Maggie Is Born

On Monday afternoon Maggie Suzanne Lippert was born. That morning Alexandra had an appointment and an ultrasound. They were pretty sure she was having the baby SOON! They estimated he weight at 7lbs 8 oz. She actually weighed 6 lbs 8 oz. Monday was supposed to be my first day back to work and I was working nights. So I was worried that Alexandra would go into labor shortly after I arrived at work, where it is harder to get a hold of me and I can't have my cell phone. She had been having contractions since the middle of the night. They were getting worse and worse through the morning. Then at lunch time Alexandra was ready to goto the hospital. She called her doctors office and they asked her to come there first so they could check her. When we parked at the hospital her contractions were bad enough she couldn't walk during them. They had us wait a few minutes in the waiting room. When one of the receptionists noticed how much pain Alex was in she ran and got the midwife and was like you need to get her checked and over to the hospital I do not want a baby born in the waiting room! It was pretty funny. So we checked into the Hospital at 2:30 and Maggie was born just over an hour later. Everything happened so fast. It is a good thing I wasn't at work. We might have had a baby in the truck or just without me. Also because this all happened so fast there wasn't enough time for an epidural so Alexandra delivered Maggie completely natural without any pain medication. I am very proud of her, she is a strong woman! Now we are happy and settling in at home. Danielle was here to take care of Maxim while we were at the hospital which was a big help. While in the hospital Maggie wouldn't sleep in the bassinet, only in our arms. So we both got very little sleep. We took turns sleeping and holding her. Now that we are home she sleeps pretty well in her bassinet. Its a little cozier! Except last night, we don't know why but Maggie wouldn't sleep for more than an hour. She wanted to eat eat eat. On Friday we had her newborn photos taken. They turned out great. We had round 2 of newborn photos today because on Friday Maggie wouldn't sleep and cooperate that well, but both days we got amazing photos and are very happy. I feel very blessed to have the family that I do. I do my best to never take them for granted.

Maternity Photos

So on June 3rd at 8am we went to the beach and took some maternity photos. I am 34 weeks in the pictures. Thanks to pinterest, I made my dress. If I had my sewing machine I would have altered it since I made it months ago I guessed on sizing. The following is the link to the whole shoot.
maternity photos

the password is lippert

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Matthew is currently underway so we are praying Miss Maggie stays put until at July if not July 3rd. But if not we have a sitter in place to watch Maxim. Since I'm currently 37weeks pregnant I probably should get that hospital bag packed.

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Disposable Diapers :(

I'm sure this is going to be a shock, but Max is wearing disposable diapers temporarily. He developed a diaper rash/small infection when he was wearing the diaper liners with the cloth. The liners were something we only used when we don't have the diaper sprayer available. They are a think disposable liner so that the poo can be easily flushed. Well we noticed that the liners also seemed to really stick to his bottom and so that probably was the initial cause of this. At his 12 month well baby check the doctor prescribed us some cream to help. Also said to make sure he is able to "breathe" down there. We continued using the cloth diapers, and it seemed to be improving somewhat but then it also seemed like new spots were appearing. It's possible that the diapers need to be "super washed" to make sure whatever might be causing this is washed out fully. Also maybe his diapers just aren't letting him "breathe" enough. So we made the decision to switch to disposable diapers temporarily, until this is all cleared up. Hopefully it won't be too long. We don't like the disposables, they're expensive and not nearly as cute. Hopefully we will be back in cloth diapers as soon as possible.

Starting to Settle In

We are coming up on 3 weeks in Georgia. We arrived on May 3rd and Max did wonderfully on the trip. He slept the majority of both flights. We got to the hotel and ate dinner then drove around looking at the houses we were going to tour the next day. We wanted to get a feel for the neighborhoods to see if maybe we could cross off some of the houses. There was some that we decided to cross off. That night I actually feel asleep before Max. Matthew actually went back online and found some more houses to visit that night.

The morning of the 4th we got up and spent all morning going from house to house. Many of the houses were pretty disgusting inside with cobwebs, piles of trash and dead bugs. We did manage to find the house right for us and on a .75acre lot that made Matthew pretty happy. We were glad to sign the lease that afternoon. We could now focus on other things like a new vehicle.

We were anxious to get out of our rental car but first Matthew needed to find his new truck. We gave ourselves a week and hoped not to have to need the rental car longer. But since this was something Matthew was very on top of  and very excited about we returned the rental early. He now is the very proud owner of a GMC Sierra 1500.

