2nd Month

By the second month we were able to do "on demand" feeding instead of waking Mr Bradley up every 3 hours on the dot, so we started getting a little more sleep at night and I could let him go a little longer during the day if he wasn't hungry yet - so that was nice :)

I went back to work on February 11th part time from 7-11 am - very hard to leave him! I hadn't left him at all so I decided that I should do a little something outside of the house without him for a couple hours to ease myself into being without him in the mornings, so I went and got a massage. I figured that would be a nice relaxing thing to do and maybe I wouldn't stress out too much. It turns out it was the worst massage I've ever had and I don't know if it was the actual massage itself or just the fact that I couldn't relax :) Oh well :)

We gave Mr Bradley his first pacifier at about 6 weeks old - which I hated. For some reason I got really jealous, which I know sounds silly but it didn't seem right - him sucking on something that wasn't me :) (that really does sound silly!) Then he got his first bottle of breastmilk at 7 weeks, we had to start getting him used to it because Kevin would have to get him to take one bottle every morning while I was at work and I would pump once while at work. He took right to the bottle no problem - what a sweetheart!
He started smiling more and more everyday. He has this little "Elvis smile" where he lifts one side of his mouth into a half smile - very cute! And we started to rejoin the world a little bit, I would take him out more with me to run errands - go to the store, go shopping for clothes, etc. I still was very careful about what time of day we could go out because I didn't want him sleepy or hungry, so the window of opportunity was very small :) Still - every time we went out he was pretty much asleep the whole time in his car seat - so he still wasn't getting much of a view of the outside world yet :)We went for our first walk to try to get out of the house more, but the weather still wasn't cooperating - too cold! Oh well, we got to try out the adorable snow suit! :)

Mr Bradley was exactly 2 months old in this picture! At his 2 month appointment he weighed in at 11 pounds and was 22 inches long!

1st Month

So - first off - I was INSANELY overprotective of Mr Bradley from the second he came out. I didn't feel comfortable with anyone holding him or him being away from me for any amount of time. This got me in a little trouble with some people because they thought that I didn't trust them - of course I trusted them, but I couldn't explain it. He was just so perfect and I wanted so badly to do everything right and not hurt him in anyway. I just wanted him close to me - always and forever! There was no question about the bond that developed the second he was born and layed on my chest. People always say you don't understand it until it happens to you and they're exactly right! After years of anticipating the day I got to meet my baby it still was more emotional, more spiritual, and more amazing than I ever could have imagined. Kevin right away started calling Bradley "Mr Bradley" and the nickname stuck :)

From the first day he was a great sleeper - so much so that I had to wake him up all the time to eat which I hated doing. A couple times I let him sleep a little longer than 3 hours because I felt bad waking him up and then his weight was a little lower than they wanted at his checkup so I couldn't do that anymore :) His first time out of the house was on Christmas morning to go over to Mammy's - but for the first month we mostly just stayed inside! Kevin was able to take off several weeks so we all just stayed home together which was very nice and very needed!

In this picture Mr Bradley is exactly 1 month old!

Labor and Delivery

I had an appointment on December 6th and I got checked for the first time for any progression. I was 1 1/2 dialated, minus 1 station (baby was very low already!) and 60% effaced. She said that she didn't think I would make it to the due date. I had another appointment on December 13th and I was 2 centimeters, still minus 1 station and about 70% effaced. Then I went back on December 18th. My mom was telling me that I should talk to her about inducing because the contractions were so constant and getting hard to deal with after 2 straight weeks, but I didn't want to push anything - I wanted to let Baby come when Baby was ready :)

