2 Months

Our sweet little Grayson is 2 months old!  This adorable little man has brought an endless amount of joy into our lives.  It is so much fun to watch him start to explore the world around him!  He is sleeping less during the day and becoming more and more alert.  I have been around a lot of babies but I never realized just how exciting it is to watch your own child starting to hit milestones.  Babies learn so much during their first year of life and I am so excited to continue to watch this little guy advance!

Over the last month G was able to meet my family.  It was so much fun to introduce him to my siblings and my dad (my mom was here too but she had met him right after he was born)!  I love showing my little guy off and watching everyone melt over this little man was awesome.  G was a very good sport about being dragged around on the family vacation.  We went to the zoo, Disneyland, California Adventure, an Angels game and he stayed in his first hotel.  G did what he does best and slept through the majority of these trips.  He literally fell asleep in the parking lot before the Angel's game and didn't wake up until we got back to the hotel.  So far he has adapted really well to the new situations we have put him in but that will be tested in the coming weeks when we go on a road trip to Arizona and take our first flights together to visit family.  I'm praying he will sleep through the flights as well!

P family meeting Baby G

P Family at the Zoo

First family trip to the zoo

G at Disneyland

G's first MLB game with Grandpa :)

G developed quite a lot over the last month.  He started smiling intentionally, making eye contact (though mostly with me since mommy is his favorite!), rolling from front to back and grasping toys.  The first time that he rolled over he was 2 days shy of 5 weeks and I thought it was a fluke but then he repeated the roll four more times that day and continued to do it every day after that.  He is especially fond of rolling over if I am trying to get him to do tummy time and he doesn't want to do it.  The first time that he smiled at me while making eye contact was a total melt my heart moment for me.  I am so grateful to see G hitting milestones.  Working with special needs children for the last few years has really made me really appreciate every single typical thing that my baby does.

Sweet Smiles

J and G continue to have a very cute relationship that is fun to watch.  I recently ran across this quote and it summed things up perfectly for me, "I never knew how much I loved your daddy until I saw how much he loves you."  I send J a ridiculous amount of pictures of our little man while he is at work.  I am so grateful to J for so many things but working hard so that I can stay home with our little guy is definitely at the top of the list.

At 2 months old G:
- weighs 10 lbs 11 ozs.  He is getting so big!
- is 23 inches long.  He is still fairly skinny but showing signs of chunking up!
- wears size 0-3.  He is a bit skinny for a lot of his clothes but he is plenty long for them.
- is sleeping for 4-5 hours at a time at night.  I usually only have to get up once which I am truly grateful for!  This kiddo likes his sleep :)
- focuses on us and smiles fairly frequently.. He has a ton of different facial expresions now. 
- grasps toys that are put in his hands- he nearly knocked himself out with a rattle the other day because he got so excited while holding it
- rolls from front to back and shows pretty good head control
- enjoys music and likes to make noises to go along with it
- loves his baths which is definitely a big change from last month
- likes rattles, his play mat, his bouncer and a few colorful toys
- eats like a champ.  We just started introducing the occasional bottle and he takes them just fine.
- has been to daycare at the gym twice and he handled it the way he deals with most things- sleeping the whole time.  I really appreciate this as I have a few more pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  My goal is to have them gone by 3 months.

Here are a few pictures of some of G's many funny faces:

I thank God every day for giving us this sweet little blessing!  We are praying that he will continue to grow and develop on a typical timeline.  We love this little man!

1 Month Old

I can't believe it but it has already been a month since our sweet little Grayson entered the world!  I knew that everything would change as soon as he got here and that was definitely correct.  We feel so incredibly blessed to have this awesome little guy in our lives!   It is amazing how much motherhood has already changed my life and how much that sweet little boy means to me.  One minute I can be frustrated because the little man is refusing to sleep in the middle of the night and the next minute he smiles up at me and I wouldn't trade that moment for the world, no matter how tired I am.

So peaceful :)

I can't resist this little smiley guy!

 So far Grayson has been a really great baby!  He is a very content little guy most of the time.  G has done a great job with eating and he is usually a good sleeper, particularly if he is laying on his daddy's chest :)  The first few weeks he slept the majority of the time, pretty much just waking up to eat and be changed but the last two weeks he has started spending more time awake every day.  It is a lot of fun to watch him as he is starting to explore the world around him.  He has so many funny little faces and noises that he makes and I find myself just staring at him in awe.  He likes to listen to music and will turn his head toward my phone when I have Pandora on.  G is very strong and does a really good job of lifting his head up.  He usually doesn't mind tummy time on his play mat and now he seems to enjoy looking at some of the toys attached to it.

