Where's my baby?

These days, I'm starting to wonder if I even have a child?! If it weren't for onsite daycare, I'd never get to see Brody.

Last night I didn't get home from work until 7:15. I was so sad that I missed the evening with him. When I got home he was still in his carseat, sound asleep.

Brody still isn't napping well at daycare. So he's started a pattern of falling asleep on the car ride home. He'll then sleep until 7pm when we wake him up for bath/bottle/bed. After about 45 minutes of time with him, he's down for the night again.

While this means that I really don't miss anything when I work late and yes, we get more time to get stuff done around the house. But I really miss my baby!

My morning drop offs now include more playtime (and thus getting up to my desk later) and my daycare lunch break is getting longer as well. I definitely can't wait for the weekend when I can have him all day!

Wordless Wednesday

Our little blessing

I frequently read online message boards and blogs related to pregnancy and parenting. I love reading what about other parents experience both good and bad. So of course, I also come across sad stories that break my heart. This past week, I came across the most emotional blog to date. If you read her blog and twitter updates, I recommend having a tissue on hand. Long story short, she lost her son about 12 hours after he was born this weekend after months of knowing he wouldn't make it. Jason and I discussed her story several times over the weekend and hugged Brody constantly.

We really just sat back and realized how truly blessed we are. We were able to conceive a child and carry him to term (and beyond). He's healthy and fantastic. We are truly lucky to have him. There are so many families out there who have had struggles we haven't had to endure. I am truly in awe of the strength of those women.

For everything in my life, I am truly grateful.

Working mom

I thought I had a busy life -- until we had Brody. I know it's only the beginning (I'm sure the days of sports practices and after school activities will be even worse!)

Here is what my days look like. This is on a good day, which means Jason is actually home at night (he coaches/bowls some nights during the week) and I only work until 5:30. When I work late, it just means less playtime with Brody.

Mornings
5:15 wake up/shower/get ready
5:30 Jason wakes up/showers/gets ready
5:45 whoever gets downstairs first takes dogs outside, feeds them and warms Brody's bottle
6:00 Jason wakes Brody & feeds him, while I pick out his outfit and put together my lunch
6:20 Jason leaves for work, if Brody hasn't been dressed, I dress him
6:30 Pack up everything for daycare/work & take the dogs outside again
6:45-7:30 leave house, drop off / playtime at daycare.

Days
7:30-5:30 work (on a good day)

Nights
5:45-7:30 Playtime (if Brody isn't napping) and dinner
7:30-8:30 Bedtime routine (bath, bottle, rocking)
8:30-9:00 Make bottles for the next day
9:00 E-mail, blog, watch TV, spend time with Jason, or just fall asleep early!

Brody is 3 months

My baby is no longer a newborn, the first three months have come and gone. We think Brody weighs around 13.5 lbs and he's definitely growing lengthwise. He's in 1-2 diapers but quickly moving to size 2. He's wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes and already outgrowing some of his 3-6 month sleepers.

This month Brody has become more and more active. He's even starting to enjoy tummy time thanks to his teachers at daycare. He's getting so close to rolling over, but hasn't yet. He kicks his legs a ton like he's getting ready to crawl, though that won't come for awhile. When he's kicking and pushing himself up he can rock on his side a little, but just can't quite get over his shoulder. Although his daycare teacher says he rolled over, no one has seen it since.

He's starting to play with toys more and will hold onto things for a while. He is still so observant and will now turn his head around as much as possible to watch people. He's even started taking interest in the TV, which means we are lot more careful about which direction he's facing! His daddy is trying to get him to love watching baseball, but I'm not a big fan of my three month old staring off at the TV. He continues to entertain us with his facial expressions and crazy hair. Overall he's very happy and only cries when he's overtired or hungry. Unfortunately, he's not napping very well at daycare, so being overtired comes with the territory. Luckily, he's still sleeping through the night! Crying or not, he's still my little man and makes me smile constantly.

1st week at daycare

The time has come for me to return to work. So along with Brody's 12 week birthday came his first day at daycare. He started on a Wednesday in order to ease myself back to work and him into his new surroundings. So his first week was only 3 days long.

So far? It's been great! We went back and forth between two day cares but once we found out that my company daycare had an opening in April, we took it. I couldn't be happier with our decision. I am very lucky to have daycare located on site which is about a 2 minute walk from my desk. Originally I didn't think I'd take advantage of the open-door visiting policy that often. So far, I've found myself making time for at least a 10 minute mid-day trip to see Brody. I also spend about 15-30 minutes playing with Brody in the morning before I head up to my desk.

