First Mother's Day

Reflecting on these beautiful words concerning motherhood today from Rachel Jankovic in her blogpost Motherhood as a Mission Field posted on the Desiring God website. http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/motherhood-as-a-mission-field

At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.

I have already found this to be true in the 5 weeks I have been blessed to be a mother. Thankful for the opportunity to be made more into the image of Christ because of the life of our beautiful son. Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Elijah's One Month Milestones

On Tuesday of this week, our baby turned 1 month old! How did that happen so fast? What a month it has been! He has experienced a lot of life already in the past 30 days. Here are some of Elijah's 1 month stats and big moments. 

Hi Mom!

He is a whopping 11lb and 14oz (granted he was a 9 pounder at birth) and 21.5 inches long (already grown an inch). He was basically out of newborns at birth, but we squeezed him into a few outfits for a couple of weeks. We are all breathing better now that we moved him up to 0-3 months. 

It goes without saying that this chunkers LOVES to eat. We are nursing about every 2-3 hours during the day. He goes to sleep around 8pm for the night and wakes up at 12am, 3am, and 6am for what we lovingly refer to as "more milkers". He also loves to let people know how much he loves his milkers and is pretty loud when he eats...especially in public. I have learned to embrace it and am glad I can make his day so many times a day:-)

He can be a pretty fussy baby at times. He obviously inherited this from his daddy who was a colicky one:-). For some reason, he hates Tuesdays and 7pm at night. Don't know what they ever did to him, but I digress. We call him our little pterodactyl baby because thats what he sounds like when he is being a crank pot. Besides nursing, he loves to be bounced, so holding him vertically in the air (while supporting his head of course) and shaking him like crazy will magically get him to stop crying. I read The Happiest Baby on the Block when I was pregnant thinking it would make me a baby whisperer, but Elijah must not have ever gotten Dr. Harvey Karp's memo on how he was supposed to be act when his parents were trying to soothe him, so we shake and nurse to his little hearts content or until he passes out asleep...desperate times folks. 

As far as developmental milestones go, he is following objects and voices with his eyes, he can mimic certain facial expressions...his favorite is sticking out his tongue, he is able to lift and hold that big 'ol noggin of his for a few seconds at a time, is swatting at things, and he is gaining more head control by the day. 

The ever faithful Boaz guarding Elijah's one month photo shoot.

Elijah loves nursing, his swing, being carried in his maya wrap and ergo carrier, the white noise app, waving his arms and kicking his legs, being bounced, riding in the car, and falling asleep while cuddling with momma and daddy. He hates waking up from naps (can't blame him there), being swaddled, changing clothes, taking sink baths (but loves baths and showers with mommy), and 7pm. 

Our other baby, Boaz, has adjusted well to life with a new brother. He does not act out in any way except when other people come over to visit and then he feels the need to get as much attention as they will give him. He has definitely "grown up" a lot. 

Here are some of our favorite pics that document the first month of Elijah's beautiful life!

First day experiencing the world outside of Momma's belly.

with Pops, Gigi, and Daddy

with Gran and Grandaddy

Not loving his first bath with daddy.

First day out of the house on Day 3.

Looking not so amused to have just gotten two heel pricks at his first pediatrician visit.

First family picnic at Oak Mountain.

Napping away on mommy's chest in his maya wrap.

Our hipster baby.

Throwing up his baby gang signs.

First picture with the Easter bunny:-).

Meeting Uncle Jamin, Aunt Blair, and Cousin Will.

Milk Drunk.

This is why we called him squints for the first couple weeks of his life.

First longer car trip to Douglasville to meet his great-grandparents.

First Easter.

Easter cheesin' with daddy.

First Easter outfit.

First bedtime story with mommy.

Many naps taken on this thing.

First family walk.

Cloth diapering going really well.

First daytime nap in his crib.

Love swinging on the porch with momma while waiting for daddy to get home from work.

First best friend.

First time wearing jeans and actually starting to enjoy playtime on his activity gym.

Enjoying some naked time on the porch.

How momma gets anything done with me when he is being a crank pot.

Wanted to rep his favorite college football team on his 1 month birthday.

We love you more than words or pictures could ever describe or show little man! We are thankful for your beautiful life and for the past month we were able to spend with you! Thankful to be your parents...forgive us for being such newbies!

Maternity Photos

Hello World. Welcome to our new little corner of the internet. We wanted to create this blog to be able to share with family and friends some of our recent life happenings through photos! As much as we both love reading blogs, we are terrible bloggers. We post a few times and then life usually happens... but we thought we could manage updating you all on some of our big family moments by sharing photos with no pressure to come up with something eloquent to say. We might be terrible at this too...but we are going to give it a whirl. So without further ado...welcome to the Fee Family Blog!

We just welcomed our first son, Elijah Hamilton Fee, into the world on 04.06.14. I can't believe he has been with us for almost a month now outside of the womb. Here are some pictures of what we looked like when he was still cooking away at 35 weeks.

I loved being pregnant and already find myself missing it at times...though nothing in the world compares to being able to snuggle with your baby without your organs simultaneously being squished! It's hard to believe at this time we really had no clue about that precious little baby growing inside me. We sure have learned a lot in this past month and look forward to learning more about him everyday!

These pictures are all thanks to one of our besties, Carrie Taylor. We met Carrie and her husband Dylan 3 years ago when we crashed their small group. Who would have thought such a close friendship could develop even though they were in high school when I was born:-). They used to let us hang at their house until the wee hours of the morning chatting, we walked alongside them through the adoptions of their 2 beautiful Congolese kiddos, and we were even neighbors for a short time. These people are more like family than friends. Carrie also happens to know a thing or two about taking and editing pictures, so I mooched off of her talents with these pictures. Thankful to have beautiful pictures to document this special time in our lives. Little did we know how much our world would be rocked 5 weeks later when that little baby boy inside me graced us with his presence!