Happy Holidays, Bloggers!

Happy Holidays! So I guess having a baby has prompted me to join the grown-up world and send bonafide holiday cards, also doubling as birth announcements. Those of you that know me, know that this is kindof a big step. Anyway, enjoy the digital version, bloggers.

Credit for these goes to the wonderful Heather Swanner, our photographer.

Honest Scrap

I've never really been a "Dear Diary" kind of girl, but I have found blogging to be a great way to document my baby's milestones while also allowing me to express my feelings about it all. When I told my older brother, Tarek about the blog, he said "oh, yeah isn't that where people just like write stuff about their lives for other people to read?" Well, yeah I guess it is.

Anyway, Mary Louis Quinn, who's baby is a female version of my baby 2 months from now, gave me this blog award. The Honest Scrap, it stipulates that, among other things, I have to write 10 honest things. So here goes:


1. I loved being pregnant. It gave us all the excitement and anticipation (with some worry, admittedly) but without changing our day-to-day lives so much. As happy as I am that he is here and healthy, some days I truly miss being pregnant.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with breastfeeding (for those of you who are not mothers or think this is TMI, please skip to number 3). I love it because it is a bonding time for Zayd and me, and (most of the time) it is his happiest and most content time of the day. The first few weeks nearly killed me. Not only did he need to eat nearly all the time and for up to an hour at a time, but he literally drained me of fluids, nutrients, and energy on top of the sleep-deprivation from the aforementioned need to eat constantly. I made it through that period just to go through milk let-down issues that made him a fussy eater, when I started pumping like mad, I felt like I was bonding more with the Medela Pump In-Style than Zayd! Thankfully, now we have reached a nice balance of nursing when I'm with him and bottles of breastmilk when I'm away. Although, getting there was not an easy process.

3. I, similarly to ML, resented (and still do to an extent) those mothers with babies that "sleep all the time and never cry." I partly think this is a hoax, but I won't get into that.

4. I am so thankful that Zayd is here and healthy. Even with all my complaining, I would not hesitate to give up my sleep, or anything else for that matter, for the rest of my life if it meant he would remain healthy.

5. I worry. I worry that he's going to stop breathing or that he's in pain. I worry that if I let him cry, he will feel abandoned or not trust me.

6. I sometimes treat Zayd like a baby doll, changing his outfits 2 or 3 times a day, even if he doesn't need it.

7. I secretly kind of wanted Zayd to be a girl.

8. Zayd is clearly calmer with my mom than he is with me sometimes, this is a relief and also angers me just a little bit.

9. Sometimes when Zayd is crying I just hold him and stare at him, hoping I can telepathically make him stop.

10. On a happy note, as difficult as it has all been, I can't wait to do it all over again (God-willing)!

Thanksgiving, Continued...

I'm realizing that my blog simply chronicles our life from weekend to weekend. That seems to be the only time anything notable happens. I think it is because the weekend is like catch up time for me and Zayd. It's our time to rebond after being apart for 4 days.

This weekend was particularly notable, because it was like a continuation of Thanksgiving. Not only was my sister here with her 2 kids, but also Nick's mom, sister, and brother-in-law were all in town. This was John and Talia's first visit with Zayd, and hopefully he didn't scare them away from ever wanting to have babies of their own. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but Zayd was a little touchy after his shots (that's the downside of being on top of the postings, I think I spoke a little too soon about his doctor visit).

So, Thursday night, Janet came over and cooked her famous salmon patties for us. It was delicious! Here she is with him.


Friday, we packed up and headed to the doctor in the morning, and John and Talia arrived that afternoon. We all stayed in and ate take-out. I put Zayd in his new little holiday PJ's. I have to say the stripes were pretty irresistible on him.




