Update.....

Barrett will be 4 months on Monday. Wow, the time has flown by!

He is progressing amazingly well. You would have never guessed he was a preemie. He is rolling over all the time in his crib from belly to back. He is able to hold his head up, but still wobbles! He is constantly watching everything around him, and Graham and I laugh all the time…Barrett loves watching football, and WW shows on the history channel. I don’t think he could get anymore like Graham! J He tries so hard to be such a big boy, he’s always trying to go somewhere. He is constantly kicking his legs, if you stand him up on your lap, of course he tries to walk. When he’s on his belly, he scoots to the top of his crib (of course he only does this when he’s mad). If he could get his arms and hands coordinating with everything else he would be crawling right now.

One thing Barrett absolutely loves is his bath time! He is growing out of his infant tub, he is now arching his back and kicking with his legs to try and roll over in it. He isn’t quit big enough for the seat in the tub yet. So I guess until he can start using the seat, we will just have to deal with him getting the floors and counters soaked!

I’m starting to notice that a couple of his 6 month clothes are starting to fit tight. L He was at 16 pounds a few weeks ago, and then he got sick and lost a pound. Now, with a full recovery I’m sure he has gained it back with a couple of extra pounds! He goes in for his check up on the 15th. We might try and start him feeding him cereal next weekend. I would like him to be able to hold his head up completely before I start it. However, there are days where it seems like he can’t get enough to eat, so we will just have to play it by ear.

Long time, I know!

Okay, so you know it's been a long time when you try and log in and you forgot your password!

Sorry! I have just been so busy with everything that I forget to write about what's going on. I am hardly on FB anymore!

Okay, I went back to work in December, that was so horrible! I surprised myself though, I cried the day before and that night...but was able to hold it together the first day. Then I came home and realized for the first time that Barrett actually knew who I was. When he saw me he started smiling and when I picked him up he wrapped his arms around my neck. It seemed like eternity before he would let me go. That is when I started crying; happy tears of course. It was a feeling only another Mother would know about. I took pictures of him that morning....

Then we had a wonderful Christmas with our families. Barrett got some really cute clothes, and wonderful toys that he is now playing with....pictures to come. Below are Xmas pictures....

Then we had New Years Eve, and Barrett stayed the night with his Aunt Emily and Uncle Skip while Mommy and Daddy went to a friends house.  It was hard leaving him, but I knew he would have lots of fun....besides he's been sleeping through the night since he was 9 weeks old!!!  Go Barrett!!!  :):):) 

The following pictures are of Barrett's "firsts".  The first time he noticed toys, first time he grabbed at a stuffed animal (Benny), the first time he played with a rattle, the first time Daddy took a picture of Barrett and I taking a nap, the first time he rolled over, and the first time he played in his saucer!  Lots of firsts in the last couple of weeks!!

9 weeks and 4 days

Sorry it's been a while since I've written, I've just been enjoying being a Mom!

Barrett is doing wonderful! He is 9 weeks and 10 pounds now! Yes he is a chunk! He's eating 6 oz every 3 1/2 hours. You can't even tell he was a preemie anymore. I read this book Baby Wise and it taught me how to get him on a schedule so he can start trying to sleep through the night naturally. I've been doing it for about 2 weeks now and it is starting to work!!! Usually he sleeps for about 5 hours, and last night he slept from 9pm to 5am!!! I am so excited! I will find out tonight if it was just a one time thing.

This weekend we had a family trip to the ranch. It was wonderful! The only reason we went was because it was suppose to snow there for the first time in 15 years. Barrett had a snow suit that we bought him when I was pregnant. It was too cute to pass up!! It came in handy this weekend. We took him outside for about 5 minutes so we could video tape him in his first time in the snow. When the snow would hit his mouth he would stick out his tongue and lick his lips. It was the cutest thing. It is about a 4 hour trip and he was so good the whole time! He only cried when he was hungry. The rest of the time he was just looking around outside or sleeping. He notices everything now, he is constantly looking around and watching. He smiles all the time now. He is starting to cue at me, wanting to talk to me. He is changing everyday and his personality is starting to shine through. Sigh, I am going to miss him SO much when I go back to work!

