January 26, 2012 - Tummy Time!

A good day so far today.  My little man slept like he was supposed to in the night...meaning waking up every three hours.  But he fed well and went right back down so I actually got some decent sleep.  We had a fun morning just hanging out and spent some time working on tummy time. He's sure trying to lift that head.  He's also started peeing on everything as soon as I take off his diaper so we had a lot of laundry to do today.  We ran out of jammies which was good because I had to get into his bigger stuff and some of it just barely still fits.  So I'm glad we found his froggie jammies from Uncle Jay and he'll get to wear them a bit before he's too big!  Uncle Jake and cousin Ezra also made a quick trip up to Edmonton so we met up for dinner.  Ezra is a great big cousin!

January 25, 2012 - Awake All Day

But he's so cute when he's awake, right?

Well, my little man is now officially out of the sleepy newborn phase.  Yesterday he woke up to eat around 8:00 and aside from a half hour snooze, didn't sleep until dad got home at 4:00.  He had a two hour nap and then was up again until we finally made him go to sleep at 9:00 or so.  And by made him go to sleep I mean laid him down and let him cry.  He usually goes down without much fuss, but now he's getting older and has a mind of his own.  It was pretty tough for me to hear him cry, but I know it will be better for me and him in the long run.  Thanks to my dear friend Peggy for helping me to sit there and let him be while the tears ran down my cheeks!

January 24, 2012 - Out and About

Well, being that it is January, cold, and dark, and I am home with a schedule-less baby boy, I am getting cabin FEVER!  So I called my sister yesterday and said I needed to get out of here.  So today we got all dressed up and ventured out to west edmonton mall.  He got to wear his new skinny jeans and his cute little onesie from gramma. We went over to the mall with cousin Ethan.  We could only fit one stroller in the car, so while Brigham was napping, he got to go in the cargo bay at the bottom.  It was great for him!  We were gone for about 3 hours and he did great.  It was so good to get out of the house with my cute little man!!!

January 23, 2012 - Brigham's DUEDATE!

Well, my little Brigham Joseph was due to be born today.  In some ways I am so glad that he has been here almost 4 weeks already.  We are getting feeding and scheduling figured out...sort of.  He's over the scare with low blood sugar and he is gaining weight so we know he's not starving!  He has already brought us so much joy and so many smiles.  In some ways I wish he was still to come...I could relive all those special little moments.  But either way, he is here and he is the best little blessing in our house!

January 22, 2012 - Brig's first outfit that wasn't pajamas!

Everyone has been super generous in buying Brig clothes or giving us hand-me-downs, but everything is still to big for Brigham.  So on Saturday we went to Once Upon A Child and found a little outfit for Brig that wasn't pj's.  My favorites are the cute little skinny jeans.  And they are too long, so he should be able to wear them for longer than a week!  He is growing like a weed.  He is already growing out of the 5lb jammies that he got from his aunties!  Such a big boy already!

December 28, 2011

Brand New Baby Boy

Brigham Jospeh Suelzle

Born December 28, 2011

6 lbs 8oz

11:13 am

At first sight, I thought he looked exactly like his daddy.  We'll see how he changes, but for now, he is his daddy's son.  I can't believe he is ours, that he has come straight from heaven, just to us.  He is perfect, and I am humbled to be his mother.  I can't wait to see what he will become and I hope and pray that we can be the parents that he needs in this world!  I love him to pieces!

January 21, 2012 - Hello pre-pregnancy clothes!

Well, many ladies won't like this post too much, but it shouldn't be seen by too many so I guess it's okay.  Brigham is 24 days old today and this whole outfit is pre-pregnancy clothes.  The jeans aren't even stretchy jeans!  I can't take too much credit.  I didn't get very big with Brig and he was 4 weeks early so I missed that 8th month growth spurt.  It is a little nice though to know I can still fit into my old clothes, even though I spend most of my days in my pajamas anyway! 

January 20, 2012 - Doing thank you cards with mom

Today we finally got on the ball with the thank you cards for Brighams shower.  I took a little picture of him and snuck it in with the thank you notes.  I thought this was a cute idea, and hey, you get a little bored around the house when all you do is feed and nap!  Brigham is such a fun little friend to share my days with!

January 19, 2012 - Still cold outside!

I wanted to have a sock monster made for when Brig was born and I wanted to do a size comparison photo every month, but, like a ton of other things, it didn't get done.  So I'll use this teddy bear instead!  My mom had it made from an old fur coat we had in the house.  It is pretty special to me and has a special spot in Brigham's room.  He's growing so much already.  Aunt Hilly bought the jammies he's wearing and already he's filling up the legs!

