Blessed in Texas: April 2012

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!

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)