Here is some pictures of recent pictures of him.

Barrett's Snow Suit

1 month old

Barrett is a month old now. Wow time has flown by! I can't believe I have to go back to work in December, it is going to be so hard to go back!!!

Barrett weighs 8lbs and 9oz now. He has gained 3 pounds in a month. He is starting to do "tummy time" and is actually doing very well. He can hold his head up for about 5 seconds steadily.

Last weekend Graham and I had our first "date night" with our friends while Graham's parents watched Barrett. It was nice to be able to spend time with Graham, although I missed Barrett tremendously. His parents had their friends come over to the house to watch the UT game and to see Barrett. We had 2 doctors, and a nurse at our home, so I know he was in perfect hands!! :) We were only gone for a few hours but it seemed like a whole day. Graham and I decided that we need to have at least one Sat night to ourselves.

1 month old!!!

Barrett doing Tummy Time!

2 weeks old!

Barrett has been home for a week today and will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. He has changed so much just in the week he's been home. He is starting to be more alert now, and is always looking around like he's trying to figure what everything is. He is SO amazing!

He is starting to eat almost 3 ounces now every 2 hours. Too bad breast milk doesn't fill babies up like formula does! He is starting to smile more often, yes, I know it's probably because he has gas, but I will continue to think it's because he is just smiling at Mommy! :) He is really strong for only being 2 weeks old! He is already turning his upper body and lifting his head. I'm so proud of him! He is by far the best thing in our lives!

This weekend we have the big OU game, so Barrett will be decked out in his UT gear!

We have pictures below of the day we brought him home! He looks so tiny in the pictures. He weighs 5 lbs and 7 oz.

Mommy and Barrett

Proud Daddy!

Barrett at 5 days old.

Barrett at 2 weeks old!

Lots of News!

I would like to start off by saying that Barrett is here! He arrived on Oct 1, 2009 at 8:06AM. He weighs 5 lbs 9oz and is 19 inches long.

I thought everything was going to be great! It was such a surreal experience, one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. He was crying while the doctors were doing everything they do when you deliver, then the moment they put him in my arms he stopped crying and started looking at me. Right at that moment I knew my life would never be the same. It was also that moment that I realized how much my parents really loved me. A parents love is indescribable and so amazing. I only hope that some day Barrett really understands how much his Father and I love him already!

After they took him away they asked Graham to follow them to the NICU just to make sure everything was okay since he was 4 weeks early. He came back to my room and said everything is great, Barrett is perfect and they are about to take him in the nursery, then will bring him back to the room in a couple of hours. Graham and I had been up for about 30 hours straight (more to come on that) so I told Graham to go home and take a nap then come back up here. So as everyone was leaving and I just got to sleep, the doctor came into my room. She told me that as they were transferring Barrett to the nursery he stopped breathing for a couple of seconds, then started back up again, then stopped again....so they took him back up to the NICU and found that he had 2x as much magnesium in his system that he is suppose to have. I was on mag for about 26 hours before I delivered since I had pre-eclampisa. A moment of guilt came over me and I began to cry thinking I did this to him. Then I shot back to reality and knew that it was all things that HAD to happen for my health. So she said that they are going to make him urinate all the mag that is in his system, should take about 48 hours. Then I get another visit about an hour later from another doctor in the NICU telling me that they tried to feed him and he had a bad reaction to it so they had to start a feeding tube, and place him on a breathing machine. They were also going to tests to make sure his brain wasn't bleeding or anything else was wrong with his brain.

