More New Pictures!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately - it's been toooo busy around here. We promise to post something heartier soon though with all the recent happenings! Until then, enjoy more pictures Jason uploaded (a bunch in the 3 month, and a few in the 4).

New Pictures!

Jason has posted some new pictures that we have taken throughout the past month. Enjoy!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This is such a busy time of year for us. It seems like we have so many things going on as we prepare for Jason's Mom, Gerry, my Dad and Pam to come into town next week. We are also trying to prepare for Grace's baptism on 12/21 and our 3rd wedding anniversary next Saturday.

Grace is absolutely wonderful! She loves to suck on her fists. You can see her trying to do this while she is laying on her belly in a few of the pics. She is finally able to put them in her mouth while sitting up. We think it is super cute, especially because you can see her doing this in my 19 week ultrasound video. This past week has been wonderful because she is finally sleeping through the night! YAY! We put her in her crib between 11 and 11:30pm and she has been sleeping until about 6 or 7 am. At first I thought it was a fluke, but she has been doing this for about the past 6 days. Hopefully this continues! I am just very greatful for the time being. Grace has also been taking a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the morning and in the afternoon. She slept from 3:10-5:30 the other day. Jason had to go and wake her up when he got home from work. We didn't really want to wake her up, but we were afraid that she wouldn't want to sleep during the night. It seems like all she ever wants to do now is sleep. I think it may just seem that way to me since we had such a hard time in the beginning with the thrush and gas. Whatever the reason, I am thankful for it now. It's amazing how happy a well-rested child can be!

Since Grace has been sleeping so well I have been able to complete all kinds of little projects around the house, which I am very thankful for. I will give you more updates on Grace's happenings next Friday when she turns 3 months old! My, how time flys!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We ended up staying at home for dinner because we knew that Christmas will be crazy with all of our visitors in town. It was very nice and peaceful. As you can see we dressed Grace up for the occasion. She actually had three outfit changes, but she was not very happy about the hat so we only have her picture in this outfit.

I decided to stay home Friday instead of going shopping. I have always hated crowds, but it's gotten a lot worse lately. Since I am home during the day, I usually go shopping during the week when there is hardly anyone out. However, I decided to go online and see if there were any deals and I found some! I ended up getting a bunch of things for Grace at Walmart.com. I found one item for $67 at Walmart that was listed at $89.99 at Babies R US. I also got a bunch of other items for about $4 cheaper for each item.

I hope everyone had as great of a day as we did!

2 Months & 5 Days Old!

Get ready because this is a long one! We cannot believe that it has already been 2 months since our little peanut was born. It has been the most crazy, sleep deprived, yet awesome two months of our lives. We could not ask for anything more. We are extremely blessed. Grace is doing so many wonderful things.

Here is a list of things she has started to do during the past month:

• On November 4th she started to show us her "real" smile. Wow is it a beautiful smile!
• She has started to lift her head during tummy time and lift her chest off of the ground. She is also starting to try and roll from her tummy to her back. Crazy but true! It's actually a bit scary. She also tries to scoot when she's on her tummy and gets really upset when she doesn't have anything to kick off of so we have to put her hands by her feet and she kind of kicks off of them and moves. She also does this when she's on our chest.
• She is starting to hold some of her weight when we stand her up on our lap.
• She absolutely loves to suck on her fists when she finds them. Usually this happens when she is on her tummy, but on Saturday night she actually stuck it in her month during bath time. It was adorable!
• She is following objects from across the room. Jason figured this out one night after dinner while she was in her swing. He walked away from her and notice she turned her head and followed him so he kept repeating it and watched her while she watched him.
• She loves to kick her legs and swing her arms. She swings her left arm around a lot. She looks like a little boxer.
• She loves to stick her tongue out and she will imitate us when we do this.
• She has started to coo and babble and she will also imitate us when we do the same thing back to her or when we talk to her.

Now for her likes:

• She loves lights! We just put our Christmas tree up because we know how much she would appreciate the lights on it!
• She loves music! Sometimes when she is crying she will just stop if she hears music. She also loves when we sing to her. She really seems to like "Old McDonald had a Farm".
• She loves her swing and bouncy chair. This child loves to be on the move and we really don't understand where she got it from. She hardly ever moved while she was in my belly. It must be from being on my feet all day while I was teaching. I don't know!
• She loves nursing. She will take the bottle when Grandma Peej or Daddy give it to her, but she is not a huge fan. She most definitely will not take a bottle from Mommy!

Now for her dislikes:

• She hates wet diapers. She will let you know the minute it's wet.
• Going to bed. She will always cry and we've just gotten used to it. She seems to like it more when Daddy puts her to bed rather than when Mommy does it. She cries and fusses a lot more for Mommy!

