Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Daddy and Brock! Today Daddy is 29 years young and Brock is 3 weeks old...my how time flies. The days blur together as we operate in 2-3 hour time increments these days. Those time blocks allow for a maximum of 1 hour sleep for Mommy and Daddy at one time. Last night Brock let me sleep for 3 straight hours. This is a HUGE accomplishment! Several people have asked if Brock looks like Mommy or Daddy....I will let you draw your own conclusion:

Daddy


Brock


Mommy

Here are some pictures from the last week. Today Gigi and I took Brock to look at all of the pretty flowers at the Dallas Arboretum. It was a beautiful day!

Forever Young

Our photographer put together a slideshow of photos from Brock's newborn photo session. Click on the link to view...

Brock Newborn Photo Slideshow

Forever Young
Stoney Larue

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

One More First...

Well, I have to share one more "first"....First Bath! Now there is a story behind this one. Buck woke me up this morning (he sometimes takes the early morning shift to give me some sleep) saying, "he pooped all over me!" I silently giggled to myself when I realized Buck had been a victim of projectile poop. Brock lost his umbilical cord yesterday; therefore, it was great timing for his first bath. He LOVED it! I was shocked because I was prepared for a battle. He screamed bloody murder each time we gave him a sponge bath.

A Week of Firsts

We had a busy weekend! Buck's mom and sister's family were in town to visit and see baby Brock. We spent most of Friday and Saturday at Ma's house in Keller (she is Buck's grandma and Brock's great grandma!) visiting with several relatives. Our niece and nephews love their new cousin!

I mentioned in the title that it has been a week of firsts....

Each day Brock and I can't wait for Gigi to come home for lunch so that we can go on a walk to the park and back. Last Wednesday was Brock's first stroller ride to the park. The weather during the week has been so nice and it's great to get out of the house!




Saturday Buck and I were able to spend the day with his mom, sister and nephews, while Ma watched Brock. Brock had his first babysitter! Buck and I both admitted we missed the little stinker....


And...it snowed (yes again!!) Saturday evening. So, Brock witnessed his first snowfall....of course, he didn't really see it because we had to keep him warm and out of the chill as much as possible.

Newborn Photos

Monday morning we had newborn photos taken. Brock did so well!! He only peed on Daddy once and then all over one of the photographer's blankets, which Daddy then accidentally sat in. Hehe! Here are some of the images:

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Thank you for the bib Ms. Stacey!!!

One Week Old Already...

It is hard to believe that our baby boy is one week old already! This morning he had his follow up appointment with the pediatrician. Our boy likes to eat, but we didn't expect that he would be 1/2 pound heavier than his birth weight after one week! I knew there was a reason we call him piglet!!! Wait a minute, I must qualify that statement...we call him piglet because he makes little piggy noises when he is fussy (aka hungry). He is actually a skinny baby! Anyways, most (all) babies lose weight after they are born and then strive to get back to their birth weight within a couple of weeks. Well, of course, our child is an overachiever and because of his good weight gain we don't have to go to a 2 week check-up. Hip hip hooray! The pediatrician says Brock looks great and the next check-up will be at 2 months.

We also swung by the hospital to get his follow-up PKU test done. The PKU test is a heel stick done (the following is the medical definition) to check whether a newborn baby has the enzyme needed to use phenylalanine in his or her body. Phenylalanine is an amino acid that is needed for normal growth and development. If a baby's body does not have the enzyme that changes phenylalanine into another amino acid called tyrosine, the phenylalanine level builds up in the baby's blood and can cause brain damage, seizures, and mental retardation. The test is done in the first few days after birth, as early as 24 hours after birth, and a follow-up test is usually done at age 7 to 10 days.

So, Brock had a busy morning and is fast asleep right now. Mommy is about to catch some zzzs because my sweet angel has his nights and days mixed up. Therefore, we spend some quality time together every night. I am exhausted! For those of you that have called, I promise I will return your phone call. If you accept 3am phone calls, let me know!

Brock has changed so much in the past week. The following are pictures I captured this past week for your viewing pleasure....

Family Picture-Day 2 in the Hospital


Still in the hospital...


I let Mommy take a picture of my eyes...


Thank You Godmommy Jen!


Daily exercises with Daddy...our baby boy is SO STRONG!


Sleepy Time


Mommy please stop with the pictures...

Welcome Brock Andrew!

Where do I even begin? Buck and I are in love with our little boy!!! Brock Andrew arrived smack dab on his due date of March 9th at 5:32pm. He was 7 pounds, 9 ounces and 2o inches long. He (and the help of an epidural) gave me the easiest delivery I could have hoped for. I woke up around 5am Tuesday morning with contractions about 10 minutes apart. After I confirmed my symptoms with the internet (what did people do before google?), I had a small snack and jumped in the shower. Now this was Buck's clue....he heard the shower running at 6am and thought it must be birth day! I am not a morning person by any means. We packed our bags and headed to the dr. when my contractions were 5 minutes apart for a couple of hours. We sat in the dr. office waiting room for what seemed like forever and then they hooked me up to monitors to confirm I was in active labor....I could have told them that!! So, on to the hospital we headed around 11am (the dr office and hospital are connected buildings). Once I got tagged and signed a thousand documents we were all set and ready to go. I could not wait for my epidural and at 2pm it arrived! An hour and a half later, I received what the dr. called a "supershot" of epidural (second dose) because I was still feeling the contractions. The supershot made my legs completely numb, but I didn't care at that point. As soon as I received the second dose, the contractions were so intense that their peaks were not even registering on the monitor. The nurse checked me to make sure labor was progressing. I will never forget her saying that we needed to hope I was dilated to a 4 or 5 and then she exclaimed, "You are a 9! We need to get the dr. over here quick!" (I was a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10). Apparently, the first epidural wasn't able to keep up with my contractions and thank goodness for the second dose! They originally thought Brock would arrive at 8 or 9pm and he decided to get the party started a little earlier. He is perfect!

Ready to go....


Daddy and Brock meet


Our First Family Photo (right after delivery)



Brock had several people anxious to meet him that evening. They all were able to witness his tests, poking and prodding thru the nursery windows. It was a very exciting time.

It's a waiting game...

Well, I worked my last day in the office yesterday and now work comfortably from home. Right now, it's all a waiting game! We still have not decided on BIP's name, but I wanted to share the white board from my office with all of the suggestions.......

A Mini Watermelon!

Do you remember how I commented that babycenter.com always compares BIP to a fruit?! Steph and I joked about what it would say as 40 weeks approached. I had a nice chuckle as I read the weekly update this morning stating that BIP is approximately 7 lbs, the size of a mini watermelon!! HA! I had a dr. appt this morning and all is well. She said BIP has "dropped" and I am 1 cm dilated. Baby Buckaroo should arrive in a week or so. EEEEEKK! I guess we are as ready as we are going to be! Keep us in your prayers as the journey of pregnancy ends and parenthood begins......