See Braden Cracking up!

This video of Braden will have you laughing, too, I promise.

things we've learned since becoming parents

- Baby "sleeping through the night" does not mean baby will sleep until you are ready to get up.

- The Dr.s weren't lying- You really do have to do your Kegel exercises or you really will pee yourself every time you sneeze or- god forbid- try to do a jumping jack.

- Your husband WILL look "down there" when you give birth, no matter how much he will say beforehand that he doesn't want to look "down there" and no matter how much you tell him he'd better not look "down there" or you will kill him.

- You DON'T forget the pain of labor when you hold your baby for the first time!

- It's okay to spend the first six weeks of parenthood wondering why they ever let you leave the hospital with this baby.

- Sleep deprivation is a really, really, very big deal.

- Being the very first of your friends to have a baby is no fun.

- Orange food means orange poop.

- Having 5 minutes of time all to yourself is the most glorious thing life can offer.

- Having a child means you can never stop worrying or spending money.

- Baby monitors were invented by mean people who hate sleep.

- Green food means green poop.

And most recently, we learned:

- Going away to a remote location for an extended period of time with a baby does NOT equal vacation.

And,
- It really does only take a second for a baby to get a mouthful of sand lodged in his mouth and up his nose!

First Foods

This week, we have been giving Braden his first solid foods! So far, he has enjoyed sweet potatoes and hated carrots. Next, it's on to the world of squash and then the green veggies!

Here he is at his very first feeding.

What the heck is this?

What am I supposed to do with this, Mom?

Okay, I'm digging it...

Yeah, give me more!!!

Ha! Look at me now!

Oh, I LOVE sweet potatoes!!!

He loved 'em so much they were gone in a flash!

And he was so pleased with himself....

The complete Outer Banks album is now posted on our Sutterfly site, Our Life in Pictures.

Just use our password: bill&nicole to view them!

Enjoy!

Happy 5 months Braden!!!!

Braden turned 5 months old on May 13, while we were on a mini-vacation in the Outer Banks for our dear friends' wedding.

It was the first family trip for us, and what a trip it was for Braden- a nine-hour drive in a packed-to-the-roof Jeep, Braden catching his first cold, his first dips in the pool and trips to the beach, eating mouthfuls of sand, being the most popular guest at a beachside wedding, staying up for parties every night, sleeping in an inflatable boat, and of course, a nine-hour ride back!

We all had fun, but it was exhausting!!! It opened Bill & I's eyes to what it's like to vacation as a "family" instead of just a couple, and I still don't think we've recovered from the experience....

To celebrate turning 5 months, Braden treated his Daddy to long strings of "Dadadadada"- his first real episode of "talking"- and he got up on all fours and crawled backwards. Hopefully, someday he will learn to go the other way, although we're in no hurry to chase a crawling baby around.

We'll share a few pictures of the trip and wedding with you, and the full album will be on our Shutterfly site very soon. Enjoy!

Bill & Braden at the beach

Nicole & Braden

Taking a dip in the pool

Happy family on the porch of our beachhouse,
overlooking the sound

Braden in his cute sailor outfit

Sleeping in the inflatable boat

The 3 of us inside the house

On the porch with my best gal, AC

Bill helping to cook the wedding night filet

At the sunset beach wedding

The newlyweds

Best of friends

Us girls with the groom

Dancing with Braden

Braden gets a kiss

I love the beach! Let's do it again!

Happy Mother's Day (One Week Late)

We just got back from our first family trip, (a four-day stay in the Outer Banks for a wedding), so this post is a little late.

But I couldn't go without saying Happy Mother's Day to all Moms out there, especially the mothers who have made such a difference in my life- my Mom, who is nothing short of my hero, my amazing grandmothers, Reba and Elsie, who taught me countless lessons about what it means to be a woman and mother, my cousin Rhonda and Aunt Wendy, who helped to raise me as a young girl and helped me become who I am today, and the new women I am so lucky to now call Moms and Grandmoms- Sharon, Judy, Betty, and Alice, who have also been an inspiration to me since I met Bill.

I have such a new appreciation for moms everywhere and all they do... so happy, happy mother's day to you all...

As for us here, Mother's Day was very quick. I was lucky to have my mom with me for the weekend, and she watched her new grandson while I worked the night shift both Saturday and Sunday. I woke up for a few quick hours on Sunday afternoon to have a family dinner at Alice's (Bill's grandmother), which was fabulous as usual. Then, I cried all the way back to work, which I haven't done since the first night I had to leave Braden.

