Timothy's 2nd Month

So, miracles of all miracles! I got all the pictures from the last 5 months uploaded, sorted, and loaded onto blogger - woohoo! I even took advantage of all the walgreens sales recently and printed them too...will such wonders never cease?!? That means I can get on my 2012 "resolution" of updating my blog more often. I'm gonna do a series of catching you up posts, then HOPEFULLY I'll be able to keep up with this bad boy on a more regular basis.

Taking you all the way back to September 2011, here is a recap of Timothy's 2nd-ish month.

Let me remind you I had a c-section and we had assumed that would be the case so we had lined up help for the first 6 weeks. There is good and bad to having company for that long, but it was ultimately a blessing and we are grateful for family who could come and help me recover fully. Deborah, Erin & Grady flew in to meet Tim an stayed with us for a few days. I'll be honest, I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of adding 2 more kids to the mix, but as a veteran mom of 2, Deborah assured me it would be easier and it was! Grace had an absolutely BLAST with her cousins and Aunt Deborah got in lots and lots of new baby cuddles, as any Aunt should. :) While they were here, my stepdad came for a few days and took my Mom home and David's folks arrived for the start of their visit. After they left, we had one day solo before my Dad & stepmom arrived. On a whim, we decided to head back to WV with Dad & Linda when they went home so we could introduce Tim to his Great Grandma and the rest of our family in WV. Here are a few highlights from those few weeks of visits.

Grandad & Mimi with the kids

Erin, Grady & Grace

Snuggle time with Aunt Deborah

Not so sure about those kisses from Aunt Deborah

Grace & Erin coloring in the big book.  

The kids with their Mama & Papa

My 2 miracles

Snuggles from Nanny!

Papa and his little Mountaineer.  We get all my cousins' hand me downs so there is NO shortage of WVU gear.  :)

Papa time

Snuggling with Papa is the best!

Mommy snuggle time, my favorite!

Papa's kisses, LOVE that face!

My dad with his 3 babies (including Casper, his cat)

Tim's Great Grandmother holding him for the first time!

Many a babe has slept in those capable, comfortable arms - snuggling with my dear Aunt Reta

Grace & Tim with their cousins Maggie & Truman and their Great Grandma

200th Post!

I can't believe I have written 200 posts on this blog.  It's been an adventure and I'm thrilled to have 2 little kiddos to be writing about in addition to David & I.

Anyway, here are a few photos from Timothy's first 3 weeks, he such a photogenic little guy!

Tiny Feet!

Baby's 1st Mohawk

Tiny Tim

Mimi, Grandad, Gracie & Timothy

Timothy's Birth

The day Timothy arrived was wonderful. I was a anxious and terribly nervous about the IV and the Spinal, but I made it through and hearing Tim cry for the first time was amazing.

It was strange going in for scheduled c-section over an emergency one, I had no idea the operating table was SO small and how many people were actually in the room. Plus, since everything was so much slower, I got to "experience" Tim's birth more than Grace's which was amazing. When she pulled Tim out and Dr Hudson said he could call it, David said "It's a Boy!" with such gusto...he was so thrilled it was a boy. I was too, we were so excited that Grace was going to have a little brother.

When I held him for the first time, I was overwhelmed with joy, happiness and peace. He was such a stocky little guy and he was a natural nurser...my arms felt full having him in my embrace. It felt so right. Here are a few photos from our first few days together.

Daddy's all Ready!!

He's finally here!

Meeting for the first time, one of the most precious moments of my life!

Finally in Mommy's Arms

Mimi is so thrilled with her precious boy

Snuggling with MaMa

Uncle Chris & Aunt Carol stopped by for a few squeezes too.

Talking with my little man

Pastor Jim & Elizabeth came buy to meet Tim, to pray for him & our family.

Snuggling with Auntie Bethany

Dr Hudson with Timothy

I'm catching up on my blogging and will have more photos soon!!

It's a Boy!

Our beautiful son, Timothy Edward Bilbo is here!  He is perfect and we are already so head over heals in love with him.  He arrived on August 2, 2011 at 8:52am via c-section.  He was 9lbs, 9ozs and 20 1/2 inches long.  We are so excited to have a little boy and Grace is a natural Big Sister.  Thank you all for your prayers, he arrived exactly as the Lord planned and we are all doing well.  I'll post more later, but for now here is a picture of our Timothy.  I'll upload more when I get the photos downloaded off the camera.

32 Weeks

We'll actually be 33 weeks tomorrow, but it has been a CRAZY week and I'm just now getting these pictures loaded onto the computer.  Things are going great with the baby and we couldn't be more thrilled. We had our ultrasound on Monday and the specialist gave us the all clear to stop having ultrasounds unless something else comes up - woohoo! We still may have to have one at 38/39 weeks to determine position, but this baby is placenta back instead of placenta front and I can often times feel the baby's position myself so I'm sure the Doctor could tell. He also said that he didn't see any reason to change my due date even though the baby is measuring big. Another blessing! He said all the organs looked beautiful, especially the heart which was also great to hear. We took Grace with us to the appointment and she cried most of the time. We couldn't really figure out why, but at least the next time she gets to see her little brother or sister it will be in person, without someone putting a scary wand over my belly.

