3 Weeks!

We made it to 3 weeks!! Yay! Our Little Man is starting to be a little more alert, he makes a lot more "cooing" noises and he definitely makes a lot more eye contact with me and his daddy.

Like I said last week, we were a little worried about him not gaining enough weight at the beginning but when we went back to the doctor on Monday, he had gained a whole 8 ounces since last Monday!! And today we went to a new doctor and he got weighed again and he's already at 7 pounds and .5 ounces! (Jeff LOVES that he's over 7 pounds now!)

We decided on Monday after our weight check that we were going to change doctors because we felt like we were a part of a "Child Factory" at the pediatrician's office. Not one person (until we were checking out on our last visit) acknowledged Brady as a person. It was so matter of fact and Jeff and I are both used to doctors who know us and we feel really comfortable with. So now we're taking Brady to our family doctor that we go to. We feel MUCH better about this decision and we loved our appointment today! It was so much more comfortable and I won't feel weird calling with questions!

Okay, so enough about the doctor... we have exciting news from yesterday, although I was too slow to get it on camera! Last week when we started "tummy time", Brady took about 5 minutes and gradually turned over on his back. Now, I totally thought this was a fluke and decided not to "report" it as his first time to roll over. We do, however, go into his room and he's often rolled over on his side to sleep... again, I don't think much about this either. BUT.... yesterday, when we were doing tummy time, he rolled right onto his back. It's like he decided he was tired of tummy time and wanted to be on his back! This time I really do think he knew what he was doing, although many people may argue with me! :) Three weeks is AWFULLY young for him to be rolling over, but we just may have an over achiever on our hands. He's just trying to get ready for all of the training that will go into being the quarterback for the Cowboys. :)

So, I've included some pictures I took yesterday (after he rolled over) so you can see how much he's grown! You can tell that my current favorite place to take his pictures is on this blanket that our sweet friends Ryan and Lindsay gave us. Since we have wood floors, I like to lay the blanket out for him to "play" on!

Our New Family

I've been meaning to make this post for a long time, but haven't been able to keep my eyes dry long enough to write it! Yes, this is going to be a sappy one, so if you aren't into that sort of thing, just move on to the next blog that you stalk and come back later when I talk about the stream of pee pee that I experienced for the first time the other day... because, yes I'm going to make this post anyway!

So here we are... the three of us. The New Leach Family. What a miracle it is that just a little over three weeks ago, there were only two of us and now there are three. (Plus Georgia, of course.) And he's totally complete. He has fingernails (and hangnails) just like I do, only they're minature... and he sneezes just like I do (always twice in a row)... and he has hair (that we think is awesome)... and although he doesn't know what he's smiling at yet, he smiles! How can you look at a baby and not believe in God... and a LOVING God at that... One that causes everything to take place for a reason!? The miracle of birth is just that... an absolute miracle. I am absolutely convinced that there is NO way that a bang created that.

Anyway, that's not what I am posting about, although I did have to put my two cents in on that really quick. What I wanted to post about was my husband, and our marriage. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have told you that the most UN-romantic thing to do in your marriage would be to have a kid. (Now I'm not talking about "making" the kid if you get my drift... but actually having a newborn... or a toddler... in your house at all times). I would have probably even told you that a few weeks ago, because my pregnancy was definitely not a romantic one. Although Jeff was constantly there for me, I did not feel as though it were a "romantic" thing at all....

So, basically, the night before we went to have Brady, I was totally thinking... "Here goes the romance in our marriage. No more date nights, or late nights, or vacations or notes left on the dresser. There's not going to be time for that. This is it... we're too young for this..." and all sorts of stuff like that. I cried to Jeff about it, and I can't totally speak for him, but I think he was probably thinking the exact same thing too. Not only was I thinking this, but I was WORRIED about it. I was worried we were going to end up on the Dr. Phil show discussing how our beautiful child killed the romance in our marriage... I know this sounds awful... but I MUST share this part.

