A week of firsts....

This was a week of first for our sweet little man. On Monday we made our first debut at pajama day at my sister-in-laws house. What fun! It was great to get out of the house (with no makeup, in sweats and Brody in his pj's) and just hang out being lazy. Ashlyn couldn't get enough of holding her cousin. She would talk and sing to him, very cute :) We look forward to more pajama Mondays!

 Brody, for the first time, got to see dad play basketball. He was such a trooper and can't wait to be able to play with his dad :)

 Goodnight sweet Brody. This is him all bundled up for bed. I'm always afraid his little hands will get cold so we put socks on them. In the morning then we pick lint out from his sweet fingers :)

 We spend many of our dinners with a great center piece, The Brodster!

Brody had a very "rock and roll" day Wednesday hanging out with the band Everyday Sunday! Mike went to college with the lead singer and so we like to bring them in to give a concert whenever they are near the 'Ville. We had lunch with them and then attended their concert during youth group. Brody had a ton of fun! He loves music :)

Go Packers!

Brody will be cheering for the Packers in 2 weeks and he can't wait! Just to think last year at this time Mike and I were planning a trip down to Dallas to attend the Super Bowel this year. Little did we know the Lord had different plans. We didn't think it would be a good idea to take a 5 week old to the game. So, we'll watch the game with Brody in his Packer outfit and Mike with his cheese head and life will be great :)

3 weeks old!

I can't believe our little man is 3 weeks old today! We've only been with him for 21 days, however, it seems like it's been forever. It's funny how in 3 short weeks our lives have completely changed from anything we've every known. Worries 4 weeks ago consisted of making sure I worked out in the morning or what was going to be for dinner to now figuring out how a nap would fit into the day and dinner on the table really doesn't even matter. If  Mike and I eat we eat, if not we munch on whatever is in the pantry. We are still trying to figure out how a house gets cleaned, laundry completed and food on the table with a newborn. I kinda just feel like none of these things will ever get completed for about 18 years ;)

Brody loves his changing table (along with a clean, dry diaper). There are little monkeys on the wall to his left that he spends lots of time staring at while the diaper change is going on, they keep him well entertained :)

He is still sleeping in his bassinet next to our bed at night. We are ready though to transition him to his crib, however, he HATES his crib! He's such a snuggler that we think the crib is too open for him. We've been trying to sneak him into his crib as much as we can during the day to try to get him used to it. The newest addition is this mirror inside it and he does really enjoy looking at himself. For a few minutes he's able to stare at himself and forget that he's in his crib.

He loves his hands in his face. This is how I found him sleeping the other day, precious!

We try to read at least one book a day to the B Man. He really enjoys looking at the pages and the colors. Gunner enjoys listening to the stories also ;)

And Grandma's, he's just nuts about all of you :)

On Wednesday we had pictures taken at a friend of ours studio. We hope to have the pics soon. Brody did very well! The first half he was sound asleep and the second half wide awake and content. My turn came to be peed on that day by him. We were taking what the photographer called skin pictures. Brody was naked and Mike and I had our shirts off. Mike had some great shots with Brody first and no problem. No poop or pee. As soon as it was my turn I was holding Brody over my shoulder and the photographer was shooting. Suddenly I felt a very large waterfall sensation going down my stomach and into my pants! I guess peeing all over me made him very happy because the photographer continued to shoot pics and Mike just got under Brody and held a towel to catch his pee. Oh our son :)

Happy 3 weeks to our sweet little son. We love you so much!

Sunday afternoon Mike and I had a mini photo shoot with Brody. Yes, the pics are far from professional looking but we had fun and sweet little man is just too cute! :)

B Man is slowly starting to fit more into his newborn clothes. There are just a very few preemie outfits that still fit. Poor guy kinda is wearing the same thing over and over at the moment because he's in between sizes. 

 Gunner just loves Brody! He follows us and Brody everywhere we go. The moment Brody begin crying, Gunner is right next to him. When we return home from being away, Gunner makes a b line to the car seat and sniffs Brody out. I think Gunner fears we wont come back with him sometime. He just can't get enough of him!

Brody had his 2 week check up today. He has gained 1 pound sense last appointment! He is weighing in at 6 pounds 13 ounces and 20 inches long (he grew 1/2 inch)!!!!! The doctor said I must have some power milk in me to grow my baby like that :) His height and weight places him in the 10% tile of other babies. Oh our small little son :)  Everything else looks great on him also, no concerns at all.