2 Month Check-Up:

She is now 10 pounds even and she is 21 3/4 inches long. Her head circumference is now 15 inches. She is now close to the 25th percentile in everything which is quite a jump from her 2 week checkup. Dr. Wells was shocked that she was tracking him with her eyes from across the room at her appointment. He was also quite impressed with her motor skills as she tried to pull an instrument he had in her ear out, then grabbed his arm, so all was well in that department --- he said she was showing skills that usually only 4-5 month olds start to develop!

She also had to have the dreaded 2 months vaccinations. I don't think I was quite prepared for that. I felt pretty bad for her. The nurses had me put Grace on the table and I held both of her hands and then they quickly administered the shots to her upper thighs. Grace's face turned bright red ( like fire engine red) and closed her eyes and opened her mouth. You could see actual tears on her eye lashes. She just laid there like that for about 30 seconds to a minute with no sound coming out of her mouth. Then the screaming began. So I immediately picked her up and tried to comfort her. Finally after a few minutes she calmed down and we went home. When we got home I took her out of her carseat and went to lay her down so I could go to the bathroom and she started crying again so I had to pick her up and hold her. I ended up nursing her and then she feel asleep so all was well. My mom and I ran to the mall to pick up a few things for Grace. When we got home my mom went to give her a bottle and she absolutely refused it. She just wanted her Mommy which was so rewarding to me. I think it made the past two months of frustration with nursing worth it! She ended up sleeping for most of the evening and she only woke up twice during the night and she seems to be doing a bit better today. At least we know that she won't get any "deadly" diseases and hopefully she will continue to stay happy and healthy!

I will get Jason to post a bunch more recent pics tonight or tomorrow!

7 Weeks Old and Sick Again... :(

Grace is now 7 weeks old and she is getting big! What a scary night we had! Last night our friends Lilac & PJ stopped by the see Grace. While they were here I took Grace into her room to change her diaper and I noticed that she had green stool. A little while later I took her into her room to change her again and she had green stool with a little bit of blood tinged mucus. I immediately took her temperature which was 99.7 degrees and then I called the doctor. Since it was 8:30 pm I had to speak to the answering service and then a nurse called me back a few minutes later. She wanted me to call our doctor's office immediately this morning to get her in, but she said if she had more blood or if she woke up inconsolable during the night then I would have to call back right away. Thankfully we didn't' have anymore bloody diapers and she actually slept for 6 hours straight during the night! I could not believe it! I called Genesis Pediatrics at 8:00am this morning and got her in for a 9 o'clock appointment. Thankfully they are open on Saturdays for illnesses! Well we found out that her Thrush is completely gone, but she does have rota virus (stomach virus). They are going to send her diaper for testing ( Yes we saved it and took it in) and they will let us know the results for sure in a few days. We also found out that she now weighs 8 lbs 13 1/2 oz. She has gained 11 1/2 ounces in a week! Mommy's milk must be good! She has also gained this much weight while sleeping for at least one 4 or 5 hour chunk per night. : )
I also had to go to see my doctor yesterday for my post partum visit and my Thrush is back so I have a new medicine that i need to use. Hopefully it works because nursing is very painful and Grace needs to eat frequently so she does not become dehydrated.
Needless to say, anyone who comes near Grace can expect us to tell them to wash and sanitize their hands before coming near her and then repeating the process many times. Sorry, but we need to protect our Peanut. She's been through too much already!

I'm Getting Older but I'm Still the Same...

... I'm just not that vacant anymore.

~ ONE MONTH, 15 DAYS - 20.5" | 8.2 lbs ~

As you may or may not know, today is my 25th birthday - and maybe it's the quarter-century milestone, but I think I'm actually feeling older this time around, way more than I usually do. I guess fatherhood will do that to you... Looking back, it has been a great run so far and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I've experienced more in my lifetime than many ever will and have been blessed more over than one person should ever be with all the Lord has chosen to give me thus far in life - my health, my family, my loving wife Stacey, and of course, our beautiful daughter Grace. If I'm able to provide Grace with half the things my parents have provided for me, she'll be a very lucky girl. Thanks to everyone I know for making my life so special and here's to another three-quarters-of-a-century to go!

I suppose I should back-track a little in the week though... The weekend before last - Friday & Saturday - we had a couple birthday parties for my paternal Grandpa ("Papa") - with one being a big surprise party at the Brook House - for his 80th birthday. Almost all of our family made it in town from VA and the likes, and it was great to see everyone - especially since we weren't able to make it down to VA for my cousins wedding - even though there was some travel hiccups along the way, and Grace was able to meet so many new family members for the first time. It was a blessed time and a deserved celebration for a great man! He also had NO CLUE about the surprise party, which made it even better.



