He is so darn cute!

He is so cute he is even cute when he cries! Also recognize the power of the pacifier. Infants have a need to suck. They are all born with this need and it helps them soothe themselves (they can't each chocolate or drink wine)...so they suck their pacifier or their thumb.

New Video for Daddy

Michael complained that there was no picture of his son in yesterdays blogpost, so here is some video from last night. Riley was wide awake at 11:30 pm last night and he was quite active so here is the video I took. Last week Riley discovered his hands and his tongue so he has been playing with both a lot and I was trying to capture it on film, instead I caught one of his other favorite tricks...

Riley's First Playdate

Today we got together with my friend Kristin and her son Hudson. Kristin and I have been friends since the 6th grade, and she and her husband live in Pensacola. Hudson is turning one in February...and is really the cutest thing EVER! It was so much fun to watch him crawl all over the place. It was also so very scary to see how full our hands will be next year. He was just full of energy and all smiles. Can you believe those blue eyes?

Must Have

I could not survive without this handy little item. Riley has his first head cold, and a snotty infant is no fun. He gets upset about the congestion, and even more upset about the bulb syringe, but he calms down after he realizes he can breath again.

Riley is one very lucky young man and he has all of his great grandparents on the Godwin side in his life. And here there are all together! From left to right we have Mr and Mrs Otts (Mrs Godwin's parents) and Mrs. Johnson, and Mr. Johnson (Mr. Godwin's Parents). Mr. Johnson, would be Earl, who Riley is named after. He is so blessed to have so many people in his life who care about him so much, and above are four of his biggest fans.

Great Grandmother Sadie

Above is a picture from Christmas. This is Michael, Riley and me with Sadie. Sadie helped raise not only Michael, Liz and Mary, but also Mrs. Godwin and her three sisters. So RIley is her first great grandchild.

4 Generations

So Riley is the fourth generation on my side of the family. Here is a picture of me, my Mom, my grandfather, Pocky, and Riley. I also have pictures of Riley with his Great Grandparents on the Godwin side of our family and I will post those as soon as I have my old computer files integrated onto my new computer.

Riley at 6 Weeks

BabyCenter.com reccomends playing music to support sensory development...here is a video of Riley exploring his senses.

"Fill the house with the sounds of music — from the Black Eyed Peas to Mozart — and watch as your baby expresses his pleasure through coos, lip smacks, and jerking arm and leg movements." - BabyCenter.com

CATastrophe

So when you turn two cats loose into the wild (my yard), they face new and different challenges. Challenges such as trees. And poor Roxy failed miserably. She climbed the tree, but coming down proved to be more than she could handle. We live in a house with two stories and when Michael called me into the front yard I could see clear over the roof little Roxy perched up in a tree. She was letting out the most awful and painful meow that I am pretty sure could be heard two blocks over. So sweet Michael tried to climb a bit up the tree and get Roxy down...it did not quite work out. As he got to the roof of our deck, Roxy must have felt a bit more at ease and she just let loose...she urinated right into the breeze sending a bit of the spray Michael's way. He survived but the cat remained in the tree. See her picture below.

Touchdown!

Everyone who has been around Riley has seen him throw his hands up over his head. And we all like to say "touchdown", after all he did arrive just in time to have his first football party over the SEC championship. And his Daddy did recap football Saturdays to my tummy all season. But this precious little move is actually just one of the many reflexes that babies are born with. It is called the Morrow reflex...but it does not mean that Riley is any less of a football fan!

Cat's are exiled...

The cat's, Roxy and Velma have made the transition...they are now outdoor cats. The last straw came when one of them threw up on a new chair we have. It was a goal to get them outside before Riley began crawling so we could get rid of the litter box, but it happened a little sooner than expected. The cats are very curious about Riley but sweet. Everytime he starts crying they come and sniff. And as you can see below Velma thought just because Riley had occupied most of my attention she was still going to make herself comfortable.

Now, I have to say this past week was probably the worst week to decide to make them outdoor cats...it was a little bit chilly with lows nearing freezing several nights, but I will have you know they survived. As you can see below these cats are now the proud owners of a "Country Villa" and an electric blanket. But as this other picture of Velma shows she was not positive that the new outdoor lifestyle was for her so she spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen window.

Riley wakes up...

This past Saturday was a very eventful day for Riley. We noticed his first social smile and it was to his Daddy. And overall Saturday morning he just seemed to be more energetic and reactive. He really enjoyed using his tummy time mat (shout out to all of my friends at work who got him this fabulous item). And we all really enjoyed watching him play. As he played he was also rocking out with his fabulous Pink Floyd CD that Catie and Ben gave him.

This picture is of Riley talking to Daddy...

http://rockabyebabymusic.com/

This website has a list of other albums if Pink FLoyd is not your thing, and I personally enjoy the break from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and Baby Mozart.

Baby Recognition Sunday

This past Sunday was Baby Recognition Sunday at our church. So of course all of Riley's grandparents made the trip to Montgomery, along with my grandfather (Pocky) and his wife Betty. Riley got all dressed up in his day gown that Momma made. All of the babies born in the church during 2008 processed into the church and were announced and given a Bible. It was a lovely ceremony. Before we went into the church we were in the fellowship hall with all of the other parents and children and we had a chance to visit with some of our friends who had babies this year. It was so funny to be in a room full of other young couples...(and couples that we used to run into at Bud's) and to have the main topics of conversation be weight, feedings, and sleeping schedules. If you had asked me a year ago if I could have imagined where I'd be today...I never would have imagined I'd be here. But I could not be more blessed to be right here right now. As I write this my precious little man is sleeping away next to me. And lucky for me he is a good sleeper and can sleep through all the kisses I lean over and give him.