Little man has been a bit fussy lately. I'm not sure if all babies are real fussy or not. Sometimes I think it would have been so much easier if a baby manual came out along with the baby. So, we continue to learn each other. I'm always apologising to him that I just don't know what I'm doing so he needs to go with the flow. I take a bit of comfort in knowing he wont remember this time and my mistakes, but then I also think will he be emotionally damaged or scared because I'm not doing something I should be. I just wish I had his cries figured out. Lately, we just sit crying together. He trying to tell me something and me trying to figure it out. On top of me adjusting to the new 5 (instead of 8-10 hours) hours of sleep a night and figuring out a new routine, I've been a bit emotional. I keep being reminded though, we'll all figure this out. Thankfully we have lots of time to continue to learn, read and continue falling more and more in love! :)

How could you not love her :)

Meghan (my sister) was willing to cut her Christmas break from college short and come to the 'Ville to help take care of us in the first days of Brody. She came, along with my dad step mom and younger brother, the day before New Years Eve and stayed a week and a half with us. Mike and I can't even begin to share how much of a help she's been. We really aren't sure what we would have done without her! She has bee apart of Brody's life from the second he entered the world. She kinda got stuck in the delivery room (I don't think she minded one bit though). As soon as the emergency alarm went on right before delivery she was kinda shoved into the corner and forgotten about. It worked out great because she pulled out her camera and started shooting some great pic :)

She loves her sweet nephew and can't stop holding him. It was great the first week to nurse Brody and then be able to hand him over to her while Mike and I napped.

This is a bad picture because you can't see Brody's shirt and I thought you could. It says "My Aunt Rock!" It was a gift from Meghan. It's a newborn size and we are still waiting on him to grow into it :)

Meghan was the first one Brody "broke in". She was the first to be peed on by him :) That was one wet diaper!

Meghan has kept the house clean, kept up on the laundry, quickly clears the dinner table, starts/unloads the dishwasher and has taken the pups to the park. We couldn't have asked for better help. She "moved out" and back into her dorm room this last Monday and it really was a sad moment to see her leave. She has been over daily however :) Thank you, thank you, thank you Aunt Meghan for all your help!!!!

We continue to learn our son. This week our biggest lesson was a gassy stomach and how to cure it. Brody was really fussy earlier this week and we just couldn't console him. After many tears myself for not knowing how to help our son, we got some gas drops and walla fussy son has now been content :) So we've been giving him these drops with every feeding and life has been good again. I've also been trying to cut down on dairy and chocolate and seeing if that helps his belly. You know your in love when you willingly give up ice cream and chocolate anything for someone, right ;) He's definitely worth it.

Today was a huge accomplishment. I left him for the first time. Yes, it was for only 30 minutes, but it was hard to do. Mike came home from work and I was feeling bad the pups hadn't had any exercises for 2 days. It was way too cold to take Brody to the park, so Mike stayed home with him while I took two very excited pups. It was really nice to get out of the house and enjoy a short walk with Gunner and Trigger. Mike loved his time alone with Brody and I really enjoyed my quiet time with the pups.

The B Man has been sleepy these last two days. I'm thinking a combination of being fussy earlier this week and going through a growth spurt. Below are two pics of the sleeping faces of him. Also the middle pic is of our reading/tummy time this morning. Gunner decided to join us, he was a welcomed addition to our play time :)

The B Man

We love, love, love being parents! The last 11 days have definitely 100% changed our lives in every way imaginable. Brody is the sweetest most cutiest, snuggliest boy and we couldn't be more in love with him. He is doing an okay job at sleeping at night. He took his first bottle last night. We figured that if I pumped a bottle sometime during the day then Mike could take a shift in feeding during the night. So we both got a good 4 hour stretch of sleep because we both did a feeding. Mike said Brody loved the bottle and guzzled it down. I really like the freedom the pump allows us.

Brody has received LOTS of baths already! Yes, we know that he's not supposed to until his cord falls off, however, when he has pee in his hair he needs to be cleaned. We have a lot of learning to do when we take his diaper off. We are learning that he does a great job at aiming and firing :) Today I was changing his diaper and he began to poop with the diaper off. I was so focused on catching all the poop that I forgot to monitor his pee machine. Well he aimed for his face and a morning bath was quickly in the working.

Brody made his debut at church this last Sunday. Mike brought him up on stage to introduce him while doing the announcements. I don't think anyone heard announcements as they were gazing at Brody ;)

Yes, so true :) He finally has clothes that fit him. Friends of ours lent us their preemie clothes because the B man is too small for newborn clothes. It's so nice to dress him in clothes that fit!

He loved his tummy time. His head is getting stronger and stronger by the day. On this mat he's on there is a mirror that he loves looking at himself in.

He is my sweet snuggle bug!

Newest development tonight was the falling off of his cord! Mike was changing his diaper and found it hanging out in the diaper! :) He's growing up so quickly! I'm not sure if I'm ready.

The Brody story

Mike and I rang in the New Year at our home and then headed to the hospital. We were feeling every emotion as left our home and drove knowing we weren’t going to enter our home again without being parents. We were quickly checked in by our friends (the other nurses whom I was able to pick to work that night). Once I was all hooked up, IV in place and some inducing medicine placed, the lights were turned off and Mike and I were to go to sleep. HA! Yea, sleep is the last thing we did. We positioned the heart rate monitor/contraction monitor facing us and I taught Mike everything we were looking at. It didn't take long to notice that his heart rate was dropping a bit. Not a huge deal, everything was still okay, but something I didn't like seeing. This pattern continued then though the night.

