More Visitors!

We had a couple more visitors last weekend! Nidhi our wonderful neighbor stopped by to see Brody. Nidhi actually works at Primrose Daycare where we will be sending him, so its nice to have a friend that works there who can check on our little guy!

Becky, a friend of mine that i met through Junior League stopped by on Sunday. Brody was a good little camper and slept the whole time for Becky so we could have some "adult conversation". I find that when we have visitors its hard to have conversations ( i know can you believe it...Geri with nothing to say?!?!) but unless you want to talk about dirty diapers and breastfeeding i don't have a ton to contribute! So i like to hear about what exciting things my friends have been up to!

2 Weeks Old

Here's our little peanut...on Friday he turned 2 weeks old. It really is amazing how much they change in such a short amount of time. He's still a very alert little guy and loves to be awake during the hours of 3am and 7am...ahh yes...AWAKE and ALERT!! Hoping sooner than later he'll get his days and nights turned around.

I'm still breastfeeding and its going very well. I'm going to start pumping next week so that Daddy and Brody can spend some quality time together as well!

7 Boys

Saturday we had a house full...including 7 little boys!! JRo along with Landon and Logan, Kara along with her twins (Wade and Carson) and 4 year old Gavin...Jenny and Chase (1 year in April), Allie and Brody! It was quite the time, i'm not sure how Kara does it with twins. I can only imagine how tough that can be at times, I think its tough with one newborn and that's nothing! Was great to see the gang and will look forward to seeing them again when this mama has more energy and more sleep!! Thanks for coming over everyone!

Doula...Rita!

We LOVE Rita! Rita was our doula (labor coach) for the birth of Brody. We can't rave enough about the benefits of having her by our side during the labor and delivery. Rita was able to give direction to Jason and I at the hospital during "down time" and was always by our side when the nurse was out tending to other moms.

Rita made a final stop by the house on Friday to see us and visit Brody. It was so good to see her and we plan to stay in touch with her and keep her up to date on what the little guy is doing!

Doctor, Doctor...Give Me The News...

Brody has his 2 week check up on Thursday at Southdale Pediatrics in Edina. We saw Dr Skallerud and she was wonderful (however Brody didn't think so!)! She gave Brody the once over and double checked his overall well being. She was very happy with his weight, she had stated that at the 2 week check they just want to see the baby back to it's birth weight. Brody has certainly surpassed that...

Birth Weight= 7lbs 13 oz
Hospital Departure Weight=7lbs 6 oz
In Home Nurse Visit (one week later)=8lbs
2 Week Ped appt=8lbs 5 oz
Which puts him in 75th percentile.

YEA! This makes me so happy as i've been stressed about whether or not he's getting enough breastmilk to drink and clearly he is!

Everything else is right on track. We'll head back for a 2 month check, which i'm totally dreading as he gets 5 shots on that visit. Ugg!!

Brody's First Photo Shoot

Last Thursday afternoon we had Paula here from Sprouts Photography to take newborn photos of Brody. I fed him ahead of time in hopes that he'd be nice and sleepy for the photos however I quickly realized at that point I'm no longer in control of what goes on around here..."There's a New Sheriff In Town"...he might be all of two weeks old but he's in charge. He had a different plan for the afternoon...it was not sleeping but rather being wide awake and quite irritable, Jason claims that he's like his mama...if there is a party he's not gonna miss out! After several hours of wrestling around with him Paula felt like she got some good shots. Attached are a few teaser photos...SO can't wait to see the rest of them...!!

Pictures Galore...

As you can imagine i've taken a thousand pictures in the last 11 days...trying to capture all the special moments with our new little addition. He's already changed from the day he was born. I can't believe that Friday he'll already be 2 weeks old!! He's such a sweet baby and i continue to marvel over his daily changes.

Uncle Geoff Stops By...

Uncle Geoff was in town yesterday for work and was able to get away for the evening. He stopped by to see his new nephew Brody and have a home cooked meal made by our mom! Given my brother has 4 children of his own he made some comment about "babies are easy"...i quickly reminded him that when he had baby #1 (Jack) he reacted the same way that Jason and i do...oh how quickly he forgets now that he has 4 kids that are super active, all over the age of 3.

We look forward to seeing him again in a couple of months!

Nana's Here...

Nana (my mom) arrived a week ago today and wow, what a BIG help she has been. She's become our laundry fairy, the cook and the nanny...she wears all hats very well and we are thankful to have her here to help out! She's loving on Brody and he's sure been spoiled by her! I'm not sure which one of us is going to miss her the most when she heads back to NE!

The Blessing Of Friendship.