Saturday, the chaos began. My mom and sister decided to go shopping and leave Adam (my 6 month old nephew) with my dad. He was napping when they left and was supposed to sleep for at least 2 hours, but of course, he awoke right about the time my mom pulled into the Belk parking lot. So, Dad brought the little man downstairs to our condo. That child looked about as sleepy as Zayd used to look at 1 in the morning. So, we played with him and tried to keep him occupied. Then, we finally gave up and made him a bottle. John got some early practice with bottle feeding while watching the SEC Championship game and Talia finished it off and got him to go to sleep. Crisis averted.
Zayd was getting progressively more fussy Saturday night, so I decided to chill him out in the bathtub. I probably should have let him stay in there longer because he screamed from the minute we took him out until about an hour later when we finally got him calm enough to eat. Then he crashed. I blame it on the shots.

Here's the picture of little Adam. He couldn't cause trouble if he wanted to.

Here's Nick with Amira, my sister's almost 4 year-old daughter, and Zayd.

And here's Aunt Dima with Zayd

Sunday, we woke up in a haze and went to Silvertron cafe to have brunch before the fam had to head back up to Ohio. There were several families there with infant carriers, all presumably with babies in them. You wouldn't know it, because they weren't making a peep. Not ours. He made his presence known and as this picture documents, he had to be held at the table.

Here is Zayd in one of Aunt Talia's presents. It's an homage to Zayd's heritage (it says Ohio State, if you can't tell)

All in all, it was a great weekend. We had a great time visiting with everyone, and Aunt Talia and Uncle John got Zayd a great excersaucer, which I know he is going to love, and Nana Janet got Nicholas a baby carrier, so he can share the pleasure of babywearing. Here he is trying it out.



P.S. Zayd now has a morning routine that doesn't include screaming. He actually awakes calm and plays in the crib for 10-15 minutes. He stretches and yawns and makes all these cute faces. Here's a picture documenting this new phase which we adore!

2 Month Visit 1 Week Late

It' s obviously a little difficult for me to coordinate Zayd's doctor's appointments with our schedules, but at almost 10 weeks old, we made it there on Friday. I was not looking forward to the dreaded 2 month 4 shot appointment. We've just gotten into a little rhythm with Zayd and the last thing I want to do is mess with that, but you gotta do what you gotta do. So we did.

We are lucky that Nick's mom, Janet is here this weekend, and she was brave enough to attend the appointment with me. Zayd did pretty well. We didn't have to wait as long this time, and he woke up so late this morning that the timing of his feeding worked out well with the appointment time. He weighs exactly 12 pounds and is 22 and 1/2 inches long (both ~50th percentile).

Zayd must have known the shots were coming because he had a major meltdown right before the nurse came in to give them to him. Anyway, she did them so fast, we didn't know what hit us, and I was able to feed him right after, with his short-term memory, he was totally over it after about 30 seconds of eating.

I'm really glad we didn't know about infant Tylenol before now. Zayd has been so sleepy since right after his appointment when we gave him his first dose, and he slept through the night Friday night! We may be on to something here... Is that wrong?

Thanksgiving Weekend

I'm so thankful for my family, my parents and siblings, and of course my new family including my precious baby, Zayd. This weekend has been so meaningful to me. I have gotten so much quality time with my hubby and my baby! I am truly blessed!

We decided we probably should join the ranks of adulthood and make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for our family. Nick did most of the prep work and the cooking for that matter, and it was a huge success. It was too bad we couldn't share the goods with Zaydo, but he had his own Thanksgiving dinner ;). We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and visiting with friends with a few trips to the Lakeshore trail in between. Here are the highlights for those who are interested.

Wednesday, I spent the morning bonding with Zayd, Nick came home early from work, and his aunt, uncle, and cousins stopped by on their way to the beach. Just as a reminder, Zayd slept through the night that night!


Thursday, we got up and went for a walk. The weather was perfect and Zayd loved it! Then Nick spent the rest of the afternoon preparing our dinner and I hung out with Zayd. I helped out too, a little. We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner with Faris and watched Funny People. We had to pause it about 30 times to work with Zayd, but then he finally went to bed. He woke up once that night, which kind of burst our bubble.

