carrie's first pregnancy

Well, I still haven't heard any laughs yet, but over the weekend we saw a lot of improvements in Benny. He is talking A LOT... especially if you mimic what he says back to him. It sounds like he thinks he is actually talking, and gets a kick out of it :) We did it for a straight 20 min yesterday afternoon! Then this morning, he showed off his new skills of pumping his legs in the air, and twisting his hips. He can get them twisted so that he's laying on his side, almost rolling all the way over! He did this over and over, and wound up spinning himself 180 degrees in his crib :) I have yet to see him do this on the floor, but I have a feeling it won't be long now! I noticed his poor little feet fit through the crib slats though, and he's long enough that I can't position him in a way where he won't touch them if he spins that way in his crib. So I may have to invest in a crib bumper, even though I'm not a fan (increased SIDS risk with those). Otherwise I'll be paranoid that he'll get stuck and twist his ankles or something and start screaming in the middle of the night.

So we're on the lookout for some rolling action, and if he does, you can be sure the video camera will be there! :)

3 months 2 weeks 1 day old

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I forgot to download some photos from my camera from my mom's visit, so first, here are some ones we took playing dress up with clothes that he's almost growing out of (he's almost out of 6-9 month clotes btw):





















and some ones she took while I was at work:







Then we took some photos of our trip upstate to visit Joe's family. We got some great photos of Ben smiling at Grandpa Bob, and sleeping with Nonna Becky :) Everyone loved him, and it was so fun to see him smiling. I wish our stay could have been longer, but my days off are scarce since I used them for maternity leave. So quick weekend visits will have to do!



























We made progress on scheduling his baptism! Sts. Simon and Jude in Michigan would "prefer" if we had it in DC, since they really stress having it at your local parish. So rather than fight with them, we're just going to do the ceremony here. I don't get why it's such a big deal, but whatever, typical Catholic weirdness. St. Peter's holds their baptisms on the 2nd Sunday of the month, so if we want to do it in June, that means we will be getting Ben baptized on June 14 :) So now we just need to spread the word so that if anyone wants to attend, they have enough time to make travel plans.

Ben's fighting off a slight cold, but other than that, he's doing great! His sleep schedule is a little off... he's been going to bed around 8-8:30pm, and waking up around 2:30am (and again at 5-6am). So I'm losing hours on sleep again, but I have a feeling it's only temporary. At least, I hope so! He's sitting up a lot more, and he almost has total head control. I can't wait until he masters that trick so that we can put him forward facing in his stroller. I think he'll enjoy walks so much more that way, and we're looking forward to taking him on more walks now that the weather is getting warmer. Still no laughs (but BIG BIG smiles that look like silent laughs), and no attempts resembling anything close to rolling over. But he's got time ;) His next dr. appointment is on the 15th... I can't wait to see how much he's grown! :)

3 months 1 week 3 days old

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Here are the proofs we got back from JCPenney's online studio. They are small so that we can't reprint them. Overall, it was fun... we didn't get any poses of him smiling at all, but hopefully his 6 month photos will show more of his personality :) And yes, I am aware I need makeup but like I said, I had no idea I'd be in any of the photos, so I'm lucky I brushed my hair! ;)















And some other random photos from our new Canon point-and-shoot camera:











We're off to NY this weekend, hopefully with more photos and some new video with the grandparents! :)

3 months 5 days old

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Irish is the only heritage that both Joe and I share, so Benny is more Irish than he is anything else that got passed down :) Joe's Grandmother's maiden name is "Brady" and my Grandmother's maiden name is "Kelley". I've always had fun celebrating St. Patrick's day (especially in high school with my friend Colleen and her 100% Irish family) :) So in honor, my mom got Ben a shamrock outfit:

















He is still sleeping about 8 hours at night. Some nights he still fools us and wakes up at 1-2am... but for the most part he goes down around 7-8pm and sleeps til about 3-4am. There was the one fluke where he slept 10 hours (last Monday), but he hasn't repeated that since. But it gives me hope that it's coming! ;) I get so jealous of those with babies who right around 3 months started sleeping TWELVE hours at night. I can't even imagine. Someday we'll get there! But for now, I'm surviving on 4-5 hours of sleep at night. When he starts sleeping longer I will start thinking about starting an exercise routine in the morning (my only free time), but until that time, I've got my hands full.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

3 months 2 days old

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Well, baby Ben is now 3 months old, and we had a great time yesterday for his photos at JCPenney :) We have 4 poses that we ordered, and one of those has me in it, although I wasn't aware that parents were supposed to be in the photos. So I barely brushed my hair, had no makeup on, and was lucky I decided to wear a non-tshirt that morning! Joe wanted the photo for his office though, so under protest we ordered a 5x7 of that pose. We won't get them back for 2 weeks, so it will be a bit before I can mail them out to everyone. We can view them online in 7-10 days, so you know I'll post them when we do! In the meantime, my mom got Ben a cute St. Patrick's Day outfit, complete with matching hat and shamrock shaped bib :) We had fun taking photos of him yesterday, so I'll post those tonight when I make my mom her CD to take home.

