Family Picture

We snapped a quick family picture in our backyard before heading to church.

Life is Good:  Andrew has a cookie and his new best friend

Hopefully someday the feelings are mutual :)

Newborn Pictures

Sept 21 & 22, 9 & 10 days old

I asked Roo to stand in front of the wall so I could adjust the settings on the camera.  This is what he interpreted that to mean :)

He wanted to be right in the middle of the action too

"a frog!"

These last two are my favorites:

I'm hoping to get this sent out before he graduates from college.  But no promises :)

Doctor's Office

Driving to the doctor for a 2 day check up.  Andrew was a good big brother and very concerned with keeping the sun out of Alex's face.  It was pretty cute to see his concern for him.

I think he looks like a little elf with that hat.

At the doctor again for a weight check at 5 days old.  He had lost 7% of his birth weight by day two but over the weekend he gained it all back which was almost a whole pound!

So getting out the door with two kids is really hard.  Even with Robert and I getting them both ready, we were still 20 minutes late to the appointment.  Which meant we had to wait forever to see the doctor.  But with Robert there, he and Andrew managed to kill time quite effectively :)

1st Bath

5 Days Old

crazy, huh?

Baby Alex

8 days old

look at those chubby cheeks!

Brothers

We have gotten a kick out of watching Andrew interact with Alex (that is of course when he's not trying to pinch his brother or climb all over us while holding the baby).

He can say his name will walk up to his crib and peek over and say "hi" or point and say "A-ex!"

He comes and kisses brothers head every five minutes.  No matter what he is doing, he's sure to take a break and give brother a kiss.

When Alex cries while getting dressed or a diaper changed, Andrew will come up to him and in his most sympathetic and sweet, two-year-old voice say "I know.  I know."  Over and over.  Pretty much the cutest thing ever :)

When Alex lays on his his tummy on either one of our chests, Andrew thinks he looks like a frog and will yell, "a frog!" and giggle hysterically.

He thinks some of Alex's movements are pretty funny too and will laugh like crazy when brother flails his arms and legs.  

He likes to sit by Alex and compare the size of their feet and hands.

He likes to name Alex's body parts.  Especially his eyes.  While trying to poke them.  Alex was wearing a sleeper and you couldn't see his knees and Andrew asked in a very concerned voice, "where knees go?"  We had to reassure him that his brother did in fact have knees.

Andrew isn't too sure what to think about the whole nursing situation.  Whenever Alex is eating Andrew will come up and say "bite!" then try to bite my arm or shoulder.  Not too sure what to do about that one...

When Andrew walks into the room the first thing he says is "A baby go?"  Then goes and checks in the back and play or crib.

Andrew has been telling me "back" then pointing to the pack and play.  I'm pretty sure he's telling me to put Alex back down and to pay attention to him.  But then other times he'll scream "mine!" when I lay Alex down and try to go get him.

Hospital and Home

 Kind of ridiculous but we have pictures on three different cameras so I feel like we have pics scattered all over the place!

the brand new little guy

all cleaned up and tummy full.  life is good

visit from big brother

we didn't stick around the hospital for very long.  once our 24 hours were up and all the tests were done, we made a run for it.

the newborn sized sleeper that I had packed in the hospital bag was about 2 inches too short.  luckily i had thrown in a onesie and some pants that we were able to stuff him in to.

car ride home

home!  andrew was thoroughly inspecting him and pointing out all of his body parts.  eyes.  nose.  mouse (mouth).  ears.  hand.  feet.  belly.  

The first night home we had the darnedest time getting both boys to go to bed/fall asleep.  We were both totally exhausted from two nights of virtually no sleep.  We turned and looked at each other and with a panicky feeling we wondered what in the world we had gotten ourselves into.  

Things now look a lot better now that we have gotten some sleep and have almost two weeks under our belt :)

Millions of Peaches

I searched high and low for peaches this year (that weren't $45 per box).  I finally found some and of course it ended up that we had 50 lbs of peaches to take care of three days after having a baby.  Luckily they needed to ripen a little before they were ready to be processed so that bought us a little time.

 Hurray for counter space!

Meanwhile, the two munchkins slept.  Not next to each other though, I was just curious to compare their size.

The fruit of our labor.  I think we ended up with about 40 quart sized freezer bags full of peaches!  They look kind of lonely hanging out in our new deep freeze by themselves, we need to go kill a cow or something :)

Sept 12, 2012

My Monday, Sept 10 due date came and went.  Then I woke up Tuesday morning and still no baby.  Not even any contractions.  Tuesday evening Robert, Andrew and I ran some errands, went to costco, and bought a crib at Target and came home.  Still nothing.  We went to bed thinking we would just have to wait until Thursday night to be induced.  But Wednesday morning I woke up at 1:30 am and my water broke.  

Headed to the hospital.  Nervous, but excited to meet the little man!

I went to the hospital with the best of intentions to have the baby without drugs.  Well that plan went out the window at about 8am when I had dilated to a 9 and he still hadn't dropped and was trying to come out sideways.  Yeah, it hurt and there was no way I could handle what would probably be two hours worth of pushing.  I cried mercy and begged for the anesthesiologist to drug me.  Longest 15 minutes of my life trying to hold still during excruciating contractions while the epidural was inserted and then waiting for it to kick in.  But thank goodness for modern medicine!  The nurse had me lay on my side/stomach for an hour and a half to get the baby to turn in the right direction.  By noon he was in the right position and ready to be pushed out.  I pushed for two and a half hours then the nurse called the doctor to tell him we were close.  He was on his way when the baby decided to come on out.  The nurse yelled at me to not push (impossible, by the way) and wait for the doctor because she did  not want to deliver this baby herself.  The next 60 seconds were kind of blur.  It was obvious that he was coming so the nurse yelled for Robert to get her a glove and the room filled with nurses. His football shoulders got stuck and finally the doctor came in, unstuck his shoulder, and out he came!

brand spankin' new!

We hung out for a while, ordered dinner, and got picked on by the nurses then Robert went home to get grandma and big brother.

checking him out

I love the look on Andrew's face in this picture!

hi!

brothers

Before going to the hospital we had pretty much decided on the name Thomas but wanted to see him before deciding for sure.  Well after he was born we both knew he wasn't a Thomas.  We asked each other what we thought he looked like and we both said that Alexander was the name that came to mind when we first saw him (a name we had talked about when we first found out I was pregnant).  Choosing a name is a big commitment though so we waited until the next day to fill out the birth certificate paperwork. 

Alexander James Reed

born September 12, 2012 at 2:24 pm

9 lbs 13 oz, 22.5 inches long