Two Weeks Old and His First Fever

Oh yeah, we're in love!

Morning Everyone,

Today is Samuel's two week birthday! Hard to believe! Carrie had her two week check up today, everything looked good. She goes back in four weeks for her final check. Today was probably our biggest "day out". We went to the Dr. and ran several errands. Our most ambitious jaunt away from home since Samuel was born. Our last stop was the bank, where Samuel let it be known that he was ready to go home and eat!!! He also needed his diaper changed, which meant Carrie had to go to the rest room at the bank to change him. A diaper change (never good) and a hungry baby! (really not good!) EVERYONE in the bank was introduced to his blood curdling, mind numbing scream! The sound of my son's displeasure echoed across the tiled floors! That's my boy!!!

Tonight, Samuel started to run his first little fever, nothing serious, just a low grade fever. Before all of you "OVER PROTECTIVE MOTHERS" :-) start chewing me out, children build their immune system by being exposed to things that challenge it. Not to say we willingly take our child into harms way, but we firmly believe in going about your day and letting God's perfect design take its course, and just to protect them from KNOWN exposure. Studies have shown, that children who are sheltered from exposure, have significantly weaker immune systems than children who face regular exposure to the outside world. We did that with Zachary from the day he was born, he was in church at 8 days old. Zachary has rarely ever even had a cold in 13 years! For the record, Samuel was in church on day 4! :-) (OK, you over protective mothers, you can rant if you want, but I won't listen!)(not listening.............not listening) :-)

All that said, there is nothing more pitiful than a little one who doesn't feel good. Poor baby! He is feeling better now, temps almost back to normal. Won't be surprised if it turns out to be an ear infection, Zachary was plagued with those as a child. We'll nip that in the bud a lot earlier with Samuel than we did with Zachary. Zachary did not get tubes until he was 5, and never had an infection after that. If Samuel gets ear infections like his brother, we'll nip them a lot sooner.

If you haven't looked closely at Samuel's pictures (you can click on any of them and they become full screen size), click on this one and look at the hair on this kiddo! Some little boys are called "Champ", I've been calling mine "Chimp!" He looks like a hairy little gorilla! :-)
Click on this one and look at his back and shoulder closely:


Here are a few more pics:

Man it is hard to look this good! or Most guys have to wait years to get all of this sexy hair,
I've been born with it!


IS THAT A BOOBIE? IS THAT A BOOBIE? WHERE'S THE BOOBIE? :-)
(Samuel trying to latch onto anything and everything!)


I said I want a BOOBIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yep Pop, I know I look small and fragile right now, but SOME DAY,
this bed won't be big enough to hold me!!!

Tired days and Sleepless Nights

Hi from the Mauldins!
Micah, Carrie, Zachary, and Samuel

We sure are enjoying our second week with Samuel, but MAN are we tired! It has been a little hit or miss with his sleeping. He has already slept through the night one night, only to not sleep at all the next night! Go figure?

Sam is feeding well, in fact that is pretty much all he wants to do. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come! I can barely afford to feed his brother!

I don't know if any of you have thought of this yet, but when Zachary graduates high school (2013), little Samuel will be starting Kindergarten! That ought to be a shock to Momma's system! Sort of a twist on the old empty nest situation! Samuel will graduate in the class of 2026. Man am I feeling old! I'll be 55 years old! Carrie says she'll still be 29! :-)

Apparently we are getting quite soft in our old age. When Zachary was little, a couple of hundred years ago, we almost never let him sleep in our bed. We were far too smart to start that bad habit. Of course, Zachary learned to sleep quite well in his baby bed. Now with Samuel on the other hand, all we want is sleep, ssssooooo he finds his quiet little nestled spot between us! I know, I know, bad idea, it will be hard to break when he is older. I KNOW, I KNOW! But, I sure do miss my sleep! :-) Hey Samuel, just snuggle up between Mommy and Daddy and lets go night night!

