Newborn Pics

Here are some of my attempts at artsy, cute newborn photography. Luckily, I have a really cute subject to photograph and a husband willing to participate as well! Not to mention the fact that I have a really nice camera to use now too. :-) We looked up some ideas online, took a whole series of pictures, and then I did some editing on the computer. I think they came out pretty nicely! Take a look:

Next step: Family photos!! :-)

2 Week Checkup

Barrett went in for his two week checkup today (September 16th). We met our pediatrician, and she said he is looking great. We also got his social security card in the mail and his birth certificate from city hall, so he is officially registered as a real person in the system now! :-)

Stats:

Height: 22.1 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 9.4 pounds (70th percentile)

Head: 15 inches (70th percentile)

To compare:

At birth:

Height: 21.5 inches

Weight: 9.25 pounds

Head: 13 inches

He's our little happy, healthy, growing baby boy!! :-)

Welcome Baby Barrett!!

Our baby boy was born on September 2, 2011 at 9:17pm. He was a "huge" surprise, shocking us all when he weighed in at 9 pounds, 3.2 ounces. He was 21.5 inches long and just about as precious as he can be!

A Labor of Love:

On Friday morning, I woke up at 1:45 am, not really sure what was going on but feeling "weird". After confirming with my mom that I was having contractions and that those contractions were about four minutes apart, I woke Travis up, and we all headed to the hospital. We checked into the labor and delivery unit at 3am and settled in for the rest of the day. We called all our family members around 7am and told them to start heading to Del Rio! The contractions (4-5 minutes apart) continued all morning, but around 10am, they started to slow down. The hospital tried to send me home, but I wouldn't go! I was still having contractions, but they were about ten minutes apart now, and I didn't want to go home just to have to come back again! So, with a little dose of pitosin, my contractions were encouraged to start up again. Finally, by 4pm, I was dilated 4 cm, received my epidural, and things really started to take off from there. 5 cm at 5pm, 6 cm at 6pm, 7 cm by 7pm... Then, my nurse who had been with me all day came in at 7:45pm to check me one last time before she ended her shift, and we were all surprised to find that I was 10cm!! The baby had settled into my back and pelvis, so no amount of epidural was stopping the back pain at this point. So, the nurse called in the doctor and we started pushing around 8:15pm. The nurses and doctor were great, all my family members had made it to town on time, and Travis was an awesome coach and support there at my side. After the long and exciting 19 hours of labor, Barrett finally made his appearance at 9:17pm! Travis was allowed to cut the umbilical cord, and our little boy had officially arrived!

Welcome to the world, Barrett Stephen Daniels!

We weren't expecting nine pounds!! :-)

Proud Papa

First pictures with Mommy

Our sweet little family!

Some pictures with all the grandparents:

Everyone was so excited to welcome Barrett to the world, so I'm glad we could all be there to celebrate his arrival together. (Auntie Katie was there too...I just can't find any of the pictures we took with her! Send them along if you have them...)

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive family, and we are so happy to have our little boy here at last! :-) We stayed two nights at the hospital, and then we headed home on Sunday afternoon. Travis has two entire weeks of paternity leave, so we have been enjoying that time together at home with Barrett.

The puppies and kitty have taken very well to our new little addition!

Rio guards and protects both me and the baby with some serious zeal. She follows me everywhere I go, and anytime the baby is taken somewhere without me, she is very concerned and isn't sure who to follow or where to be. Every time the baby cries, she runs over to him and then looks around to see who is going to take care of him. Percy was a little slower to warm up to the baby, but he now loves to lick the baby's feet and will sit and stare at him when he's quiet. Kitty likes to pretend he doesn't see the baby at all, but he follows us around too and likes to snuggle with whoever isn't holding the baby at the moment.

What an exciting time for our family! :-) Thanks to everyone for all the love and support!

Baby Timeline

I had this list going on the side of my webpage, and I wanted to go ahead and make it an official post! Enjoy:

1/2/11 - Found out we were pregnant!

1/9/11 - Couldn't wait another minute and told our families and friends

2/2/11 - First appointment and sonogram (189 bpm heartbeat!)

3/4/11 - Second appointment and sonogram (180 bpm heartbeat)

3/18/11 - Felt the baby kick for the first time!!

