Updates

It's been a while! Apparently life gets crazy when you have a baby and have to go back to work full-time! I've been back at work for 2 months now and it's not getting any easier. My mother-in-law is watching Brady at our house. People say we have it made, but I still have to force myself to leave the house every morning. He changes so much, so quickly, and I don't want to miss any of it. Hopefully (in the near future) I will be able to work part-time. I used to put everything I had into work and now I do what I have to do to get through the day all while counting down the minutes to get home. Priorities change.

My plan going forward is to use this blog as a way to keep track of how Brady is growing and changing. I would really like to do monthly updates, so we'll see if I can keep that up.

Brady is now 4 and a half months old! Time flies. He's a big boy, measuring in the 75th percentile for weight (16 lbs.) and head circumference and the 98th percentile for height (26 3/4 inches). He better enjoy being tall now, because it's not going to last. He's grabbing for everything (especially my hair) and finally rolled from front to back last week. He's started "talking" to us and smiling like crazy. He's definitely a morning person, unlike me. Maybe because he sleeps 10-11 hours at night with just one short feeding after 8 or 9 hours. He is such a good baby, only crying when he's hungry. We joke that we're not having any more kids because there's no way they'll be as good as him. Shockingly, he has a tooth poking through already and it's not one of the normal first teeth that a baby gets. He loves baths, actually just the splashing water part, listening to music and standing up, with help of course. He currently has his first cold, but hasn't had a fever yet, so we're hoping it goes away quickly. We love him so much. We're enjoying every single moment with him. Fortunately and unfortunately, we know how very precious those moments are.

Here's a couple of his 3 months pictures. Kristin Geerts did such a great job with him. She was very patient with our stubborn boy. We have more pictures scheduled for 6 months. It's hard to believe he'll be sitting up for those.

  

A Little Vent

I go back to work on Monday. This makes me very sad. I haven't posted in a while because I've been trying to enjoy every single minute these last couple of weeks. My mother-in-law will be coming to our house to watch Brady. She already watches our nephew who is 22 months. This should be comforting for me, but it's not. I can't imagine going back full-time and only seeing B first thing in the morning and not again until 4:30 when I get home.

The in-laws came over tonight and we had mother-in-law give B a bottle. It didn't go so well. He was very fussy and cried a lot. She has given him bottles multiple times before just fine. He was having a fussy night, but of course they made me feel like he wasn't taking the bottle tonight because I breastfeed him and don't give him bottles all the time. I was finally able to soothe him and MIL is now worried that B doesn't like her, etc.

I broke down after they left. I'm sorry that I love my child and give him all of my love and affection while I'm home with him. Of course he knows me and of course I can soothe him since I'm the only one who has done that for him so far. There is nothing wrong with that, and no one should make me feel that way. I'm sorry that my first baby died and I had 1 day to hold her and love on her. Of course I am going to love Brady with everything I have. I do not deserve to have people make me feel like my way of parenting is not right. 

Sorry for the vent, but I had to get it out. This next week is going to be so hard for me.

Here's a recent picture of Brady. He is now 13 1/2 lbs and 23 1/2 inches tall. That puts him in the 90th percentile!

A Nice Visit

I am very close to my grandparents. We lived only a few blocks from them growing up and it was so much fun. They retired and moved to Arizona where my aunt and cousins live. We try to go visit them as much as we can. They are getting older and it's getting harder for them to travel, but they really wanted to meet Brady, so they decided to drive to Iowa with my aunt and uncle to see us for a day and then drive on to see my dad. We had a great time spending the day with them.

My grandma had a surgery last spring and wasn't able to come for Claire's funeral, so we visited her at the cemetery. It was so emotional watching my grandma put a bouquet of flowers on Claire's headstone. I wish she could have seen her in person.

This picture is even more emotional for me. Brady and his big sister.

Since I manage to make myself cry almost every time I blog, here is a happier picture. He is growing so fast. I'm pretty sure he weighs almost 12 pounds already! Brad calls him tank now.  

2 Weeks

I can't believe Brady is 2 weeks old today! I also can't believe I've been off work for 2 weeks already and have to go back in 8. It's going to be SO hard leaving him. I need to keep pushing working part-time with Brad. I think I'll have a better chance with that once all of our major house projects are done, so maybe I should be pushing him to get those done ASAP!

Like I've said before, I don't like posting a million pictures on Facebook, so I guess I'll be posting them here. The amount of pictures we've taken of him already are ridiculous!