Tummy Time

One of my favorite things since we got G home has been watching the bond between J and G.  I love watching how amazing J is with our baby and it has made me love and appreciate him more than ever.  J has never really been a newborn person because he thought they were boring and too fragile but the day after I had G he turned to me and told me that now that it was our son, he realized how wrong he had been about newborns being boring.

Haha!  I love these two :)

"Here Daddy, have my binky"

Too sweet!

Babies are so scrunchy!

Daddy just admiring his sweet baby boy

 
 They like to take naps together with G laying on J's chest and we like to go on family walks to the park.  J was able to stay home with us for the first two weeks of G's life and during that time I am pretty sure he changed more diapers than I did! He is a very hands on dad and has told me that he doesn't want to be the kind of dad that can't take care of his own baby if I need to go somewhere.  I love his attitude and his love for our sweet baby boy.  I love each of them so much individually but together they truly melt my heart :)  I am in love with our family of three!

G on his due date- not a fan of pictures

Love my family

He can sleep in any position

Love him!

At one month old G:
- weighs approximately 9 lbs.  He hasn't been officially weighed since 2 weeks when he was 7 lbs 12 ozs but when I weigh myself and then do it again with him in my arms the number goes up by 9.  I think we are going to end up with quite a chunk soon!
- is approximately 23 inches long- he is still pretty skinny but he has gotten SO long since we brought him home
- still wears newborn size clothes but he is starting to grow out of them, especially pants and sleepers
- usually sleeps for about 3 hours at a time at night, sometimes he goes longer and occasionally he is up every 2 hours
- focuses on faces and is starting to look at toys more though he doesn't seem to understand that his hands are connected to his body so he doesn't play with anything
- really likes music and will turn his head toward its source.  J plays him lots of country and I am getting in girly music, classical music and musicals such as Les Miserables
- does not like diaper changes or baths at all.  He cries through both of them.
- likes tummy time and can lift his head.  He also really likes to "superman" while he is on his tummy which I think is adorable
- sleeps through walks, car rides, stores and trips to the beach.  He is a champion sleeper who isn't disturbed by external noises
- likes the bouncer, his swing and his play mat

Here are a bunch of Baby G's adorable expressions:

We could not be more thrilled with parenthood and all that our sweet little boy has brought to our lives!  We are really looking forward to what the next month will bring! Thoughts and prayers are appreciated for his continued health and normal development.

Grayson James- Sweet Baby M's Birth Story

On June 20th, 2013 we were blessed to welcome Sweet Baby M!  This is the story of his birth.
On Tuesday June 18th, at about 11:30 pm I started feeling what I thought were contractions.  Since I was a few days shy of 38 weeks I figured I was just having some intense Braxton Hicks contractions.  Everyone had been telling me that since it was my first pregnancy I was likely to go overdue rather than having him early so I wasn't totally prepared to be in labor.  I was just hanging out downstairs while J was sleeping and I noticed that the contractions were starting to get stronger.  I started timing them and they rapidly got closer together.  The hospital told me to come in when they reached 2-3 minutes apart for 45 minutes.  At 4 am the pain was getting pretty intense and my contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart so I decided to wake J up and tell him it was time to go to the hospital.  His response was "Are you serious?" He later said that he immediately started going through a list of things that we hadn't done such as getting the car seat installed (I had an appointment scheduled for the next day).  Once he realized that I was indeed in labor, he got up and got ready to go.  We drove to the hospital where they checked me out and they told me that even though my contractions were really close together, I was only dilated to a 2 and 90% effaced and they wouldn't check me in until I was a dilated to a 5.  I was in a lot of pain at that point so I wasn't very happy to be turned away. We ended up driving down to where J works and having a friend help him install our carseat to pass a little time.  We drove back to the hospital two hours later as they had recommended and were told that I hadn't progressed but I was having back labor which is where the babies position causes the mother to have intense pain in her lower back during contractions.  I was sad and felt silly having been turned away for a second time so I asked J to take me home and I told him to go to work so that he wouldn't be sitting around staring at me while I was having contractions. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 2 pm so I decided to just push through the contractions until then because I did NOT want to be turned away for a third time.
J came home around 1 and I promptly threw up so we called the hospital and they said I should go ahead and come in again.  When we got there, all of the exam rooms were occupied so we ended up going up to my scheduled doctor's appointment at 2 where my doctor told me I was dilated to between a 4-5.  She called down to labor and delivery and told them I was to be admitted.  I felt a huge sense of relief because I was finally progressing and I was going to be able to get an epidural. 
When we arrived at Labor and Delivery, they got me checked in and took me back to a delivery room where they started blood work and an iv.  I was finally able to get my epidural at about 5:30 and I have to say that it was the greatest relief ever!  I give props to anyone who decides to go without an epidural but I had no interest whatsoever in continuing to be in pain.  Since my labor ended up being 30 hours long, I don't regret that decision at all!  The epidural was pefect and it allowed me to still move my own legs but not feel anything from the contractions.  I was encouraged to try to get some sleep, particularly since I hadn't slept at all the night before.  I was able to get a few hours of sleep while I very slowly continued to dilate.  At about 4:30 am on Thursday morning I finally dilated all the way to a 10 and was told that I would be pushing soon. At 5:15 I finally started pushing and after half an hour our sweet little guy came into the world at 5:44 am.  He weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 inches long.  Unfortunately his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice which they didn't realize until he was almost out so he ended up getting whisked away from me.  I saw the cord around his neck and I was really stressed about what was going on.  I heard a very small cry but nothing else and more people rushed in to the room.  They decided to take Grayson to the special care nursery.  The midwife who was involved his delivery told me that they were just being overly cautious so I asked to hold him at least for a minute before they took him away.  I was able to have about 1 minute with him before they rushed him out.

