1 Month Old!

I can not believe my little baby boy is already 1 month old!!!

We are doing great, and he sure is keeping us very busy!

Overall he has been a great baby--we must have hit the baby lottery! Besides being the cutest thing alive he is pretty sweet as well.

We go tomorrow to the pediatrician and I am eager to see how much he has grown. He is breastfeeding, which honestly has been a roller coaster of ups and downs but is well worth it. Lately he is ALWAYS hungry and wants to eat all the time. We are hoping this is a growth spurt and he will slow down soon (he eats every 2 hours during the day and sometimes sooner than that).

Sleeping at night is overall good, we just wake up frequently to eat but he goes right back to sleep after. He normally eats (or now wakes me up to eat) every 3-4 hours at night, but of course last night he woke me up every 2 hours!!! He likes to sleep in so we end up still averaging 7-8 total hours of sleep which is great.

Baylor has pretty much outgrown all of his newborn clothes and diapers with a few exceptions. We had to go shopping last week to buy more 0-3 month clothes which fit perfectly.

It is amazing to see how developmentally he has already grown. He can now maintain eye contact and track objects (or us!) moving around. He is starting to talk more, as in coo-ing and babbling just a bit. We love talking back to him! The best feeling is when he is upset and just hearing my voice calms him!  

I could go on and on and on, we just love getting to know and spend time with our sweet baby!



Life with a newborn

Lately we have just been trying to adjust to our new life with a baby. It is so strange how your life is one way for so many years and it immediately changes when the baby arrives, and you quickly forget how the old life you lived used to be. And you don't miss it one bit!

Matt went back to work this week and my mother has come to stay for a few days to help me transition to taking care of Baylor by myself. It has been so nice to have her help and she has been teaching/showing me how to do simple things with Baylor by myself (ie taking him to the grocery store). The visitors have begun to taper off (other than my mother being here the past couple days), which has also been able to give us a glimpse into life as the 3 of us as it will be. It feels great getting into a routine with Baylor and our new life.

So far, we have been BLESSED by a wonderful baby who sleeps well at night. I wake him up every 3-4 hours to nurse, and he usually goes right back to sleep. We usually get to sleep by about 9:30.  Matt and I have been averaging about 8 hours of sleep each night, I of course getting a little less than he since I have to take a good 45 minutes at a time to nurse him, but I have been able to nap pretty much daily when he does. Our pediatrician says that when Baylor turns 4 weeks old we can stop waking him up to eat and allow him to sleep as long as he wishes. I am eager for this to happen because I think he will continue to be a great sleeper (fingers crossed!).

During the day he takes a couple naps and we have lots of playtime. He likes to lay on his playmat and check things out. He's very alert and enjoys looking around at bright objects or toys that make lots of noise. He's overall a pretty happy baby.

He also likes to be read to.

 Since my mom came into town a couple nights ago, she watched Baylor last night and allowed Matt and I to go on our first date night since Baylor was born. I choked back tears leaving him, but it was great to get out and spend time with Matt.

My mom with Baylor

Date night WITH alcoholic beverages! Wohoo!

As far as my recovery, I am doing good. I have lost all my pre-pregnancy weight other than about 7lbs. I was super excited to try on some of my old clothes and find that they fit yesterday! I really think working out during the whole pregnancy helped along with the breast feeding, which I feel like we do a whole lot. I am eager for the 6 week mark when I get the okay from the doctor to resume exercise. I have been craving a good long run and can't wait to get back into exercising. Now, we shall see if I actually have time to do this......

Yay! No more pregnant clothes!

Again, thank you all for your kind words and support during this time--it feels so great to recieve so much love from everyone! We are doing great and are just loving spending time with our little angel.



Happy Mother's Day!

Today is such a special day for me, as it is my first Mother's Day as a mother!

I think being a new mother has made me really appreciate and have a much better understanding of a mother's love and the sacrifices a mother makes for her children.

I have always said I was blessed with a wonderful mother, and with a great step-mother, and mothers-in-law, but now I am truly and doubly blessed to be a mother to the most wonderful and beautiful baby on earth.

Happy Mother's Day!



Picture overload

Here's a few pics of our life lately....

chillin in my monkey suit

going home from the hospital!

war eagle!

I'm such a big boy I can hold my own paci

precious

me and my son (!)

Gracie is very curious

he loves daddy

tired!

Baylor's Here!!

On Sunday, April 29th, my due date, we checked into the hospital at 8pm to begin the induction process for labor. After our last appointment with the doctor and realizing he was a big baby (est. 83 percentile at 39 weeks) and that he wasn't moving down, we decided to go ahead and induce, as my doctor didn't feel comfortable allowing us to go much further past our due date.

So we arrived Sunday nervous and anxious but ready to meet our little man. They started me on some medicine which was supposed to help soften and dilate my cervix (I was currently neither, and had been told Baylor's head was still 'floating' and had not engaged or dropped at all). After having 2 doses of the medicine and not seeing any results, they decided to start me on Pitocin, another drug which causes contractions and helps aid in dilation and progress of labor. The nurse started the Pitocin at about 5am and continued to bump it up every 15 minutes. The doctor came in around 6:45am to check and realized the Pitocin wasn't doing anything either. This baby did not want to come out! He discussed our options to either go home and wait a few more days and hope Baylor made progress (which he felt was unlikely due to the lack of progress prior combined with the estimated size he was--in which he would continue to grow) or to go ahead with a c-section. I knew odds of a c-section was pretty good going in and I was okay with that. My whole plan has been that I didn't care how he arrived just that he was safe and healthy.

 By 8:30am I was being prepped for a c-section and our sweet little bundle of joy arrived on April 30, 2012 at 8:55am. He weighed 8lbs and 13oz and was 20 inches long! My doctor also said his cord was wrapped around his head and assured me there was no way I could have delivered him vaginally . 

The first days have gone by so fast and we have had tons and tons of visitors. It has been so exciting for us to see all the support and love that Baylor has from friends and family. At the same time, we are trying to get used to being parents, and now that we are home we are trying to get into a regular routine and adjust to our new life.My mother came and stayed with us until this past weekend which was a huge help. I am doing well also recovering from the c-section, and have been feeling actually pretty great. Matt has been such an amazing father, always eager to help both Baylor and I. The first few days in the hospital I didn't even change one diaper!

People say you never know love until you have a child and I now understand completely what they mean. This baby is the sweetest, most beautiful, wonderful, amazing miracle that we have been so blessed to have.  I am amazed just watching him and love cuddling him. We are so in love with Baylor and are thrilled to have him home with us to spend each and every day with. We are so blessed that God decided to make us his parents.

At the hospital Sunday night about to get things started

Big baby! 8lbs 13.2 oz

And I now truly understand what love means

family <3

This melts my heart. My two men

Some of the many visitors:

Uncle Ryan

my dad- Grandfather

Matt's mother- Mimi

Matt and my mother-Avo

Us with Matt's dad and step-mother-Pops and Gimmie

Baylor and I with Auntie Ang

Ang and I with our babies. They are only 6 months apart yet are sooo different in size!

The two Matt's with Baylor and Mattox

Leaving the hospital


Thank you all for all your prayers, support, visits, thoughts, well wishes, congrats, and more! It means so much! I will continue to keep you all posted on how our new life is going.