I call this his Al Bundy look.

 Finally caught him smiling

Sleeping and holding mommy's hand

Newborn Must-Haves

When I was pregnant with B, I was constantly Googling what we will need for a newborn, so I thought I would share what our must-haves are so far.

Our absolute favorite gift was the Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleeper. This is something we did not register for, but luckily I have 2 good friends who bought it for us anyway! I don't know what we would do without this. Brady loves it because of the incline. We're not sure what else we would be doing with him while he sleeps, while we eat, etc.


I also think the Boppy pillow or some sort of nursing pillow is a must. I didn't take the Boppy to the hospital with us and wish I would have. It's such a pain stacking regular pillows all around you so baby is in the right position to nurse.  The u-shape of the pillow is perfect.

Cloth diapers for burp cloths. We bought a 12-pack of Gerber pre-fold cloth diapers from Target and they have worked out great.

If you plan to breastfeed, I also recommend lots of nursing tanks or at least shelf-bra camis. I have lived in these since B was born. They just make everything so much easier. I'm also terrified of getting mastitis, so I'm still too scared to wear a bra. B and I will be making a shopping trip some time this week to get mommy some nursing bras with no wires.

The last thing is a diaper caddy. This is great for us because Brady's room (where his changing pad is) is upstairs and we spend most of our time downstairs. The caddy holds diapers, desitin, wipes, really anything you need. It also came with a portable changing pad that is super easy to clean up.

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things, but I hope this is helpful to someone.

A Night of Firsts

Last night Brady had a few firsts. We took our first car ride (besides the ride home from the hospital) and first store trip to Walgreens and then got ice cream. It had been SO long since I had ice cream, and it was amazing! He was very good and enjoyed just staring out the window. I of course sat in the back seat with him because I'm paranoid of everything. I'll eventually get over that (at least hopefully). We also took a short walk with the stroller when we got home. Everyone enjoyed the walk especially our dog, who has been feeling a little attention-deprived since we've come home.

Happy Birthday Claire and Brady

I had every intention of posting this on June 8th, Claire's birthday, but it turned out Claire had other plans for us that day. Her little brother, Brady Marshall, was born on June 8th, exactly one year from Claire's birthday. I have no explanation for this, other than there is some higher power and this was how it was supposed to be. Claire wanted to share her birthday with her little brother to make sure it was always a happy day for us. It's beyond bittersweet.

I had a routine weekly dr, visit Friday morning and was expecting to be told I was still stuck at 4 cm dilated and hadn't made any progress despite the fact that I had had contractions off and on the night before. I expected to stop at the cemetery on my way back to work and then work the remainder of the day, hoping that Brady would be born over the weekend. That's not what happened. I requested to be checked because of the contractions the night before and was told that I was 5-6 cm dilated and they wanted to hook me up for a NST to see if I was having regular contractions and just not feeling them. Turns out I was contracting, just not regularly. They sent me home since I wasn't in pain, but said they were sure I would have this baby today of all days. I was secretly hoping that Brady would hold off until 12:01 AM, but that didn't happen either.

It was around 4PM that I finally started feeling regular contractions about every 3-5 minutes lasting for a minute or more. I still wasn't in much pain, but figured I better call the on-call Midwife and let her know what was going on. She told us to eat dinner and then head in to be checked for progress. We got there around 6PM and I was 7cm and 90% effaced. They admitted me and broke my water shortly after being admitted. I was able to get a room with a tub, and that was absolutely wonderful. I recommend laboring in a tub to everyone! The contractions got intense as soon as my water was broke. I labored until about 8PM when I started feeling the urge to push. I was checked again and was 10cm and ready to go. Unfortunately, the MW was delivering another baby right at that time so they brought in the on-call OB. She was wonderful. I pushed for not even a half hour and Brady Marshall was born at 8:26PM! His cry was the most wonderful sound I have ever heard.

We are all doing great! I was able to go completely med-free and I truly believe that my recovery has been so easy because of that. I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat. I also believe that Claire has been watching over us this entire pregnancy, and that is part of the reason everything went as it did. Brady is so amazing and I've never loved anyone so much. He is (so far) a very easy baby and is breastfeeding pretty darn well.

So Happy Belated Birthday Claire Bear! We love you and miss you so much! Your little brother will know all about you, although we know that he already knows you. 

And here's Brady! He weighed 8 lbs. exactly and is 20 inches tall.