May Days

 The month of May was a particularly eventful one in the Baugher household.  Brady got to experience many new things and he seems to be growing by the hour.  We are attempting to document all the fun and excitement, and I’d say we’re doing a pretty decent job.  I discovered over the weekend that we have taken over 1,700 photos of the little man since he was born, not including his newborn and 3-month photo shoots.  I know this is ridiculous but it doesn’t stop me from reaching for the camera whenever he does something new, something cute, or something old that’s still cute!

They say that all good things must come to an end, and I experienced the truth of that statement first-hand on May 9^th when I returned to work after 12 glorious weeks of maternity leave.  I struggled with that looming date for a few weeks before its arrival, and the only thing that really got me through walking out the door that Wednesday morning was my Mom being here to care for Brady.  It literally felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest and the breath was being knocked out of my lungs, but I did it.  Albeit with tears rolling down my face and Brady’s nightgown tucked securely in my briefcase.  (Btw, I still generously apply his baby lotion to my arms before leaving in the morning so I have his smell on me all day).  My logical side knew that this was just part of being a working Mommy and that millions of other mothers have done the same thing.  But my emotional side could not rationalize leaving a “job” that I love more than anything (caring for Brady) for a job that pays the bills.  Needless to say, I have never been so anxious to get home than on that day, and I scooped my sweet baby up the minute I walked in the door.  OK, I did wash my hands first, but you get the point.  Here’s a photo Daddy snapped of Mommy and Brady’s reunion after my first day back:

So happy to be home with my sweet baby boy!

The next weekend I was blessed to celebrate my very first Mother’s Day!  I felt especially lucky this year because it was my first Mother’s Day as a mom myself, and my own mom was in town with us.  Being able to spend such a special day with three of my very favorite people was amazing, and we spent the day just enjoying each other and soaking up the Brady smiles and snuggles.  We got outside to enjoy some nice weather and took a few photos to remember the day.

I love this one!

Family shot

My Mommy and me on Mother's Day

On May 15^th, Brady turned the big 3 months…I know, he’s gettin’ up there!  We took some pretty entertaining pictures of our own at home and also took him to Sears to get professional portraits done.  He did pretty well considering all the different positions we put him in and an outfit change in the middle.  Besides, a few tears and puddles of drool are cute, right?  Of course there are so many adorable photos that we can’t decide which ones to buy.  Take a look at a few our favorites and let us know which ones you like best!

Yea, I'm kind of a big deal!

Big Man!

Stylin' and profilin'

Happy boy!

Really happy boy!

So sweet!

Look at that smile!

Who, me??

Cracking up!

Mr. Handsome

Love his hands in this one :0)

On May 19^th, Brady attended his first-ever birthday party.  Miss Stella turned two years old and celebrated with a backyard party of water-filled fun.  B was totally amazed by all the big kids running around and particularly enjoyed watching the slip-n-slide action.  He fought sleep as long as he could but finally gave in and took a little cat nap on Mommy.  He woke up in time to sing to Stella (which he did with his own version of the Happy Birthday song) and watch her blow out the birthday candles.  After such a big day, he was happy to get his bath and turn in early that evening.

Ready for some birthday fun with Daddy!

Couldn't fight that nap any longer!

Ready to sing to Stella

The birthday girl loves her some cake!

Memorial Day weekend finally arrived, and with it came Brady’s Pops!  My dad flew down for a quick visit to spend some time with us over the long weekend.  In honor of his grandfather, Brady rocked his new motorcycle outfit on Monday and posed for some pictures.  I think Dad just needed a little Brady/Brenda fix.  We did steal my mom from him for 3 whole weeks, and then she flew over to Florida for another six weeks or something like that, so poor Dad is missing his beautiful wife.  At any rate, we all got to enjoy some quality time together and it was a great weekend.  Bonus fun, on Friday night we headed up 290 a bit to visit the Thomas family who welcomed Sweet Jaya on April 13^th.  It was Brady’s first time meeting his new friend and he really loved playing with her toys!  Mommy enjoyed holding such a little baby again and remembering that Brady used to be that small too!  My how times flies!

This picture makes me smile :0)

Pops is SO funny!

New parents everywhere!

Biker dude!

On May 30^th, Brady had to say goodbye to his Granna.  She did such a great job loving him every day and we are so lucky that she is retired and willing to spend so much time in Texas.  I can honestly say that I am the most blessed person in the world to have a mom like her…I hope one day I can be something like her to my children!  Although we were so sad to see Granna go, we were also very excited because Nana came to town!  Since Daddy’s school year didn’t end until June 1^st, we had a few more days where we needed a little help at home with Boogie Bear.  Lucky for us, his Nana was more than willing to come visit and help out.  She is doing a fantastic job with her grandson and we are so happy Brady is getting to spend so much quality time with her.  Nana bought Brady his very first truck this weekend, and we can’t wait to play with it!

