7 months

He turned 7 months on October 8, 2011. (In case you are wondering, his paci and his constant slobbering led to his chapped face in these pics.)

6 months

Okay I have been REALLY bad at posting lately...please forgive me. In order to catch up, I will upload pictures from 6 months and 7 months (in the next post). Then I will get up-to-date with his 8 month pictures and and update of all things Brantley! :)

He turned 6 months on September 8, 2011. At his 6 month well-visit, he weighed in at 16 lb. 11oz and measured 27.25 in long. Dr. Rodgers was very pleased with his weight gain. Woo Hoo! :)

5 months

Here are Brantley's five month pictures (a little late, I know!). He turned 5 months on August 8 but I have been so busy adjusting to the new school year that I just haven't had time to post! :)

First solid food!

Brantley tried rice cereal for the first time around 4 1/2 months. He didn't like it at first so we waited a couple of weeks and tried again with success. He has been eating it (along with breastmilk) regularly since about 5 months old. We have recently tried other baby foods such as applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes, and carrots. So far he loves them all! :)

Not so sure about this stuff yet...

4 months!

Here are Brantley's 4 month pictures. At his well visit on July 18, he weighed in at 13 lb, 15 oz (25%) and was 26 inches long (75%). We are SO proud of his weight gain! :) His doctor was pretty pumped too! He got 3 vaccinations (one was oral) and cried a little bit after the shots, but mommy was there to comfort him. :) He is growing so fast and learns new things everyday. Here are some things that he is doing now:

• He is still sleeping about 8 hours each night, which allows mommy and daddy to get some sleep too. However, I'm not looking forward to having to get up earlier pretty soon to go to work!
  
• He is also still eating about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours during the day - totaling 6 times a day. We are going to try to begin introducing rice cereal this weekend...so stay tuned for that. Not gonna pressure him into, but just try to see if he's ready.
• He started sleeping full time in his crib at night, shortly after he turned 3 months. :)
• He still has his hands (or something) in his mouth ALL the time!
  
• He recently "found" his feet after bath time on night (see picture below). Since then, every chance he gets, he is grabbing at them! So cute! :)
• He is starting to giggle and laugh more when we do something silly.
• Just this week, he has learned to make a gargling sound....and does it constantly. :)
  
• He can roll over to his side but hasn't made it all the way to his tummy...yet.
  

We love seeing him learn all of these new things...It's like a new adventure every day! :)

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate the 4th, we went to Summerville's Red, White, and Blue on the Green. Brantley wasn't old enough to play the games but we did decorate his stroller and we walked in the kid's parade! He was asleep in this picture but he ended up waking up for the parade. :) He got lots of "aww's" and "so cute's" because of his sign! He didn't win any of the prizes but he won CUTEST in our book! :)

We hope you have a Happy 4th with your family and friends!

Happy 1st Father's Day!

Happy 1st Father's Day to Mike! Brantley is so blessed to have such a great daddy! After church, we took daddy to eat at his restaurant of choice- Gilligan's. We had a yummy lunch and then came home. Mike has been doing what he likes to do best- watching sports all afternoon (baseball, NASCAR, and soccer)! Brantley even seems interested in watching too! :)

First Beach Trip

Brantley's first trip to the beach!

Brantley and I went to visit some friends yesterday who were staying at Edisto Beach. I purchased a tent for him to use to keep him out of the sun and he ended up sleeping in it pretty much the whole time! (other than when we went inside the house to eat!)

True "Beach Bum"! :)

Before we left though, I wanted to see what he thought about the water. The first wave was a little big and I think it scared him! It's hard to imagine but next year I probably won't be able to keep him out of the water! :) Hopefully this won't be our last trip to the ocean this summer either!

3 months

He got excited and started flapping around! It was so cute! :)

Brantley is 3 months old today! He is still continuing to gain weight and now weighs 11 lb, 12 oz. We will go back to the doctor for his 4 month well-visit next month. Here are somethings that he is doing right now:

• His head support is getting much better. He can now hold it up mostly by himself and can sit up with help.


