One Month Update

Dear Sweet Brody,

This coming Tuesday you will be 6 weeks old. The time we have spent with you has flown by way to fast. You are constantly changing and Mommy is always telling you to slow down, but you are obviously not listening. I'm very glad that you are healthy and growing the way you are supposed to, but it's just tooooo fast! Since your birthday you have done so much and have grown in so many ways. Since your Mommy has been a bad blogger because she NEVER puts you down we've got to put all sorts of stuff in one post rather than a daily update. (I'll try to be better!)

At your 2 week check-up you weighed 9lbs. and 22 1/4 inches long. That means you gained 1/2 lb. and grew 1 1/4 inch. Your pediatrician is Dr. Shaffer and we absolutely love him. He is the team doctor for the Rice Owls. He knows alot about Texas State because the coach from Rice used to coach at TX State. (This is what sold your Daddy on keeping him instead of getting someone closer.) We think you will love him too. He sang to you and you stopped crying when you were freezing cold (naked) in the room and he was checking you. Although you weren't very happy with him when he pulled your rotten umbilical stump off because it just wasn't coming off on it's own. Mommy wasn't happy either, but I he didn't really warn us that it was going to happen. After your check-up with Dr. Shaffer, we had to go to the hospital for your 2nd PKU test. Only one person got to go to the back to witness the poking so I immediately nominated your Daddy. He will get to do all this manly stuff with you from here on out.

Since your 6 weeks of life, we have made 2 trips to Shiner with one being our 1st overnight stay. Daddy joked that we packed everything but the kitchen sink. Even though we packed MORE than enough of everything, we were still afraid that we were going to run out of formula because you were just sucking it down so fast. We ended up with the exact amount. I'll be bringing a brand new can from now on. That weekend you got to meet lots of relatives and friends that weren't able to come see you in Wharton including your great grandmas and great grandpa. Saturday we attended your great great aunt Delores and great great uncle Sylvester's 50th wedding anniversary. You were a sweetheart as usual. You have attended 3 birthday parties...Lexi Joines' 1st (she's our cute little neighbor, your future girlfriend ;)), your great uncle Louie's 56th birthday (we are sooo very blessed that you have been able to meet him), and your Uncle Luke's 30th birthday. Tomorrow we will celebrate Auntie Jamo's birthday and Auntie Jill and Uncle Tom's wedding shower in Shiner. I almost forgot to mention how much these Auntie's love you. They spoil you rotten! Seeing how much they love you touches my heart beyond words. It is really the neatest thing to see. Mommy loves her sisters more than ever and I thought that wasn't possible.

You have gotten to go out to eat with us several times. We really love taking you out when the weather is nice and showing you off. People always stop and tell us how handsome you are. You are always very sweet and usually sleep the entire time right until our food comes. You must feel left out so you demand that you eat right then too. Speaking of eating, you are up to 6 ounces of formula. You don't eat the full 6 every time, it just depends. You usually go 2 1/2 to 3 hours in between each feeding. At night you eat the full 6 before you go to bed at about 10:30. You seem to always wake up at 2:20am, 6:30, and 9:30. This past Monday we started you on a Level 2 nipple because you were giving me a run for my money. You woke up almost every hour and ate about 2 ounces. It took you about 45 minutes to eat it and you would fall asleep. It was our first bad night. We fixed that problem real quick. You are a happy camper again. When you were first born, the plan was to strictly feed you breastmilk, but like everything, plans were changed. Breastfeeding was painful! You had two little bumps where your two bottom teeth were going to come in. When I told the lactation consultant that you had teeth, she was rude and didn't believe me. You were at the nursery getting something done at that time so I told her to go look for herself. Boy was she shocked! This made me give up breastfeeding rather quickly had home. We pumped for 4 weeks. You are now on formula only. Dr. Shaffer told us that they weren't teeth, but they would come in sooner than most babies. Well, they are officially in!

Because you are such a long boy, you are in 3 month clothes. Most open foot pant onesies look like shorts on you. 3-6 months are way to big. You also bypassed the cute little newborn diapers and are still wearing size 1.

On Monday, your Grammy rode with us to Sugar Land so that I could do a little shopping. It was your 1st trip to Babies R Us. Thursday your Granny came to visit and we took you on your first REAL shopping trip. You got to ride around the mall in your awesome stroller and you were such a little angel. Just fyi-we are breaking you in as early as possible because you have LOTS of shopping trips ahead of you with Granny and Aunties, even though you are a boy. It's our favorite past-time together! Yesterday Granny and I shopped for a tuxedo for you to wear to both auntie's weddings this year. You are going to be the cutest ring bearer ever and the busiest baby too. We decided to wait a few more weeks until we buy you one.

As of yesterday, we decided that we need to start calling you by your name. Mommy always calls you handsome and Daddy calls you his little pal all the time. It would be very cute to us in the next few years if you told everyone your name was handsome, but everyone else might think you are a little conceited.

Daddy has Spring Break next week so we are going to take you to San Marcos and Gruene on Sunday and Monday. We are soooooooo pumped about showing you our old stomping grounds. Daddy has been wanting to buy a mini TX State baseball cap for a loooong time, it will be the 1st thing we do when we get into town. We will also be taking our first round of family pictures with one of our awesome wedding photographers named Efro. We can't wait to see how you do.

Brody, you are such a sweet little angel. Mommy always wonders how and why we were blessed with such a perfect little sweetheart. You don't give us much trouble at all. You have such an amazing little personality, but we knew that when you immediately waved at us at our first ultrasound. You are a smiley-boy and people love holding you because you never cry. You do a fake little whine and that always means, change me or feed me. You have had one major crying fit and that was because you were freezing cold when I was changing you at Uncle Luke's birthday party. You are also such a little cuddler. You love being held. I just love the way you tuck your legs under your little booty. You are just perfect in every way possible. Our life has completely changed with you in it. We love you more than words can say. We are so very blessed to have you as a son!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. I think your Daddy is a little jealous because you are a Mommy's boy! :) (That's just what I wanted!)