There are two primary teachers in Brody's room with 8 babies under the age of 1. There are several support teachers who help out during their lunch breaks and before/after his teachers get in for the day. They have both been very good with Brody and helpful to us as parents. They are constantly telling us how strong he is for his age and one teacher commented that she can foresee him starting to walk early (we've had the same thoughts since he seems so active, but only time will tell). The teachers send e-mail updates along with pictures they've taken of Brody during the day. All of his pictures included in here have been taken at daycare. As you can see, he seems very happy.

Another positive aspect is that in only 3 days we can see that Brody is already loving his new friends. When I am there I have noticed that he smiles at the other kids a lot and is constantly observing them. When I have held him in a "standing" position, he starts to move his legs like he wants to run over to the other kids. The teachers also sent us a picture of Brody holding hands with another boy in the class! (The picture is so adorable, but for the privacy of the other child, I am not including it in here). I believe that all this interaction with kids that are slightly older than him will help him learn faster.

The only downfall (and my biggest fear) is that he supposedly rolled over for the first time at daycare. Now, I do say "supposedly" because I don't think anyone actually saw him roll over. His teacher set him down on his tummy for tummy-time, turned around and when she looked back at him, he was on his back! No one has seen a repeat performance since. He's a little young to actually roll over, so I think that she may have set him down in a way that made it easy for him to flip.

Overall we're having a positive experience with him in daycare and I think he is handling the new routine very well. I, of course, am having to adjust a lot as well as a new working mother...but I'll post more about that later.

Brody is 12 weeks old

Brody's last week home with his mommy is officially over. It was great to be home with him for 12 weeks even thought it flew by. The next time we will probably get this much time together will be when his little brother or sister arrives (MANY years from now!)

Brody is still growing like crazy and I think this week he's started to enter into the 3 month growth spurt. All of a sudden his 5oz bottles aren't enough for him. This is either due to a growth spurt or he's still recovering from his pedialyte diet. Last week due to more digestion issues, we had to reduce the formula he was receiving and supplement with pedialyte. We were giving his stomach a rest until his stools went back to normal. Of course he was hungry after several days of this. Now he's back to normal and receiving full bottles. But I think he'll be moving up the amount of ounces he'll be eating each day.

This past week Brody has started grabbing things more, including my necklaces, sweatshirt strings and toys. He just discovered the mobile in his swing and started reaching for it. He also has a new toy called a Bumbo that helps him work on his muscle strength. His head control is good so he's able to sit in it pretty good. However, he'll be using it for only short periods of time until he can hold up his head just a little better.

Over the last week Brody's had a few adventures. Last Friday we went to dinner with our friends Tina and Mark and their little girl Aubrie. Aubrie is 3 months older than Brody so it's great to see the differences that they go through in such a short time period. Aubrie is sitting up great and a lot more active than Brody. She is playing with toys and reaches for items with ease. Brody is just now figuring out what toys are. We took some adorable pictures of the two of them together.
This week we also took a trip up to Madison to see our nephew play in a basketball tournament. The noise during the game didn't seem to upset Brody at all. I thought it might be a little much since he was startled during his first Brewers game but he was great. He didn't flinch until the last second of the game when J.J's team won by a game winning shot! Of course the crowd was cheering like crazy! He still didn't cry, just tensed up a bit. Then we took advantage of the drive to Madison and Brody & I spent the rest of the day with my friend Katie and her adorable German Shephard Mika. Brody and Mika bonded over shared pacifiers and cute kisses.

He's getting so big!

He's growing up so fast! He is already trying to hold onto his own bottle (unsuccessfully).
He's cuddling with something other than his parents, even if it is a burp cloth.

And he can scoot himself out of his bouncy seat if he's not strapped in. Good mommy lesson! Don't worry, I was right there with him and he never made it out of the chair.

Go Brewers!

Anyone who knows Jason knows how much he loves baseball and the Milwaukee Brewers. He's been a fan through all the team's ups and downs. Then it should come as no surprise that Jay wanted to take Brody to the opening day game. He wanted to start a tradition of taking his son to the season opener every year, so why not start this year?

Due to the team's success over the last few seasons, it has become increasingly difficult to get tickets. Since we didn't have season tickets this year we had to put our name in to be picked to even attempt to buy opening day tickets. Needless to say, it wasn't very surprising when we were only able to get standing room only "seats."

Obviously we had to prepare for the game a little differently than if we were sitting down. We have a baby carrier that we could "wear" Brody in. Also, we planned to get into the stadium early with the hopes of getting a table. A couple days before the game we decided we would tailgate before the game since the weather was going to be warm.

We went to the game with our friends Todd & Natalie. They are both great with Brody and understanding about taking a baby to a Brewers game, so it was nice to have them along!

We did get into the game early but weren't able to get a table. Brody didn't mind and he quickly fell asleep in Jason's arms.

