Four Weeks Old

Four weeks have flown by since Liam was born...my little baby is going to be one month old on Monday!

Liam was weighed on Tuesday of this week, and he is up to 7 pounds 10 ounces - more than one pound bigger than he was at birth. It's funny to think that he is still smaller than a lot of our friends' babies at their birth!

Some pictures from the past week:

Meeting Great Grandma Dot

Mike holding Liam at Bunco

Sleeping in his new swing (aka one of God's greatest inventions)

Liam's First Bath

Liam's umbilical cord stump finally fell off this past weekend, so we went ahead and gave him a full-fledged bath last night. Fun times! I'm not sure if Liam was too crazy about the whole thing, but he didn't really cry...mostly just looked shocked and confused about what we were doing to him.

Our little guy makes us laugh all of the time - it's so much fun to see him explore and make sense of his new world!

Two Weeks Old!

Liam turned 2 weeks old on Friday - hard to believe he's already been with us for that long!

We took him to his two week appointment with the doctor, and not only did he pee all over the table while we were there (again - this also happened at the first appointment on July 8), but he surpassed his birth weight! Liam was up to 6 pounds 13 ounces on Friday, which was great news!

Here are some updated pictures of our little man:

Liam is here!

I can't believe it has taken me almost two weeks to post Liam's birth announcement on here - time flies with a newborn!

We were blessed with a perfect baby boy, William Ralph, at 8:15 AM on Friday, July 3, 2009. He weighed in at 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long. We're calling him Liam, which is the Irish nickname for William.

The c-section went well. The worst part about it was getting the spinal tap beforehand, but that was just uncomfortable, not painful. I was shaking uncontrollably in the operating room before they gave me the spinal tap - probably from nerves and because they keep those operating rooms so cold. My doctor held my hand while they did it, and that helped me calm down a bit so they could get the needle in. As soon as they did it, I could feel the lower half of my body go numb. When the screen went up, they brought Dave into the room, and he sat by my head the whole time.

The procedure itself was very quick, and all I could really feel was pressure. I could hear the doctors and nurses calling out times: 8:03 AM was the start of the procedure; at 8:07 the incision was made; and at 8:15 our sweet baby boy was born. Dave and I both started crying when we heard Liam cry for the first time, and then Dave went with Liam and the nurse. I can't even describe the feeling I had when Dave brought my little guy to me a couple of minutes later - it brings tears to my eyes just to write about it. It was the best feeling in the world, and I knew from that point on that life would never be the same.

We were released from the hospital on Monday, July 6. The hardest part about being home with him has been nursing him - definitely a lot more challenging than I had anticipated! But we're getting it figured out, and each day, we make a little more progress in that arena.

Dave and I are so in love with our little man - he's such a doll! I promise I'll post updates and pictures more frequently going forward - these first two weeks have just flown by in a blur!

Last Belly Picture!

I figured I should take one more belly picture before we have this kid on Friday, so here I am at 38 weeks and 4 days: