Merry Christmas

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We feel truly blessed to have gotten to share our first Christmas with Brady as a family. We had a busy couple of days. We headed to Kimballton on Christmas Eve and went to church (Brady did so well--he didn't make a peep the whole service!!). Then on Christmas we headed up to my Grandma Parker's for the Parker Christmas. It was good to see everyone and most of them saw Brady for the first time. Later in the afternoon we headed up to Gowrie. On Friday we had another Christmas with Karl, Lisa and Laura. Then on Saturday afternoon we came back to Ankeny. We ate lots of good food, got totally spoiled with gifts and got to spend a lot of time with family. Brady got really spoiled by both gifts and lots of love--mommy and daddy got a little break as he got held most of the time by family members. We want to thank our families for everything!!

Today we went and got Brady's pictures taken. He did such a great job, eyes open and everything! I'm hoping to figure out how to scan them in so we can share!

We hope everyone has a great New Year!

Lounging at home

Christmas Eve Family Photo


Chris and Jessica


Grandma and Grandpa Petersen

Christmas Outfit

With Great Grandma Parker

With Nana Kris

With Papa Steve


Hanging out with Daddy

Update

It's been a while since I've updated our blog so I'll try to catch up! We were lucky to have my mom come and stay last week for 3 days--it would have been longer but the weather just didn't cooperate! Then Andy had Thursday and Friday off so I had lots of help! We were supposed to get Brady's pictures taken on Friday but the weather put a hault to that as well. Brady has been a pretty good baby, we're slowly figuring things out and his crabby/fussy time is getting less and less each day (hopefully I didn't just jinx us by saying that!). The nights have been pretty good the last few nights anyway. Most of the weekend we laid low and did some things around the house. We are getting close to having the nursery decorated the way we want and I'll post some pics once it's done. Then on Sunday we headed back to Kimballton for the Petersen family Christmas at my aunt Jana's. It was Brady's debut for most of them and he got plenty of love and he was a good baby pretty much all day long!
Today is the first day that I am home alone with the little man. Andy works today, tomorrow and a half day on Wednesday but then he gets to hang out with us for a whole week!
Below I've posted some pics--it seems he's changed so much in 2 weeks!


Lounging at home

All dressed up!

Family Photo

Sleeping with Great Uncle Scott

Brady turns 1 week old!

This past weekend, Brady turned 1-week old--it's amazing how your life can completely change in the span of a week! We are so blessed! We had some visitors on Saturday. Brad, Steph and Jaxson came over with loads of clothes, a delicious pasta bake and some new clothes for Brady too. It was great visiting with them and we really appreciate all they did! Then it was time for my brother Chris and my sister-in-law Jessica to come and see Brady. They weren't able to come to the hospital as they both were sick. They too spoiled us and brought some great food and more clothes for Brady. We are so excited for them as they will be welcoming a little girl in April. It will be great to have the cousins so close in age. My mom has come to stay for a few days starting on Monday and has been a huge help! It's given me the opportunity to get some sleep and get some things done! Here are some photos!


Uncle Chris and Aunt Jessica

The Cathcart boys--Brad, Jaxson, Daddy and Brady

Brady lounging before company comes--what full cheeks!!!

Bath time!

First few days at home!

Well we have been home with Brady for 3 days now and even though we are tired, etc we have loved every minute of it! On Wednesday my aunt Lisa stopped by to see us and it was great she was able to come! I was able to ask lots of questions and get info as she is an OB nurse! Our 2nd night with Brady went really well--he only woke up twice and when he did, he ate and went back to sleep! I'm telling myself not to get used to that!
Yesterday (Thursday) Grandma Kris came down for the day--and boy did we appreciate it! We had Brady's 1st weigh-in/check up at the pediatrician's office. He is doing great so far! His weight is at 8 lbs 1 ounce, so 1 pound less than when he was born and they were really happy with that. His jaundice level is really low and we don't need to be concerned with that anymore either. After the appointment, I wasn't feeling so good--my headaches have been extremely painful and then my incision is a little sore. So Kris and I grabbed some lunch (Andy had a dentist's appointment in West DSM) and I was able to come home and take a nap! It was great! While Andy was running errands, Kris and I went through some baby clothes that my generous neighbor Jen lent to us! There are so many cute things and Andy and I are SO appreciative to the Waters for bringing those over! Kris also made us a wonderful roast with all the fixins--I never knew how great it is for people to make food for you--needless to say, I haven't been cooking and neither has Andy.
So all in all, we've had a great few days at home. We are enjoying our time with Brady. We will be having some visitors over the weekend and I'm really excited for them to meet Brady. Andy is going back to work on Monday but luckily my mom will be coming to stay for the week! We're excited to have another helping hand at the house!!