1st Real Bath

The above slide show is of pictures from Riley's first submerged bath. Both the hospital and our pediatrician recommend only sponge bathing until the cord has completely fallen off, and despite my minor home surgery last week, Riley's cord did not come off completely until he was five weeks old. So we finally broke out his bathtub today. At first he was skeptical and the first few pictures look as if he is about to get very upset, but then after he got in the water he began to calm down. He never cracked a smile, but he did relax a bit, and we did survive without any crying!

Biliwhat??

Riley was perfectly healthy when he was born, but the bilirubin levels went up before we left the hospital, and so he was a little bit jaundice. For those of you had noted his dark skin...it was probably the jaundice, though now that he is healthy he does still seem to have a bit of an olive tint.

The doctor told us his levels were up the day we checked out but they were not too high so we just set up an appointment for two days later on Wednesday. When they tested Riley's blood his level was 19 and at 25 they put newborns back in the hospital so the doctor prescribed home light therapy. The home health nurse came that night and hooked Riley up to the light machine. We went back to the doctor that Friday and his level was down some, but he was given all A's by the doctor as everything else was going well and he was back up to his birth weight, when just 2 days before he had only weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz...the boy can eat. I wonder where he gets that? Here you can see a suntanned gloworm.

The light therapy was easy to do, but it was really sad to have to go to the machine to hold Riley and nurse him. One night I told Michael and my mom that I was nursing in the living room because "I wanted a soft baby". It was just sad to see him all strapped in. And on top of that they tell you not to look at the light...what I just had a baby 4 days ago and you are telling me not to look at the light which is eminating from this most precious being? REALLY?

Hopefully none of us will have any consequences from looking at the light!

They must have wanted this.

Above is my cousin Caroline (known to Riley as Aunt Coo Coo, because she is really more like a sister), then a sleeping Daddy with my sister (known to Riley as Aunt Izzy) posing for a picture, then of course we have Elizabeth and Blair. And they must have wanted me to post them on the blog or they would not have posed for them secretly while Riley and I were feeding. These were the night before New Years while we were all in Seaside together.

Burping is a challenge!

Below you will see the three different methods we use to try to burp. Burping would seem like a very simple task...but Riley hates it! As soon as he does it he gets a very upset face for a minute and then he realizes that he feels better. Same goes when the gas comes out the other end. I keep telling him that later on down the road he will be so proud and tickled when he makes these noises. Good news..."Baby 411" says that by 3 months we will have this task down.

Riley's 1st Bottle

Today Riley was not only trested to a spa treatment, he also recieved his first bottle. Four weeks into this world and he had not yet had a bottle. I told Holland this and she was astonished. She said she had been bottle feeding for a while, so she gave me lots of helpful advice and we decided to try it. Michael and my Dad were off running errands and obviously up to no good (after all there last trip out and about resulted in my parents becoming owners of a golf cart) so my mom had the honors of feeding him his first bottle, and then Michael had the pleasure on Sunday. We are trying to do atleast one bottle feeding a day so he will be ready to feed when I go back to work. Since Sunday, Mrs. Godwin and Mary have also had the pleasure.

Happy 1 Month Birthday

Today was a big day in the Godwin household. First and foremost we have been on our own since Sunday...meaning no help from Michael's Mom or mine...equaling out to 3 nights in little Riley's life that we have not had back up! This may seem silly but all of our family is as smitten with little Riley as we are and they cannot stay away!



Today Riley and I also got out of the house and went to the pediatrician all on our own. This is his third visit to the pediatrician and though we got all high marks his weight gain was not as high as we had expected. He is such a good eater we figured he'd be up there in the lb's, but he weighed in a 9 lbs 1 oz. His height on the other hand was 21 3/4 inches. The doctor was pleased with all of his progress. He felt the breastfeeding was going well and was glad to hear that Riley has gone as many as seven hours overnight (though he averages sleeping from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am without a feeding), we are very lucky parents!



Another milestone today was losing the cord that has been attached to little Riley for 10 months...I do not think he will miss it. All of the books say you lose the cord in 2 weeks, the hospital said 2-3 weeks, and so I was relieved when the doctor said some of his patients have had the cord hang around until 6 weeks. But tonight just before Riley's 1 month photo shoot the cord came loose accept for two little strings, and while Etta (Michaels Mom known by her daughters as Harrietta and by Riley as Etta) and Aunt Mary could not watch...I sterilized some shears and cut the dead skin away...and now we have a belly button! Riley was not bothered by the home surgery at all and Michael and I were glad to say goodbye to the cord stub...and no we did not keep it for his baby book!



Anyway please enjoy his 1 Month pictures...we think he is pretty darn cute!
http://www.slide.com/r/6sarPNWm6D_eBRR0bMGajukGlh0vsYxk?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Riley's First Spa Treatment

Does he look happy or what? He may not love getting his sponge baths, but I do believe Gie Gie (as in AnGIE, my mom) is spoiling him rotten with baby massage. He seems to be quite pleased and I think she is back in his good graces post bathtime.