When our doctor came in she was telling me that she could strip my membranes and I told her to go for it! She checked me and I was 2 1/2, 0 station, and 80% effaced, she said my bag of water was right there and could easily be broken if needed - then she stripped my membranes which she warned me could be pretty painful but I actually barely felt it. Pretty much as soon as she did that contractions started, but I didn't think too much of it since I'd been having contractions for weeks. After the appt we went to lunch and contractions were still there but not too much worse than they had been - but it was the middle of the day and they usually got worse at night so I told Kevin I had a feeling something was going to happen that night. We ate dinner around 7 and then I was really feeling them and told Kevin I was going to sleep because that usually worked to make me feel better - I'd wake up several times during the night with bad ones every now and then but I could always fall asleep - not this time! I layed in bed for 2 hours counting contractions until finally I couldn't take it anymore - I was mostly annoyed that I couldn't fall asleep and felt like I needed to do something. I went downstairs and woke up Kevin (who fell asleep on the couch) and told him I couldn't get to sleep because they were so bad, but didn't want to jump the gun again so I was very hesistant to go to the hospital. I called the doctor after a while of debating what to do and the on call dr called me back and told me to take a hot shower and if they get worse it's real labor - if they go away or get better it's false labor. So I took a shower - even though I was scared because I didn't really want them to get worse - they hurt already :) In the shower I was fine, as soon as I got out of the shower - they hurt!!!! I was standing at the vanity as soon as I got out and was doubled over in pain - then I knew for sure! So I told Kevin we needed to leave right away. We got to the hospital around midnight and man was I in pain - it's funny because I always heard that after labor you forget how bad the pain really was - not me :) I remember how much it hurt! :) The first thing I said to the nurse was "how soon do you guys give epidurals?" :) She laughed at me and said, "well lets get you checked in and everything first". My main problem was that nothing I was doing was helping the pain - if I could have found a good position or something to help the pain get a little better I would have been able to deal with it better - but nothing helped. I remember my mom and Tammy getting to the hospital and I could barely look at them or talk to them I was in so much pain. I was checked again and I was 3 1/2 so they said I could get the epidural - which I got around 2. They had to try to get it in twice because it didn't work the first time.

Then I was SO HAPPY!! I was able to talk to everyone that came there in the middle of the night to support me and I think I might have even closed my eyes for about half an hour! Everything was so exciting, there was no way I could fall asleep. They checked me again around 4 and I was 4 centimeters, then again at 5:30 and I was 5 1/2, then at 7:00 I was 6 1/2 and they broke my water - then it went really fast! At 8:30 I was 9 1/2 and they were getting me ready to start pushing - which was freaking me out, I thought I had another several hours before that! I started pushing around 9:25 and Mr Bradley was born at 10:20am! He was 7 pounds 9 ounces and 19 1/4 inches long. He was beautiful from the very second he came out! I've never seen such a beautiful baby - actually Ive never seen anything that beautiful in all my life!!! He is just perfect in every way - we are so so blessed and thankful!

December!

So December came and with the due date quickly approaching the contractions decided to start early and make the last 2 weeks of pregnancy pretty hard. We had to go to the hospital when I was 29 weeks because I was having steady contractions and was given meds to make them go away, so based on that no one really thought I would make it all the way to December 20th. We went back to the hospital on December 10th because I was having contractions, I called the doctor to see if we should go - and instead of asking me questions and asking the doctor - the nurse on the phone just told us to go just to make sure. Kevin and I didn't feel like it was time yet but we went, spent several hours there and ended up being sent home because I was having very consistent contractions but they were not progressing.
So for the next week I was not sleeping well because of contractions and regular pregnancy woes, and every day the contractions would start pretty early in the day and get worse and worse as the day went on. There was one other night that we were about to walk out the door to go to the hospital but I decided to wait for one more bad contraction - which never came, so I'm glad we avoided being sent home again that night :)

November

With November came the Baby Shower and Thanksgiving. The Baby Shower was thrown by my Mom and 2 sisters and was so much fun! I love playing games at showers and we had plenty. Many friends and family were able to make it and we were so blessed by everyone's generosity! I appreciate everyone in our lives so much and the love for the baby was so evident! Everyone was so excited for us and knew how much we wanted this baby and how overjoyed we were to be so close to meeting him or her! :)















For Thanksgiving we had our normal bunch over for a small get together :) Bill, Tammy, Mom, Mindy, Drew, Katie, and Scott. We later went to Dad's for a nice dinner and Connie's another weekend for another wonderful dinner! I sure love turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy - ya know it's the one food in the world that actually tastes good all mixed together :)

October

In October we had our yearly Halloween party. Kevin first thought of us being a football player with his knocked up cheerleader :) but those costumes would have been hard to find - especially a cheerleader outfit that would fit over my big belly :) So a Priest and pregnant Nun was our next choice! It was a lot of fun as usual! We also carved our pumpkins - Kevin carved a little one for the baby but messed up on it so it ended up being 'cyclopse baby' - pretty much a pumpkin with 3 big holes in it :) At least baby had a pumpkin I guess!

September

September '07 was an exciting month - Connor Joseph Dunphy finally decided to come meet us! Katie had a rough time but did a great job bringing this beautiful baby into the world! Born 9 pounds 10 ounces with a full head of hair - he is adorable! We also got to see our good friends Erin and Joe who came back to visit. Erin was due 1 week after I was so it was nice comparing our big bellies and talking pregnancy and babies! :)