Baby Survey & Baptism Pics

Well- I am going to steal the baby survey from my darling Aud, who stole it from my darling Mari- and post it here :).

But first- Thank you soooo much to my love KAT, for helping me fill in the background of these pictures. I took them myself, and she blacked out my wall- and between the two of us, I think they look kind of professional if I do say so myself. Kat also made the b/w just to make it harder to choose. I printed both in color in wallets to send in our baptism thank yous. (although the smiley one I was not a fan of printed as a wallet b/c it cut off the top of his head).

I am not sure if you remember the post I made back in March about how my Grandma left me her cross- the cross itself is formed from her engagement ring, and the circle it is in is her and my grandfather's wedding bands both welded together. B wore it in church for his baptism- it was so special. I really miss her.





Baby Survey:
1. Were you married at the time? Yes

2. What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant? Shock, elation, disbelief, fear

3. How old were you? 27 for both the BFP and the birth

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? HPT on 9/30/09

5. Who did you tell first? My H and TF girls

6. Did you want to find out the sex? We went team green- and I wanted to go team green, and am happy we did, but there was a point I totally would have caved :)

7. Due date? June 13, 2009

8. Did you deliver early or late? 4 LONG days late!!

9. Did you have morning sickness? None. There was about a week I dry heaved at night, but that was it.

10. What did you crave? Tiramisu- Brooks is part Tiramisu

11. What irritated you the most? "you just wait" comments.

12. What was your first child’s sex? Boy!

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 18

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? PIH pregnancy induced hypertension- led to some extra u/s's and annoying NSTs

15. Where did you give birth? Pennsylvania Hospital- our nation's first hospital!

16. How many hours were you in labor? My water broke at midnight. Cramplike contractions that were nothing on and off from then. The painful stuff=birth, about 4 hours

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Eric

18 . Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Nope- med free (which is awesome b/c that was my goal- shhhh don't tell that I begged for an epi and just didn't have time)

19 . How much did your child weigh? 7 lbs 4 oz

20 . What did you name him/her? Brooks Nicholas

21 . How old is your first born today? 4 months and 1 week & 5 days

22. Who does your child look like? The 1.5" of his face from his eyebrows to the tip of his nose is me- everything else is Eric

23. Did you get mad at your husband during labor? Only once- after we left the doctor and he decided he wanted to go to Nuts For You to buy snacks for the hospital- and took 20 minutes while I was in active labor in the freaking park waiting for him. I was totally thankful for the said snacks during our hospital stay though.

Sleep and Boobs

Sleep eludes me. I don't know if this is the '4 month wakeful' that everyone on the bump dreads, or just a funk, or a major phase of suckage- All I know is it has been about a month of it. Last night B slept from 9:40 - 5 am after screaming for 2 hours trying to get him to sleep. Wow, doesn't sound bad- Well the night before he was up at 1:30, then 5, then 7. So when he slept straight to 5 my boobs were exploding. The night before he woke at 2:15 and was up until 4:30, and I could go on and on and on about random wakings and inconsistency. I keep telling myself it isn't that bad, it isn't that bad, but I wish there was an end in sight. And I also wish I had the magical answers to these questions.
* should we start some form of CIO to teach him to sleep or wait to sleep train? (we have 2 vacations coming up and I feel like we should wait until after so that we can be consistent and not have to start over, but that would be waiting a whole month).

*Should I feed him when he wakes? (My pediatrician said to stop :( However- he is genuinely hungry a lot of the time. I have thought about rocking him (and I do if it has only been an hour or two since he went down, but when I pick him up he is immediately rooting and making the fish face at my boobs). Also- it is much easier to get him to sleep if I feed him, so it saves me.

*How long do I let him gab before going to him? B is not so much a screamer- he doesn't wake up crying. He grunts, groans, moans, and complains. I keep trying to wait it out and see if he falls back asleep- but it goes on, and on, and on- for 20+ minutes (and then I give up and go in). Once I let him go 40 minutes (again he isn't crying, just grunting) and that is when he started screaming and was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night. So am I screwed by going to him after 5 or so minutes when I am sure he is up (and I can tell he is awake), should I let him gab it out and hope he learns to fall asleep, what to do?

