2-Week Checkup

Yesterday Brady has his 2-week checkup at the pediatrician and I was anxious to see how much weight the little guy had gained. It's hard when you're breastfeeding and you can't tell exactly how much he's getting. At his appointment last week he was 5lbs 9oz - just a few ounces shy of his birth weight of 5lbs 11oz. I was hoping that he would be closer to 6lbs this visit because the little guy has quite an appetite and I feel like I'm constantly feeding him. So, you can imagine my excitement when the nurse informed us that he now weighs 6lbs 7oz!! 14 ounces in one week! Way to go Brady! He has also grown a bit longer as well and is now 20 inches.

So it appears the breastfeeding is working. I guess I'll keep it up a little while longer. Now, here are some more pictures...

A week of firsts...

I can't believe it, Jim and I made it through the first week home with Brady. Granted we had a lot of help from Brady's Grandma & Ama. Grandma left on Friday and Ama will be leaving on Wednesday so tune into next week's post to see if we survive on our own! In the meantime, here's what's been going on in Bradyville...

First off, we were supposed to get new carpeting installed last Wednesday but that didn't pan out since that was the day Brady decided to make his arrival so we had it installed on Tuesday instead. This was just a tad bit stressful since we had to have the entire nursery and our bedroom cleared out. Hopefully I will sometime be able to look at these pictures and laugh...



Once we got the carpet installed we were finally able to start having some fun with the little guy. So we gave him his first bath...


And he got to explore his crib for the first time. He really hated it at first but then he calmed down a bit...




He also enjoyed some time in his swing...



And of course there has been lots of tummy time...




Meeting Ama and then his first walk around the block to go meet Britt & Justin. Later Lindsey & Josh stopped by to meet the little man as well...




It's been an amazing (and sometimes completely overwhelming) week and I can't wait to see what is still to come! We love you, Brady!

Brady's Big Day and More Pictures!

After a night where we got more than 2 hours of sleep, we finally have the energy to post some new pictures of Brady from his first few days in the hospital. And since this is our first big post after getting home, we thought we should give a quick run down of how he entered the world one week ago.

It was Wednesday morning at 3:00am when Suzi woke me up. She said "I think my water just broke." Since we had a false alarm a few weeks before, I did not immediately poop my pants. We waited about 15 minutes to call the doctor and soon decided that maybe this was the real deal when her contractions started to get a little stronger. Both of us showered, we checked our bags for any last-minute items, and hopped in the car. Since it was about 4:30, there was no traffic, so we were able to get to the hospital, 5 miles away, pretty quickly. We checked in and Suzi was wheeled up to the labor and delivery wing.

Things didn't get off to a great start because all 10 labor and delivery rooms were full when we arrived, so we were placed in "Triage 2." Awesome. Suzi didn't seem very thrilled to deliver our son in Triage 2, especially since it was half the size and half as nice as the labor and delivery rooms we saw on the tour a few weeks ago (although, it could have been the inspiration for an awesome name: Triage Two Shipe). Anyway, things started to get interesting very fast.

Suzi's contractions were getting stronger and stronger, and after a quick exam, the doctor told us that she was already 5 centimeters and that she could feel the baby's head. Whoa. Suzi was getting seriously uncomfortable at this point and was hoping to get going on the epidural, stat. Unfortunately, they needed to draw blood, do some tests, and get a bag of IV fluids into her before they could get that going, at least an hour or so. This seemed less than ideal to Suzi, as she remarked, "This pain is INSANE." Not being able to give her the epidural myself, I was hoping for some miracle solution.

Things got a little scary when the Brady's heartbeat started to drop. Suzi was able to get it back up by switching positions, but after a few cycles of a low heartrate, her doctor had enough. She said that Brady wasn't too keen on labor and that it was best for him to come out now. Suzi was not opposed to this idea. So, they wheeled her out of the room to the OR and told me to wait in Triage 2 until someone came to get me. After the longest 20 minutes, a nurse came back and said that I had a son! She said he was kicking and crying, even though the cord was wrapped around his neck and body. Suzi was wheeled right back to Triage 2 about 15 minutes later, as she was starting to wake up.