First time meeting Grayson

Grayson was breathing in a manner called grunting so they decided to do a chest x-ray to see what was going on.  He was getting plenty of oxygen, but his breathing sounded fairly pitiful.  They had started an IV and were monitoring all of his vitals which were all stable but the breathing was still a concern.  They also put a nasal canula (for oxygen) in his nose but they had him on room air and he was maintaining an SPO2 of 99-100%.

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My blood pressure went crazy after the delivery (like 180/130) so they wouldn't let me leave the delivery room to go and see my baby.  It was really hard not to be able to go and see the Little Man but finally after about 2 hours I was able to go to the nursery and hold his tiny hands. 

About 2 Hours Old

The chest x-ray ended up showing signs of "infiltrates" which the doctors told us could be pneumonia or it could just be amniotic fluid so they decided to keep him in the special care nursery overnight.  We were able to spend most of the day with Grayson down in the nursery and by 1 pm they decided he was doing well enough to come off of the oxygen.  The grunting had resolved itself.  I was able to feed him for the first time shortly after that. Everything you read about breastfeeding says that you really need to feed them within the first hour of life or they might not be willing to do it so I was a little stressed about that but our Little Man did just fine!  Fortunately they had two comfy recliners set up that J and I were able to sit in while we soaked up time with Baby G. 

The first night I had to get up every three hours and go down five floors to the special care nursery to feed the Little Man but the next morning he passed several tests so they let him come up to our room for the rest of our hospital stay.  We were hoping to be able to leave the next morning but unfortunately his second chest x-ray was still inconclusive so to be safe the doctors decided that Grayson needed to stay for an extra three days to receive antibiotics for in case it was pneumonia.  We were sad to have to stay at the hospital longer (especially me since the shower was freezing) but G seemed to be doing really well and we definitely wanted to do whatever we needed to to make sure that he came home healthy.  Unfortunately with newborns, by the time you see symptoms of a problem at home things can already be pretty bad so we settled in for an extended stay at the hospital.  The Naval Hospital was awesome and let me keep my room as a "boarder" even though I was discharged because I wasn't having any complications.  This was such a huge blessing for us because we didn't have to either sleep in chairs at the hospital or try to go back and forth between home and the hospital.  All of the staff was awesome and his nurses were especially great!  Finally, on Tuesday the 25th we were able to go home.  Here are a bunch of pictures that we took while in the hospital.

About 8 Hours Old

Our first family photo!

Sweet Baby Boy Gazing at His Mama :)

Love those cheeks!W

Silly faces!

Furrowed Baby Brow

These two make my heart melt :)

Love Baby Snuggles!

Ready to go home!

We are so grateful to everyone who prayed for, called, texted, and sent messages on facebook supporting us during this exciting time in our lives!  Baby Grayson is very lucky to have so many people rooting for him and we are so blessed to have a healthy happy baby boy!