I began feeling contractions at about 3:00 am and oh my word! I quickly learned I'm not a fan of contractions and they definitely solidified my desire for an epidural later on in the morning. By 6:00 am I was feeling strong contractions but not yet ready for the epidural, so I was an idiot and requested some medicine. I knew not to take this medicine; I just knew it from watching its reaction with other patients. However, the pain was speaking and I gave in. For the next little while I didn't really have much pain, but I was sure high on this medicine. Lets just say pretty drunk acting. Mike said the craziest things were coming out of my mouth. After getting sick 3 times, the medicine was out of me.

Around 8:00 am my epidural was placed. I was so scared getting the epidural. The fear of the unknown I guess, but it was the easiest thing and I barely felt it at all! It began working very quickly which I was SO thankful for. Soon after this my doctor came to break my water and that's when the excitement begun.

When your water breaks it’s supposed to be clear fluid, well mine wasn't, it was dark brownish. Its what is called thick meconium. Meaning little Brody had his first bowel movement inside the womb which means he was in stress, not a good sign. Sweet little Brody’s heart rate continued to drop down, however once my water broke, it dropped even further and lasted a whole lot longer. I kept turning side to side, I had to wear oxygen the remainder of labor, they kept giving me tons of extra fluid, my Pitocin was turned off and they also started an amnioinfusion on me (pumping fluid back into my placenta to give Brody more “cushioning”). Doctor was thinking this was all because one of two reasons. Reason one, what we were concerned with a few days before the induction, that my placenta just wasn’t doing its job at nourishing Brody anymore. Or reason two, his cord was wrapped around his neck being compressed often with each contraction. At this time I was only dilated to 3.5-4 cm. I stayed pretty calm through all this, trying not to alarm Mike, even though my mind was going nuts. I hated every second that I just knew too much. Doctor stayed in my room pretty much all morning watching the monitor and just trying to reassure Mike and I. I was so appreciative of having such a great doctor! At about 9:00 am, the talk of a c-section came into play. I signed all the consents and was just waiting for the word. I was surprisingly calm at this possibility, even though the thought of a c-section used to freak me out. I went into “mom” mode and whatever it took to get Brody out safe, I was willing to do. Doctor was going to continue to wait just a few more hours to see if anything changed, by noon a decision would be made.

My dad, step mom, sister and brother came up to visit for a bit. Meghan ended up staying the remainder of the morning. Also some friends came up to pray with us at 10:30. They brought such great comfort in reminding us that everything was in the Lord’s hands. Brody’s heart rate continued to drop low and I just knew a c-section was coming soon.

At 11:30 doctor checked me again. We were out of options. If I wasn’t close to being complete, we would be having this baby by c-section. Now, this is how great the Lord is. New moms don’t dilate quickly at all. It’s a very slow process. Well I went from 4 cm at 8:30sih to 9.5 cm by 11:30!!!! We were almost ready to push! We all just knew that baby Brody needed to come out. Doctor went to change and grab a bite to eat, while remaining on the floor. 10 minutes later as I was watching the monitor, Brody’s heart rate dropped to the 70’s. I remained as calm as I could as I asked Mike to help me flip my body to the other side and I pushed the nurse button quickly. My nurse hurried in, turned up my IV fluid and pressed the emergency light. My doctor and other nurses ran into the room and got to work. I looked at Mike and Meghan and calmly asked them to sit in the chairs that were in the room. I now was convinced we would be doing a STAT c-section and I didn’t want them in the way of everyone getting me ready to move out. Everyone was setting everything up VERY quickly, they put my legs in the stirrups and doctor just looked at me and said, “Ashley start pushing now.” I asked Mike to come back over and I became my own labor nurse as everyone was getting everything else ready. Mike and I did a few pushes on our own before everything was set up. After a couple minutes Brody’s heart rate went back to normal so c-section was for sure out of the running. For the next hour I pushed and pushed. He was getting stuck because he decided to come out face up!

At 1:06 pm sweet Brody literally flew out. My heart stopped when I didn’t hear him cry. The doctor and nurse left my side and took him to the warmer to suction him and place him on oxygen. After about a minute Mike and I heard the greatest noise, the cry of our son! I layed on the bed sobbing with joy as I watched everyone tending to him and hearing Mike, who was also crying, saying how perfect he was. I have never been so happy in my life. I was overwhelmed with pure exhaustion and complete love. I hope to never forget that moment! I later found out that Brody’s cord was tightly wrapped around his neck and his body and that is part of the reason he wasn’t doing so great. Also the placenta looked like junk! It definitely had stopped “working” a few days before this day. We were all so grateful that we went and scheduled the induction instead of waiting for my body to go into labor on its own. Everything has been sent for testing to see what happened. It may just be that I don’t carry babies past 38 weeks.

So, that is the story of how our little man came into this world. We joke that he did indeed make a grand entrance. We can’t stop praising the Lord for His provision and holding us all in His hands! Really, He is the ONLY reason that Brody is here with us now and doing so well! Thank you Lord!

What we've been up to

HE'S HERE!!!!!!!!!

With great excitment I introduce to you, our son, Brody Daniel Kaelber! Born January 1, 2011 at 1:06 pm. Weighing in at 5lbs 15 oz and 19.5 inches long, we couldn't be more in love :) I'll write more later, there is just so much snuggling to do lately, but we wanted all to know we are home and couldn't be doing any better! :) Enjoy the pics!!