A few last kisses and snuggles from Granna

So excited to see his Nana!

Snuggling right in to Nana's shoulder

Now that June is upon us, Daddy Day Care is officially open for business.  After such a fun and eventful May, we can’t wait to see what June has in store for us!  Missing everyone back home and hope to see you soon.

Labor Story

OK friends and family, as promised in my last post, here is the story of Brady's arrival into the world!  Rewind to January 26th...I was 36 weeks and 1 day pregnant and Chris and I headed off to my doctor's office for my last ultrasound.  After the ultrasound my doctor walked into the room, greeted us and said, "Well, you guys have a huuuuuuuge".  Then she stopped herself mid-sentence and changed that to, "it looks like he might be around seven pounds already, which would mean that he would be nine pounds or more by 40 weeks.  That's a pretty big boy."  I remember clapping my hand over my mouth in complete shock when she said he was already 7 pounds because I had been imagining the 4-5 pound baby all the pregnancy books promised.  Looking back at the photos of myself, I should have known.  I present Exhibit "A" below, a photo from my baby shower taken just five days before this appointment, in which I am clearly carrying a huge and enormous child.

Exhibit "A"

I look back at pictures from the last month and I honestly don't remember feeling that big, but seeing is believing, I guess.  So anyway, the point of taking you back to 36 weeks is that my doctor brought up the possibility of an induction at 39 weeks due to Brady's size.  Once we heard that, we were thrilled and excited that we may get to meet him a little early and after the possibility was there, nothing else was going to be acceptable to me.

At 37 weeks, my doctor told me that nothing had changed and I was still only about a centimeter dilated and 50% effaced.  At 38 weeks, same story, and this time she told me that she wouldn't want to induce if my cervix hadn't started showing some signs of labor on its own.  I was crushed...my parents had booked their flight for February 14th thinking there was a chance his birthday might be scheduled for the 15th, and it was looking like I'd jumped the gun telling them to come early.  I was so afraid that Brady would be late and they'd spend most of their vacation time sitting around with me pregnant instead of snuggling with their grandson.  I wallowed a little bit, (OK, maybe a lot), but then on Saturday, February 11th, I lost my mucus plug.  That seemed like a huge step in the right direction, so things were looking up.  Life continued pretty much normally for the next several days and finally, Valentine's Day arrived.  I left work and picked Mom and Dad up from the airport around 11 o'clock in the morning.  We grabbed a quick lunch at the house and then I headed back to the office to finish out the day.  I'd felt a little off all day, but had no contractions or anything alarming so I didn't think much of it.  After I got home, we had dinner, took a walk around the neighborhood, and settled down to watch a little TV.  I was feeling restless and couldn't pay much attention to the show ("Castle", which is one of our favorites) but I figured I was just excited that my parents were finally here and Brady could come when he was ready now.  We all headed up to bed around 10:30 pm, but I never went to sleep.  Around 11:00, I felt some cramping, so I got up to go potty and see if that would help.  It didn't, and around midnight I started thinking I was maybe having Braxton Hicks.  Just in case it was the real deal, I decided to clean up a bit.  I took a shower and then blew my hair dry, and by the time that was done, I was starting to need to concentrate on my breathing during the cramps.  I decided to wake Chris, who had slept right through all the ruckus I was making in the bathroom, at around 1:30 am.  I shook his leg and gently said, "Baby, I think I'm in labor."  He jumped out of bed and ran down the hall in his underwear to the guest room to wake my parents.  After he was all ready, we went downstairs and started timing my contractions.  They were only about 2 minutes apart, so we knew we should get going to the hospital.

So, at around 2:00 in the morning, Chris and I loaded up the car with our hospital bags and headed off for the last time as "just the two of us".  My parents stayed behind in case it was false labor, and because first labors can sometimes take many hours.  We arrived at the hospital around 2:30 and by 2:45 I was all set up in the hospital bed.

Not a pretty picture, but I was smiling so this must have been between contractions :0)

After she asked me about 3,500 questions which I grunted answers to, the nurse got down to business and checked me.  I was already 4 cm dilated!  She said we'd probably have the baby before 10 am, so we called my parents and they arrived right around 5 am.  By 8:00, I was a full 10 cm, but Brady needed to drop down a bit.  While waiting for the go-ahead to start pushing, we all just kind of hung out.  At one point, Chris took the picture below and laughed hysterically saying I looked like a shark attack victim who'd lost my arm...let's just say I didn't laugh.

