who usually slept in the room, so she was constantly trying to get down and sniff. At about 4 am, I called home and the answering machine answered! Mom and I figured we'd wait the two more hours til John had to get up for work, then head home. Right about that time, Sadie decided to pee on the bed. For me, that was the last straw. I woke up John and begged him to take us home. So, at 4 am, we re-packed (including the peed on quilt) and snuck out of the house. I am not sure what God was teaching us with the power failure, but maybe something about Him being in control and that we have such great friends.

First Bath

After the electricity debacle, I decided it was time for Drew's first bath. Since his umbelical cord was still attached, he got a sponge bath, and he did NOT enjoy it. I think it was the naked thing. One thing I love about Drew is that he calms down when he hears my voice. He can be screaming bloody murder, but when I talk in his ear, he'll reach out to feel my face and make sure I'm close by, then start settling down. Here's a picture of me calming him before we started the bath. You can see he's reaching up to touch my hair.

Here he is mid-bath. The pacifier was a help but did not mean he enjoyed it at all.



Now he's finally settling down after the bath. He must be a very modest baby because he's covering his boy parts.

Poor Drew, all wrapped up in his ducky bathrobe, has passed right out.

Sweet baby, still loving his pacifier.

We're not sure where he got his pout from, but it sure is pitiful!

First Doctor Visit

One week after Drew was born, we took him to see the pediatrician, Dr. Julie Olivo, for a check-up.


Since this was our first trek out of the house (except for the power outage), we were up early and ready WAY ahead of time.

Here's Drew in the waiting room, with all the kids toys that we won't appreciate for another year or so. Check out those skinny bird legs!


Me and Drw in the waiting room, filling out the paperwork.

Getting weighed by Dr. Olivo's nurse. He didn't mind it too much, except when they took off his diaper.


Getting examined by Dr. Olivo. She got out her tiny stethoscope for him. She tried to warm it up, but he still wasn't too happy about it.

A shot of Drew and Dr. Olivo. (Thanks to my mom for being our photographer!)