Because... I could not have been more wrong. I have never been more in love with my husband than I am at this moment.... (ok, here are the tears.) I have never felt loved by my husband as much as I do right now... and I would have to tell you that he agrees with me on this one because we talk about how amazed we are that God has done this new and fresh work in our marriage amongst our utter exhaustion and hard work. There have definitely been moments where we've snapped at each other over the past few weeks, but more often than not, we've been learning to lean on each other more than ever. We feel like more of a team than ever before. It's amazing how this new addition to our little family has made us remember falling in love for the first time 10 years ago! I have been on an emotional roller coaster the past three weeks and Jeff has been right there with me to catch me when I fall hard and to laugh with me when I look back on it and think... "Why was I just crying?"

What a wonderful blessing it is to have a partner in life, and to be a team. I can't imagine doing this by myself... or even with someone who was ambivalent about the whole thing. But praise the Lord that I have a husband who shares in all of it with me. He tells me often, "We're in this together" and it's so true.

So here it is...the moral of the story: If you are preggers, do not waste your time being worried about this. Bringing a child into your marriage will only make you both stronger, or at least it did for us... and is continuing to do so.

We Have a Belly Button!!!

.... and what a beautiful belly button it is!

During the middle of the night on Tuesday night (or the early morning hours of Wednesday morning), Jeff went to change Brady's diaper and there it was.... a belly button! Why is this such a big deal, you may ask... but this means we can use his bathtub and give him a "real" bath. He had just gotten used to the sponge baths in the sink, and now he goes to a bigger tub and sitting in water... and more soap! He cried and cried and screamed at us, but afterward, he was, of course, just fine! This is where we start saying, "Mommy and Daddy know best!"

Two Weeks Old!

Our Little Man turned two weeks old yesterday! I feel like he's changed so much in the last two weeks... his face has filled out and he's definitely lost his Newborn rash and his little wrinkles in his feet and his hands. He's awake more now (I'm talking 5 minutes more than he was) and he's starting sleep well at his "nap times"... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the sleeping thing will keep up.

We went to the doctor yesterday- it was my first time to venture out with Brady by myself. It was also my first time to drive since the delivery! We did pretty well- we made a little outing of it. We went to Barnes and Noble to pick up a book for myself, Sonic (during happy hour, a large cherry limeade is 91 cents!) and then to the doctor. The big test at two weeks is the weight test. He didn't gain as much as we had hoped... only 3 ounces, however the doctor didn't seem worried at all. He actually said we can start letting him go longer at nighttime if he will. But we'll go in to the doctor again next week for another weight check just to make sure! He's only in the 5th percentile in the height and weight category, but as far as his "head circumference" he's in the 20th percentile.

We're attempting to get the hang of things at home... I'm getting less and less emotional every day. The first few days last week I felt like a wreck... no one told me about that part. The weepy part. But, as far as I've heard... it's pretty normal, especially when you're sleep deprived. However, I don't feel sleep deprived anymore... I'm tired at the end of the day, but not exhausted. I feel like since I was getting up a total of 6 times every night the last few weeks that I was pregnant to go to the potty and in between I wasn't sleeping well anyway, that three stretches of 2 1/2-3 hours is a BIG amount of sleep for me right now. And I feel like every day gets a little better as far as the sleep thing goes.

Our doctor also told me to start putting Brady on his tummy any time I'm not holding him and he's awake where I can watch him. He needs to get used to the position. I fully expected him to scream at me for doing this, because it's not something he's used to... but he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. He sleeps on his side right now anyway... so he's halfway to his tummy already!

Here are some two week pics and pics from tummy time!

Home for a Week!

So we've officially been home for a week now, and what a busy week it has been. We've had a couple of special visitors and Jeff has been preparing for a mock trial which is on Saturday. On Sunday we took our first outing to Anthropologie and on Monday we attempted to take our very first walk, with Miss Georgia in tow. I didn't get very far, as I tire very easily at this point!

We also had our first doctor's appointment on Monday so that we could 'follow up' on Brady's Jaundice. Fortunately, he had no remaining signs of it, and he was still at the weight he was when he left the hospital... a mere 6 pounds and 2 ounces. They told us that he has probably lost some weight between the hospital and Monday and was now gaining it back. Hopefully when we go for his 2 week appointment on Monday he's gained a lot more!

