Garytt at 6 months

So, we have been a bit slow at posting the pictures of Garytt at 6 months. We had professional photos taken and it took a while for us to upload the photos.

Garytt turned 6 months old on September 25. He weighed 19.5 pounds and was 26 inches long at his 6 month check up.

Here are a few of the photos and you can click on them to get to the others.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Sorry it has been so long since we have had a blog entry!

We had a great Halloween! A few weeks ago, we went to the pumpkin patch to get a few pictures. It was unusually warm for October but we did get some pictures of Garytt in his scarecrow costume.

Today Garytt watched dad carve a pumpkin. Then we had a mini photo session of Garytt in his scarecrow costume and his cowboy bib and cow print diapers. Finally, Garytt helped mom hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

It was a big day. Next year Garytt will get to go trick-or-treating too!


Garytt at the pumpkin patch


Our little scarecrow


Our little cowboy

Garytt is Rockin' and Rollin'!

Monday evening Garytt rolled over during tummy time for the first time! It seemed to surprise him as well as Justin and me. I quickly grabbed the camera to see if we could catch him on film the next time. So, we put him back on his tummy and tried again. Sure enough, he rolled over again but he really wasn't super happy about it. Nevertheless, we caught it on video. Enjoy!

Garytt's First Cold

Well, unfortunately, this past week Garytt caught his first cold. He was nice enough to share it with Justin and me. Justin and Garytt had worse symptoms than me, though. We decided to take a steam bath on Saturday by sitting in the bathroom while letting the hot water run in the shower. It was like a sauna in there, but it was supposed to help loosen up all the gunk in Garytt's sinuses. It turned out to be beneficial to all of us! Here is the video of the snot starting to break up and drain. It might be gross, but we thought it was funny.




Unfortunately, we are all still fighting off various symptoms. Garytt has been a real trooper! He still seems like a mostly happy baby and plays pretty well. The only real issue for him has been the inability to sleep all night long. He gets stuffy and then wakes up reallly mad! I hope we all feel better soon so that we can all get some much needed rest!

Singing Lessons

After going to the baby shower for Baby Schraeder, Grandma, Aunt Becca, and Mom decided to sing to Garytt. So maybe the lesson learned here is how not to sing the songs, as none of them sound quite right. However, Garytt didn't seem to mind. :)


This video shows us singing "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. Justin watched this movie for the first time last week and he can't quit singing this song. It has become one of Garytt's favorite songs...maybe Garytt will indeed grow up to be a rich man. :)

I Found My Thumb!

Last week, Garytt discovered his thumb. Previously he would stick random fingers or try to fit his whole hand into his mouth. But now he has figured out how to suck on this thumb. He still isn't picky about which finger is in his mouth until he is sleepy. Then he is ready for that thumb!

4th of July

Every year Jennifer's extended family gets together to celebrate the 4th of July with a family picnic and fireworks. We joined them this year for Garytt's first 4th of July. He handled the atmosphere and noise very well! Everyone was surprised to see how much he had grown in such a short amount of time!

Here are a few pictures from the festivities. The first picture shows Garytt in his very patriotic onsie. (Thank you Mimi for giving him such a cute onsie to show his American pride!) Unfortunately, the first outfit didn't make it through the whole day due to a little bit too much spit up. So, we had an outfit change part way through the day. I think the overalls are adorable (Justin feels they are a bit dorky) and the cap just tops off the outfit!

We hope everyone had a very safe and happy 4th of July!

Tummy Time

We have come to find out that when you are a new parent, there is a lot of discussion about tummy time. The pediatrician recommends Garytt spend a few minutes on his tummy everyday to build the muscle tone in his neck. Garytt does not usually enjoy tummy time one bit, but I did catch him on a day when he was in a particularly good mood. It was his best tummy time yet!

Back to Reality

After being on maternity leave for 12 weeks, I returned to work on Monday, June 21. It was a difficult transition for me to go from being with Garytt all day, every day to being at work for 8 hours a day. The transition was made a bit easier because my mom was able to watch him all week here at our house. I am always so excited to come home in the evenings and see my little guy!

We've developed a bit of routine here in the Brown household. I get to play with him for about an hour before Justin gets home from work, which is a nice time for Garytt and me to bond. Then Justin gets to play with him while I fix dinner. After dinner, we all hang out together until Garytt goes to bed. After he is in bed, we do some cleaning and prepare for the next day, which includes getting his cloth diapers ready. So far, this schedule seems to be working well.

I have truly enjoyed my weekend though! I love getting to spend all day with Garytt! And we get to take naps on the weekends too! Garytt and I usually get up between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning. So, I really miss my naps when I am at work!

The next transition will be on July 6 when Garytt goes to daycare. I hope that transition will go smoothly as well.


Here is a picture of Garytt playing with me after work. You just have to love that smile!




Here is a picture of Garytt sporting one of his cloth diapers.

Father's Day Weekend

Sorry, we've gotten a little behind on the blog. Here are a few pictures from Father's Day weekend.



...and here's Garytt with Grandpa.

Garytt's Baptism Weekend/Mother's Day Weekend

Garytt had a big week last week with Baptism, Mother's Day weekend, and a little visit to Gymboree!

Happy Mother's Day

Little girls have always dreamed,
Of one day being grown;
Of having a home and family,
And children of their own
As little girls they played the games,
With dollies cuddled near;
Of being grown up Mommies,
And now that day is here.
For cuddled sweetly in her arms,
Of the little girl now grown;
Is the sweetest dream she ever dreamed,
A baby of her own
In all the years of growing up,
In the games that little girls play;
None will ever be so sweet,
As her very first Mother's Day
-Allison Chambers Coxsey

Garytt's First Bath

Garytt did not enjoy his first bath too much, but he is nice and clean now! He is sleeping better at night, which is very exciting, and mom has been working on a few "lessons" during the day(working on his vision/tracking and playing with his little baby alligator). Garytt had a big day today when he visited Justin's work (the Office of Student Financial Aid at the University of Kansas). Everyone seemed to enjoy his company and it was nice that Garytt did not get fussy the whole time. We are now preparing for more busy weeks to come as we will have a baptism, family visitors, and so much more!

Garytt's First Easter

Our Little Glow Worm

Two days after Garytt was born, Jennifer was discharged from the hospital. However, the doctors wanted Garytt to stay at least another day to observe him since he was considered premature and was not yet 48 hours old. After checking his bilirubin levels (jaundice) on Sunday (March 28th), Garytt was released from the hospital with lab orders to check the bilirubin levels again the next morning. So, we loaded up, strapped him in the car seat, and headed home.



After the first long night, we headed back up to the hospital lab to get Garytt's bilirubin checked again. As soon as we got home, we received a phone call from the doctor that his bilirubin had dramatically increased overnight and she wanted him admitted to the NICU for phototherapy treatment. At first, the doctors were telling us he would need to be treated for 3-4 days. That's not really something new parents want to hear, but we wanted him to get better. Luckily, the hospital allowed us to board in the maternity ward, so we didn't have to be too far from our new baby. After learning that this treatment was fairly common for premature babies, we were able to find a little lighthearted humor in Garytt's new cool shades.



Garytt responded very well to the treatment and was actually discharged for the second time after only being in for a day. The orders upon discharge were for him to remain on phototherapy on a smaller home "bilibed." This proved to be a bit of a challenge as Garytt did not like to sleep much on the bilibed. However, we did get a few shots of our little glow worm.


After re-checking his bilirubin levels the next day, we were happy to learn the home treatment was no longer necessary.

Labor & Delivery

So, the past few days have been quite busy. It's hard to believe our little Garytt is already a week old! Anyway, we thought we would play a little catch-up and give you an idea of what the last week has entailed, starting with labor and delivery.

