Smile, Baby, Smile

I've got a bunch of posts coming....Father's Day Weekend, Grandparents' Houses, Trucks & Tractors, and more! In the mean time, I'll let you in on a little secret - babies stop smiling as soon as you get your camera out! Here's the various faces of Mr. Miles - everything except a big ole smile (the top right pic is the closest we got - but it gets MUCH better than that!). At least we have our smile paci :-)

Bringing Home Baby Miles

Thursday, May 10th was the big day - we were finally going to get to bring Baby Miles home! We had a completely restful and relaxing morning - just Mommy, Daddy, and Miles. Nobody came to visit, and Grandmama and Granddaddy kept Carter busy at home. We didn't actually get to leave until around 4 in the afternoon. This is what I did for the majority of the day....

It's not pretty, but it's real. We dressed Miles in his going home outfit - a day gown that a friend gave us.

When it was finally time to leave, Kevin got Miles settled in his carseat and me in my wheelchair :-)

...we took pictures the whole way out the door...

It was a beautiful day, and Miles didn't seem to mind the ride home one bit!

We were so excited to finally be home with all four of us together! We took all the typical "bringing home baby" pictures... 

Then we headed inside to see how Carter was going to interact with his new brother on home turf! Carter (with a little help from Grandmama) had made us a "Welcome Home" banner :-) 

He was not interested in holding Baby Miles - AT ALL! 

However, he would gladly drive his new cars, trucks, and tractors along the outside edge of the swing and infant seat. This would have to do for now as far as brotherly interaction goes....

A few days later, we were able to get Carter to hold Miles. He thought holding his baby brother was pretty funny!

We are adjusting well and loving life as a family of 4!!!

Miles's First Day

The morning after Miles was born, mom and Carter made sure that our neighborhood knew about it!

Then, my parents and Carter came to the hospital bearing gifts...

These are not great quality pictures because they were taken with a phone, but Carter picked this "Eagle" balloon out for Miles and carried it all the way from the gift shop. They said it took almost an hour to walk through the hospital - ha! He was SOOOO excited to bring it to us though - such a sweet big brother! He came in saying "Mommy, Eagle - Eagle!"

Miles loved it :-)

I got to visit with my boys for a little while. 

Then Kevin's family arrived! We were so very excited to welcome them in and introduce them to Miles. Carter just LOVES all 4 of his grandparents, and he was in hog heaven having all 4 of them in the same room! Papa J got his hands on Miles first :-) 

Nana was not far behind. 

As an extremely special treat, they brought Kevin's grandmothers (Miles and Carter's Great-Grandmothers) with them! 

They all had big brother gifts for Carter. He was thrilled. 

Carter played with Papa J while everyone passed Miles around and got their snuggles in. 

Miles decided that he fit just perfectly in everyone's arms.

They stayed and visited until dinner time when they had to head back home. We had a great day with them, and we were so excited that Miles was able to meet his Great-Grandmothers (on Kevin's side) just the day after he was born. It was a very, very special hospital visit!!!

After our celebration dinner, we had some friends stop by to meet Miles. 

We had a good time visiting and ooing and gooing over Baby Miles.

That night, when everyone had gone home, I decided to ask for a sleeping pill since I hadn't slept in almost 2 days, and I slept.....oh yes, I slept hard. Somehow, however, I did wake up every 3 hours or so to this...

You gotta love nursery nurses :-) 

It was a perfect first day!

Carter Meets Miles

Miles went to the nursery shortly after delivery to warm up and get his first bath. This bath also resulted in his first hair-do. He was not thrilled about this.

While he was gone, I was assigned a post-partum recovery room (#221), and my mom and sister visited with me and Kevin. Dad brought big brother, Carter, there to meet up with us. He was a little unsure about the whole hospital room set-up at first.

He warmed up pretty quickly, and we were able to visit with big brother for several hours before Miles was brought to us because it took them a while to get baby brother's temperature up to 98.6 degrees. 

While we waited, we played. Grandmama and Granddaddy gave Carter his big brother parents from them, my grandmother, and my aunt. He loved them! 

We played with the hospital bed too.

Then they brought Miles into the room. 

Carter just stared - watching him. I think he may have been checking out Miles's sweet rolly cart ride! 

As you can see, everyone knew he was the big brother because the nurses had labeled him with the appropriate badge of honor :-) 

Kevin introduced Carter to his new baby brother, Miles. 

Carter gave him a no-armed "hug." Precious.

Then Miles gave his big brother, Carter, a present. 

Matchbox cars with a "Choo choo" carrying case!!! 

Carter thanked him with a kiss, and commenced to playing for several hours! I highly recommend matchbox cars as a hospital present! They were fantastically entertaining.

While Carter was thoroughly entertained, the rest of us passed baby Miles around and snuggled as much as possible! 

Aunt Bamie

Aunt Bamie with BOTH her boys :-)

Grandmama & Granddaddy

It was a special evening with my family. I am so very glad that they were able to share that time with us! We were now a family of 4, and I think everyone was ready to crawl into bed at the end of that day. I didn't sleep a wink...I didn't sleep after Carter was born, and I didn't sleep after Miles was born! There's just something about having a baby... you're more tired than you've ever been in your whole life, but there's just too many wonderful things to think about :-)