I know I'm very lucky to only have to work about two 12-hour night shifts a week now, but sometimes leaving is so hard. On Mother's Day, I was so grateful and overwhelmed to finally be included as a mother, but I hardly felt like one as I left my baby behind after only seeing him for a very short time.

But, I guess he still loves me, because he gave me this beautiful card that I will cherish forever!



(It says "Mom, I'll always look up to you" and someone- thanks, Mom- attached his smiling face and traced his handprint inside)



And his Daddy gave me these beautiful diamond earrings as a thank you for bringing our son into the world.




I think I have the best two men in the world.

{Seeley Family, Mother's Day 2008}

What You Missed in Months 3 & 4

{Braden at 3 months}















{Braden at 4 months}

The 3rd & 4th months of our life with Braden were drastically different than the first two. (And we mean different in a very good way.) After the first two months, we were getting a little more sleep at night, we started to feel a little more like "parents", and life in general became a little less stressful.

I can't say life went back to "normal" because I wouldn't even know what normal means anymore. We were definitely still lost somewhere in that baby haze, but we could tell that we were starting to feel a little like ourselves again. Like maybe, someday soon, we would once again be Bill & Nicole instead of just Braden's parents.

For me, I was so happy when that God-awful "post-partum" period was over (why doesn't anyone warn you of how gross that is?!),I was of course thrilled to have lost most of the baby weight, and even going back to work felt sort of good. Bill and I found ourselves in a good routine of taking turns, splitting most of the work 50/50- we took turns getting up at nights, took turns putting baby to bed and getting baby up, took turns giving each other "me" time... It was like suddenly, we fell into in a groove.

And as for Braden... I don't even know where to start with all the changes in him!!!

He stopped being a limp biscuit and turned into this big boy with an even bigger personality! It seems like every day in the 3rd and 4th month, a baby does something new. In just two short months, Braden began smiling, laughing, talking, mocking your faces and noises, pushing up on his arms & raising his chest, rolling over, grasping and reaching for toys, standing on his own, sitting up on his own, taking bottles and then eating solid foods, and every day, noticing the world around him a little more and trying to interact with all of it!

Looking back on it, I can't believe all the ways he has grown. This time is definitely the most exciting time in a baby's life- and his parents' lives.

I guess the best way to describe what it's like to have a baby this age is that you stop asking yourselves, "What were we thinking?", and instead begin asking yourselves "What did we ever do without him?"


Here's a little album of the tricks he mastered in his 3rd & 4th month...

Smiling- alot!

Laughing

Discovering his hands

Reaching, grasping, rattling, kicking...

Rolling over!

Raising himself up high!

Sitting up!

Even standing while holding onto something!!!

It's amazing, isn't it?

Months 1 & 2

In the first two months Braden was alive, Bill & I just tried desperately to keep up with him.



He wanted to breastfeed (what seemed like) constantly. He didn't like to sit still, and we spent countless hours marching up & down the stairs with him. He was actually a good sleeper, usually giving us one 3 1/2 - 6 hour stretch at night, but his sleeping patterns were so erratic we never knew what to expect, and it was always desperately difficult to get him back to sleep after he awoke. The poopy diapers seemed to never end. Visitors poured in, the phone rang off the hook with well-wishers and checking-in.

I think we were both thinking, but were afraid to say it out loud, "Can we really handle this?" And some days, when we had gotten a total of four hours of (constantly interrupted) sleep, and Braden was feeling fussy, and we were on our 18th trip up or down the stairs with aching arms and backs, it may have turned into, "What were we thinking?!"

Parents never talk about those feelings, but I think they're perfectly normal, and I'll be totally honest about them. Having a newborn baby is a trying, tiring, thankless job...

Yeah, babies are really cute, but they are a lot more work than we ever imagined!

But then... it happened. First, he started cooing sweet little sounds at us. Then... Braden smiled at us!





From that point on, we were like "Whatever this child needs, whatever he wants, get it for him STAT!" And he's been spoiled ridiculously rotten ever since...

(Braden on his 2-month birthday)

Mouthful of Mush

Bill & I couldn't WAIT until Braden turned 4 months so we could get the okay to feed him real food- with a spoon! Last month, we started slowly introducing him to rice cereal and oatmeal. We are having too much fun watching him eat. Who knew you could get such a thrill from watching a baby roll mush around his mouth and spit it out.

Check him out eating his very first meal!


" Okay, what's this lady shoving in my mouth now?"


"Hmmm... I've never tasted this before..."

"Faster, lady, faster! I'm hungry!"


" Maybe I should scoop this out of my mouth and smear it all over me instead..."



Now we can't wait to start giving him some veggies in a week or so... It won't be long before we have green-stained bibs and orange poop!