For the last 3 weeks we have been living off of things we were able to get at the loan closet on base. We were able to get a high chair, a couple of baby gates (though our openings are bigger than standard doorways so they don't really work like planned), kitchen supplies, and 3 mats(their last air mattress popped), and we bought a folding table and chairs.

Matthew being anxious about getting the car and hhg shipment has been calling to get updates weekly. We are happy to be making a trip this weekend to Charleston to pick up the car. Last night we got a call from the movers saying that they could deliver our hhg on Friday. Though we were excited we asked if it could be delayed until Tuesday. It will be very nice to have furniture again and my vehicle. Though I'm sure Max will miss his freedom to roam the house.

Matthew this week is checking in to the boat but on this boat there is about a week worth of training to complete before going to the boat. Luckily we were able to get Max an appointment before he went back to work so he could go and meet the new doctor. My first doctor's appointment is next Wednesday. I am amazed at how quickly things happen here. I don't have to call 4 weeks ahead to get an appointment and so far visiting city offices has taken forever.

Last Hawaiian Night

Tonight is my last night in Hawaii, and it is a little bitter sweet. I am very excited to get back to the mainland, closer to family and all. But at the same time we have made some pretty good friends here in Hawaii. Also this is the first place we have lived as a family. The first house we lived in together is here, next door to possibly the greatest neighbors we will ever have. In some ways I hate to be leaving. But this is apart of the military life. If we stayed eventually all of our friends would be moving away from us, it is simply unavoidable. So the best thing we can do is keep in touch, hope we meet again someday and keep on moving. The most important thing is that we arede together as a family. Tomorrow we start the next chapter,
Which will start with a very. Exciting plane ride with a teething 11 month old!

Returned From Deployment

I am back from Deployment. It was wonderful seeing Alexandra and Max at the airport waiting for me. My biggest fear was Max not knowing who I am when I returned. I left the sub after 1/3 of the deployment due to transferring from Hawaii to Georgia, so I was gone for 2 months vice 6. But it was the longest I had been apart from my son so far. I was happy when he didn't cry when I held him. He was somewhat hesitant at first. He had a little bit of a puzzled look on his face, like hmm, I know you but I haven't seen you in a long time other than pictures. Later on using the video monitor I tried talking to him through the monitor when he woke up from a nap. My voice through the monitor did not even make him look around for me. Before I left for deployment I would talk to him through the monitor when he woke up and he would jump up and look to the door waiting to see me. Alex thinks what happened was he has gotten used to my voice from the recorded books I made and now doesn't associate my voice with the physical me. This is already changing, he is back to being my little buddy when I come in from work he crawls to my feet and and pulls on my leg to pick him up! It is awesome! It is also so hard to leave to goto work or to even just leave the room because if he sees me walking out he whines and fusses and crawl to me. We had his birthday party early so he could celebrate with people he knew. And then a few days later the movers came and packed up our things. He seemed very concerned whenever he was watching them pack his things. Now we are living in a hotel and so far so good. The next big hurdle will be the airplane. Oh and he is teething now. He has 2 bottom front teeth coming in. He is doing a great job, for the most part he is still being his normal happy smiling self. However car rides are now filled with tears and screaming. We think it is a combination of his teething and also being in a new vehicle (rental car) without the car seat base unit (he is lower and can't see out the window) and he doesn't have his mirror. Wish us luck for the flight. I am going to miss somethings about Hawaii. Mostly the friends we have made. You can never replace good friends and we hope we stay in touch with them all!

11month update

Max is now a whopping 11months! I got an email from Matthew saying when he saw that on the calendar he thought there had to be a mistake. Maxim is now 15lbs 8oz and 26" long. He gained an average of 20grams per day since his last weight check 3 weeks ago. The average 11month old gains 12-15grams per day. He is slowly weaning off purees. Basically the purees he gets is to diminish the supply we have in the freezer. He loves cheeses and breads doesn't matter what kind. He really likes veggie burgers and will eat about half a patty or a quarter of a tortilla with cheese on it or a quarter cup of spaghetti os. According to the nutritionist this is a great appetite for a guy his age. We didn't get to see our pediatrician Dr. Garee for our last appointment in Hawaii which was a little frustrating having to explain everything to someone new. She also made Max cry during a routine exam and our awesome Dr. Garee never did. Makes me more anxious to find Maxim a new pediatrician in Georgia that we like and is good with him.

In less than 2 weeks all our stuff will be packed and in less than 3 weeks at least Max and I will be in Georgia.