I thought I was in a horrible nightmare, I understand that it could have been worse, but you couldn't have told me that at that time! So the first thing I do is I call Graham, dreading this phone call, thinking the first call I make to my husband since he left the hospital, is to tell him something is wrong with his son. After telling him, he got off the phone and was on his way back to the hospital. This is not the nicest thing to say, but everyone kept calling me to congratulate me and was showing up wanting to see him and all I wanted was for Graham to hurry up and get there and everyone else to leave me alone. I couldn't get out of my bed for 24 hours since I was hooked up to the mag and was having to basically pee my pre-clampsia out of me.

The doctors had nothing new to tell me until the next morning (Friday). She told me that he was doing much better and they were taking him off the breathing machine and he was starting to make progress on peeing the mag out of his system. They were going to keep him for 5 days to watch his progress and as long as nothing else happens he will be able to come home on Tuesday.

That moment everything was completely different. I felt happy again and started to smile....I was able to get out of my bed that morning, took a shower, put make up on and suddenly I realized that I was able to actually walk up stairs and see my son for the first time!

Once I got up there, I saw how perfect he actually was. I know everyone says how beautiful their child is and how perfect they are, but he really was. Most infants look strange to me, for me, it takes a good couple of weeks for them to start looking really cute. Barrett on the other hand didn't look like a typical newborn. What can I say, he was just perfect despite all the wires and tubes coming out of his body.

Yesterday they were discharging me and I thought I would be ready since I had been in the hospital on bed rest for 12 days. As I was leaving the hospital, this horrible sickness came over me. I'm leaving without Barrett. I knew it was only a couple of days, and until he was able to come home I would see him all the time, but still, having to leave without our baby was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life. Once I got home, I tried to start unpacking my stuff, and figured I was pretty tired I could use a nap. I was home for maybe 2 hours before I lost it. I started crying and couldn't stop. I looked at Graham and asked if he would drive me back up to the hospital so I can see him again. He said okay. So there I was going back to the place that I couldn't wait to get out of to see my little man. As soon as I got to see him again, I instantly started feeling happy again, just holding him was amazing. I could just hold him and look at him all day long! So we left a couple of hours later, and that visit made me feel a lot better and now I'm looking forward to this morning when I will go back up there....

Now, about the last 12 days!

Last Tuesday morning I woke up to find that I was so swollen I couldn't even walk. I took my blood pressure and it was 164/110. So I called my doctor to see what he wanted me to do. He told me to get up to the hospital and to take my bag because I probably wouldn't be coming home. That was something I didn't want to hear, I still had 5 weeks to go.

Once I got there, they saw everything and then tested to see if I had any protein in my urine. Yes there was, so they admitted me and that is where boredom began! They had to watch my urine to see how much protein was in there, then they could determine how sever my pre-eclampia actually was. Came back that I was a little above the medium mark. I wasn't sever, which was good they wouldn't have to take the baby right away. However, that meant I had to stay on hospital bed rest. UGH, that was bad! I thought I was loosing my mind after the 3rd day. After the 9th day, I started to inch all over my body. I showed the doctor that I was starting to get a rash. He then tested me for cholestasis of pregnancy. That is another disease that you get from being pregnant. It is basically where your liver isn't functioning the way it is suppose to. Instead of putting everything in your intestines it is putting it back in your blood stream. They only cure just like pre-eclampsia is delivery. So the next morning my doctor came into my room and said well, you have two diseases, we are going to go ahead and induce you today, day 10. It took them 8 hours to get everything "prepped" then once everything was softened and ready they induced me at 9:45 PM and by 8:06 AM I had a beautiful son!

Barrett's Room/33 weeks

Nothing much has been going on since the last time I blogged. We are just waiting for the time to go by until Barrett arrives. I do have to admit, sometimes I start thinking about the delivery and I ask myself why am I doing this? I am starting to get scared about it! I'm sure everything will be fine, but it is still scary!

Below are pictures of Barrett's room! We still have to get a couple of things so the walls won't be bare, but other than that, it is completed!