Thursday, March 25th
4:15pm - Jennifer's water breaks on her way home from work. She calls me at that time and says, "I think my water broke, but you don't have to leave work yet." Yea right. Well, I grab my stuff and interrupt the boss on my way out of the office to tell her we might be having a baby. Little did I know how quickly the next few hours would fly by!

4:45pm - Jennifer gets home first and is more certain that her water broke. She calls the doctor and they tell her to come into the hospital, but there's no big rush. Jennifer tells them we would be there within the hour. We started packing all of our stuff up (luckily, we had just packed most of our hospital bag two days prior thanks to Jennifer insisting it be done that week). I thought we had a little more time for all this! Jennifer was concerned that the doctors wouldn't let her eat anything once she was admitted, so she grabbed some pop-tarts to eat in the car on the way to the hospital. It was actually a very calm drive, as Jennifer wasn't feeling any contractions yet.

6:00pm - We arrived at Saint Luke's Northland Hospital in Kansas City, MO and were taken to what we like to call the "holding tank," but they call the triage room. They confirmed that Jennifer's water broke. As they prepared a labor and delivery room for us, we began calling immediate family to notify them that we would definitely be having this baby within 24 hours. At the time, the nurses were convinced it would be more like 6:00 a.m. before Garytt would arrive.

6:30pm - Jennifer gets hooked up to all the necessary monitors as well as the dreaded IV. Jennifer has a healthy fear of needles, so she wasn't too excited about getting the IV. And it didn't help that on the first try, the nurse blew the vein (I think she might be recovering from that injury more than delivery!). Jennifer still hadn't felt any contractions, so the doctor said she would give her an hour or so and if labor had not progressed, they would have to augment. We weren't too excited about that since we've heard from people that augmenting/inducing labor can be more painful because the body's natural hormones haven't started taking effect yet.

7:30pm - Jennifer's labor was not progessing on it's own a Pitocin drip to augment the labor was started.

8:30pm - Just as the K-State game began, Jennifer started feeling some minor contractions. Jennifer's parents were able to be in the room with us at this point to watch the game and bring me dinner. (Poor Jennifer just had ice chips for the rest of the night.)

About 10pm - Just as the game was getting really exciting, the contractions were getting much stronger, although not in a regular pattern. The nurses still thought we had a long night ahead of us becuase the contractions were not following a pattern. Jennifer was experiencing "coupled contractions," where she would peak on a contraction and start to come down but then peak again before the first contraction was complete. When I would tell her she was coming down from a contraction, she would say I was lying because she could already feel another one coming.

About 10:45pm - Jennifer was starting to get "very uncomfortable" (this was the term she used to prevent herself from thinking it was too painful...but in fact she was in pain) and the nurses started suggesting an epidural, even though this was not in our birth plan. Jennifer really did not want an epidural (again with the needle phobia). However, she was finally uncomfortable enough that she asked for the epidural. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was finishing up another procedure, so it would be a few minutes before he would arrive.

About 11:25pm - Jennifer had a strong urge to push but the nurse didn't think it was possible based on the last check. The nurse checked her again and agreesd and left the room with instructions not to push. The labor nurse and a team of other nurses scrambled into the room to set up for the delivery. We were informed that it was too late for the epidural...Jennifer was going to do this without any pain meds.

About 11:30pm - The doctor finally arrived and also scrambled to get into position. It was time to push.

11:50pm - Garytt Kort Brown arrived!! Jennifer did such a great job of pushing that it only took 20 minutes to deliver our baby boy. Did I mention that Jennifer had no drugs...like none?! I was able to cut the umbilical cord and follow Garytt over to the warming bed to watch as the NICU nurse cleaned him up. He weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

The rest of the evening and the following few days are a blur. We will try to catch up on the blog in the next few days in between feedings and naps.

Garytt Kort Brown (DOB 3/25/10)

Our little bundle of joy arrived a little earlier than expected, but mom and baby are doing great!