My mom and I took Brady out to eat for the first time on Tuesday. We went to Baker Brothers, which I thought would be completely baby friendly, however it was really loud, although our Little Man didn't notice a bit... he slept the entire time!

Then on Thursday, Jeff and I had a date night! Our sweet friends, the McCords came over on Thursday night so Jeff and I could go have dinner at Gloria's... which used to be "our spot"... it was right down the street from our old house and we would walk there for dinner at least once a week! So, we got to go last night and it was so wonderful! It was weird for me getting in the car though without Brady... but we were only gone for about an hour before the huge storm came!

Today we went on our first grocery store trip. I of course didn't want to go by myself for the first time (and I'm not supposed to drive for another week still...) so Jeff took me to Target to get groceries for the week. It definitely wore me out and I just pushed the stroller the whole time! Jeff did all of the "heavy lifting!"

Tomorrow Jeff has his trial and then he'll start studying for his exams. Talk about a whirlwind week for him! Then we have the first Playoff game for the Mavericks, and I won't get started on them here... mainly because I don't know all too much about them and Jeff doesn't like me to spout off my "hot sports opinions" when I'm not completely educated.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and encouraging us this week. I promise I'm calling all of you back this weekend!!

Follow-Up on Brady's "Trusty Pocket Knife"

An additional note on the whole "trusty pocket knife" post... just for those of you who might have been confused.

Dad is expecting Brady will use his trusty pocket knife for doing boy things... ya know, whittling sticks, gutting fish, carving initials in trees, cutting worms in half, removing splinters, etc.

Dad would probably be a bit disappointed if the pocket knife were used for more inappropriate things like threatening the ice cream man, cutting the cords to the neighbors christmas lights or killing squirrels.

(Though, the killing squirrels thing might make dad a bit proud.)

Just wanted to clarify...

(by Jeff)

I love Mark Twain's quote, "There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure."

Last week, 30 minutes after Brady was born, one of my lifelong best friends, Blair Robinson, handed me a gift for Brady. It's truly one of the greatest gifts he'll ever receive, and one that I know he'll keep forever... his first pocket knife.

As you can see below, Blair had Brady's initials engraved onto a silver plate on the wooden handle, and then also had the words "Wild at Heart" engraved onto the blade...




John Eldredge, in his book, "Wild at Heart" says:

"Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man... Deep in a man's heart are some fundamental questions that simply cannot be answered at the kitchen table. Who am I? What am I made of? What am I destined for? It is fear that keeps a man at home where things are neat and orderly and under his control. But the answers to his deepest questions are not to be found on television or in the refrigerator"

Eldredge goes on to say:

"A man needs to feel the rhythms of the earth, he needs to have in hand something real-- the tiller of a boat, a set of reins, the roughness of rope, or simply a shovel."


So, in one sense I guess I don't ever want Brady to grow up. But honestly, I can't wait to witness the many adventures my son will have and the many lessons he'll learn -- all with his trusty pocket knife in hand.

Boppy Time!

So I've started laying Brady on the Boppy Pillow on our bed after his morning feedings while I "get ready" for the day or fold laundry, or whatever.... I took a ton of pictures because he was so awake and staring at the light coming through the window... I think he may have been a little gassy because look at those pictures that have little grins on his face.

Don't you think he looks like his daddy??? I feel like he already looks so different than 1 week ago! I can't believe it....

Our First "Family Outing"...

On Sunday, I absolutely HAD to get out of the house and do something "normal" with our Little Brady in tow. So we took a quick trip to Lone Star Baby and then to the mall... and went to the most MANLY store ever... Anthropologie. That's right. Brady's first trip shopping was to Anthropologie. Jeff and I've gotten addicted to this candle they have there and of course now that our house smells of dirty diapers and sour milk, (sorry but it's true...) we decided we needed to go by and get a couple extra candles! Now our house smells wonderful for the most part!

Brady did beautifully- he slept the entire time... and we learned how to use the stroller. I had never noticed all of the babies that are at Northpark... and of course Anthropologie is NOT the most stroller friendly store in the mall. Jeff definitely wanted to show his son off, but for the most part we tried to keep him covered up until he gets his first set of shots next week!