On Sunday, we took Grace down the road to a local farm and picked out some pumpkins. She was dressed in her full pumpkin wardrobe - hat, shirt, pants, booties - and we picked up three pumpkins for only $6. This was big to us as it cost us $30something for two in Vegas!! Here's a few pics from the event and the pumpkin carving that ensued the next day:



Friday night was Halloween and we weren't going to dress Grace up as she already had her pumpkin outfit and there really isn't many Halloween costumes for newborns, but Patty ended up picking one up a lion one for her and it was pretty adorable. As you can see, we dressed up the boys again as well - and Patty adorned the full witch costume (quite scary) to spook the little ones in the neighborhood - however, we didn't end up getting too many kids at all which was a bit of a bummer for her.



The next night, some of my Dad's family came over to celebrate my birthday, and my first with Grace. We had a great time as we got Nana (my paternal Grandma) and Papa to try out our Wii - bowling and baseball. They had a blast with it - Papa was good at the bowling, while Nana was better at baseball. Papa couldn't hit the ball to save his life and Nana kept trying to coach him and everyone else, shouting "NOW! NOW! SWING! NOW!", after she was feelin' good about hitting a home run. Here's a few pics from the event:



So that has been the past couple weeks --- Grace is doing well and trying to get the hang of sleeping a little longer at night. She's been going about 4 hours at a time during the night which has been much better than her usual 2 or so, and she still has some remnants of the thrush on her bum, but it seems to be doing a lot better. Her weight and length have been increasing as well as you may have noticed the stats from Saturday night at the top. That's about all I have to report... many more pictures have been posted to our gallery as well, so be sure to check them out!

I've Been Here for One Month!

~ 29 Days, 16 Hours ~

It has been almost one month since I arrived into the arms of my loving parents and I have already learned and witnessed so much! So far I have met most of my family and can't wait to meet even more of them next weekend - boy do we have a big family and I'm not really good with remembering names... As you can see, Dad has already set up my own email account, taught me how to use the computer to blog, and have online video chats with Grandma in Australia.



I'm still trying to get used to this "sleep at night" thing, but I think I'm getting better. Not sure if Mom thinks so, but hey, a girl needs to eat! I've really put Mom and Dad through the ringer with my fussiness at nighttime but thanks to cousin Karen who sent up a book on nursing, Mom may have cracked the case on what has been causing this irritating diaper rash on my bum and my bouts of fussiness --- thrush. I think it is the 5th different infection I've caused Mom to get, but hopefully things will start to get better now that we have figured it out! Plus, I really love having my butt blow-dried during each diaper change - very soothing! I have also started to get a little "tummy time" recently during the day as I can lift my head a bit as my neck muscles keep getting stronger, and my brothers really enjoy chilling alongside me on the mat.



The doctor said that I am growing at a nice, steady pace - 6 lbs 12 oz at our last visit - and I can feel myself getting stronger, larger, and longer by the day. My hair is also growing a bit longer and getting darker - it's still too short for my taste... I look like Dad enough already, so I can't wait for my hair to grow in! Other than that, life has been good and I have enjoyed my time here so far. Time to go watch the football games with Dad - he has me started with sports already... Don't forget to check out all of my new pictures in the gallery!

Two Weeks Old!

Grace had her 2 week check up today and it is official, she is a peanut! She is now 6 lbs. 3 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. Her head circumference is 13.5 inches. Apparently her head really was swollen after birth since she went from 19 3/4 inches long to 18 1/2 inches long. She is in the 14th percentile for her head size and 3rd percentile for her height & weight.

We also talked about a little problem that we have been having at nighttime with Grace. For some reason between 1am and 6am every night she screams bloody murder. It doesn't matter what we do, she will still start to scream a couple minutes after we put her down. Her doctor said that it could be gas or it could be colic - we are really praying that it is just gas. We bought some gas drops and we will try them out tonight. Hopefully it does the trick! Otherwise we will be dealing with a colic baby for the next 3 weeks to 3 months :( I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy.

On a lighter note, we gave Grace another bath on Tuesday and of course she pooped in the tub not once but twice. It seems as though this is becoming her favorite past time. I cannot tell you how many times I have been pooped, peed, and tooted on in the past two weeks. I wouldn't trade it for anything though. Jason is smart - he is the official "hand holder" during diaper changes and baths so he gets to dodge all the messiness!

We will let you know how our night goes now with the gas drops. Please pray for us on this one! Jason also posted some new pics in the gallery of Grace and her funny faces. She makes the funniest facial expressions, even the nurses at the hospital commented on them! She's adorable! :)

Grace is in Today's Paper

We just wanted to let everyone know that Grace is in today's D&C paper in the "Our Towns" section!