The Spread

Nick Carving the TurkeyEnjoying the Meal

The "Kids Table"

Friday, we braved the mall. It was chaos. The only thing we managed to do was get coffee from Starbucks and walk around a little bit. Zayd was in his favorite place, of course, and he got a lot of attention for it. People were staring and pointing. We heard one lady say to another, "it's a baby! I didn't know what it was at first either." Really?! What else would it be, a baby sized tumor? Anyway, that afternoon we all watched the Iron Bowl and ate leftovers.
That night, Ed and Forrest came by with a delicious dinner. Ed and Nick played Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, while Forrest and I chatted. It was awesome to hang with them! Zayd was slightly on the fussier side however and not the most pleasant to be around. Perhaps it was because he wanted some of Forrest's famous white chicken chili (can't blame him).

iPhone Pic at The Gap

Saturday, we hung out at home, again, then went over to Julie and Lance's house. We'd all had enough turkey by this point, so we ordered pizza. It was delicious, and Zayd did great. Of course, I had to wear him in the sling and stand up almost the whole night, but it was worth it for him to be quiet and get a good nap. Incidentally, we got our 3rd full night's sleep that night, woohoo!

Sunday, we hung out at home. I was feeling sad that the weekend was almost over. We took Zayd on a walk and had dinner with Uncle Faris. I had sushi (granted, from Publix) for the first time in probably a year and Zayd slept from about 10 to 3:30 then woke up at 7:20. It was really hard to leave him this morning, but off to work we went. He'll understand one day.

The whole weekend was wonderful. Nick and I got some much needed rest. We ate some great food, saw our best friends, and even made time to play some Wii! In short, I think we will remember our first Thanksgiving as a family for years to come.

Zayd 2 Months!

I can't believe it, Zayd's 2 months old! We had 2 full night's sleep in a row, now we're back to getting up at 1 a.m. But, I'm an optimist, so I'm taking it as a preview for things to come. I mean, no baby just sleeps through the night 2 times and then never again, right?

So, the real question: Zayd, what are you up to now that you're 2 months old?

1. You love the bouncy seat, most of the time. Somehow, last night when our friends, Ed and Forrest were here, you wouldn't have anything to do with it. Shocker.

2. You hate the swing. Not only does it NOT calm you down, but I'm pretty sure it pisses you off. Sorry for the language, Zaydo, but there's not other way to say it.

3. You love the bath. It chills you out instantly, but it's a lot of work, and risky because you sometimes get cold and pee everywhere. That was a real problem when I was bathing you in the kitchen sink...

4. You don't really love the car. We are getting much better with that, and I can't blame you, facing the back makes me a little car sick too.

5. You LOVE the sound of the hairdryer. It hypnotizes you. I wish I had that power.
We used to run it on cold all night to get you to stay asleep. I know, that's a little crazy. But don't worry, because being tech savvy as we are, we figured out how to record it and play it from an ipod dock, much safer. But it's so loud, I'm pretty sure all of our neighbors can hear it too.

6. You live for the sling. It's our go to, on walks, at other people's houses, the mall, even at our own house. If you ever lost interest in that, I'd truly have nothing left.

You wear size 1 diapers, you're still getting breastmilk exclusively, you sleep (at the most) 12 hours a day, and you've still never left Birmingham, but I think when you do, you're gonna love it!

Also, you're beginning to coo and make noises other than screaming bloody murder, grunting, and screaming bloody murder. That was really all there was before this point. You smile some, but I think you do it more when we aren't looking. We'll catch you one of these days, and when we do, we're gonna photograph the heck out of it!

My Staff Holiday Party

The holidays are the best time to share your love and appreciation for the special people in your life. In my case, that would be my family and my wonderful staff. We had our second annual holiday party in the party room of my condo building. This year Adrienne (my assistant) and Zayd (of course) were our new additions.
I am very thankful for these three ladies. They all contribute to the practice in their own special way, and I could not do it without them! When I was off for maternity leave, I never once worried about how things were going, and that peace of mind is truly priceless! Not only that, but when I returned to work, I felt like I was going to my second home. Needless to say, I love these ladies like family, and I am very lucky to have them! Here are some pictures from the evening.

Me and the Special Guest, Zayd

Me, Zayd, Nunna, and Jido

Family Picture
The Spread

My Staff, Susie, Diane, and Adrienne
My Staff and Me