Piglet

It's two days before Thanksgiving, and about two months since we last updated this blog. Braden will be eleven weeks old tomorrow! He now weighs close to 12 pounds, has two chins, no neck, a pot belly and little christmas hams for thighs. He was born in below the 5th percentile for weight and at his 2 month checkup he had jumped to the 20th. Its no wonder for the first six weeks of his life he nursed constantly, I mean he would literally nurse for an hour and take five minute break before crying again. I thought I would die. Luckily now has eased up to about every hour or two when he is awake , and it gets better all the time. He is currently lying on my chest, snoring. This is his favorite way to sleep, and some times the only way he will sleep. We can have the tv on, music up loud, the dogs can bark and he doesn't budge. Put him down by himself and his eyes pop open instantly. Oh well. we kind of went back and forth about having him sleep in the bed vs on his own, and ended up being so tired we just went with what allowed us the most sleep, which is him next to me in the bed of course. But its kind of nice because in the middle of the night as soon as he wiggles I wake up and feed him, so he just goes right back to sleep, half the time he never even opens his eyes. He has also started smiling and chattering little bird noises, which is beyond cute. He even makes angry yelling noises when he is displeased with me. Thursday we are headed to Marvins family for Thanksgiving the Friday we will be in Charlotte for a playoff game. Someone is awake and wants his diaper changed, so I'd better go...

baby Braden will be a week old tomorrow! he is just wonderful we have already forgotten life without him! born at 5:18 on 9/9/09. 5 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long! hes all legs!

37 weeks down, one day to go!

Could it be possible that I am a little sad I won't be pregnant anymore after tomorrow? On the one hand its like being nostalgic about getting over the stomach flu, but at the same time I can't stop thinking that I have been carrying this little person in me all year, and now I won't be anymore. I remember our first ultra sound where they estimated he was three inches long, and now he's five pounds! This must be what it feels like to have your kids grow up too fast, and he's not even born yet! So yeah, right now I am waiting to go to my pre-op appointment, where I will find out what time tomorrow we are having the c-section. Braden is still breech, and since the cord blood and fluid have been a little questionable the past few visits they weren't going to turn him, or wait any longer for him to turn. The best news is though, that last Friday he was guesstimated to be five pounds two ounces!! I was thrilled, I kept saying I would be happy if he could just make it to five pounds, and he did! Yay baby! The thought of abdominal surgery is a little nerve wracking, but then again so was the thought of natural birth. I've never had anything more major than a tooth pulled, but at least I have thoughts of the baby to distract me with this! His room/ the guest room is pretty much all set up, even though he'll be sleeping in the room with us. Theoretically he'll be in a bassinet, but we don't have one yet, semi intentionally on my part, since I figured the longer I put that off the better my chances of just sneaking him in the bed with me :) Over the weekend Marvin surprised me with a mini baby-moon, including maternity massage, Olive Garden, and a night away in a super nice hotel room, complete with jacuzzi and giant king size bed, which I completely hogged as usual. :P It was wonderful and sweet, Marvin has been so great through this whole thing, Braden and I are very lucky!Yesterday I scrubbed the house down and washed everything in sight. The car seats are both installed, Marvin's car finally got new tires, all family is on stand-by, pretty much all thats left is to pack the bags!

Tonight is the Cougars first game of the season, which Braden (yes as much as I tried to resist it we have officially picked a name) will be attending (still in utero) with me, obviously, and his step-grandpa. This will likely be Marvin's last game for a while, since they are off next week and the next week we are pretty sure that the baby will be here, possibly by induction, or more likely at this point by c-section, since the little turkey is breech. Sometimes they will turn babies manually, but everything I have read suggests they aren't likely to if the baby is small or the fluid is low, both of which apply in our case! Also it is known that this turning of the baby is very uncomfortable and can stress the baby out, two good reasons in my mind why I might well refuse it even if they did want to try it. If it meant that I could have a natural birth then possibly, yes, but I would still have to be induced at 37 weeks, which means a long labor more likely to end in c-section anyway.... so at this point I figure I'll just prepare myself for the c-section, be glad I won't have labor pains and just focus on the time after he gets here, which is obviously the most important anyway! Like my supervisor said to me the other day, hopefully this kid will be less trouble outside the womb...

It has been an eventful couple of weeks here at the Smith/Dockery household. First, the baby attended (in utero) his first family reunion, the Dockery family reunion in Laurinberg NC and got lots of love from Marvins family; then it was off to the beach for a few days of R and R. This week we had a Dr. appointment, where I had fianlly gained enough weight back to surpass pre pregnancy weight, by four pounds! Then yesterday we had an ultra sound, where we learned that the baby is still small, enough so that now we are going to start having weekly ultrasounds and monitoring. This will hopefully just be monitoring, but if he becomes growth restricted enough, he could need to be delivered early. We have a lot of positives though, the fluid and cord blood looks good, and his swallowing and heartbeat are strong. We are also at thrity weeks, which in prematurity terms, means we have already passed a lot of critical markers. He is very active, flipping, kicking and getting the hiccups whenever I sit down. Today Marvin and I went and played with our friend Baby Z for some hands on baby time, she was very adorable and cooperative. Tonight we also had out first premarital counseling session, which was really good, despite my initial skepticism, and we will have a couple more in the upcoming weeks. So for now we are just waiting, trying to fatten up this little boy, and enjoying the last week before Marvin gets absorbed back into the astroturf and goes MIA until the end of football season.

