Grady - 1 wk Dr. Appt

We took Grady to the Doctor for his 1 week appointment to have his jaundice checked out and to make sure he was growing adequately. Both checked out perfect! Dr. Schmid said his jaundice was gone and that he looked good. As for his weight, I was anxious to see if he was back to his birth weight (8lb. 1.9oz) or somewhere close to there. Well, the nurse weighed him and I had to laugh...the boy has put on some weight! He weighed 8lb. 13oz. Healthy eater I suppose! He also measured 20 3/4 inches, up from 20 inches at birth. While I am thrilled he is healthy, I hope this rate of weight gain starts to slow down or we are going to have one heavy boy to lug around in no time.

I just haven't been too motivated to get my photo studio set back up after taking it down to make a guest bedroom out of the basement for visitors for when he was born. But, I did manage to have a mini-photo shoot with Grady when he was 5 days old in the dining room. I was working on getting some pictures for his birth announcement. I will have to have a few more sessions with him while big sister naps to make up my mind on the final announcement pics.

She Loves her Barney!!!

I learned on vacation that Ryane LOVES Barney....you know, that big purple dinosaur guy. She must have watched it at day care, but I had NO idea how excited she was until she heard it come on the TV while we were in the hotel room. I woke her up today from her nap so she would be able to catch "her show" and made sure I had the camera ready to catch her excitement so I could share it with everyone. Could you imagine if we all reacted like this when our favorite show came on?

So, this is what he would look like...

....if Grady would be sleeping at night! :)


Our first couple nights at home were rough for Matthew and I. I'm really not sure if we could even count the hours we got to sleep as it was all so broken up. We thought our best chance for sleep were just to bring him to bed with us to co-sleep, which would work for a bit. I am happy to report though that the last couple of nights have been a great improvement with Grady sleeping a good solid 3 hours at a time before needing fed again. I can handle that, so much more manageable than every 45min. or hour, then fussing between. Oh, to have a newborn in the house again!

Changing so fast

Grady seemed to be changing so fast. Seems like each time I look he has changed, so I have to make sure to take another picture. :) Here are a few more of him. I even think he looks different from one picture to another so it's hard for me to say exactly which picture he looks the most like.

The Howe boys catching some shut eye in the hospital.

We got Grady all dressed up and ready to go home from the hospital.



Grady really does have eyes under those closed lids! We get to see them every once in awhile. We are fighting some jaundice right now and I can see it in the whites of his eyes. Hopefully, it'll go away soon.

Love at 10th site....

They are forever bonded and now have each other. Up until last night, Ryane resisted when we'd ask if she wanted to hold Grady. Fine, no problem, no reason to push her. Then, she was up playing on the bed with mommy and took a real interest with Grady and I gently placed him on her lap without really saying much. She couldn't have been happier holding him. Although, I could really only see the back of her head or her cheek, I could see the smiles. Makes my heart feel so good that we were able to give her a sibling.

Birth Announcement

Feel free to check out our pregnancy blog for other pics and stories. I think I am going to move to JUST updating this blog, but be sure check both for a couple days.

Zoo Videos

This first video is so cute. The St. Louis Zoo had a 5-day old baby giraffe. While watching it, we overheard it was only 3 days, but later asked a zoo keeper its age. It was so cute and looked to run in slow motion as it was still getting its grace.
The second video is Ryane watching the King Penguins swimming and standing around. The tanks in front of us were the perfect height to hold her up to and some of the penguins would even splash us as they'd swim by - they knew how to entertain.