3/20/11 - Baby bump really started to show :-)

4/5/11 - IT'S A BOY!! (153 bpm heartbeat)

5/6/11 - Everything looks great! (162 bpm heartbeat)

6/6/11 - Still looking good! Baby yawned on the sonogram and looked like a velociraptor :-)

6/7 - 6/19 - Baby's first trip on an airplane and to Oklahoma and Harry Potter World in Orlando!

7/7/11 - Baby weighs about four pounds

8/3/11 - Still looking good, although baby has suddenly flipped into a breech position. Here's to hoping he will flip himself back over soon!

8/17/11 - We're into the weekly appointments now! And, baby has flipped himself over AND dropped, so we are looking good! Baby weighs in at about 7 pounds.

8/24/11 - Officially clocking in at 38 weeks and things still look good! The nurse says we have started to dilate, so things could happen any day now...

8/30/11 - Talked about induction with the doctor and decided to wait one more week to see if he would come on his own

9/2/11 - Woke up at 1:45 am with contractions, headed to the hospital and checked in by 3 am. 19 hours of labor later, Baby Barrett was welcomed into the world! Weighing in at 9 lbs, 3.2 ounces and measuring 21.5 inches long, he was the most beautiful baby we've ever seen! :-)

Baby's Room

The baby's room is finally finished!! It's all organized and ready to go, and Travis was so great to help me put everything up on the walls. It's great to have an outlet for all the creative energies I have stored up all summer, and I love the way that the room has turned out. (I know the baby won't remember any of it, but I sure had a lot of fun doing it!!)

Baby only gets half the room, but I had a lot of fun putting this all together!

The other half of the room is Travis' office and wall of Air Force photos, but we've turned his desk into a changing table, and his office chair is now otherwise occupied. :-)

The border I created around the top of the wall is made out of green and brown ribbon, flowers that I made out of ribbon and paper, and monkeys found at a teacher supply store in Houston. I absolutely love the way it turned out!! And, since Travis wouldn't let me climb on any ladders, he gets major brownie points for patiently affixing all the ribbon, monkeys, and flowers to the wall!

Here's a close-up of the monkeys over the closet...

A close-up of the orange flowers that I made... (There are also blue and yellow ones)

A close-up of the decor over his bed...

The letters are mounted on paper so they will be easy to take down when we are ready to move, and I used command hooks so we won't have to fill in any holes in the walls either! All the ribbon and monkeys are attached to the wall with staples, again so we won't have to fill in any holes, and the decor will be very simple to take down and relocate! :-)

One of the photo boards I made for the room...

The other photo board...

The door hanger that I made for the entrance to the baby's room...

(Again, just paper, ribbons, and monkeys!)

And finally, the cute little collection of monkeys our baby has already amassed!

I know they can't stay in the crib forever, but right now, that's where they are hanging out...

We are ready for this little guy to come home! :-)

We're Almost There!

We are officially at 37 weeks, only 19 days away from our due date of September 7th. Baby is doing great and is weighing in at 7 pounds as of Wednesday, August 17th. Mom and Dad are doing great as well, working hard to get the house, nursery, dogs, cat, cars, life, etc. ready for our new little addition! :-)

Here's a look at the last nine months:

Here we are at 36/37 weeks:

A true round belly now!!

And here's the most recent picture of our sweet little boy:

The big, bald white area at the top is his forehead, and you can see his (closed) eye and ear on the right hand side of his head. His hands are up in front of his face - one at the bottom left of his face and the other draped across his face. He was faking sleep, though, because he was kicking the sonogram machine constantly. We sat there about five minutes waiting for him to move his hands, but he refused and continued to kick the machine away. We did get the chance to see his kidneys, heart, head, spine, and femur (which is really long and apparently indicates that he is going to be a tall kid)!! He's in a head-down position and has dropped (finally, I can breathe again!!), so he is doing great and looking good. He continues to roll, kick, squirm, and stretch like a maniac, so we can only imagine how wiggly he'll be when he arrives!

We are really excited to meet him and look forward to introducing him to everyone soon!

Master Educator

It's official! I am finished with my Master's degree and have received my diploma! Now, whenever I start teaching again, I am just that much more certified!! :-) YAY!

Graduation was August 13th, 2011. And, even though the robe would have looked dazzling on my 36-weeks pregnant belly, I opted out of walking at the graduation ceremony since it was a three hour drive from here. So, the diploma just arrived in the mail, and I couldn't be more excited!!