Brigham also went to his first Young Men's activity today.  I got asked to help teach the young men how to conduct music, and Joe is a young men's leader so we both had to be there.  Brig got to come along and he was a very happy little boy the whole time.  It was still minus 30 outside, but we braved the cold for a little human contact!

January 18, 2012 - Tubby Time

Today was Brigham's first real bath in the big tubby.  He's had a couple of sponge baths and one bath in the kitchen sink, but today we braved the big tubby!  He wasn't a huge fan, I think he didn't like feeling cold.  So it didn't last long...but I am hoping that he will come to love tubby time.  He did like snuggling in the towel with dad after though!. 
Still freezing cold today.  We were so happy when daddy got home from work so we would have someone to talk to.  It gets a little lonely being home all day, especially when it's so cold out it's not worth going outside.  I am hoping that I can get a little more of a handle on feeding so that I can at least go and hang out at other people's houses, and not feel like I have to run home for feedings!  But I know we'll get ahold of this soon enough and if there ever was a month to hibernate, January is it!

January 17, 2012 - Minus Stinkin' Cold - 

Day One stuck in the House!

Another freezing cold day.  We managed to get a few things yesterday so there was no reason to go out today.  We spent the day snuggled in the house, just doing the usual feeding and napping.  I snapped a bunch of pictures of him sleeping and waking up.  I love his sill little faces and I could stare at him all day.  He also always has his hands out.  He hates being swaddled, as soon as we wrap him up, even loosely, he starts grunting and fussing!  He cracks me up!

January 16, 2012 - Dr Appointment

Had our two week check-up with the doctor today.  Brig weighs 7lbs and 2oz.  He is gaining weight and doing well.  He did great and was such a good boy for the doctors and nurses.  He is a good natured little guy that makes my life pretty easy as far as newborns go.  I took this little video of him waking up and it was hilarious.  I love the little faces he makes.  Such an expressive little guy!

January 15, 2012 - Off to church again!

My parents stayed in town to go to church, so we went to sacrament meeting with them and then came home to visit for a bit.  My dad got me a silhouette machine for Christmas and we spent some time playing with that before they left.  Then it was more hanging out time with Brig.  This is his post feeding face, usually when we are trying to burp him.  I love the little milk drool in the corner of hi mouth.  It is such a tough life!

January 14, 2012 - Beautiful Boy

My parents were up to visit today and it was nice to spend some time with them.  We also went and got some pictures done this morning.  A friend of mine in the ward, Talia Audenart, did some amazing pictures of my little boy.  I love every single one of them and I had a hard time picking one to put up here.  His room is plastered with them.  He is my beautiful boy and I am so in love with every little tiny piece of him.

*January 13, 2012

*January 12, 2012

January 11, 2012 - Waking up

*January 10, 2012 - Hanging out at home

January 9, 2012 - 12 days old - Going Out

Another day braving leaving the house!  He is really good at sleeping in his car seat and so I am able to go out and run errands quite a bit.  It sure is a lot harder to drag him around though because if you just want to run in for one thing you still have to haul him around!  But I love being with him and he is such a good little boy for me!

January 8, 2012 - 11 days old - Visiting Suelzles

We made it to church today, only for sacrament meeting, but we got to take our little babe and show him off to the ward.  After a quick nap, I was feeling pretty good, so we decided to take him over to Suelzle's to visit with Great grandma and grandpa Harrison.  Then we came home and hung out in the basement, back to mom and dad's usual sunday night movie!  I love chillin with this little guy!

January 7, 2012 - 10 days old - Daddy home again

Saturdays are always a good day because Daddy doesn't have to go to work and so we get to hang out. We ran some errands in the morning and then we tried to do our own little photo shoot at home in the afternoon.  It didn't go too well.  Brig was wide awake and peeing all over the place.  So we got a few goofy photos, but we gave up pretty quickly!  

January 6, 2012 - 9 days old - My first Party

Today was Brigham's baby shower, thrown by my sister Hillary and my good friend Peggy.  It was supposed to be a before the baby shower, but we had an extra guest!  I was really tired and not too excited to go, truth be told, but I had a blast.  It was great to have everyone ooh and aah over Brig, but mostly it was great to visit with all the mommies and get lots of advice and encouragement.  I felt a lot of the weight of all I was trying to learn lift off my shoulders and I got a little bit more confidence that I can do this!  Brig got a lot of great presents...tons of cute clothes.  I even got a gift certificate for a pedicure.  Can't wait to use it!

January 5, 2012 - 8 days old

Daddy was at work again today, and my mom was at my place for another day.  Spent most of the day just hanging out, trying to get the hang of feeding the little guy.  We went to the health clinic to get Brig weighed today.  He was born at 6lbs 8 oz, we left the hospital at 6lbs, and today he was still 6 lbs.  None of the nurses were too worried, but I want to see him gain a little weight.  So feeding and stuffing this little boy full is the priority these days!  Look at those little chicken arms!

