Nathan's paternity leave ended at the end of last week and my stay at home mom duties officially began. Bradley and I are having a good time and taking a lot of walks and learning how to best time shopping trips so they coincide with alert time and slide right into nappy time. But we both miss having Daddy around throughout the day, Bradley's naps just aren't the same without him.
Look, Nathan is awake for one of these!
Literally about 5 minutes later
We are not doing the co-sleeping thing. Makes both of us far too nervous to have the baby actually sleep in the bed with us. But the occasional nap is okay :)
And after these epic naps mean mom has to wake up the sweet baby so he can eat and get big and strong. Sometime he is on board with waking up for grub, sometimes he's a little puddle of sleepiness and it takes more work.
We are so grateful for all the wonderful friends who came over with delicious food and gave us an excuse to change out of our pajamas and socialize a bit. I just put up the few pics I took on my iPhone, sorry if you visited and you aren't pictured here. We can remedy it on a future visit if you so desire ;)
Bradley loves Katie!
Oh yes, all the ladies love Bradley
A guy friend who was not afraid to hold a newborn! Good job, Dave!
We got in a weekend walk to nearby Chism Park as one of our final paternity leave activities. If there's one thing that sends Bradley straight to sleepytown, it's going on a walk in his cozy baby carrier.
Look, a photo of the proud parents! But there is no baby in this picture. Nobody cares about this picture.
These are some of my favorite pictures, I think I took these the afternoon after our walk when Nathan was very sleepy and I was trying to get Bradley to take a nap. He loves sleeping with Daddy, that should knock him out, right? Wrong.
Proof that I get to cuddle with a sleepy baby sometimes too
Zonked out
So Nathan went back to work and the Sunday night before he went back we decided to move Bradley up to his crib in the baby room since he had been making CRAZY noises in the little bassinet by our bed and been keeping us up for quite a bit of each night. I was very nervous about missing his cries and having him feel abandoned so I turned the volume on the baby monitory waaaaay up, so as to not miss anything. Thereby negating the whole reason we moved him up. We lay in bed as Bradley put himself to sleep making ridiculous noises and I asked Nathan if a dolphin had somehow gotten itself trapped in the crib with out little boy. I need to record these noises sometime, they are absurd.
Over the course of the night the baby monitor volume got turned down lower and lower until it was on the very lowest level. I still hear his cries when he's hungry but going to sleep/waking up crazy animal grunts are not as disruptive as before.
First thing we do while Daddy is at work is getting in some tummy time! Immediately after this photo was taken, Bradley managed to roll himself over onto his back. Twice. Tummy time now takes place on the floor instead of on the coffee table.
See, I do take pictures where he's conscious. He loves his hands, we definitely are going to have a thumb sucker. Also, we're betting on brown eyes at this point so that probably means the brown hair will stick around too and not change to blonde or anything. It's our prediction, we'll see if it comes true!
Bradley loves the cozy hat that Grandma Colleen sent him! Thank you, Grandma!
Going for a walk with my kiddo - photo on the right is my view looking down into the baby carrier.
He is so happy in the little infant insert inside the carrier, I leave him in it for post walk naps!
Stuffed
Daddy's gift to poor Bradley. That is quite the cowlick.
Again, I may be biased, but we have the cutest baby ever ever ever.
After our trip to Target. So exhausted! And Bradley looks tired too. Seriously, it's amazing how much effort goes into making a trip like Target happen at this point. I make sure all is in readiness and after feeding and changing the kid it is go go go time! I am so determined to not be stuck at home even in these early weeks. It's somewhat ironic that the person who goes stir crazy if she stays at home for too many hours in a row is now a stay at home mom. I plan on being one in title only, this kid and I are going to be out and about like nobody's business once I have his routine down! Walks, infant swim classes, mommy and me groups, if it takes place outside of our house I'm in.
Having so much fun, we love this sweet little guy so much!
