Go Pirates!

Loud buzzers, screaming people, blasting music, bright lights... not a great setting for Tucker's bedtime! But, that's what he experienced tonight at his first ECU basketball game! It was a tough game to go to...ECU took on the Memphis Tigers, who are in their conference, but a bit out of their league. But, we really played a respectable game I thought and it was fun to see the energy in the place with the typical, die hard Pirate fans! Tucker wasn't quite so sure about all the loud noises and after the crowd screamed, he usually started screaming himself. But, as usual, he proved to be quite the little trooper and we're glad he got to show up in his cute Pirate t-shirt for most of the ballgame!

Oldies but Goodies...

Tucker and I came to Greenville on Tuesday to stay for the rest of the week! Believe it or not, he has never been here yet! We've seen my parents in a lot of other places, but he is at "Pops and Gigi's" house for the first time and to say the least, we've got some excited grandparents! :)

Since I grew up in Greenville, some of my longest, closest relationships started here. Two of my best friends, Jordan and Stephanie, have been in my life since middle school (AKA, these girls have seen me through everything!). It's so fun for me to have them spend time with my boy so we had a great time visiting with them!

Jordan's little girl Avery (almost 2), was being sweet to "baby Tucker"



Stephanie and Tucker

Tucker Weekly

Tucker is 16 weeks old today! We've had another full week!
*Tucker rolled over again--from back to front--which I'm realizing is probably harder than rolling front to back, which he hasn't done yet!
*He is growing out of some of his 3-6 month clothes and weighs somewhere around 16 pounds
*He had his first experience at a Japanese Steak House, where he survived lots of fire, birthday chanting with loud drums, and shrimp flying through the air :)
*He took another road trip (without a stop in a Wendy's parking lot)
*He's been drooling a lot!
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*He went to his first ECU game!

Tucker and I are spending the week in Greenville visiting with Gigi, Pops, and friends so look for more posts on our time here!

100th post!

This is my 100th blog post! Thought I should bring some attention to that :) This past year, I have spent several hours typing out my thoughts and recording different things that have gone on in our life and it has been really fun for me! I've always loved to journal so I guess this is my new way of doing that in some ways. It's been a great way for me to reflect on life and I know it will be fun to look back on all that we've been experiencing, especially with Tucker! THANK YOU for taking the time to read about our lives... I enjoy blogging almost as much as I enjoy blogstalking all of you! Here's to the next 100!

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it...don't even mess with it at all!"

Ok, so thought you might want an update on the "stop swaddling, go from sleeping on the back to the belly" attempt. It went horrible, that's the update. I basically cooped myself up in the house all day and tried different things at each nap--putting him in a sleepsack instead of a swaddle, on his back, putting him on his belly in the sleepsack, sometimes using the sleep positioner... it all failed miserably. He didn't sleep well for any nap and the day ended with him still being really fussy after bedtime, which is never the case.

This is what I've learned:
1. "If it ain't broke don't fix it"... Tucker loves to be swaddled and he sleeps great on his back, so on the back and swaddled he will be!
2. Don't make mommy decisions based on what you "think you're supposed to do" or on what you hear is age-appropriate...do what's best for YOUR baby!

Today, we swaddled Tucker and put him on his side or back in the sleep postioner like usual and despite being at church, someone else's house, and off his schedule a little because of everything going on, he still slept WAY better than he did all day yesterday!

So many changes at once...

So, Tucker is about 3 1/2 months old now and we have still not stopped swaddling him! Partly because he sleeps really well and why fix it if it ain't broke, right? But, also because it's scary to change something that's been our routine for this long! Lying in a sleep positioner is also part of our routine! So, now that he's rolling over some and controlling his head/neck a little better, I figure it's time to start letting him sleep on his belly. We decided to try it for the first time this morning, during his best nap of the day, to see how it works. So far, so good... but it's a lot to change at one time--no swaddle, from back to belly, and no sleep positioner (although we did still use the positioner this morning)! Any suggestions on dropping the swaddle or going from back to belly during sleep? Thanks!

Hangin with the boys!

Before I had Tucker, I always wondered if God was preparing me to be a mom of boys by putting me around 4 little ones for the past several years! Who knows, but prepared I certainly was! I got used to all the loudness, the horesplay, and the cars, trucks, and legos! As pregnancy was coming to an end and I knew I wouldn't be hanging out at the Gibbs house anymore, I told Melissa that I wanted to make sure we kept seeing other reguarly...there was no way I could just fall out of their lives after being such a part of their family for all this time! So, we're starting to spend some weekly time together--I hang out with the boys a few hours so Melissa can go out...I leave Tucker with her so I can get out a bit too...it's a perfect way for our boys to hang out together, us to hang out with each other's boys, and for us both to get out of the house by ourselves--perfect! The boys are GREAT with Tucker...they truly treat him like a little brother and they still act like he's the "big deal", which I love :) This morning when we were over there, Jason and Taylor helped put Tucker to bed by singing "God is so good" to him and it was about the sweetest thing I've ever seen! I couldn't be more excited about my babysitters being one of the best moms I've ever known and my favorite little boys (after Tucker, of course!)! Thanks guys...I'm so happy Tucker gets to see your faces each week and be around such a fun house where there's never a dull moment!

These pictures are a bit older (Tucker was about 9 weeks old) but they are from one of the first times the Gibbs babysat for us (first pic with Taylor and second pic with Jason and Jackson)!