Before I dive into baby pictures, I have to post a picture of my big girl. I found this super cute smocked dress at a consignment sale this spring and I couldn't wait to get her in it. She LOVED wearing it and didn't want to take it off all day. She was playing with Scotty after lunch (you can see the animal crackers in her hands) and she just looked so pretty I had to snap a few shots. I wish it hadn't been 95 degrees, I would have loved to do a mini shoot outside, perhaps another day. Anyway, here's my favorite...isn't she stunning? :)

Now onto the baby pictures. We didn't have a very long ultrasound this time since they were mainly taking measurements, but we did get a few good pictures of our little bean...

Profile

Face & hands

Finally, here are some belly shots. When I look in the mirror, every single time, I say "whoa - that's a big belly." I don't remember thinking that with Grace, but I FEEL huge with this kid. I posted a picture of me at 32 weeks with Grace (in the red shirt below) for comparison, I am much, much bigger this time around. It's fine with me except that I've had to buy a few more pieces of clothing since I was probably this size when I delivered and I still have quite a few weeks to go. Oh well, it's all worth it and I can't wait to have the payoff of having my beautiful child in my arms!

29 Weeks

Somehow I didn't publish this post 2 weeks ago, and we forgot to take 28 week belly shots.  SO, I'll post 32 week belly shots with the photos from our next ultrasound in another week or so.

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Holy cow, and just like that we've finished our 1st week in our 3rd trimester!  We can hardly believe that we are less than 3 months away from meeting this precious child.  I am feeling the baby all the time with kicks so strong that it often takes my breath away...I LOVE it!  Grace often comes up to me and pulls my shirt, looks at me and says "baby" and then hugs, kisses & tickles my tummy, it's really sweet.  I think she can feel the baby kicking her when we I am giving her a bottle before nap & bedtime as the baby is always moving when big sister is laying beside him/her.  I am really enjoying these last few weeks where the 3 of is are together in this way.  It's almost surreal to think about having them both in my arms and to be able to hold them at the same time...I can't wait!

I finally feel "nested" now that we have the new dresser put together and all the gender neutral layette washed, folded and put away.  The dresser is technically going to be Grace's when we move her into her big girl room around Christmas, but for now it has all the baby things in it and I am so excited.  The dresser was a gift from Nana and my friend Bethany helped me put it together.  Not that David wasn't willing to help, it just worked out that way.  :)  It was fun having Bethany help since I helped do her nursery when baby Tyler came early.  I do have quite a bit of shopping we need to do for things we still need, but thankfully the list isn't too long since we did everything gender neutral with Grace.  Ironically, most of what we need is for Grace, not the baby - I guess that's just the beginning of being baby #2, poor kid.  :)  We did get a new double stroller from Grandma and Grandpa is going to buy Grace's big girl bed so most of the really big stuff is taken care of.

We had our monthly ultrasound May 16 with the specialists we saw with Grace and we felt MUCH better after our appointment.  The Doctors there actually come into the ultrasound room and look at the baby with us, they are very thorough which we appreciate.  The baby is still measuring ahead, for which we are grateful.  Here's hoping I get the chance to try for that VBAC.  :)  The baby was putting on quite a show for us, grabbing his/her feet and smiling at us.  Everything looks great and we get to go back again at 32 weeks for another peek at our sweet one.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our little bean at 28 1/2 weeks!

Profile

Baby's Face, smiling!

Feet

Hands grabbing feet

25 Weeks!

I can hardly believe we are already 25 weeks into this pregnancy.  I said to David the other day we have 15 more weeks to go and it kinda woke us both up.  He has said it's funny that with Grace there was SO much to do before the baby came...classes, reading, painting, shopping, etc and this baby is just gonna come.  I said we still had some prep work to do, but since we did everything gender neutral and we already have most of what we need there isn't much to do.  Most of what we need to buy and what we need to do is more for Grace than for the baby, go figure.  :)

It did encourage me to get moving though.  When we cleaned out the attic a few months ago I had sorted out all the gender neutral newborn layette, bottles, burp cloths, etc. and put everything in a big bin in the closet.  My stepmom generously offered to buy the dresser we need (which will eventually become Grace's but for now it will house all the baby's stuff) so we went to IKEA yesterday and bought it.  Last night I pulled out that bin and started washing the clothes.  Wow, it was so surreal to have this big belly and look at those tiny, tiny clothes that my sweet big girl used to fit in.  It's getting exciting!  Oh and speaking of big bellies...here I am at 25 weeks.

On Monday we had our follow up appointment with the perinatal specialists.  They said everything looks great and even though the baby had rotated positions and was forward facing, we still didn't get any great pictures.  I blame the tech this time, lol.  We did get this cute profile picture of our precious bean...

Baby Bilbo 24 1/2 weeks

The Doctor said they did want to continue to monitor us monthly which we are more than fine with.  It will be nice to get to see the baby a few more times in utero before he/she joins us in person.  We have decided to switch practices and go back to the Specialists we saw with Grace.  Their office is over by David's work so we can make midday appointments which should make it easier to get child care for Grace and David won't have to miss as much work.  Plus we were generally in and out in less than an hour with them and these last 2 appointments have taken forever.  We'll see if they agree we should continue to be seen monthly when we go in 3 weeks.  We'll keep you posted!