"Listen Mister, I'm Trying to Save My Baby"

On March 10th, we attended an Infant CPR class with Jennifer's parents. We learned a lot despite a few distractions from the class clowns. Watch the video (best with sound).

Showered with Gifts

On Saturday, March 6th, Great Aunt Betty threw a lovely baby shower for Jennifer. She stayed true to the Noah's Ark theme, which is also the theme of Baby Brown's nursery. We had a great time playing games and Betty had huge sugar cookies made in the shape of lots of animals. It was adorable! There was also a darling Noah's Ark cake, which was delicious. Most of all it was a great time to see family and hang out. I felt so blessed by everyone's attendance and generosity. Some of Justin's family was even able to make the long trip up from Texas to join in the festivities.



As you can see, the cookies were so adorable. We only had a chance to take a picture of a few of them, but you can imagine. Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my! And, they tasted great!



You can see how generous everyone was...we could barely fit it all in the nursery! It's all beginning to come together now, getting everything unpacked and such. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends! And there's even another shower planned!

Ultrasound - November 2009

Here's our ultrasound at about 18 weeks, just before Thanksgiving when we found out we were having a boy. I tried to get Jennifer to hold out until Christmas, but she just had to know right away. The timing, though, did allow us to share the news with both sides of the family in person since we traveled to Texas for the Thanksgiving holidays. You'll notice that our little baby boy is proud! The ultrasound technician did not have a hard time at all giving us the news!

The Naming Game

So, my coworkers seemed to have a little too much fun on Friday. Apparently, they thought Jennifer and I needed help choosing a name for the baby. You can see what they came up with below. I guess they know my love for food, all things country, the State of Texas, and Texas A&M University. Although I appreciate the help, I will remind you all that we actually have a name for the baby, it's just a secret. And, let me also take this moment to let you know we did NOT choose any of the names on this list!

• Porkchop

• T-bone

• Rib eye

• Grits (you can tell they started this at lunch)

• Amarillo

• Austin

• Dallas

• Laredo

• Navasota

• Tahoka

• Houston (I guess they had their Texas maps out for a while)

• Tatanka (“buffalo” from Dancing with Wolves)

• Bubba

• Angus

• Brahma (perhaps influenced by the fact that PBR is in Kansas City this weekend)

• Opie

• Chevy (Ford? Ram Charger?)

• Tank

• Sue (undoubtedly from a Johnny Cash fan)

• Tex

• Hank

• Aggie
  

• Longhorn (definitely not happening)

• Billy Bob

• Joe Bob (any kind of name ending in Bob?)

• Cowboy

• And finally…..BEVO (again, not happening!)
  

"Curtains Up"

The Nursery project is moving along. We now have the curtain up! Plenty of animals to go around to fit in the Noah's Ark theme.

Assembling the Crib

Start Time: 7:43pm, End Time: 8:14pm

Assembling the crib did not take as long as we expected. Maybe that's because it's simply made of solid wood and metal. No particle board and plastic for this baby! And as you can see, if you click one of the photos and check out the gallery, Jennifer, as always, is responsible for reading the instructions...and Justin is the manual labor.



Another project checked off our to-do list!

Painting the Nursery

Lots of bright colors in here. Lots more to come, though!

Lesson learned: a 6-inch stripe around an 11x11 room does not require a gallon of paint! What else shall we paint bright green?

Adventures in Dogsitting

Finishing the Basement, Part Two

The basement is coming along. Here are some pictures of the family room. Now, we can begin to focus on the nursery, which is what everyone really wants to see, huh?

Guest Bedroom

Since the nursery is coming in (don't worry, there will be pictures), we are moving the guest bedroom downstairs. The projects are moving along. There's not much time left before Baby Brown arrives!

Finishing the Basement

We have been nesting! The project of finishing the basement, which has been on the agenda for a couple of years, has now begun. With the new baby on the way, we've got to get all the big projects done! So many projects, so little time!