Back to work :(

It's day 2 of being back at work and I can't believe how much I miss the little guy! I hate thinking that I'm missing him grow up but I'm just trying to soak up every minute with him in the morning and evening. Luckily he's not too far away and, since I work from home, I can go see him him for a short period during the day if I need to, which I did yesterday but am restraining myself today. We were so fortunate to find Mrs. Rhonda, a sweet lady with empty nest syndrome who just wants to keep 2 babies. She's just a few neighborhoods over and loves to hug and cuddle Blake and the other little girl Mackenna, do storytime, tummy time, and take them on walks. She's already figured out that he loves to eat and be held. She is fantastic and it's so much easier for me to work knowing he's in her care and not at the daycare we had originally planned on.

We also went on our first roadtrip to Marshall to visit my family and Dubach to visit Randy's family. He did pretty well but we're still trying to get him used to the carseat. I couldn't really blame him for crying at times because Randy's 4Runner is about as bumpy as a kiddie rollercoaster and even I was annoyed. Most of all though he really just wanted to be held. I sat in the back with him some of the time and now that he can make eye contact it breaks my heart to see him stare at me with tears streaming down his face wondering why I won't pick him up.

Little B will be 3 months old this week. Crazy, just crazy! Here are some things he's doing now:

• He's found his hands, although he's not crazy about putting them in his mouth all the time. Seems like he knows they could be used for something good but hasn't totally figured it out yet.
• He's smiling and cooing a lot now which is lots of fun. I find it especially funny when he gets mad and every consonant he can work up comes stuttering out of his little mouth. He'll really let me have it!
• He LOVES to kick! Laying in his crib with the music and mobile turned on and kicking in is one of his favorite things. The other day he laid on the couch with us and kicked and talked for a whole hour!
• The biggest news is that he's finally enjoying tummy time! Maybe enjoying is a strong word. Tolerating is probably more fitting but we're getting about 5 minutes out of him now. For now, he enjoys it more on the Boppy than on a mat on the floor but we're making progress.
• We also introduced him to the Bumbo seat this week. He seemed to really like having a different viewpoint than either on his back or on our shoulder. He looks like a little old man enjoying his recliner. :)
• He made it through his first church service without crying. He fell asleep (in my arms of course) and remained that way the whole time.
• He's going up to 7.5 hours at night between feedings. He has his last bottle and goes down by 9 and then makes it until 3:30-4:30. Granted this has only happened the past 2 nights but I'm optimistic that it's going to continue.

Here's some pics taken over the past few weeks.
http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/12Weeks?feat=directlink

Making progress...

Some big things happening at the Smith household right now:First and most important, Blake has started going 6 hours between feedings on some nights, from 10PM-4AM! He's waking up again at 7 to eat but this means that I'm now only getting up once in the middle of the night! Let's hope this trend continues!

Secondly, Blake has started napping in his crib! This is the first step in transitioning him out of our room and into the crib at night and so far it's going well. Now that I can recognize his sleepy cues and know about when naptime is, I can swaddle him, get him to sleep, and lay him down in his crib rather than napping in the bouncer or, worse, on me all the time!

And lastly, we've come out of hibernation! We've been hermits for the last 2 months but just this week Blake and I ventured out to Babies R Us (what better place to take a baby out for the first time?) and Randy, Blake, and I went out to dinner for the first time. Randy and I had a talk beforehand and agreed that we weren't going to get too excited about it as it might not go well and we might have to pack our food up and leave in the middle of dinner but that, no matter what, we weren't going to get discouraged and we would go out to dinner again even if this didn't go well. We chose a loud Mexican restaurant, were sat immediately, and had just decided to get the check when Blake decided to do some crying. To his credit, I felt his little hands and legs and I think he was just hot but we still went and head and left. Hey at least we got to eat and we considered the first night out to be a success!

Blake is 8 weeks old now! I can't believe how quickly time is passing! Here's a few recent pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/8Weeks?feat=directlink

Blake Smiles!

Blake smiled! And it was on purpose, not one of those sleep smiles! I was changing his diaper one morning and got right up in his face to tell him good morning. He stayed focused on me for longer than normal and more intensely and then showed me a big smile! He's always happiest in the morning, definitely not a trait he gets from me, but it's such a great way for me to start the day! He's also starting to coo more and likes to lay on his back and kick his legs and flail his arms around. If he had it his way though he'd spend every minute of his day with his head resting on our shoulder. He's such a good little snuggler! Every day he shows a little more of his personality....affectionate, strong-willed, and loves to eat! Here's a video of him smiling. I didn't grab the flip in time to catch the best ones but this still gives an idea of his happy face!

4 Weeks and Counting....

Well maybe I jinxed things by commenting in my last post that Baby Blake doesn't cry very much. Let's just say he's become more vocal, both when asleep and awake. Actually the pediatrician said that babies are typically fussier in the evenings between weeks 3-6ish so that explains some of it. He grunts and stretches a lot when both asleep and awake and can really belt it out when not being held. He loves to be held with his little chin resting on your shoulder so he can chew on it if he feels like it or lay his head down if he gets tired. Put him down though and he is not a happy camper. We want and love to hold him and give him the attention he needs but it's really hard to get anything done when you're always holding a baby. For some reason I didn't buy any type of sling or carrier before he was born. It just didn't seem like a necessity to me. But now it is! I'm now trying out multiple carriers and slings and hope one works out for us. Our other problem was that he hated bathtime. Turns out we didn't have enough water in the tub and the water we did have was too cold. We were so afraid of scalding him that the little guy was freezing! Now we have a thermometer and the last bath was much more successful:

People keep asking how Cooper is doing....he's handling things as well as can be expected. He usually gets moody when its colder and overcast or rainy like it has been though so it's hard to tell. He's not acting out, just pouting more than usual. I think he's come to the realization that this new little person is here to stay. He doesn't bother Baby Blake but he likes to check on him every now and then, walking up to wherever he is and sniffing around him and then he goes on his way. I can't wait until the weather is nicer and we can all go on walks.

