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......

Update...

No, little Buckaroo has not arrived yet! I think I put everyone on pins and needles every time I call them. We had a dr. appt last Tuesday and everything checked out great. They estimated him to weigh 6 lbz, 7 oz from the ultrasound and is supposed to gain 1/2 lb a week from here on out. He still has not dropped yet, so she thinks we will make it to the due date of March 9th. That's good because I am still working on my list of things to get done before baby!

Here are some more pictures of the house taken last Sunday. Progress is being made pretty fast considering the hurdles of mother nature. We now have a two-story home!



I realize this just looks like a pile of wood, but this is looking at the doorways of the two additional bedrooms upstairs (from the gameroom).

Looking into the new gameroom upstairs.

Another shot of the family room and stairs.

Surprise Guests

Yesterday evening my work hosted a baby shower for us. We had yummy food and delicious cupcakes, while Baby Buckaroo was spoiled with many wonderful gifts. Some of the guys even showed up (after we promised them we would call it a "happy hour" and not a baby shower!). Several of us gals were gabbing about TV shows when Sarah all of a sudden exclaimed, "I think that is Gretchen!" I was thinking to myself, "who?" Gretchen and Slade from the TV show Housewives of Orange County were attending a practice (a.k.a. rehearsal dinner) at the same restaurant. They were nice enough to take pictures with some of us gals (some of us more "star struck" than others...Missy!)....

This shirt had some cheers and boos from the shower attendees.....I love it!Thank you for everything Stacey!!!

Happy Mardi Gras!

When I think of Mardi Gras, I think of King Cake, New Orleans, beads, Bourbon Street, etc…. Last year one of my co-workers and his wife purchased us a King Cake from a New Orleans bakery. It was fantastic! As the story goes, whoever gets the baby that is hidden in the King Cake is supposed to buy the next King Cake. Well, Buck and I came up with our own version…..you see, Buck got the baby in the King Cake last year and we ended up with a real baby! So, this year when a different co-worker of mine shared a King Cake with us I said I was not allowed to find the baby. We don’t need babies that close in age! As I was getting things ready for Little Buckaroo this past weekend I actually stumbled across the little plastic baby from last year’s King Cake. It is for sure going in the baby book!

We have weekly visits with the dr. now and yesterday everything checked out fine. We go back next Tuesday for a progress check and ultrasound. The dr. wants to make sure my placenta has “moved” out of the way and to check on the kiddo. I can’t believe my ticker says “21 days to go!” The dr. commented that Little Buckaroo won’t be arriving anytime soon. In the words of Steph, “if he's anything like you, he'll be fashionably late.” HA! Let’s hope he is fashionably late because his Daddy and crew are working away on home sweet home.

And this one is for the girls….we may not be in New Orleans (except Jen) to celebrate Mardi Gras, but our picture is! Some of the girls hosted a fantastic bachelorette party for me in New Orleans in September 2007. Being the typical bachelorette party and wanting attention, the girls dressed up as devils and I was the bachelorette angel the Saturday evening of our trip. We had drinks at Pat O’Brien’s Bar that night in the French Quarter and our picture taken in front of their “fiery fountain.” Fastforward a year when Jen submitted our picture into a Pat O’s photo contest celebrating 75 years in business and WE WON! We won as best picture for the 2000’s!! So, last January 2009 a group of us met up in New Orleans to view our poster-sized picture now hanging in Pat O’s and redeem our free VIP party. Good times, good times. If you are ever in New Orleans, swing by Pat O’s and give a nod to our picture. Here is a picture of us with our winning photo....we are famous!