We feel blessed to have so many great friends! We've received so many wonderful well wishes from all over the country. We've also had a lot of visitors stop by to see Brody and it's been really fun introducing him to everyone! JRo and Gina were able to make it to the hospital to see us and everyone else has stopped by the house. We've received some incredible meals as well, so thank you friends! I had no idea how wonderful it is to pop an already made meal in the oven...something Jason and i had no idea was a life saver it was until we had Brody! Thank you to everyone who has made the arrival of Broderick even more special than it already is! Attached are photos of some friends who have stopped by...

Click HERE to view photos

What's In A Name...

So many of you have asked, which came first Brody's initials BMW or his name...his name of course! However in hind site it works out pretty well because in Brody's life time he'll be far more expensive than a real BMW and because of that we won't be able to afford a real BMW...but that is ok because Brody will bring us far more joy than a fast, expensive car!!

So Broderick was a name I found on line and it was one of the few names that Jason and i actually agreed on. We love how masculine it is and felt it was a name that he be perfect if he decide to be president or an NFL football star! (we are dreaming big for the little guy!!!) The challenge with Broderick is that it was too long to use on a regular basis and i thought that when he went to school and perhaps on spelling test day, he's still be spelling his name while other kids were finishing their tests and we just couldn't have that...therefore Brody became the shortened version we decided to use. Now Jason wasn't a big fan of the shortened version but i think its really grown on him and now he refers to him as Brodacious. The middle name Malcolm is Grandfather John's (Jason's dads) middle name.

So now you decide...which is more worth the money?

Brody's Sleepy (1 day old)

Announcing The Newest Addition To Our Family...Broderick Malcolm Ward

He's here, he's here...its like Christmas in February...the gift of life! Words can't even begin to express the joy in our hearts over the arrival of our little guy. As Jason and I were chatting last night...we spent the last 9 months preparing for his arrival...what color to paint the nursery, what stroller to buy, what will we name him, all those little material things you do to "prepare for baby"...then on top of that I had to think about...did i get enough of the right fruits and veggies, oh no i had one too many caffeinated drinks, i should exercise but I'm tired...its 9 months of non stop thought/worry and obsession about this little baby inside your stomach...and then he arrives...and I'm speechless, it was the most overwhelming experience I have every had. (ahh crap i'm starting to cry...gotta love these post partum hormones) The joy in my heart just can't be explained, when they placed this innocent little baby on my stomach I wept tears of joy. At that moment in my life nothing else mattered, nothing...but this little innocent baby who, when i spoke to him stared right back at me...the look I'll never forget. We're overjoyed, we're overwhelmed and most importantly we are in love.

39 Week Update/Delivery

Well as you all know a lot has happened in the last 4 days...let me take you back to how this all began...the birds and the bees...LOL. Anyway, Thursday I had my 39 week appt and i was only dilated 1 cm and was so disappointed, i left wondering...When is he ever going to get here!? That evening I had plans for a massage...so i went to see Carly and about 15 minutes into the massage i started feeling really crampy...thinking in my mind that the more she massaged the better i would feel but it was the exact opposite, the crampy feeling i had just continued to get worse. When i got home i laughed with Jason and have the "worst massage ever" and thought it would pass. But as the evening grew on i found myself in more and more pain...but those "cramps" were actually contractions and i had NO idea what i was in for. I was up the majority of the night, tried all sorts of comfort measures recommended by our doula, I highly recommend the hot bath. The only thing mentally that helped me was to curse like a sailor, i think i used more "F bombs" in an hour than i have my whole life!! Around 6am evidently i told Jason "get in the car", he was coming one way or another. It was the longest ride ever to Abbott Northwestern Hospital (about 30 mins away)...I didn't think we could get there soon enough. We got the hospital and Jason dropped me at the front door with a security guard who took me to the maternity floor. It took them 5...yes 5 tries to get my IV started...then once that was established they were able to get me the epidural. Interestingly enough i was already 5 cm dilated once i got the epidural, i had felt more pain in the last couple of hours than i had in my entire life...that's where i'll recommend to all my pregnant friends...this is the time to DO DRUGS! I can't believe there are woman out there that do this type of thing naturally "just because"...those women are made of steal! So once I had comfort the rest was a relatively nice experience. By 3pm i was dilated to 9cm and the pushing began...and by 3:55 we had our bouncing baby boy! What a miracle!!

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...

My step-dad Wayne, Baby Ward's "Pops" is the handiest woodworker we know...on Thursday Baby Ward received his first hand crafted airplane. Jason and I were amazed with the fine details of the airplane...right down to rolling wheels and a spinning propeller! Its definitely not a "play toy" and has found a special place on BW's shelf. Thanks Wayne!!