Yay for Bath Time!!

We gave Brady his first "Bath" yesterday... and he hated it!! (As you can tell by the picture.) He kept looking at us like "what are you doing to me!? But he sure looked cute in his towel afterward!! We can only sponge bathe him until his little belly button gets healed!!




Jeff (A.K.A. "Master Swaddler") wrapped him up in this cute blanket after his bath!! Look at his sweet face. I think he looks more and more like Jeff every day.

The Meeting

The Meeting between Georgia and Brady went even better than expected!! Georgia loves Brady and he has no reaction to her whatsoever! :) She just wants him to play and I keep telling her that she'll get tired of him in a few months when Brady's pulling on her and climbing on her! She doesn't get it and constantly wants to be in the room with him and give him kisses!! :)

We're Home!

So, we finally went home from the hospital on Friday morning! It was so exciting. I thought I would be nervous, but I wasn't... at that moment! I was so excited to get home and get in the swing of things and have Brady in his crib. It was so surreal driving in our car knowing that there were THREE of us coming home. I can't even explain how weird it was!!

Here are some pictures of our trip home!! We've had a great time so far... a lot of adjustments that have had to be made. Jeff has been a tremendous dad already!

Code Black.

I HAVE to blog at least once before leaving the hospital, but there is so much that has happened and so much I'd like to share with you that I think it will be coming out in the next few posts, so as not to overwhelm you with my scattered thoughts at the moment. I will attempt to keep this short and sweet, but I don't want to miss recording any of the juicy details either, so here goes....

The last few days have been incredibly exciting, to say the least. Our Little Man has come out of his shell in the last 24 hours and has been "talking" to us more and opening his eyes a lot more and looking at us and following the sound of my voice. I like to think that he already knows that I'm his mommy and Jeff's his dad. He may be crying with someone else, but Jeff has this incredible way of comforting him quickly and calming him down. I was so worried when he was first born because I kind of expected to hear this loud wailing coming from our child and I didn't hear anything. I kept making Jeff go over and make sure he was still breathing although the nurses and doctors kept swearing that he was doing fine, I seemed to not believe them. Well, I'm not worried anymore.... he definitely can wail when he's hungry or cold... or without his hat. He loves his hat. He has this incredibly cute way of holding onto the side of it (like he's a rapper or something) and pulling down on it... he's such a boy already!!

Jeff has become a Master Swaddler. I really think I"m going to make him some sort of certificate or something for this, because he really has mastered the art of making sure Brady's arms are all tightly packed into his little "bean pod" as I like to call it. I of course really couldn't get up and around for the first day or two to swaddle him, so Jeff was all alone in this feat, but now I am pretty good at it as well (although I do catch Jeff re-doing my swaddles every now and then when he thinks I'm not looking.)

We found out on Wednesday afternoon that Brady had a case of Jaundice and it was slightly more severe than we had thought it was originally, so they put him under strict orders to be under the lights at ALL times except for every three hours for 30 minutes he could come into our room to feed. What a horrible thing to do to a new mom and dad!! But thankfully, we survived all of that and after an extra day (yesterday) of keeping him under the lights, he seems to be doing much better and isn't nearly as tired and is feeling so much better.

There were a few surprises over the past couple of days... my brother came in from Aspen late on Monday night and is flying out today. Apparently everyone knew about this except for Jeff and I. (and it's REALLY hard to pull a surprise on me because I am the queen of snooping...) I really had no idea and it made this week even more special that Crazy Uncle Cam (he named himself that) was home for all the excitement.

So what's with the title, you might ask? Well.... you know those severe storms and high winds that came through on Wednesday night/ Thursday morning? They made us "take shelter" from the storm. That's right... 40 women who have just given birth in some way and their husbands, crammed into a medical supply "closet"in the center of the hospital... and the power was out! Thankfully, it happened to be a time when we were feeding Brady so he was in the room with us when they came over the loud speaker and said "Attention Everyone.... CODE BLACK.... I repeat... CODE BLACK." Jeff went into the hallway and asked the nurse what that meant because of course in Grey's Anatomy that meant that a bomb was inside of someones chest ready to go off at any moment and the hospital had to be completely evacuated. (And we all know that everything is true in that show.) Our sweet nurse looked at Jeff and said, "It just means to be on alert for severe weather but you can stay in your rooms... " Immediately after relaying this message to me, our nurse came back into our room and said, "Um... we're going to need you all to move to the center of the hallway."

