Today...

...is the day that I would have had to go back to work if I was going back to work.  I really could not imagine having to leave my little guy to spend my day at a job that I do not love.  I have a new found respect for all the working Momma's out there - I don't see how you do it.

He certainly is!!

I feel very lucky that I can stay home with him, and that I have a husband that supports my decision to do so (even if it means that he'll have to do more moonlighting during his free evenings/weekends/holidays next year for us to afford it).  

We'll have to make some sacrifices to live off of a single fellowship salary, such as when it comes to our housing choice in Wisconsin and not being able to attend Emily & Phil's British wedding (so sorry Em - thanks for being so understanding!).  Being able to spend every day with my baby will be worth every sacrifice we have to make.

Besides, who could leave this face?

Paging Dr. Nett

In case you haven't heard, we received some very good news on Friday - Matthew passed his Radiology Board exams!  He received his MD when he graduated from medical school, but now he is officially a Board Certified Radiologist.  He has been preparing for this oral exam for 5 years (well, if you count all of his schooling, it's more like 25 years), so we were so excited when he received his results.  Matthew was worried about the outcome, but James and I were confident that he would do great.  Especially James - he even thinks he's due some credit.

He helped Daddy study:

Took nap breaks with Daddy:

And fun study breaks (like when we went to the park):

He also made these motivational signs for Daddy on the day of the big test:

Congratulations, Matthew - we are so proud of you!!

(Please forgive the quality of these photos - most were taken on my phone)

Splish Splash

This is what James used to think about baths:

James's first bath at the hospital

After James's first bath at home

And this is what he thinks now:

Bath time has become his favorite part of the day!  It makes him nice and sleepy.

Good night!

2 Month Photo Shoot

I can't believe our little boy is 2 months old already!  We had his 2 month doctor's appointment last week, and his pediatrician said he's perfect.  I couldn't agree more!  He's weighing in at 11 lbs 2 oz, and is 23" tall.  He's still only in the 25% for weight, but she said he's gaining weight appropriately for his size.  He received 3 shots (and 2 Scooby Doo Band-Aids).  He was pretty upset at first:

But soon calmed down on our walk home:

Now for the rest of the photo shoot:

Look how strong our baby boy is getting!  He's spending a lot more time holding up his head.

 

Our friend Kendra Rose bought James a beret when she was in Paris. 

 

  James has a love/hate relationship with his bear.  These are a bit blurry, but do a good job capturing the sentiment:

Shaking his little tush on the catwalk

Ok, he's not really shaking his little tush on the catwalk (I think he needs to learn to crawl before he can do that), but James has been modeling a bit.  I'm attempting to do a little "photo shoot" for each monthly birthday.  I had great ambitions to do something super cute like this or this, or use something like this.  But A) I didn't want to spend any money and B) I didn't plan ahead of time so I ended up just writing his age on an index card.  Not very exciting, but it works.  I'm also taking his picture each month with his teddy bear so you have an idea how big he's getting from month to month.

Before he was born, I had no idea how hard it would be to photograph a newborn.  I don't like to use the flash (doesn't look natural in my opinion), but he moves so much that most of my pictures end up either out of focus or blurry.  I might need to do some research before the 3 month shoot.

As you can tell from the ingenious 1 month index card, these are from when he was a month old.  I'm currently going through the 2 month shots and will post those soon.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Emily Leidolf who made green/blue/red/orange quilt and to Katie Wright who made the blue/brown receiving blanket.  He loves them both (and so do I!)

A lot to do!

As you can see from our to do list above, we have quite a bit going on right now!  However, one of our "to-do's" is to update the blog.    But first, I wanted to check and see if anyone is still reading it...I promise to do a better job of updating, but only if it's actually being read!  So leave a comment or shoot me an email if you want more updates, and I will oblige!

It's a Boy!

Sorry this post is so late - we've been a little pre-occupied lately :)

Both Matthew & I have started this post a couple of times, and had intended to give some detail about James's birth, but in order to actual publish something, I'll keep it short & sweet!

James Hardin Nett was born on 3/12/2011 at 2:22pm (one week ago today!).  He weighed in at 7lbs 2.5oz, and was 20.5" tall.

My water broke the day before at a doctor's appointment, so we were admitted to the hospital right away (around 5pm).  I was in labor for 21 hours (although the first 5 were a piece of cake!), followed by 35 minutes of pushing.  Apparently, I'm a very good pusher :)

We had a couple of scares during labor.  When my water broke, we noticed that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid.  Meconium is the baby's first poop (which usually comes after the baby is born).  When mecoium is present, there's a risk that the baby will breathe it in during delivery, which can cause serious respiratory issues.  As a result, we had to have a team from the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) present when he was born.  You can tell if the baby aspirated the meconium if he doesn't cry right away.  I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful sound than his cry (it seemed to me that it took forever for him to belt out that first cry, but Matthew said it happened right away).

I also developed a fever around 10am, and since my water had broken several hours prior, there was a concern that I may have contracted an infection in the placenta (chorioamnionitis - Medical name provided by Matthew).  I had to be given antiobiotics before we could deliver.  After the birth, a blood culture was taken to see if an infection was passed on to James.  He and I were put on antibiotics for 48hrs.  If his culture was positive he may have been in the hospital for 10 days, but luckily they were negative so we got to leave the hospital Monday evening.

We're so thankful that everything turned okay, and we feel incredibly blessed to be James's parents.  Thanks to everyone for thinking of and praying for us during this time.  We can't wait for you all to meet him.

So who do you think he looks like?  Leave us a comment.