*When do I know he is up for the day, or try to put him back down? B usually gets up for the day between 7:30-8am. Well one day he woke at 6:30. He was impossible to get back to sleep, but miserable to be awake. What magic time do I just say ok, he is up for the day versus trying to get him back down.

*should I be feeding on a schedule? I feed on demand, or kind of when I want- I nurse one breast when he wakes, then an hour to 90 minutes later nurse the other side so he falls asleep into a nap. I nurse randomly throughout the day- sometimes it is every hour (although not often- usually only first thing in the morning and then at night I nurse before his bath then before bed) - sometimes it is 3 hrs, usually it is about every 2. I read all this stuff about your LO should eat every 3 hours, 5-6 feedings a day. We are on no feeding scheduke and I often only do one boob at a time. Should I start trying to make a schedule? Wait longer for cues? Try both boobs at once? Or go with it since it is working for us? (or will that screw me up down the road)
That is all for sleep.
Here are a few pictures for fun-

4 month stats

B has now caught up to his weight in height and then some- he is doing great!
Height: 26" (told you that pumpkin picking picture was wrong- eric has been saying he is 1ft 9 ever since)
Weight: 15 lb 8.5 oz (go B!)
Head Circ: 16.75"


And I found a cool site that will plot multiple measurements of your baby on the growth charts. You can see B's growth patterns below. The site is : http://www.bigfrog.net/growth/ if anyone wants it.

Looking at B on the charts show how his height has spiked and how 'textbook' his weight gain has been- I am so proud of him, and of us for BF'ing since I struggled for a while

Happy Baptism Brooks

Today Brooks was Baptized. This took place at the church in my hometown by my minister. She married Eric and I, and has known me since I was 4 years old. It was very special because she threw in a couple of memories and talked about what a fortunate boy Brooks is for having a diverse religious family.
Brooks was AMAZING! He was fantastic during service- entranced by the bells. During the baptism he was great, she even walked him up and down the aisles after to 'introduce' him to the congregation, and he was great. He started getting bored during the sermon and squealing/shrieking. We took him out. He wasn't crying, just complaining. Then we went to brunch and he ate and passed out for pretty much the whole thing.
It was supposed to downpour all day- and it drizzled in the morning, but then was clear- EVERYTHING went so fantastic.

Congratulations Brooks- God Bless you!

Here he is at church:

staring at the bell choir


Baptism Time


Mommy wishes she wore a black bra or cami



When I said he passed out at the brunch after- I was not kidding





With his godparents- my sister and her husband


And lastly- a picture narrative of Brooks and how he felt about today.

"Today was a lot of fun"



"Even though Mommy put me in a bonnet"


"When they told me I would have to go to church for an hour I was a little skeptical"




"Then they said some crazy lady wanted to put water on my head- can you believe that?"


"It wasn't so bad though- she walked me around and I got to look at everyone and see the bells"



"And then I heard we were going to have chocolate cake!"

Happy 4 month Birthday!!!

This post is going to be mostly pictures. We have our 4 mo Dr appt on Wednesday so we will get height/weight stats then.

First- look how much we've grown!





At 4 months old Brooks
*sucks on his hands all the time
*grabs and bats at hanging toys
*holds and brings toys to his mouth
*rolls belly to back
* rolls back to side
* has 'conversations' and will jabber back at you
*squeals and shrieks like a banshee to hear himself
*laughs- he chuckles for now, no belly laughs yet
* recognizes mom and dad (dad's glasses confuse him)
*watches Ming
*has slept up to 9 hrs (once)

He is SOOOOOO much fun now. It is a great age- I am going to post pics from our 4 month photo shoot- you can see how much personality he has, he is just a little nut.

Pumpkin Picking!

Today was our first trip to the pumpkin patch. Before heading over B came with us to the eye dr's, so it was a looong day for him. He did pretty well pumpkin picking, but got very tired towards the end.

Pictures from today:





Looking at the animals :)






Pictures with Mom & Dad








Fun with face cutouts








Pumpkin Picking!!!



He wasn't a fan :)



The sign says- "how tall this fall" He was still unhappy from sitting on the pumpkins so wasn't at full height.



Proof that he was still unhappy



Family shot after he cheered up!



At home with the dog. We are going to try to get better shots of them outside one day.