Here are some more pics:

Oh yeah, he loves me!

It is hard to believe that this one (on the right) was EVER as small as this one (on the left)!

Yep, we may not do much well, but we DO make pretty babies!

A beautiful Momma and her beautiful baby!

One Week Birthday

Can you believe anyone could be this darn cute???

Its hard to believe that Samuel is a week old already. He is already starting to show elements of his personality. His face is so expressive. Of course his most obvious personality trait is that of his temper!! Man does that kid hate having his diaper changed! It is the most blood curdling, red faced, explosive temper I have ever seen in a new born. I find it rather hilarious! :-) Of course, that will be far less funny in the months to come!

His jaundice is much improved and his weight continues to pick up. He weighed 7 lbs 7.4 oz yesterday. That is about a 3 oz pickup in 4 days. He continues to eat constantly. He will latch onto just about anything that comes within striking distance of his mouth! He has latched onto the tip of my nose a couple of times. I just tell him, "there is nothing but disappointment there boy!" :-)

I gave Samuel a new nickname tonight, it is "Ted Temper". When Zachary was little, we used nicknames to coax him in and or out of whatever behavior we didn't like. We just use this one because it is funny! Zachary was "Walter Whiner", "Harvey Helpless", "Peter Pouter", etc. All of these were in good fun of course!

I know from our experience with Zachary, that all of this goes much too fast. Carrie and I were just talking the other day, that we won't be wishing the milestones to come any faster this time. We'll just soak up every day, every experience, every little joy and struggle. He'll be thirteen soon enough! (Sorry Zachary, but it is true!) Seriously, Zachary is a phenomenal young man. He is so smart, very respectful, well behaved, and an awesome big brother. No doubt he is STILL thirteen and he certainly has his Hallmark moments where his mouth overloads his hindparts, but he is still one awesome kiddo. If Samuel grows up to be like his big brother, we'll be blessed.

Speaking of the Dynamic Duo, here are some great pictures of the two of them:

Oh yeah, I love this!

Man, I hope they don't make me change this stinky diaper!

This big brother stuff is pretty cool!

Yep Big Brother, you don't know it yet,
but I'm planning on getting into your stuff and breaking as much of it as I can!

First Weekend at Home

OH YEAH!!!! WE ARE IN LOVE!!!!

Man are we tired!!!

Samuel is a sweet baby, not a lot of trouble, he just hasn't figured out that the bed is for sleeping!! We continue to work on the feeding issues and the jaundice. Carrie's milk is coming in well, and he is feeding better. The jaundice has kind of been up and down this weekend. It was greatly improved Saturday, worse Sunday, improved again today. He is much more alert today and we are giving him a little at home photo-therapy. No that doesn't mean we are taking his picture, just giving him lots of light which helps his body break down the billirubin in his blood, the substance that causes the jaundice.

We are taking him to the Dr. for a well baby check up in a little while, where they will check his jaundice and his weight. Weight loss isn't a common problem for us Mauldins, so it is a bit of foreign territory! :-)

We have my niece Jaden with us today, we watch her a couple of days a week and she loves Samuel! She just pats his head, gives him kisses, and says over and over "he's so ssswweeettt".


We thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement. Your friendship means so much to us. God bless till next time!

Micah

Here are the pics!

Tell me wwwhhhyyy do we have to change this diaper again???

I know I need photo-therapy, but this is embarrassing!!!
(First little trip to the pool, Momma and baby didn't swim of course, and neither did Dad because we were smart enough to know the water was too cold even though the day was nice and warm. Zachary and his friend Blake of course were much to smart to listen to us.
Swim didn't last very long!) :-)

Hey Samuel, watch this!
(The community pool for our Homeowner's Association about a block from our house This is Blake, Zachary's best friend in Denton)

A Big Busy Day and Some Answered Prayers

Don't worry Mom, I'm getting plenty of sleep today, so we can party hard tonight!

Hey everyone!