Yesterday was our 1 month dr appointment! Baby Blake now weighs 8 lbs 5 oz! She said you really start seeing those longer stretches of sleep (4-5) hours at 10 pounds so the goal is to fatten him up!

Here's some more pictures, including Blake's first Superbowl - how fitting that the Saints went this year and won!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/4Weeks?feat=directlink

2 1/2 Weeks Old

Blake is already 2 1/2 weeks old! It's crazy to think that tomorrow is his actual due date and he's already been here for 2 1/2 weeks. I guess we're doing an okay job with him - no major incidents yet! Luckily we've had visits from myy mom and Randy's parents who helped take care of things around the house and also helped with Blake duty so I could fit in naps here and there. Bless them! I had always heard about a newborn's feeding schedule but to live it is completely different. He eats every 2-3 hours and it takes 45 minutes or so to feed him. So by the time he's changed and burped and we get him back to sleep at night, it's time to eat again! Who can tell me how long this lasts? Overall though, things are going pretty well so far and he's been a really good baby. I'm a little scared to put that on paper in case I jinx it but I have to give him credit. He doesn't cry that much and he likes to be held and cuddled. The only thing is that he falls asleep while eating which can be frustrating but if that's the worst of it for now then we'll take it. Other than that, there's not a whole lot to report. He pretty much sleeps and eats. We try to fit in tummy time as often as we can so he's pretty good at lifting his little head up. He's been more alert for longer periods of time and just sits and looks around. Here's one of his tummy time videos.

His umbilical cord finally fell off too so he'll be getting his first real bath soon. Like most babies, he hates to be naked so we'll see how that goes.

Blake Is Here!

Sorry I'm so late in updating the blog but we've been busy because...Blake is here! Blake Hayden Smith was born on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 3:03 PM He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. It was a crazy day! I'll try and keep the story short...Friday morning I felt dizzy and short of breath after getting in the shower so I sat down while still in the shower and blacked out for what was probably a few seconds. I called Randy and he rushed home to take me to the doctor. They hooked me up to a monitor just to make sure things were okay with the baby. We thought we'd just make sure the baby was okay and then go home but then the monitor showed I was having a contraction. I felt a tightening of my stomach but it didn't really hurt. If the monitor hadn't registered it as a contraction I would not have known that's what it was. The nurse thought that was odd so we waited to see if it happened again. 9 minutes later, it did. A few more minutes later it did again. At my 37 week appointment just 4 days before I was 0 cm dilated and 0% effaced. Now I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced - a very early stage of labor for someone having a normal delivery but they didn't want me to go into labor since I was scheduled for a c-section. So I was admitted to labor and delivery to get some fluids to try to stop the contractions and continue monitoring. Randy went home to get a few necessities but not a whole lot of things because I honestly thought we would go home. And at that point, we didn't have a hospital bag packed and the car seat wasn't installed in the car yet. Meanwhile, the contractions kept on coming. 2 hours later I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. The doctor said, "Looks like today is a good day to have a baby!" An hour or so later, Blake was born! We're having fun learning about everything he needs and getting to know his little personality.
Here's a link to a video with some pictures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySdwQP3TCt4

Also, here are some before and after nursery pictures...finally!
http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/Nursery?feat=directlink

We'll update soon with more pics!

37 Weeks!

As of Monday's 37 week appointment, little Blake had still not flipped yet. He seems to want to stay head up. At this point, he's pretty much run out of room and there's only a 5% chance that he will flip by d-day so we have scheduled a c-section for January 20. That's just 2 weeks away!

At first I was disappointed about the c-section but there's some benefits to it and now we've decided that we're happy with whatever way he comes into the world as long as he's strong and healthy when he gets here. Apparently I'm definitely not one of those people that can tell the baby's position. When he gets the hiccups, I feel them really low so I thought oh, he must be head down, but the nurse said no, you'd really feel the hiccups from wherever his little booty is. Then Randy and I thought he was moving to a sideways position because there were 2 big bulges on both sides of my stomach, so we naturally thought one is the heiny and one is the head. It happened at Monday's appointment and we said, "See he's sideways!" The nurse said "No, you're havings a Braxton Hicks contraction." Just further proof that Randy and I have no idea what's going on in there.

We also found out that he's weighing in at just over 7 lbs now. They gain about 1/2 pound a week at this point so the doctor thinks he'll be about an 8 pounder. Yikes! And he has a rather large head apparently! This c-section may be somewhat of a blessing! I am definitely getting bigger by the day and have the backache to prove it. Sleeping is becoming more and more difficult as it's hard to get and stay comfortable and bathroom trips are getting more frequent. I know I shouldn't complain about sleep at this point though. In 2 weeks I'll wish I was getting the sleep I am now.

Here is the last sonogram of little Blake, his little face. The next time we see him will be in person! (His whole face is to the left of the word FACE. His right eye is the dark round spot and those are his big round cheeks and pouty lips below that area.)




I plan to post more frequently over the next couple of weeks and add some nursery pics but until then, here are some other recent pics:
37 weeks!


This is cooking our Christmas Eve dinner of crawfish etouffee. It was our first time not to travel over the Christmas holidays and, though we missed being with family, it was kind of nice to just stay put.

Randy thought it would be funny to balance the salt shaker on my belly at Chuy's.

This is from our Christmas day dinner with my parents. That's sparkling apple cider in the wine glass. :)