In terms of milestones, at 3 months Ben is smiling, but no laughs yet (some gurgles that are close though!), and can lift his head but not support himself on his arms. No rolling or anything remotely close yet. His head is almost steady enough to put him in his big boy stroller facing front... maybe another week or two before I feel comfortable doing that. He talks back to me when I have him on the changing table, and it's so fun watching him try to communicate. If I repeat the sounds he makes, I get BIG smiles and excitedness :) He still LOVES his activity mat, and will smile at the Octopus on there like it's his best friend. I'll try and take some video while my mom is here, to officially document him at this age. I know it will be gone so fast!

I think we are planning on driving up to New York this weekend, to finally introduce Ben to Grandpa Bob and Great-Grandpa John. They have both been itching to meet him, and I don't think they can hold out until Memorial Day :) So it will be our first big adventure driving him! I don't have a lot of time off since I just got back from maternity leave, so we're going to shoot for coming back Monday morning, and take a half day off of work. Fun, fun!

Photos coming soon!

3 months 1 day old

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I joined Mamistad back when I was pregnant and looking for other ladies who could share in my excitement and nervousness as a first time mom :) Ben was the last baby to be born from our group, so today I finally got a chance to meet up with everyone again, and introduce Ben to all their babies! :) We had a great time, and it will be so fun to watch them all grow!









And just for comparison, Henry is 6 months, Lily is 5 months, and Jude is 4 months (Ben is the youngest at almost 3 months) :)

2 months 3 weeks 6 days old

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I put this bunny next to him in his crib, and he snuggled right up:



So cute! I also weighed him today, and at 12 weeks/3 months, he's 17.5 lbs, and about 26 inches. Still growing! :)

2 months 3 weeks 3 days old

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I'm working on trying to memorize more baby/kid songs, but for now, when I'm trying to calm down Ben he gets my version of "Baby Beluga" (of which I only know half the words to), "Row Row Row Your Boat", "Do Re Me" (from Sound of Music), "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and the song from the movie "Waitress" with Keri Russell titled "Baby Don't Cry". The movie was on HBO while I was on maternity leave, and I often had it playing in the background. Well, the song stuck in my head, and I sang it to Benny a lot. Now it works like a charm every time I need him to calm down and go to sleep! :) I tried to sing "Baby Mine" from the movie "Dumbo"... but I can't do it without crying. All I can picture is Dumbo only being able to reach his mom's trunk, and then crying as he has to leave her behind. So sad!! But it's a good song :)

Any other suggestions are appreciated! ;)

2 months 3 weeks 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments

I present, baby Benjamin (narrated by an obnoxious high pitched voice... so you've been warned) ;)



He's 12 weeks old today, he'll be 3 months old on Sunday! Haven't weighed him in a while to see what he weighs, but I know it's over 16 lbs. My mom is coming to visit on Friday, and I know she's going to be surprised at just how much he's grown! I watched some video of Christmas, and I can't believe how small he was. Even for him! :) I'm also proud to say that I'm still pumping. I made my goal of 3 months, so now we'll see if I can do it again and make it to 6 months! It's been hard making sure I get time to do it, but I still manage. It's motivating to know he's getting at least SOME milk, and every bit helps!

And I just realized it's 6:30am and not 4:30am... doh! Ben is still sleeping! Totally threw me off!! He went down at 8pm, so that's 10 and a half hours! Now I'm running late, so it's good/bad... but I'll take it!! :)

2 months 3 weeks 1 day old

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Nicole pointed out that DST would put Ben at going to bed at 8pm and waking up at 4am every night. That would be awesome!! We'll see if it works!!

2 months 2 weeks 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well, it still may be a fluke but for two nights now, Benny has gone to bed at 7pm and woken up at 3am... 8 hours! I wake up and realize that there was no 1am feeding. So cross your fingers that this is the start of his sleeping through the night!

I am trying to get a bedtime routine established, now that he's more consistent with his bedtimes. When it starts to get near 7pm, I change him, put him in pj's if he's not already, feed him and then put him down. Sometimes he gets a bath before pj's, about 2-3 times a week. Then I read a book or two or sing some songs, and he's usually out like a light. My favorite books to read are "I Love You Forever" which is about a mom rocking her baby boy as he grows up. I teared the first time I read it like a big sap :) And the other book is "I Love You Stinky Face" which is really cute. I can't wait until Benny can tell me his favorites!

My mom is coming to visit next weekend, and we are taking Ben to JCPenney's to get 3 month photos taken. Should be fun! We plan on getting 3/6/9 month and 1 year photos professionally taken. Then we also need to figure out where we are going to have him baptized, and when. We're thinking May/June and either here in DC or in Michigan. Definitely need to figure it out soon though!

I have more photos and will try to post them soon... I still can't believe how fast my free time goes!

2 months 2 weeks 4 days old

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