one week old.

check: little man's first week at home!  we've had an awesome time figuring life out together.  besides being sleepy from interrupted night time sleep, everything has been awesome so far.  he's a surprisingly laid back little guy, very easy to please & only really fusses when he's hungry.  i keep waiting for him to be a spaz like mommy & daddy (haha) but so far he's just chill.  we love him so much already!!  here's the story of his first week of life in pictures...the best kind of story :)

morning after the first night at home with him. he has been sleeping in his own room since day one and it's been a much easier choice than i expected.  he's done just fine, and mama has managed to stay relaxed about it as well ;)  we have a video monitor so we can check in on him when needed.  the first night we were up sort of nursing & snoozing from about 11pm-4am...rough.  but then he slept solidly til 8am that first night which was great.  i worried a little about letting him sleep that long without eating but at his one week pediatrician appointment she said he was gaining weight just fine and we didn't need to wake him up to eat.  he looked SO tiny & adorable on our first morning waking up...surreal that we have a baby sleeping in the nursery we prepared for him:)

that first week we enjoyed having daddy home with us & we took advantage and had lots of morning snuggles in our bed.  i love his expressions so much already.  i think he's going to have LOTS of personality!  newborn smiles are the sweetest, even though i know they're unintentional at this point.

 we call him our little clip-on monkey and i love this outfit on him.  and his little smirk:)

i love the hat we got at the hospital.  so sweet.  i think he looks kind of like a thug in these pics!  haha.  he naps during the day in this newborn napper, part of our pack-n-play.  it's awesome!  i love having a spot to put him for resting without having to run up & down the stairs.  his bed is awesome for sleeping at night but less convenient for naps until brady gets a routine down with consistent length naps.  until then, the pack-n-play newborn napper feature is perfect.

at five days old we took him to his first ball game!  gotta start him early!  mike is playing on a co-ed team this summer, the same one we played together on last fall, and brady & i loved going to cheer him on.  i was totally paranoid about foul balls, so we sat close to home plate where the backstop was taller - and i watched the balls like a hawk.  brady did just fine!  we even nursed & changed a messy diaper at the game...all in a day's work for me :)

brady's friend eliot is obsessed with him and loves holding him!  it's so sweet.  jen is due any day now with a baby girl, and it was fun to see how interested eliot was in brady - and how much he will love having a baby sister!

in his first week there was LOTS of napping on mommy & daddy's chests :)  it's seriously his favorite spot to rest.  i call mike the baby whisperer because he has an uncanny ability to put B right to sleep on him.  very, very sweet.

he likes mama snuggles too ;)

i think he's hangry in this picture...he did get that trait from me & mike...the meltdown when his meal doesn't arrive quite quickly enough!!

i LOVE this picture of him with his adorable chipmunk cheeks!!  he is SO tiny.

smiling behind the blankie.

 we had him wear mitts for most of his first week - he had a newborn photo shoot at seven days old & we didn't want him scratching his face all up.  you know those newborn nails are like razors!  he looked adorable though in them.  and i love how his legs were so curled up that first week.  he hardly ever stretched them out!

i love a baby burrito.  by the end of week one, he started stretching his legs out more and wrestling himself out of the swaddle - so we switched to the velcro swaddlers that i got.  but he was so CUTE in the hospital blankie all bundled up!

it's very hard to wake up in the morning!

 i love this picture i took one night after nursing him before bed. love the way he wraps around me so perfectly...and his skinny newborn legs & fuzzy back.  sweet baby.

 this has always been my favorite reflex.  the monkey toes!!

when we first got home from the hospital thursday afternoon, sarge was in his dog run.  i laid brady down for a nap & let sarge in and the first thing he did was run right over to his carseat and start sniffing it.  and then to his outfit he'd worn home, and the boppy pillow where he'd laid.  he somehow knew right away there was a new person in the house.  these pictures are even more precious to me now, knowing that that afternoon we made the decision to have sarge put down.  his leg was so much worse when we came back after three days in the hospital, and he was limping so much more, and while his nub still wagged fiercely he didn't get up as quickly to greet us.  i just knew it was time.  i'm so grateful he hung on long enough to meet brady though...for my boys to have a photo or two together.

