My amazing friend, Carrie, gave birth to her sweet little pumpkin yesterday morning at 2am! She was 3 weeks early and a total champion. Both momma and baby are doing very well. I was lucky enough to get to visit with them yesterday… twice! Okay, yes, I just couldn’t get enough. I went to see them downtown (30+ minute drive) over lunch and then again after work.

I actually was there while the lactation specialist was in, and got some great tips… 1) breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt. It tends to be painful when the baby is sucking on the nipple only. Gotta get that boob in the kids mouth. 2) When they’re only on the nipple, they don’t get as much milk. 3) Boys tend to have a more difficult time latching.

Besides these fun facts, Care Bear (as I call her) was SO nice to let me get my overly curious eyes front and center as she worked to get baby Phoenix Jack (cute name, huh??) to latch. She even let me stick around to witness her pumping. That’s a real friend, huh?

Anyway, enough babbling… here’s the good stuff… the photos!

Mama Care Bear & her little cub.

He’s just SO cute!! And a total blondie!

Oy… I love baby toes.

Getting some snuggle time.

Erica loving on the baby boo.

A close-up of those blonde locks!

Symptoms

Meeting Baby Phoenix was so amazing and really got me SO excited to meet our sweet girl. This is about to be a very obvious statement, but it’s just so crazy… you go into the hospital and – in my friend’s case – 8 hours later you have a real live baby… forever. Like, forever! I’m not sure I’ve fully grasped that. I mean, I know my baby girl is with me, but sometimes I have a hard time actually grasping that this little person inside of me is going to be outside of me very soon, changing our world forever. Crazy.

With that said, I have to say… no matter how lame and cheese-ball it sounds… I absolutely, totally, 150% just love this little girl already. She’s already my sweet girl and I haven’t even met her face-to-face. I love feeling her move and kick and picking up on her patterns. I just love her.

That could be why I’ve been spending SO much time in the nursery. I love to sit in the rocking chair and soak it in. I put my hand on my belly, Toby (the pup) curls up at my feet, sometimes Marky comes and sits on the floor and I just soak it in. I think about how lucky we are to have our little growing family, how grateful I am to have such an amazing husband, how much love I already have for this little baby… I daydream about the animals interacting with her, about holding her and kissing her… it’s all just perfect. I couldn’t be happier.