Dr Appt

Brady had his two week check today.  We were anxious to see how much our little man has grown and it's always nice to hear the doctor's reassurance that things are going great!  His pediatrician is Dr. Megan Beebe with the Waukee Clinic.  The clinic is only two blocks from our house and we were actually on time today!  We were 10 minutes late for our first appointment because we didn't realize how much it took to get a baby ready!  Anyways, I really like his doctor.  She actually takes time for me to go over my list of questions, which was quite long today.

Brady currently weighs 8 lbs 2 oz and has shrunk a bit.  He is now only 21 1/4 inches long.  He was 8 lbs 1 oz and 22 inches when he was born.  He is still such a content baby.  He is so funny to watch.  His yawns are huge for such a little face.  His face is really starting to fill out.  He is getting good at focusing more by staring in the direction or at the forehead of whoever is talking to him.  He is a good little listener-you can tell he's really listening to the sounds and voices around him!  He loves head rubs.  They seem to hypnotize him.  He definitely fights sleep during the day and really only gets little naps in.  Although he is out for the count if you let him sleep on you.  He does sleep pretty decent at night most nights though! 

Drake is still having a hard time adjusting.  He's a sad doggy right now.  Hopefully I'll be able to walk him again soon!!  That should do the trick.

By the way- I typed this post all with one hand because he is sleeping in my arms right now. :)  Here is a picture from our trip to the doctor's office.  Go Hawks!

Happy Holidays!!

I hope everyone had a safe and Merry Christmas this year!  We stayed home since Brady is only two weeks old.  We didn't feel like it was the best decision to be out on the roads.  Christmas Eve was pretty low key.  Since I haven't been cleared to drive until this past Wednesday, I really didn't have time to make it a special Christmas Eve for our new family.  We pretty much just hung out at home like it was another night!  On Christmas Day, Chris's family came to visit.  We enjoyed spending time together along with lots of yummy treats, good food and presents!!!  We are expecting a visit from my parents this coming week and are looking forward to spending time with them also!

Brady was officially spoiled this Christmas.  He received lots of toys, clothes, a blanket from Great Grandma and Grandpa Mart, a Bundle Me and a Baby Einstein DVD and CD.  I'm sure there was more, but I can't think of everything right now.  He will really enjoy everything someday though! 

Here are a few pics - I'm starting to notice a trend in our family pictures.  Chris is a baby hog!  :)

Second Week at Home

We are into our second week at home and loving every second!!!  He is 11 days old today.  Everyone warned me how fast time would go and I knew it would, I was just hoping it wouldn't go this fast.  I look back over the past two weeks and have such sweet memories of meeting him for the first time and getting to know him.  He is truly the greatest gift I have ever been given.

Brady is so much fun.  He makes the funniest expressions (even though I know he has no control over them yet).  He has such bright eyes.  I hope they stay blue, but Chris thinks they are turning brown already.  And I think he has my nose.  But, I have to admit that Brady is looking more and more like Chris every day.  Brady really only fusses when you change his diaper or when he gets hungry.  Otherwise he is a very content little guy! 

We have a busy week with visitors this week and look forward to every visit!  My parents and sister Melissa came to visit on Monday, Chris's mom came to visit on Tuesday, my friend Julie came Tuesday afternoon and brought us supper and the Dentlinger's are coming Wednesday with pizza.  And then it's Christmas this weekend! 

Here is a picture of Brady's first visit with Aunt Melissa!  He loved snuggling with her.  We wish she lived closer.  :(

Pictures

I really don't have much to blog about, but I thought I would post some new pictures!

Getting Settled In....

We have been home since Monday afternoon and are getting all settled in and figuring things out.  Brady has been such a good baby.  He rarely fusses and has made the transition for us so easy!  Now we are working on getting him to like sleeping in the bassinet at night instead of on us.  I was just commenting to Chris today that it's funny how being so in love with Brady and just spending my time snuggling with him makes things I used to care about seem so unimportant - like cleaning, dishes, working out.  All that matters to me now is spending time with Brady!

We met with his pediatrician for the first time today and I really like her.  Brady only cried when we undressed him, otherwise he was a champ!  We have a healthy little boy who is starting to gain some weight back.  It's always nice to hear from the doctor that things are going great and that we are doing a good job.

