December 2011

We have started December off with a little play date (mommy adult time) with a trip to see Santa Claus.  Joey and Lukas slept through the big moment.

I love babies in overalls and got really excited when Joey was finally able to fit into a pair of his.

Early in December Aunt Courtney and I took Joey to look at the Christmas Trees at Longwood Gardens.  Joey did so great!  We took him during the day to avoid the crowds.  Hopefully next year we can take him at night to see the lights all over the garden grounds.

We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Bill and Kym.  Kym made a feast of 7 fishes and we watched Bill's favorite movie, The Christmas Story.  It was fun to spend Christmas Eve with the Bym's.

We had a great time this year for Joey's first Christmas.  He got a mirror - which he loved from mommy and daddy; and he got the book Polar Express from Santa.  Joey was happy and full of smiles on Christmas, unless he was sleeping.  We think he is going through a growth spurt because he is sleeping a lot lately.  Ed's parents came over in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day with us.

We hope everyone had a nice Christmas, I know we did!!!  We got the best Christmas present - our little Joey.

November Happenings

November has been a pretty busy month for us in Delaware.  We had family pictures with Mark when Joey was 10 days old, dinner at a friend's house, play date with Evan, Thanksgiving, Black Friday shopping and a trip to Paccar.  

We've been trying to get as much sleep as possible and have been working on getting on some sort of schedule.  So far, Joey's favorite past time is to sleep.  He loves sleeping during the day and wants to tell stories at night.  Here are a few pictures from the month.

I put his wrist rattles on him with hopes that he would wake himself up if he fell asleep.

  

Joey will only let mommy put him to sleep at night.  

He wanted to try on his Thanksgiving Day outfit and I was able to get a picture of him with his eyes actually open.

This was taken right after he ate (he's in a food coma) and he was ready to go to Uncle Rob's for dinner.

Thanks to Aunt Becky Joey was able to have two outfits for Thanksgiving, and he needed them!

Someone was a little wiped out from shopping for a couple hours on Black Friday.

This is one of Joey's favorite spots, sleeping in mommy's arms.

Here he is ready for car shopping.

This was his play date with Evan, who is 12 days younger than Joey.

Its hard to imagine my little guy is already a month old!!  He is weighing 10lbs 5oz and he gained an inch in length.  I can't believe how much he has gown in the past month.  He loves to tell stories and he makes some of the best little faces.  His favorite noises to make are grunts and farts....such a little man.  Haha  I can't wait to see what he will do next month!

Baby Joey Has Arrived!!

On October 29th and 30th Ed and I tried to do a lot of walking with hopes to walk the baby out into this world.  Here are a couple pictures of us at a local pumpkin patch.

On November 1st I finally started to have consistent contractions that were four minutes apart and actually lasted for more than 30 minutes.  Two hours later when I was still having them I made Ed take me to the hospital.  So, we were on our way back to triage for what seemed like the 10th time, fearing they were going to send us home yet again.  But, I knew this had to be it this time.

They did send us home after having me on the monitor and my contractions were coming between a minute and a half and two minutes apart.  They couldn't admit me because I was only 2cm dilated and 80% effaced.  The nurse instructed us to go walk for a couple hours but we would be back either later that night or the next day.

Around midnight the contractions were coming about four minutes apart and were starting to be painful.  We headed to the hospital and got checked in around 3am.  Around 4am my water broke and I was 4cm dilated. At 5:45am I received my epidural and at 7am I was pushing.

At 7:17am Joseph Amedeo was born!!  He weighed 6lbs 14oz and measured 20.5" long.  Finally my little guy was here.  He was beautiful!!

Here he is 2 days old.  I couldn't believe all the hair he had!  I was born bald and didn't get hair until I was almost 2 years old.  Thank goodness he got his dad's hair.

Here is our little cuddle bug 3 days old.  We were waiting to get released from the hospital and taking a little nap.

This was Joey's first car ride.

Finally we are home!  The first night was rough for all of us.  Both Ed and I were getting up in the night, Joey did not like sleeping in his bassinet.  The only way we could get him to sleep and us any sleep was for one of us to sleep on the couch with him laying on us.

This was our first attempt at his bath.  He got one in the hospital but this was mom and dad's first try.  Joey does not like bath time or any other time he is not dressed.

My tiny baby.

Thanks Aunt Courtney for my Phillies bear!

We are settling in at home and trying to get things back to somewhat normal.  Joey has been such a blessing in our lives.  I don't think we could love this little guy more than we do.

October 2011

Fall is Ed and my favorite time of year.  We love to watch the leaves change, the cooler weather, and we make some of our more favorite meals in the Fall, not to mention all the yummy goodness of anything pumpkin.

We started October off with celebrating our 1 year anniversary on the 2nd.  With a little one on the way we weren't able to tie one on but we were able to enjoy a remake of our wedding cake and a nice dinner at the Green Room in Wilmington.

Most of our weekends this month have been spent getting ready for Joey's arrival.  We are finished with all of our baby classes, we have our hospital bag packed, car seat installed, meals planned out, and everything washed.

Here is my last baby bump picture until baby comes.  This is me with 2 weeks left to go.  I can't wait for him to get here to meet him.  He is moving around but finds it a little more difficult with very little room left.  At my last appointment I was dilated to 1cm and we are on target for weight and size.  Daddy is hoping that we deliver around the 27th or 28th of October, but I think we will be closer to our due date.

Last weekend we went with our niece and nephew to Ramsey's Farm to go pick out pumpkins for Halloween.  At first they weren't interested in it and ready to go home 10 minutes after we got there.  But, once Ryan picked up a pumpkin and put it in the wagon he was on a mission to get lots of pumpkins.

Ed walking with Riley.

 Ryan telling us its time to go home.

Success!!  Ryan found his first pumpkin!

Now he is scouting out good pumpkins for Uncle Eddie to get off the vine.

Look at all the pumpkins Ryan found!  Great job!!

We had a great day with the kids and can't wait to take Joey to the pumpkin patch next year with them.