Been a busy Saturday so far. We had to go back to the bilirubin clinic this morning, so they could check on his jaundice and his weight. Good news so far, he has shown great improvement in the jaundice and has put on about 1 and 1/2 ounces in 24 hours. Carrie's milk is continuing to pick up, so he is getting more and more. Some feedings, Samuel doesn't even want the supplemental bottles, which means he is getting satisfied. All of that is good news, but please keep up your prayers.

We've had our first house visitors today. My sister Deanna, her husband Mark, her two boys Jordan and Jerry came in from Arkansas. My brother J.R., his wife K.D., and their little girl Jaden who live here in Denton, came over as well. We all went out and ate and then everyone went back home to let their kiddos catch a nap. This afternoon, they will all come back over and go swimming with us. Mom and baby won't be swimming just yet of course! :-)

So, as you can imagine, the munchkin is worn out and will get even more worn out before the evening is over. We hope this makes for a very restful night!!!!

Here are a couple more pictures:

I SAID NO!!!!!!!!

OOOOOHHHHH He's so sweet!!!!!!!!!
(Samuel's cousin Jaden, who llllloooovvveeessss Samuel!)

Samuel's First Night at Home

Well, we had our first night....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... at home with little.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...... Samuel. :-) Needless to say, we haven't had a lot of sleep. We think he had a bit of a gassy stomach. He is a little tooting machine as well! (He is his father's son after all!) :-) He didn't fuss too much last night, just had trouble getting good and asleep. Carrie and I traded out shifts as best we could. We both worked with him off and on till about 1 am. Carrie took him till about 4 am. I took him from about 4:30 to 7:30. All in all, we each got a few hours sleep, but not much. We aren't ready to trade him in or anything!

Today, he has been a sleepy head. Of course, that just means he'll be wide eyed and bushy tailed tonight! We had a follow up visit at Denton Regional today, they were watching him for jaundice. With Carrie having had gestational diabetes, he was at risk. He did have a little jaundice, so they will check him again tomorrow to see if it is improving or getting worse.

They also weighed him, and that is something we would all ask you to pray about as well. Nothing to be alarmed about, it is normal for a breast fed baby to lose weight while you are waiting for the milk to come in, but his was a little more than normal. He has lost 10 1/2 ounces, going from 7 lbs 14 oz, to 7 lbs 3.5 oz. They have us supplementing with an ounce of formula at every feeding now, so we hope this will help.

Here are our prayer requests:

1. Pray the jaundice improves.
2. Pray Carrie's milk will come in soon.
3. Pray the supplemental formula will help him keep his weight up.
4. Pray we will shake the rust off on this baby business and manage this sleeplessness! :-)

Thank you all for your love and prayers. We love the posts, so keep em coming when you can. It has been great to hear from so many of you. (to leave a comment, look below whichever post you want to comment on, and click the word comments. Should be self explanatory after that) So I guess we'll sign off for now.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. :-)

Here are a few of pics from today!

If you people don't hurry up and feed me, I'm going to gnaw my hand off!!!!!!!
(We hope the bib is not a sign of things to come!) :-)

Finally, a little something on the tummy!



Man, that feels good on the tummy!

Samuel's Second Day

Hey gang, this is day 2 of our little journey. Since he was born at 12:29 am on the 16th, and they had to keep him a full 24 hours, we didn't get to come home until about 11 am today, the 17th. As Carrie promised, we made our first stop before heading home. We went to the nursing home for Carrie's Mom Donna to see her new grand baby. She was beaming!!

Carrie continues to improve, still very sore after all of the tearing, but improving. Baby is still quiet, sleeps constantly, and almost never cries. (PRAISE GOD!!!!) :-) He does have quite the temper though, he HATES getting a diaper change, especially the poopy ones!! Man does he get ticked. Other than that, he scarcely ever cries. Tonight, he has been much more animated and a little more fussy, we will see if this is a new trend or just the results of a long day. This ain't our first rodeo, but it has been quite a while since we've been in the arena!!

