Happy 1st Birthday Grant!

A glimpse at Grant's First year (followed by a letter to Grant after the pictures!)
Our positive pregnancy test-9/23/09

It's a boy!
The last picture of you in my belly--taken 2 days before my water broke!

Grant Brendan Docter-4/28/10

Finally opened your eyes!

Welcome home, Grant!

At Children's Hospital for Pyloric Stenosis :(

Your baptism cake
Capturing your first smiles--in your favorite place to sleep!

First dip in the ocean on your first vacation

First time in a pool!
3 month picture

All smiles in your Notre Dame gear

Learning to sit up like a big boy!

6 month picture

Carving pumpkins

First Halloween!

After your first haircut

First Thanksgiving

First time seeing snow

Getting messy after eating solids

Cutting down our Christmas tree

Merry Christmas!

You love your baths!

Starting to crawl

Sporty boy

9 month picture

Hanging out at the park

Doug and Mini-Doug
Cute boy

Starting to stand up
Look at those teeth!

12 Month picture!

Dear Grant,

Mommy and Daddy cannot believe that you are turning 1 year old today. We can no longer be in denial that this day is coming, for it's finally here whether we like it or not. While we are sad that you are no longer a little baby, we are excited to celebrate with you and continue to watch you grow. Last year, in the wee hours of April 25, my water broke in bed, and we realized that you intended to join us a little earlier than expected. We spent a few days in the hospital trying to stop the labor so you could cook a little longer, but nothing was stopping you from entering the world. After midnight of April 28, full, intense labor started, and we knew we couldn't keep you in there any longer. You made your appearance at 11:24 am at Good Samaritan hospital, and at that exact moment, our lives were changed forever. Seeing your tiny little body, weighing in at only 5 pounds, 11 ounces and measuring 18 3/4 inches long, with all that black hair, we knew that we had just receieved the greatest, most perfect gift ever. The next few days we had to deal with some bumps in the road: you wouldn't latch on so had to be bottle fed, and your jaundice and bilirubin levels kept rising, resulting in some light therapy and a stay in the incubator. But 4 days after your birth, we were sent away from the hospital and out into the world, where we would be the ones taking care of you!

We got into a nice routine at home, that is until 2 weeks later when you started to scare us with your extreme vomiting and no eating. We ended up at Children's Hospital, and you were diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis. You had surgery at 3 weeks old to correct it, and after 8 nights at the hospital, you finally were good enough to go back home. You continued to spit up constantly (but more like baby spit-up instead of full-force vomiting) and developed acid reflux. You went on Zantac, which helped a little, but we would continue to deal with your spitting up, making a mess, and wearing bibs until you were about 9 months old! All of this caused you to have trouble sleeping--you couldn't sleep flat on your back, so we tried the bouncer, the car seat, a wedge in the crib, and finally the best thing we ever bought--the Fisher Price Newborn Rock and Play sleeper (an angled bassinet that you loved to sleep in and helped with your reflux). You would conitnue to sleep in this until almost 7 months! You didn't really start sleeping through the night until about 6 months, but once you did, you decided that you really do love sleep, and you would go about 11 hours each night with good naps during the day. This is still the schedule you are on today, so hopefully it stays that way for awhile!

The rest of the year seemed to just fly by--we spent the summer getting you to smile and laugh for the first time, getting you baptized, and going on many family trips. The fall was spent watching football, starting to eat solids, and learning many new skills such as rolling over and sitting up. The holidays came and went, and we introduced you to many of our family traditions that we hope to continue every year for you. You started army crawling at 9 months and were fully crawling at 10 months, and then there was no stopping you or your exploring! Your first tooth finally popped out at 10 months as well. It's amazing how much you grow and change everyday, and how many new milestones you reached in such a short time. Everyone also says you look so much like your Daddy, but you still have some of Mommy's traits too, and that is fine with us!