January 4, 2012 - 1 week old - Daddy goes back to work

Well, not the greatest picture, but Daddy went back to work today and we were on our own.  Actually, that was not entirely true.  Gramma came to rescue mom!  My mom was able to come up to Edmonton for a few days to help me out with this little bundle.  We had a lot of friends bringing us meals and the house was already clean because we'd only been home for 3 days.  So I didn't put gramma to work.  Instead we both sat on the couch and visited and napped.  It was so good to have her there.  And the hormones started causing a lot of problems and I cried all the time.  So it was nice to have someone to cry to instead of crying alone!

January 3, 2012 - 6 days old - Picture Day

A couple days after Brigham was born, my good friend Lindsey told me of a friend who is an amazing photographer who was looking for some newborns to practice on.  So at 6 days old, Brig has his first modelling gig.  He did great and the photographer did some amazing work.  We only have a few proofs so far, but the order is in.  I can't wait to see the finished project.  It also gave me a few hours where someone else was watching Brig and so I was able to write down all the recent happenings in my journal.  I am so glad I was able to get all that down because things have become pretty busy and I'm not sure how often I'll get to it in the next month or so.  

January 2, 2012 - 5 days old!

Joe had a few days off from work and was able to stay home with Brig and I and help get settled.  This was good because the nursery wasn't ready for our new little guy.  He slept in a laundry basket in our room for a week or so.  We spent a few days getting the nursery organized and put together.  We had a couple of friends give us a lot of clothes so we went through that as well.  Lots to organize and do.  Being the crazy organizer that I am, I had a couple of times where I was a little mad that Brig came early and I didn't get to have everything all ready like I would have liked.  But one look at that adorable face and he made up for it.  The nursery came together and soon he was in his own room like a big boy!

January 1, 2012 - 1st Day Home - 4 days old

New Years Day was our first day home.  It was also a Sunday.  We had big plans for going to church to show Brig off, but it was a long night and 9:00 church just seemed impossible.  We managed to get out of the house around 11:00 to grab a few things that we needed for Brigham.  Again, because he came early, we were quite under prepared.  We had all the big stuff, but all the little odds and ends were missing.  And as new parents, we didn't really know what we needed until we needed it.  We managed to survive our first outing with him.  And we loved our time at home just snuggling and loving our little guy!

December 31, 2011 - 3 days old - Going HOME!

After we fed Brigham like crazy, his blood sugars finally stabilized.  We were allowed to go home on Saturday morning.  After a few lonely days in the hospital, we were pretty excited.  Since we had been on vacation, we didn't have any baby stuff.  Fortunately, Joe's brother Zack was able to bring some stuff down from Edmonton on his way home to Lethbridge.  The day we found out Brigham was a boy, we bought this little onesie as his coming home outfit.  It was a little big...but we still thought he was adorable.  It was a long drive home...we stopped in Airdrie to hit up the walmart for a lot of random baby stuff.  We fed Brig there and thought we could make it home.  I checked on him around Red Deer and he was very cold.  We got him out of his seat and tried to feed him and warm him up.  He was limp and not too responsive.  We later learned that he should have passed a car seat test that showed he could sit in a car seat for an hour.  Sometimes their heart can stop if they are too small.  We feel very blessed that the spirit prompted us to check on him and that we were able to make it home all safe and sound.  We don't know what may have happened, but we are grateful he was okay and home with us.  As we walked away from the hospital though, I felt like maybe we could have stayed a few more days!!!!  I suppose we had to strike out on our own sooner or later!

December 30, 2011 - 2 days old - Hanging out in Canmore Hospital!

When Brigham was born, we were told we would be able to go home on Friday morning.  However, the night Brig was born, his blood sugar dropped quite low.  Because we were in a small hospital, they didn't have a NICU, but we needed to syringe feed him every hour, and then every 2 hours and test his blood sugar every 2 hours until his sugars stabilized.  So we ended up staying an extra day.  Spent Friday hanging out, watching tv, feeding Brig, and trying to get a little sleep somewhere in the mix.  

December 29, 2011

Brigham - December 29, 2011 - 1 day old!

My precious baby boy just one day old.  I love having him snuggle with me.  Brigham was born on December 28, 2011, at 11:13.  He was 4 weeks early and came at the end of our Andruski Family Christmas vacation in Banff.  He was born in the Canmore hospital, and came in just 5 hours.  He was quite a surprise for us all, but just an impatient little boy I guess.  The day he was born was a bit of a blur, and though our time in the hospital was a little rough due to some feeding issues, I loved the time I had to just snuggle him close and take in every perfect little part of him.  I can't believe I love him so much already!  Can't wait for every new day!