Also - I'm sure you are wondering how Drake is handling having a little brother.  He has completely ignored him.  It's pretty funny.  Once in awhile we'll get "the look" if  Brady is crying, but otherwise Drake continues to mind his own business. 

Here are some pictures from the hospital with all his visitors!!

Brady with Aunt Jenn

Brady with Great Grandma Schelle

Brady with Aunt Alecia, Cousin Brenten & Uncle Mike

Brady with my aunts Judy & Jalynn & his Great Grandma Schelle

Brady with Grandpa & Grandma Espenhover

Brady with Aunt Rachel & Cousin Thomas

Brady with Grandpa & Grandma Mart

Brady with Julie & Beckett

Brady & Karen

Brady with the Piepers

Brady with the Jenkins

Going home family picture!!

He's here!!!

He's here!  Chris and I welcomed our son Brady Christopher into our family early Friday morning.  He arrived on 12-10-2010 at 12:18 am.  He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 22 inches long!!  No wonder I was so uncomfortable!  He was very reluctant to come out and was positioned face up.  After little progression and his heart rate showing some distress, the doctor decided that we should proceed with a c-section.  We feel very blessed to have such a beautiful and healthy little boy.  We are enjoying every second with him -it's been so much fun to just lay around and cuddle.  Tonight is our last night in the hospital and then we head home tomorrow.  I always told myself I would NOT be the parent who bragged about their kid, but I have to admit, he's perfect.  :)  Enjoy the pictures!!!

Last Day as a Family of Three!

Well, tonight is the night!  We go into the hospital around 9pm tonight to be induced.  We are very excited to finally meet this little guy.  And I'm excited to feel better again.  I hope everything goes smoothly.  I'm not nervous, so that's a good sign I guess!  We have been getting ready around the house - stocking up on groceries, Drake's things and making sure the house is clean.  Today is going faster than I thought!  Drake will be going to Paws Inn this afternoon.  He would rather be at home though and usually doesn't sleep while he's there, so hopefully the pills we got for him will help him at least rest a little while when he's there.  I think the next few days will be rougher on him than me!! 

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers for us.  As you know, it's been an incredibly long journey and we are so excited to finally be at this point!!!  The next post will be introducing our new little boy!!

Positive Attitude

My dad had his three month follow up appointment with his neurosurgeon today.  The appointment went great!  His vertebrae are fusing together nicely - the best case scenario!!  He is officially brace free today.  What a great (and yet scary) feeling that must be for him.  It's amazing how far he has come in the past three months.  I give credit to not only his amazing surgeon and his staff, but mostly to my dad with his hard work towards his recovery and his positive attitude.  I remember in the hospital one of the nurses told him he should receive an award for his good attitude towards his situation.  I've had a few people in the health care profession tell me how having an optimistic attitude helps the recovery process and I actually just read an article on this same topic.  I now 100% believe them after witnessing my dad, his attitude and how far he has come these past few months.  GOOD JOB DAD!!  We are so proud of you!!!!

Meet Drake

I decided to write down some of my funny (and not so funny) memories of Drake.  Drake has been my baby for the past 9 years and I really can't imagine life without him.  Sometimes I tell him I should have named him Shadow because he follows me everywhere.  I have been thinking of him a lot lately knowing that we will be having a real baby in our house soon.  Drake will be such a good and protective big brother and I'm looking forward to seeing how he acts around our baby.    He's so darn funny with his expressions and habits, and yet other times he makes me want to pull my hair out!  Here are some things that I never want to forget about Drake:

* He has had an appetite for more than just food.  Some of the things he has eaten over the years are: shoes that he was not able to digest (that was one expensive and scary vet visit!!!), a leather binder, baby toys (three so far within the past month-I hope he saves some for the baby!), batteries, a DVD, all the trim in our apartment up to the point where he couldn't reach, the carpet down to the cement in our old apartment, and the basement stairs/bottom of door in our house.  Apparently with the stairs/doors, he was trying to let us know that he was ready to be roam free in our house.  And he was - we didn't have any problems after that! 
* He can be such a good watch dog.  When Chris is away overnight on hunting/golfing trips, Drake tends to sleep in the other bedroom where the window overlooks the street.  It never fails, he always manages to give me a heart attack in the middle of the night by barking at something.  Funny how he never does that when Chris is home.  When we lived in our old apartments, I can think of two times where I felt safe because of him.  I always took him on a walk on Friday nights when I got off of work at the Y around 10pm.  One night we were walking and he suddenly spun around and started barking his head off.  I didn't even hear the person approaching behind us.  Thank goodness Drake sounded and looked ferocious - we power-walked home after that!  There was another time where the door was unlocked and Chris heard someone opening it, but the second Drake started to bark, the door slammed shut. 
* Even though Drake is big and his barks sound mean sometimes, anyone who knows Drake knows that it's not his personality to be the tough guy.  The funny thing about this dog is that he's afraid of the dumbest things!  He's scared of flies and bugs, he's afraid of the timer, he's afraid when our oven beeps when it's heated up and don't even get me started on the smoke detectors when they beep!  This dog will shake for hours if he hears that.  We actually had to turn a show on tv the other week because on the show, the smoke detectors were beeping and he wouldn't stop shaking.
* Drake is gun shy.  Yes, he's a lab and they are supposed to be excellent hunting dogs.  Apparently Drake is "special".  Chris has tried to take him twice and the results were not fun for Chris.  The first time Chris took him, Drake dropped and rolled over scared the first time the gun went off.  Chris had to carry him back to the truck.  He thought he would try again, but Drake wouldn't have anything to do with it.  When the gun went off, Drake ran back to the truck and barked his head off until Chris let him in.  I'm ok with him not being a hunting dog - he's a mama's boy anyways!
* Drake seems to be in love with my dad.  He can't get enough of him and won't leave him alone when they come to visit.  I hope it makes my dad feel good - Drake must have a special place in his heart for my dad.  Normally I would be jealous, but I know I return to his #1 person when my dad leaves, so I'm ok with it.  :)
* Drake is hilarious.  I remember walking him past a road construction sign once and he thought it would be fun to play tug of war with the sandbags holding the sign down.  I'll never forget the looks of people leaving work that day and laughing at him.  And he's flipped Chris twice while playing catch.  I would have loved to have seen that!  And we did try and take him camping once.  This dog loves to swim.  We finally had everything packed up that morning and I was trying to get him in the car.  He looked at me and then looked at the pond.  Of course, I could tell what he was thinking and sternly said "No Drake".  He looked at me one more time and took off towards the pond.  Needless to say I did not enjoy the wet dog smell all the way home.  Silly dog.
* One thing that absolutely melts my heart about this dog is his loyalty.  I was having some health issues for about 2 1/2 weeks last year due to fertility treatments.  I spent the first week and a half not being able to get off of the couch.  He never left my side.  Out of the two weeks, he only went upstairs once for a few minutes and spent 24/7 next to me or on me on the couch.  I guess he knew I needed him and I really felt loved by him because of that.  :)

So, I know this is a long post, but Drake deserves the dedication.  He may not be a dominate dog when around other dogs, he may stare down the treats every time he comes inside because he thinks he deserves one just for going out, he may have severe and expensive allergy problems, he may get me up about 2/3 times a night to be let out and he is up the second he hears my alarm click to off (yes, he knows the difference between the snooze button and the off button) and yes I may be saving every receipt to total how much this dog has cost us, but I have to admit, having Drake as a part of my life is PRICELESS!!!

Nursery

 

I thought I would post a few pics of the nursery.  The lighting wasn't the greatest, but oh well!!

Staying Connected....

Welcome to our blog!  I decided to join the blogging world and here are a few different reasons as to why: 

*The first reason is that we are about to have our first baby in just a few weeks.  We don't live in the same town as our families, so I thought this would be a wonderful way for them to stay updated on what we are up to and to see pictures of our new addition.  I know firsthand how hard it was for us when our nephews were born and we weren't able to go and visit them very much.  We wanted to see them all the time!  So hopefully this will help our families feel closer. 
**Secondly, I personally love reading other people's blogs.  A few of my friends have been blogging, and it's so fun to see what they are up to. 
***Finally, I have read that a few people started blogs to help keep a written record of the things going on in their life and they use it as an online journal to have to look back on someday.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have a horrible memory, so I thought this sounded like an excellent idea!!

So.... Happy Viewing!!!!!