We now finally understand what everyone means when they say time goes by so fast, and to make sure we stop and enjoy it. This past year has been so amazing, and thank you for making us parents. We are beyond blessed to have you in our lives. You are the cutest, happiest baby we know, and we cannot imagine our lives without that grin, your funny sounds, and the cuddles and love we receive from you everyday. We will miss your first year and all that came with it, but we are excited to see what year two will bring. We can't wait to see you walking, then running, hear you talking more, watch you discovering more about what life has to offer, and make you a big brother in the fall. Even though you are technically a toddler now, you will always be our baby, our first-born, our precious little boy. We hope you constantly feel that love that is surrounding you--from us, your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. You are so special, and we can't imagine having any other baby but you, our Grant. Today is your day--the day we celebrate you! Enjoy and party and eat cake! We love you so much Grant Brendan. Thank you for making our lives so extraordinary. You are the best thing that's ever been ours. Happy 1st Birthday, and here's to many more!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Fun in the Sun/End of 1st Trimester

I am at the end of the 1st trimester of this pregnancy, and I couldn't be happier. I am hoping that this brings an end to nausea, fatigue, and a few other things, but with all that, we are still so excited about having another little one on the way! It almost seems that I should be farther along than I am, but then again, it seems like just yesterday that we found out we are expecting, and in reality it's been over 2 months! I'm not really showing much yet, but am noticing that my belly and gut (that I never completely lost after having Grant) is pushing out a little bit more. I'm sure I will show a lot sooner than I did the first time, so I probably only have a few more weeks left before breaking out most of the maternity clothes. I won't start posting any belly bump pictures yet, though, until there is actually something more to see than my love handles and gut! My heartburn has also gotten worse--happening off and on all day. The Tums seem to help for now, so hopefully it won't get any worse where I have to get some other type of medicine for it. We're having so much fun starting to talk about names again, whether it's a boy or girl, thinking about how this baby will be like or different than Grant, and planning for how we are going to organize our little house. We are having so much fun!

Since the last post, Grant has picked up a few new skills. He can now climb stairs. We discovered that he could do this while at Matt and Tammy's new house. Since we live in a ranch, and put up baby gates by the steps in our basement when playing down there, he hasn't had much practice, but picked it up right away when put on their steps. He also is starting to stand up on his own. While he is holding onto a table or something, he is starting to let go and balance for a little bit before squatting down or grabbing back on. We can also get him to stand by steadying him then letting go. He seems so proud of himself and sometimes stops to clap!

With the nicer weather upon us, we are starting to spend more time outside and loving it. Grant loves it as well, and is always happy when out in the fresh air. Although, he doesn't seem to be a big fan of grass just yet. Everytime we set him in it, he fusses and holds his hands up so he doesn't have to touch it. I'm sure once he is walking, he won't mind it as much. We also went to the park last week with some other family members. Grant loved swinging and crawling through the tunnel that my cousin brought for the kids to play with. While he can't play on the playground quite yet, he had fun watching all the other kids play! Grant loves being in his stroller and taking walks--he is always calm and happy. We are looking forward to getting more outdoor toys for Grant to play with, as well as breaking out the cozy coupe car he got for Christmas and riding it on the patio and sidewalk.

In the last few weeks, we have celebrated Clara's 2nd birthday, Doug's birthday, and we are excited about Grant's first Easter next weekend. We are also preparing for our first vacation of the year. We leave the day after Easter to head back to Folly Beach, SC, where we spent Grant's first vacation last June with my family. One of Doug's best friends from Notre Dame is getting married in Charleston, SC on April 30, so we decided to make it a longer trip by staying at the beach first--which is right outside the city. We were able to talk my parents into joining us to help babysit while we attend the rehearsal dinner and wedding, and upon hearing this, Matt, Tammy, Clara, Susanne, and Corey decided to join us too! Grant's 1st birthday will be on Thursday of that week, so he is a lucky little boy to be able to spend it with his family on vacation at the beach. We will then have a party back here with everyone when we return. Look for updates and pictures from the vacation, and Grant's birthday and party. We can't believe he is only 11 days away from turning one!

Grant's Going to be a Big Brother!