So there we were, in the medical supply closet with half the women in wheelchairs, two who had JUST had their babies hours before and were in the whole hospital bed, and the power is off... only the emergency lights were on. (Have I already mentioned that?) Of course I am so grateful to have Brady there with me, as some women were freaking out because their babies are in the nursery... which is not really 'close' to our unit and of course the babies had all "taken shelter" with their nurses in the nursery!! After about 20 minutes of not really knowing what's going on, we got to go back to our rooms... but the power was still off. This meant NO A/C!! Not until 11:00 AM Thursday morning did the air come back on. This also meant no ice machine and no ice cold water, unless we got it out of the tap!!! Ugh!!

But we survived this too... and now we're onto our next 'battle'... going home. I'm so excited to take Brady home and I really feel that we're ready, but it's a weird feeling too... knowing that we're going to be there... all by ourselves... all the time. I can't wait for all of the "Firsts" that are to come in the next few days and I already feel like he's grown so much. I can't wait for him to 'meet the world'... and our Georgia. IF you think about it today, please pray that their first meeting goes well. It may seem like such a small thing but I really think it will make all the difference in the word!!!

Being a mom is the most incredible feeling in the world... and I'm sure Jeff can say the same thing about being a dad. It is the toughest thing I've ever done (and it's only been four days) but it's also the most rewarding (and it's only been four days)! I can't wait to share more stories... and I'm so sorry to go on... I promised to keep it short but I didn't... and there's so much more I could share!! I've added some of my favorite pics too at the bottom for your "enjoyment". I'll try to be 'faithful' in updating this since it's my only way of journaling right now and it's fun to share what's going on with others!

Much love to all of you who are reading this! Happy Friday!

Braden Walker Leach

Braden Walker Leach was born April 7th, 2008 at 4:53p.m., weighing 6 lbs 9 ounces and measuring 18.5 inches long.

Brady and mom are doing well, and dad is in awe of both.

Thanks so much for your prayers, encouragement and support.

Killing Time

So now that I have a week off of work and nothing to do, since the house is pretty much clean, I've been racking my brain to get other things to do! So today I headed off to help my mom at her job. She works for Sherry Peters Photography and they have a little "Market" in the Spring and in the Fall so I headed over there this afternoon to help tie some ribbons and to set up displays. Hey- it's something to do, right?



Then my mom took me "as payment for my hour of work" to get some new flowers for my front porch. The ones that she had put up there originally were starting to die. (We aren't quite sure if it's because it's starting to get hot outside or if it's from my lack of a green thumb- I kill everything in sight when it comes to plants... kind of scary that we're expecting a baby anytime, right?)



After I got done "planting" my plants and getting rid of the dead ones, I decided the next thing I wanted to do was play a little video game I like to call "Super Mario Brothers". If you all didn't know, this was my Christmas present from my brother- in - law who just completely hit it out of the park! (Good luck next year, Ryan... I don't know how you can top this one!) The only problem I was having was that the nintendo controller wouldn't reach my chair and I didn't want to sit on the floor like I have in the past... it's too uncomfortable now. So again, my darling husband comes to my rescue and moves the chair and the ottoman to the middle of the room, right in front of the t.v.! Of course I didn't last for very long because I get extremely frustrated with the ghosts in the last level. I always go into that level with 8 lives and somehow die before I get to beat it! Talk about annoying!!!



Tomorrow I think I'm going to go see a movie and finish cleaning out my closet. I've already watched American Idol twice, so I may have to hit the highlights one more time tomorrow before the results show. Don't get me wrong, it's great to relax... but how relaxing is it when you are anxious about something new that's coming?!?! If anyone has any ideas of more time killers let me know! I'm all ears!

That's all for now!