Then he woke up hungry and I bet Jason didn't imagine that one day he'd be feeding a baby at a Brewers game instead of watching the team warm up.

Brody handled the game very well. When everyone cheered he did get startled a little, but then got used to the noise. Then all of a sudden we noticed that the circulation in his legs was off and they turned purple. It freaked me out of course, so I tried adjusting the way I was holding him. They went back to normal. Then a couple innings later it happened again. We figured he'd had enough after being held while standing for a few hours. It was the fifth inning and we decided to head home.

We got home in time to see the 9th inning and unfortunately the Brewers lost.

All in all, I think it went well and we'd definitely take him to a game again. I wouldn't take him to a game where we didn't have actual seats. I think standing that long was too much for him and if he could sit on our laps he would've been more comfortable. And with any luck, he'll grow up to be as big of a baseball fan as his daddy!

Brody's 1st Easter

Last Sunday we celebrated Brody's first Easter! While Easter isn't very exciting for a 2 1/2 month old, it was nice to celebrate his first big holiday. We didn't put together a basket for him or color any eggs, since he is still too little to enjoy either.

Ironically, Easter is the first holiday Jason and I celebrated as a couple when we started dating 10 years ago. So each year we give each other an Easter basket. This year, we just made a family one and took pictures of Brody with our basket. Don't worry, he will not be consuming any of that candy!

After Brody's little photo shoot, we took him to church before joining up with our families. We spent lunch with my Dad's side of the family. There was an egg-hunt for the little kids which was great since it was beautiful outside.

Then in the mid-afternoon we went to Jason's parent's house for Easter dinner. We had a relaxing evening with the family. Even though Brody will not remember his first Easter, I know everyone enjoyed spending it with him.

Brody is 11 weeks

11 weeks have come and gone. Brody and I only have one more week together before I head back to work. That means only one more weekly update and then I'll be moving to monthly updates.

Brody had a big week with his first Easter and first Brewers game. I'm a bit behind on blogging about those events, but check back in a day or two for the full story. This week, he also spent the evening away from us for the second time while we went to a hockey game with our friends. It was our first night out with friends without bringing Brody. It wasn't a romantic night out (we didn't even sit in the same section at the game) but it was a lot of fun spending time with our friends.

Brody is still sleeping through the night but his naps seem to be shorter during the day. Instead of a 4 hour nap plus a couple smaller naps, he seems to be settling into a more normal pattern of several 2 hour naps. He's really only awake for 2 hour spans before getting overtired and cranky.

When he's awake he loves playtime. He's not much into toys yet and the only one he loves as much as starting at us is mirrors. There's nothing like making faces at yourself in the mirror!

He also loves bathtime, which we do every night. His tub is pink (the store was out of blue ones!) but he doesn't seem to mind!

He still hates tummy-time, but we contine to work on it each day.

And he's definitely discovered his hands, often sucking on them and trying to stick them as far into his mouth as possible.

Brody and his puppies

Before we became Brody's parents, we were already parents of two adorable chocolate labs:

Cody and Ben

Cody is 5 years old and Ben is 6. We've had them for almost 3 years after my Dad raised them for the first few years. He did a great job training them, so we've had it easy for the most part. They instantly became part of our family and we weren't sure how that was going to change with Brody on the way. So far it has been great.

Ben is naturally a protector. He follows me around the house and "stands guard." He's a pretty calm natured dog and would rather lay out in the grass than play catch. He's already begun protecting Brody and will lay next to him while he's sleeping.

Cody is playful and full of energy. He follows Jason around the house and begs him to play catch. He's taken a very different approach to Brody than Ben has. Cody now spends a lot of time upstairs away from us and the baby. He has his "safe zone" in a bedroom that we have set aside as the dogs room. He lays on his dog bed most of the day. It may be jealousy but he doesn't take it out on the baby. He just seems to have no real interest in Brody and is even a little scared of him. When we're holding Brody or if he's in a bouncer or car seat, Cody will approach him and smell him. When we put Brody at his level on the floor, he backs away like he's scared of him. It will be very interesting when he starts crawling.

This picture is great because Cody is on the right and sort of not sure what to do with him. Ben is on the left and just watching him.

Since Ben is a much calmer dog, I think he will handle the toddler years much easier than Cody. Jason has already put Brody on Ben's back and Ben just laid there. I think both dogs will be great when Brody starts crawling and walking, it will probably just take Cody a little more time. Brody handles the dogs very well. Ben constantly licks Brody and he never even flinches. He sleeps through dog barks and even if they wake him up, he's rarely scared by the barking. We've also exposed him to friend's dogs as well and he's not phased at all. He got along great with our friend's 4 lb Chihuahua and another friend's German Shepherd. Not that he has much of a choice, but I think he'll definitely grow to be a dog-lover, just as I am.