these are the only pictures i have of sarge meeting brady face to face...wish i'd had a better angle, but i'm really just grateful to have any pictures of them checking each other out.  sarge was really calm, and just sniffed him a lot.  he didn't even lick brady, and sarge was a LICKER!  he must have known the baby was off limits :)

on sunday we had a bunch of people over in the afternoon to kind of say their goodbyes to sarge.  it was bittersweet.  i cried a ton of course, but was so glad everyone got to come love on him and in sarge's world it was probably his favorite day of life.  he got lots of scratches & love from all his favorite people, he got to play lots with maggie (and he was really energetic this afternoon), and eric & whitney brought over ice cream for him!  mike and i kept saying how glad we were that he had the best last 24 hours.

sargey laid right in front of the patio door in order to gather as much attention as possible :)

our one & only complete family picture!  so, so glad to have this.

on monday morning, it was time to say goodbye to our first baby.  we had the vet come to the house to put sargey down, and we had a great last morning together.  brady napped inside while mike & i loved on sarge in the yard before the vet got there.  we gave him some ice cream, lots of scratches, and tossed the ball a few times - even though he didn't seem to want to play fetch.  his paw was so swollen below the tumor & he mostly just laid in the mornin shade under his favorite tree.  it was a sweet morning with him. the euthanasia was really peaceful and i'm so glad we decided to do it at our house with all his favorite things & people around him.  we miss our puppy so much.  he was the world's best & the world's worst dog all wrapped up in 100 pounds of beast.  he was the sweetest, most loving & gentle dog we've ever known - to those he loved.  he had quite a bark, and we don't miss that - but we will always love laughing about his little nub wagging (or more like vibrating!) constantly, the way he rubbed his eyes on our legs in the morning, his crazy eyes & expressive eyebrows, and the way he rolled around in the yard whether just relaxing or playing vigorously with maggie.  we loved you, puppydog.

he loved this mangled tennis ball.

at least brady inherited the crazy eyes :)  makes me laugh just as much as sarge's did!

 back to the baby update...i love his fat lips post nursing, and the little baby mullet.

 bradykins got his first bath on tuesday night, one week old, after his umbilical stump fell off that day.  this is before he knew what was coming!

not a big fan of the bath...

but nothing is cuter than a baby in a hooded towel! 

 after his bath we wrapped him up, he had a snack & was ready for bed.  he slept a five hour stretch that night, which i think was because he'd exhausted himself screaming like a maniac during his bath!  love his fuzzy post-bath hair :)

still kind of pissed about the bath.

brady the mummy!

i love all his expressions... and he seems to love his rainforest bouncer.  he was "talking" to it in that first pic...

morning snuggles on the patio with aunt kate.

and wishing daddy well on his first shift back after becoming a dad!  we missed him a lot that first day :)

first time trying out the breastpump!  not as bad as i expected :)

and at seven days old, we headed to my friend desiree's studio for a newborn portrait session!  as i type this, i still have not taken one single photo of him with my real camera.  i was so surprised by this, and mentioned it to desiree - who said "you're being a mommy now, not a photographer."  which i guess is true!  i just don't want to set him down to photograph him, when i can snuggle him instead.  so for now, iphone photos it is!  i'm so glad desi took lots of pictures for us though!  he's already changed so much.  so here he is at seven days old...he was so good - although it took almost five hours to get all these shots.  the room was heated to over 90 degrees with space heaters, and she used the binky, and a noise machine, and intermittent nursing to keep him relaxed & sleepy.  my behind the scene shots:

and desi's AMAZING images of our sweet little peanut...

***

so that's where we are one week in.  loving life so much with our little guy.  the transition has been easier than expected for all of us.  we got an amazingly calm baby, and we are enjoying him and each other so much during this time.  i know it will go so fast & so we are soaking up every second together with him so small.  we kiss him nearly to death, we rock, and sing, and snuggle in the mornings in bed - and it's by far the best decision we ever made.  after years & years of not knowing if or when we wanted babies - we are immensely grateful to feel so ready for this and so in love with this kiddo.  God has blessed us beyond imagination.