• He likes to "stand" in our laps. He has some strong legs! :)


• He sleeps about 8 hours each night!! Woo Hoo! :) Normally from about 10pm to 6am.


• During the day, he still eats about every 3 hours totaling 6 times a day.


• He still takes about 4 naps a day.


• He has rolled over from front to back a couple of times while on his play mat.


• He is very active...he loves to kick his legs and wave his arms while on his play mat and in his bouncy chair.


• He will smile when he is talked to and has started to coo. We try to "talk" back to him to teach him about talking turns in conversation. :)


• He loves his hands, which are constantly in his mouth! Anyone know how early babies start to teethe??? We are wondering if this is the start?


• He has started to take naps in his crib in hopes of him getting used to it so he can start sleeping in it at night.

He also had some cute pictures done yesterday by Kristen Pace Photography. She posted some sneak peeks of the photo shoot on facebook. I can't wait to see them all though! :)

2 months

Brantley turned 2 months old on May 8th. Time is already flying by so quickly! We went in for his 2 month appointment last Thursday. He weighed in at 9 lb. 14 oz and was 23 in long!! :) We are both so happy that he is finally starting to pack on the weight! He is still long and skinny like his daddy though. His weight is in between the 10th and 20th percentile and his length is right at the 50th percentile. He also had to get four vaccinations, which he did great at! The nurse seemed to be impressed...way to go B! :) His doctor was happy with his progress and health so we just have to go back at 4 months.

Right now, I have been back at work since April 25 and he has been staying with my friend Lindsay. He's been doing great on a schedule. He eats about every 3 hours during the day and will go for about 4-5 hours during the night between feedings. He takes about 4 naps a day and is becoming more and more alert and playful. He is working so hard on holding up his head. It's so cute when he bobbles around! :) He has started to smile and smirk at Mike and I when we interact with him. I'm just counting down the days till summer so that I can spend all day with him again! :)

He is continuing to grow...I took him for a weight check today at the hospital and he has finally passed the 10 lb mark. He weighed in at 10 lb, 1.5 oz! Keep it up Brantley! :)

Happy 1st Mother's Day!

I had a great 1st Mother's Day. Mike, Brantley and I went to church and then to lunch at my favorite restaurant, California Dreaming! So yummy! :) Then we just hung out around the house the rest of the day. It was so nice to be with my little family. Oh, and I loved my cards from the best hubby and son in the world! :) I love being a mommy!

One month pictures...a little late!

Okay, so I'm a little slack on updating my blog but here are his one month pictures with his monthly stickers that I bought from http://www.etsy.com/.

He turned one month on April 8, 2011. At his appointment he weighed 7 lb, 15 oz and was 22.5 inches long. This was when he was having trouble gaining back his weight but he finally got back up to birth weight when he was 6 weeks old. :)

Great Deal! :)

G Is Grandma Mother's Day 5x7 folded card

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Create a unique card for your mom for Mother's Day. This one is for my mom...it's her first Mother's Day as a grandma! Such a great deal...but hurry the free Mother's Day card offer ends tomorrow! Rush over to http://www.shutterfly.com/ now!! :)

Welcome to the world, Brantley!

I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging, so here is Brantley's birth story. Hard to believe he is already 1 month old!! :)

We proudly welcomed Brantley Richard Smith into the world on March 8th, 2011. Here's how it happened...

I was on the "waiting list" to be called if the hospital had any room openings to be induced on Monday, March 7th. If not then, I was going to go in on the Wednesday, the 9th. Well, on Monday morning at 5am, I got a call from the hospital asking if we could be there at 6:30 because they had an opening! It was definitely not what I expected, but we were both really excited! So we got up, showered and prepared to go to the hospital. We got there right at 6:30am and got all checked in. Around 7am, we were taken to our room. My nurse came in and started my IV drip with pitocin to help jump start my contractions and get me to dilate more. She also hooked up the fetal monitors to keep track of Brantley's heart rate and my contractions. Monday was pretty much spent with me hooked up to the machines and laying in bed. My mom arrived mid-afternoon also. The doctor on call and my doctor checked on me a couple of times, but I was only dilated to 1 cm. So at 5pm the doctor on call decided to turn down the pitocin drip and let me eat and get some rest and they would start the process again on Tuesday morning. By this point I was starving (since I had not eaten since Sunday night) and I knew I wouldn't be able to eat until after he was born on Tuesday, so I sent Mike to Chili's for me and had Southwest Eggrolls and a chicken caesar pita! Very yummy! After I ate, we had some visitors. My cousin Rebecca and Rick and Terri came by. We visited with them for awhile and then my mom came back to our house for the night. Mike and I stayed at the hospital and tried to get as much rest as possible (which was not very easy!).