Big News! I am pregnant! So, this post will be "Catching you up to date" part 2. (The first one was the first ever post we put on this site back in Sept. 2009, where we described the beginnings of our pregnancy with Grant.) We are so excited to share this news with you. My due date is October 25. Here is what has happened so far!

I suspected I was pregnant on February 12. I had some slight heartburn, and I haven't had that since the day I had Grant, and I never had it before I was pregnant the first time, so I was suspicious. I knew it may be a little early to find out, but couldn't shake the feeling that I could be pregnant again! So the next day, Doug and I decided to buy a test, thinking I would just take it, it would be negative, and I could stop thinking about it. Since I surprised Doug with the news after taking a test the last pregnancy, we thought we'd do it a little differently this time. I went in the bathroom, took the test, then left it in there to get the results. Doug went in first a few minutes later, so he could see it before me this time. He also took the video camera with him to catch it all on film. When he saw the digital word "pregnant" on the test, he grabbed it and ran it out to me--all while still taping. We were both so shocked, happy, surprised, and excited! We hugged, cheered, and kept looking at it. We then told Grant he was going to be a big brother! With as long as it took to get pregnant with Grant, we expected a similar experience with #2, so of course we are so excited we don't have to go through that again!

The next day was Valentine's Day, and we still couldn't believe it, so of course I took another test just to make sure! I called and made a doctor's appointment for that Thursday, Feb. 17. At that appointment, they confirmed the pregnancy with another test, and I also had blood taken to test my thyroid, which came out fine. We then had an ultrasound on March 9. I was just over 7 weeks at the time. Everything looked great, and we saw the little heart beating away on the screen! We had another appointment yesterday, at 11 weeks, and we were able to hear the heartbeat using the Doppler device. It was quite a relief to hear it and know that everything is going well so far! We go back to the doctor again in another 4 weeks, on May 5.

We told our parents and siblings a few days after we found out in a special way. We bought Grant a t-shirt that says, "I'm the big brother!" We just had him wearing it and waited for them to notice it. They were all so shocked and excited when they figured it out!

Already, this pregnancy has been quite different than with my pregnancy with Grant. Not sure if that means anything--some people say maybe it's a girl? Of course we don't care either way. Having a boy has been so much fun, and we'd be so happy if Grant had a brother so close in age, but of course getting to experience a girl after already having a boy would be great too! We will find out what it is again with this pregnancy--probably in mid-June.

I have been much more nauseous with this pregnancy. While I don't get sick, I just feel blah, nauseous, and tired all day. Of course, chasing after a mobile little boy sure doesn't help! I haven't had as much heartburn so far (even though that was the earliest sign), my face/skin is breaking out like crazy, I already have different cravings, and there are a few other different, unpleasant symptoms I won't share with you. I just can't wait to be out of the first trimester soon, and hopefully my energy will come back.

I also had to stop breastfeeding Grant after that first doctor's appointment. The doctor said usually it may be okay to breastfeed while pregnant, but since nursing releases something called oxytocin, which can cause uterine contractions, it was best for me to stop, since I've already had a miscarriage and preterm labor. So I had to pretty much stop cold turkey that next day. It was painful--both emotionally and physically, but Grant didn't even seem to mind, and he took to the bottle and formula fine. I'm just glad I was able to nurse him for almost 10 months.

It's so weird being pregnant for the 2nd time. We go to our appointments with hardly any questions, whereas with Grant we had lists of written questions we took with us to the doctor. And while we still worry--as any pregnant mother does--I feel we are a little more relaxed this time. I really want to enjoy this pregnancy and not rush it. I want to cherish the moments we have with just Grant, before adding another little one to our family. With them being around 18 months apart, we hope they are close and have so much fun together! I'm sure the time will go so fast, though, considering how fast time has gone since Grant arrived. He will already be 1 in a few weeks! Please say some prayers for a healthy pregnancy, and a baby that arrives full term this time! We will continue to update this blog with both Grant updates and pregnancy updates, so check back! Thanks for all the support!