Aunt Lisa


Lounging in his Pack 'n Play


Grandma Kris


All bundled up for his 1st trip to the Pediatrician...the hat is just a little too big!!


Brady HAS to be swaddled pretty much at all times...

Daddy Multitasking


Happy Family




I'm ready for my close up!

More Photos!!

I love my daddy!


Mommy loves me!



Little Monkey Man

Little Blondie!!!

It's a Boy!!! Brady Joseph Cathcart

We are blessed and thrilled to announce that we are the proud parents of a little boy. Brady Joseph Cathcart came into this world on Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 9:09 p.m. I started having contractions at 5 a.m. on Saturday and by 8 a.m. they were coming 5 minutes a part for over an hour so we were on our way to the hospital and checked in at 9:30 a.m. By noon I was in my room and getting my epidural!! I was so excited to get rid of some pain but unfortunately things didn't go the way we had hoped. As I was getting the epidural, the syringe didn't cooperate and the needle entered my spinal fluid. So another attempt was done and was successful however we were a little scared when we were told what happened as we didn't know what it meant...we were told that it could lead to me having a severe headache hours after delivery that would take another procedure to correct. At the time I wasn't worried about it because I was getting relief from the contractions. We had a few hours of painless time and I was moving right along--from a 4 to an 8 dilated in just over 2 hours...they thought that things were progressing really well and Brady's head was really low which would mean minimal pushing--or so we thought. I stalled out at 8 cm for over 4 hours and in the meantime I was given some Petocin (sp) to move things along. All of a sudden I started feeling the contractions in my back and they were extremely painful and with the Petocin making contractions come one after another, it became unbearable. After waiting as long as I could, we decided that it was time for a C-Section. To make an even longer story short, there was no way that I was going to have him naturally. He was one big boy and his head was sideways in my pelvis! It may not have been the ideal birth but we feel so blessed with the outcome. A beautiful baby boy!

Here are his stats:

Name: Brady Joseph Cathcart

Born: Saturday, December 6, 2008

Weight: 9 POUNDS, 1 OUNCE----Yikes!!!

Length: 21 inches

We had a great stay at the hospital, all the nurses and staff were wonderful! We headed home on Tuesday and were here by 2 p.m. We had a rough first night but we expected that. I have been having terrible headaches as a side effect but luckily today it is much better. We have lots of pictures, so enjoy! We also want to thank everyone that came and visited us, we really appreciate it and enjoyed seeing you!

1st Family Photo

Grandma and Grandpa Petersen

Uncle Nick and Auntie Kayla

Check-up

I had another doctor's appointment this morning. Things aren't progressing as fast as we'd like of course but at least I am dilated to a 1. Some progress is better than none! We are just so anxious and excited that every day seems like an eternity. The doctor did have me make an appointment for next week--the soonest I could get in is Friday!!! That seems like forever away and hopefully Baby C comes before then. And I know, I've heard it all before---'the baby will come when it's meant to come'---but being so uncomfortable and not sleeping at night makes for one growly impatient prego! Ha ha! I do have Friday off work so it will be really nice having another long weekend.
Andy has been such a trooper through it all, or should I say putting up with me!!! He will make such an amazing daddy!!!

Laid Back Weekend

The rest of our weekend was pretty laid back. Especially due to the weather. On Saturday we mostly stayed around the house. We did run a few errands and found adorable baby Christmas outfits for both a boy and a girl. We're excited to get to dress the little one up for Christmas this year! On Sunday we did some serious nesting! We cleaned out our closets and had 5 large garbage bags full of clothes and shoes to donate to Goodwill. So after a full day of deep cleaning and organizing we decided to take our stuff to Goodwill and then did a little more shopping. After all that fun we decided it would be nice to go to a coffee house and just relax so we went to Panera and got some great hot tea and dessert and just talked for over 1 1/2 hours. Most of the talking was about how excited we are for the baby to be here. We realized it was probably the last little 'date' we'd have for a while. Then we came home and watched a movie. Poor Andy had to get up early and use the snowblower for the first time of the year on our driveway and sidewalk but he was a good sport about it! Now we are just counting down the days until we have our little boy or girl!