A quick update

Hey guys, it has been a few weeks since I have had the chance to get on here with school ending and basketball and football workouts beginning. Well, we have gotten settled into our place. I did all of the heavy lifting, but Susan has done a wonderful job of making our house a home. She has been feeling much better, and returned to work last week. We went to the doctor, I guess two weeks ago at this point, and the baby appears to be doing really well. He is growing at a really solid rate and all of his organs seem to be developing well. Based on the measurements we are certain that they are going to change the due date to September 30. Otherwise, things are going great. I love having Susan and our little man at home! Until next time.

The New House and the Karate Kid

Hey guys,
I am back for my weekly update on the mom-to-be and life in general. Susan came home on Wednesday evening. Yaaayyyy!!! I am very happy to have her home. I had felt a little absent from the pregnancy up until now because she had not been here a lot of the time because of how sick she was. Her mom (Dale) and stepdad (Joe) have done a wonderful job of taking care of her the way that only a parent can. So, I want to thank them for taking care of both of the new members of my own family!! She is able to drive and cook for herself now, so being here is much more feasible with me being at work all day. You know, we take a lot of things for granted, but I try to let Susan know all the time how much of a blessing it is to wake up and look over and see the person that you love. It gets your day off to a good start, even if the first thing they say is "Can you get me a little glass of milk?". :p
We are getting moved into our new house over the next few days. Susan drove over yesterday while I was at work and started unpacking boxes and putting her town touch on the house. It fits us just right, and I am excited about our new place.
As for our little man, whom we have affectionately started calling a name at this point, he is 23 three weeks as of yesterday. Susan is getting a little belly now, and it all is beginning to feel very real. Last night we were laying across the bed talking, and all of a sudden she grabbed my hand and put it on her belly. I was scared that she was hurting or something, but she told me that he was kicking. And to date the most amazing thing I have felt was my little man kicking right at my hand. And either he was running in a dream or practicing for judo in the 2030 Olympics. IOr perhaps he was doing some squats and getting ready for something. Who knows, but it was amazing and it made me laugh and grin like a cat!! We are very fond of our little boy already, and the best is yet to come. Until next time!

We have a new house, the mom is feeling better, and we have a registry at Wal-Mart.

Hey guys,
So, we officially have our new place. We will be moving in over the next two weeks. Our new address is 20 A Singing Pines Drive Candler, NC 28715.
In other news, Susan continues to progress, and is feeling a little better each day. She has gained something close to five pounds over the last week or so. So, it seems like God seems to be shining some light on this pregnancy after such a tough time for the mother-to-be.
Last thing, Susan did a gift registry at Wal-Mart. We are kinda new at this whole thing, so we aren't really sure how it all works, but if you search for her it is under Susan Dockery.
Well, Happy Hump Day, and have a wonderful remainder of the week.

She is doing better and we have a house!!

Hey guys,
Just getting a chance to make an update on here for the first time in a few weeks. I just got back home from taking Susan back to Boone after having her spend the week here in Asheville. The old saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" has definitely found a spot in my annals. It amazing how much you miss being able to sit with someone, laugh and talk, go out to eat, or watch a movie, until that kind of stuff is taken away from you. And with her being as sick as she was, we hadn't been able to do those things in what seems like forever. But, her past two week-long visits have been awesome. This morning we went to breakfast with Tommy, Shannon, Zarah, and Shannon's mom, and it was like I had hit the lottery to be able to be out with Susan and friends. They are so awesome to spend time with, and we are lucky to have them as friends. Then, we met her dad and stepmom for lunch at Ruby Tuesdays in Boone, and we ate out again. Needless to say, it was a big day.
Susan has began to show a little, and she is gaining weight for the first time in the pregnancy!! She went to the doctor on Monday, and she said that the baby is growing at the appropriate weight, but he is still a little small. So, they are considering pushing the due date back a week in order to make sure that lil man has more time to gain weight.
Also, we got the keys to our new place from our landlord, so I will be making trips over the next two weeks to get things moved in with June 1 being our official move-in date. And, when she comes back the next time she is coming to stay. I am an excited husband/daddy to be knowing that I will have my two most important people back at home with me.
Well guys, until next time!!

So, we officially know what he is!!!

Hey guys, Susan and I had our second ultrasound last week, and we confirmed that we are having a little baby boy!! Any man wants to have a little boy, and while I would have been excited with a girl, I am ecstatic about having a little man. Susan has had a really tough pregnancy up to this point, but she seems to be getter better as time passes. We have seem a dramatic improvement over the past month, as we enter into the second half of our pregnancy. We are trying to come up with a short list of about three or four names, and we are going to choose from that when we first see him. You don't want to have people saying "You sure don't look like your name would be ____________". The names that I really like so far are Braden, Elijah, Micah, Jordan, and Jackson.
Keep us in your prayers and we will keep you up on what's going on with our little man!!

Where we started this whole thing!

Hey guys,
This is my first ever blog, and I decided to talk a little about how my life has changed in the last few months, and how it will continue to change in the coming months. For those that don't know, Susan and I got engaged on New Years' Eve on a trip to Cherokee and the casino. Susan is an amazing woman, and I have been very blessed and fortunate to have her in my life. In our preliminary discussions about our wedding we planned to marry sometime in the Summer of 2010.
Well, after the first few discussions it has not been mentioned a whole lot because on January 23 we found out that we were going to have a baby. So, on or around September 24, 2009, we are expecting a baby. At our first ultrasound on we found out that the baby is very healthy, everything looks normal, and that we are having a little boy!!! Yes, I am very excited, what man doesn't want his own little man?!! But, there is the possibility with the ultrasound being as early as it was that the baby can be a little girl too. Either way, I'd be equally as proud, so I'd be okay with that too.
This is a little bit of a fast forward into what's going on our lives right now. Stay tuned for more updates.