Before we left for the hospital...a family of two!

(And yes, the year is set wrong on my camera! Whoops!)

All hooked up and patiently waiting!

On Tuesday morning, my day nurse came back in and bumped up the amount of pitocin that I was receiving. Around 10am, the doctor came and checked me and I was dilated to about 3 cm, so they decided to break my water. After doing this, the contractions started coming more regularly and a lot stronger. My nurse went ahead and ordered the epidural for me which was put in around 11am. (That was no easy process! Very hard to sit still while having major contractions!! But the epidural was worth it in the end, because I didn't feel a thing!) The doctor came back in a little later and I was dilated to 5 cm, so I was making progress. However, I ended up being "stuck" at 5 cm for a couple of hours so another nurse came in and help to turn me from side to side every 15 minutes to get the baby to move down and for my cervix to dilate. (This nurse was not the nicest...just ask Mike..., but her process did work.) At about 6:30pm, I was at 10 cm!! Finally! :) My doctor came by the hospital and stayed throughout the delivery even though she wasn't on call (which was very nice of her!). Anyway, she told the nurses to help me start pushing, so we did. Mike helped to coach me and did an awesome job! (Funny story...the Clemson v. Carolina baseball game was on the tv that night, so in between pushes that's what Mike was watching! It was a nice distraction for me too though!) I pushed for about a hour and Brantley had moved down a little bit. The nurses said that she could see part of his head and that he had a lot of hair. However, he was not making a lot of progress moving down further so my doctor checked him and said that he was face up. She ordered for the epidural to be turned off so that I could really "feel" the pushes. I pushed for another 15-20 minutes (very painfully, I might add!) but still nothing. My doctor was very disappointed because she knew I really didn't want a C-section but she felt that was the best option because he seemed to be stuck on my pubic bone. At that point, I honestly was so exhausted that I didn't really care about the C-section; I was just ready to get it over with and meet my son! So, the nurses and my doctor began to prep the OR and everything needed for the C-section. I had to sign a consent form and they turned the epidural back on. I think this was the longest 30 minutes of my life!! Finally, around 9pm, I was taken back to the OR to begin. Mike was able to come in with me, while my mom, Rebecca, Rick, and Terri waited in the waiting room. My doctor and another one of her partners began the C-section as I exhaustedly laid on the table waiting to meet Brantley. At 9:32pm, they announced his birth and we got to see him before he was cleaned up. :) He weighed 8 lb, 3 oz and was 22 inches long! After he was all cleaned up, Mike went with him to the nursery as they finished with my surgery. He got to see him as he had all of his tests and was given his first bath. After the C-section, I had to wait in recovery for an hour, but my visitors were able to come back and see me. I finally got to go to a room around midnight to get some rest!

Mike is ready for surgery!

Hello Brantley!! :)

Once we were in our room, they brought Brantley to us and I finally got to hold my sweet baby boy! :) I nursed him and we got settled in for the night. My mom stayed with me and I sent Mike home to get some rest since we had had a long two days! Brantley stayed in the room with us and my mom helped me when I needed to feed him and change him. He did great on his first night in the world!

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday and then we were finally released to come home. I was still in a lot of pain from the C-section but was definitely ready to be out of the hospital! We got home around 4pm that day and got to introduce Brantley to his new home and to Maggie.

On the way home! :)

Coming home...a family of three! :)

It was a long process, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Brantley is just perfect! :)

Already a Tiger fan!