I'll post a few pics below. Thanks to everyone for the comments. It helps to let us know we haven't been forgotten. Keep em' coming, it is great to hear from all of you! We love you.

Micah

No where better than Mommy's arms!!

Was I ever this small?? (NO, you were 8 lbs., 3 oz when you were born!)
(Now you are 13, 5'7" + and eating me out of house and home!)

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!
(Note Zachary's watching eye behind Samuel)
(Note my enormously rotund belly below the baby's head!) :-)

Big brother went as long as he could, but finally gave into the sleepy monster!

All this excitement just wore me out!

Hey check me out!

Mommy? Check. Zachary? Check. Daddy? Check.
Baby wrapped up, strapped in, and covered up? Check.
Time to head for home!

OK, I'm ready to go. Lets ride!!

Momma looking beautiful, just 34 hours after delivery!

Granny B was so glad to see me!!!
(Carrie's Mom Donna Bryan at the nursing home)

Man, these people sure like to kiss a lot!!

This grandparent thing is great!!!

It doesn't get much sweeter than this!!!!!

My first nap in my new bed!

Man this Daddy guy has one soft tummy!

On that note, we sure are enjoying our new little Samuel. Outside of diaper changes, he is one sweet happy youngin! We are having a blast! We may be a little grayer, and certainly a lot older than last time, but it sure is fun. We never thought this day would come, but who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? And, who says God isn't faithful? In case you didn't know it, Samuel means "God has heard us". He certainly heard our prayers, even the ones we made years and years ago. The scripture says "as arrows in the hands of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." Psalm 127:4-5a

God has filled my quiver with two!

Micah

Day 1 of Samuel Everett Mauldin's Journey

Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Can we eat?

"MICAH, I SOOOO WANT TO HURT YOU RIGHT NOW!!" :-)

Man, what a trip!!!!! (First Picture)

HEY LADY, THAT'S COLD!!!


HELP, THIS FAMILY IS SOOOO STRANGE!!!! or COULDN'T I HAVE BEEN BORN A ROCKEFELLER???? or I'VE SEEN MY DAD'S BANK ACCOUNT, I AM POOR!!!

Take a look at this weight, you will NEVER see it this low again!!
(look at my Dad for crying out loud, that dude is huge!!)

Of course my head is abnormally large, it has to be to hold all of my brain!!!! or Can you imagine passing this noggin???

Man, I hope everyday isn't like this!

One proud, happy, and blessed Daddy (not to mention strikingly handsome!!) :-)

I can't believe I just did this!!!
(Carrie up and smiling just only 31 minutes after delivery!)

I love you, but man did you hurt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is called a "true knot". It was in his umbilical cord when he was born. Somehow, Samuel had managed to squirm around enough to tie his own cord in a knot. These can be dangerous, but his was fine. Dr. Dooley said knots like these are EXTREMELY rare. Tradition says when a baby is born with a "true knot" he is meant to be a special child. We certainly think so!!

A VERY proud PaPa!!!! (Micah's Dad)

Carrie, Samuel, and Dr. Christina Dooley. A great doctor, we were truly blessed to have her. Hope she forgets where to send the bill!!!!!!! :-)

OOOIIIEEEE, can you believe these people????

YEEEAAAHHHH, finally someone to help mow the lawn!!! or Hey kid, how are you with a weed eater?? (a very happy and in love big brother)

Hey! I just realized my inheritance has been cut in half!!!!!
(Yep, half of nothing is still nothing!!)

What???? You mean I have to help change diapers????

As you can see, we have all had quite an adventure, with Carrie experiencing more of it by far! We are so excited, happy, and thankful for it! We look forward to all that the days ahead hold for us. God is faithful. God is good. Thank you all for your love and prayers. God bless.

I will be posting more pictures and tidbits pretty much every day for a while, so check back as often as you can. Be sure to leave a comment post, so we can know you have been here.

Micah