Finally, around 10:30 am, the nurse had me start pushing.  After about 2-3 contractions, she stopped me and called the doctor.  After the doctor arrived and a few more pushes, Brady Christopher Baugher was born at 11:06 am!  The nurse laid him on my chest and Chris and I cried and smiled and my parents took pictures and it was just...perfect!  He was perfect, beautiful, and most importantly...HEALTHY!  Not to mention extremely considerate...our little guy loves his grandparents so much that he decided to come out and meet them just 24 hours after they arrived in Houston.  What a great guy!  So that's pretty much the labor story minus the gross or too personal stuff that you wouldn't want to hear anyway. 

The best way to describe February 15th, the day I met my beautiful son, might be with this quote by Elizabeth Stone.  I'd heard it before, but never truly understood it until then.   

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

First Family Photo -- Yes, that's Chris in the hoodie (sigh)

Proudest Papa in the world

Savoring the moment and imagining what the future holds for this precious angel

Kisses from Granna

Snuggles from Pops

Mommy and Daddy got the big boy all dressed for his trip home!

Overwhelmed by all the excitement!

April Showers and "Supermom" Powers

Well, it's now April and my last blog post was in November, so clearly I have failed at this blogging thing.  Despite the title, I am less a Supermom than just a Super Happy Mom.  In fact, I think it's actually a case of a Superbaby.  Brady has been brightening our days for 9 and a half weeks now, since February 15th, and I don't think we could ask for a more accommodating and happy baby.  I'm thinking I'll save the labor story for my next post as that is it's own example of Brady's considerate behavior...more on that later.  For now, I'd like to just share a little bit about what we've been up to for the last (almost) 10 weeks.

Brady has been growing like a weed which makes this breastfeeding Momma ecstatic!  He was 21 inches long and 8 lbs 5 oz at birth.  By his 1 month check-up with the pediatrician he was 23 inches long and 10 lbs 14 oz, and by 2 months, he was 24.5 inches and 12 lbs 11 oz.  He's currently 95th percentile in length and 75th percentile in weight, so we feel pretty confident he'll be a major league ballplayer, even if he does have to play for the lowly Baltimore Orioles.  I think he looks dashing in orange, so that's cool with me.  Besides growing, Brady also enjoys:

1.  Eating:  For the first week, we didn't really eat on a set schedule, but since he was a week old, B has been eating about every four hours.  He generally takes about an hour to finish each meal (give or take 15 minutes), which is a little slow but I don't mind.  It's a great bonding time for us and he's clearly getting the nutrition he needs since he is gaining weight so well.  Best of all, my little considerate baby skips his overnight meal and generally sleeps about 7 hours through the night.  I'm a little afraid to admit that in writing because I do not want to jinx it...but hopefully that little trend will continue.
2.  Staring at windows:  In our family room, we have four large windows on a wall that's painted a dark color, and Brady has been transfixed by them since the day we brought him home.  These windows and any other light sources (lamps, TVs, computer screens, etc.) entertain him way more than Chris and I do.  We'll sing, dance and make goofy faces at him for 15 minutes earning ourselves a lot of confused expressions and a few cute smiles; then we walk away and catch him cracking up at the light fixture over his changing pad.  Seriously, Brady??  Thanks for telling Mommy and Daddy we're less funny than inanimate objects.
3.  Smiling:  See above.  We'd like to pretend we're responsible for all his smiles, but those damn lamps are tough competition.  We have been lucky enough to capture a few pictures of his glorious gummy grin, but we have to be sneaky since B is a bit camera shy.  He tends to get very serious every time one of us whips out the camera or iphone.
4.  Tooting:  Telling this is probably a "mean mommy move", but my sweet little boy farts like a fully grown man after a weekend at Chili Fest.  While my parents were here visiting, they actually argued over which one of them had passed gas and it ended up being Brady at about 3 days old.  I can totally see him being the kid who farts during class and blames it on the innocent little girl next to him, bahahahahaha!
5.  Sucking on his hands:  Yep, just this week Brady discovered his hands and boy are they TASTY!  If he's not nursing, sleeping, or enjoying his pacifier, he's busy shoving his entire fist in his mouth.  This wouldn't be so bad for now since we're mostly at home and he's not exposed to many germs, but man, the smell!  Ugh, his little hands smell like old spittle, and that's just gross.  I'm constantly washing his hands with baby wipes and wash cloths trying to freshen the fragrance of those little fists, but I'm realizing that as a mother of a little boy, the "smelly battle" is one I'll be fighting for at least the next 18 years.  Spit-scented hands will smell like roses compared to the aromas of his teenage years, I'm sure!

Other than that, Chris and I have really just been spending our time falling in love with our little boy.  Once you've checked out the following pictures, I'm betting you'll be in love too ;0)

2 Days Old!

I look at this picture any time I need a good laugh :0)

Contemplating...

Milk coma!

Baby on the move!

Getting his feet wet!

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

One of his famous smiles!

See, I told ya the fist was yummy!

Getting down to business on his 2-month birthday ;0)

All sacked out...Daddy is comfy!