As Suzi started to recover, with the help of some morphine, they let me go back to the nursery to see Brady for the first time. He was laying on a bed, all swaddled up and wearing a little hat. And he was the most adorable little boy I had ever seen. I watched them give him a bath and we were able to go back to see Suzi a little after that. We were fortunate enough to get a private postpartum room (likely due to the fact that Suzi delivered faster than all 10 women in the labor and delivery rooms), and left the comforts of Triage 2 in the late morning.

So that's the story of how Brady came into the world. Hooray for Brady!

Sleepy boy

There's nothing like a nap on mom

Tiny feet

Finally home!

Hmmm... someone just pooped.

Best baby in the world!

Welcome to the World, Brady!!

Jim and Suzi asked me to update everyone on the big news, as they probably won't be spending too much time on the computer in the next couple of days. Without further ado, allow me to introduce:

Brady William Shipe
Born very early this morning, weighing in at 5 lbs., 11 oz. and strutting his stuff at a proud 18.75 inches.
Dad, Mom, and Baby are doing well!

-Christina

Baby Shower Pictures!

We have these pictures from the showers and thought we would post them to Tini's blog. There's been chatter that this may also qualify us to be invited to a wedding in the future, which would be a good thing.

DC Shower, June 28th:

Guests enjoying the festive Dr. Suess atmosphere

Christina, Suzi, Stokes, and Tini (not pictured, well, kind of)

Kristin and Jim mocking the cupcakes

A blue monkey! A green box! Hooray!

Pittsburgh Shower, July 5th:

*Disclaimer: it may appear that Suzi is wearing the same outfit that she wore to the DC shower. But that would be a ridiculous thought. Why on Earth would she do that? It's probably just global warming or high oil prices that are making you see things.

Tini's not the only one that has his own crocheted
hat, this duck got one too! Thanks, Ama!

Tini and lots of his family!

Another monkey - what a surprise!

Thanks again to everyone who made it to the showers and sent gifts, we really appreciate everything! Especially the monkeys - all 6 of them!

Tinimeter: a honeydew melon!

So, apparently... we have a blog!

Suzi is just past 33 weeks now, which means it's time to find a pediatrician or, at the very least, start looking. So, we had our first interview/visit this afternoon and it went really well. The four doctors there seem extremely capable and we both really like the primary doctor who spent the most time with us. To boot, the exam rooms have different cultural themes and they have key child-related services (that I didn't know existed 2 months ago) like a lactation consultant, baby sign language classes and baby yoga classes.

For those of you clamoring for pictures from the baby showers, we intend on posting some pictures from the past two weekends once we get them from Suzi's dad. Stay tuned... but don't hold your breath.

In the meantime, you'll have to settle for knowing that we met the Mayor of DC at our pediatrician visit today (by met, we mean saw in the waiting room with his two sons but didn't want to creep out by saying, "Hey, you're the Mayor of DC!"). And we know it was him because of these four clues:

1. His face looked just like the Mayor's face.
2. He had DC flag cuff links.
3. He had several Blackberries.
4. One of the doctors called him by his first name.

This was another reason we liked our pediatrician so much - if she's good enough for the Mayor's kids, she's good enough for our son!

Tini-Meter: pineapple!

Exciting Weekend!

It was a pretty big weekend for Tini and his parents. First, Tini got a float around inside of Suzi some more. I know! Amazing! But even more exciting was our trip to a 3D/4D sonogram center where we got to see our son-to-be in 3D for the first time. It was ridiculously fun and exciting. We highly recommend that you visit one of these places if you ever find yourself growing a person inside of you.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to experience the joy of the what-we-figure-was-supposed-to-be-soothing music, some of which sounded like someone peeing, unless you see the DVD. But, the following pictures are the highlights of the 20 minute session. Note that he takes after his father and decided that sleeping was the best way for him to spend a Saturday morning.

Without further ado, here he is in 3D!







Oh, and we bought a car too. A black Honda CR-V. Did we mention that we got to see our son in 3D!?!?!

Tini-Meter (28 weeks): a 3D chinese cabbage! High five!