Four Weeks Old

Well, our low key third week with Hayden must have been the exception to the rule for now, because week four was a BUSY one! On Friday, Hayden got to meet his Great Uncle Joel who stopped by before a meeting in Charlotte. It was a quick visit, but I know Hayden is already looking forward to meeting his Great Aunt Jennifer AND to being big enough to "float away." :)

Later that afternoon, Kellie came over to Huntersville to take our first family pictures! Hayden was SUCH a good sport and even our camera-hating pup jumped into a few pictures. I am DYING to see the ones of all 4 of us!! (A million thank yous for making the trip Kellie...and for your patience and determination to get the perfect shots! We can't wait to see them!!)

After pictures, GiGi and Pop came into town for a visit. My dad hadn't been back since Hayden's first weekend, so he was excited to see how much he's grown. We are working on making up for the fact that we have no pictures of Hayden with any of his grandparents while he was in the hospital. We got some great ones with GiGi, then this weekend we knocked out a photoshoot with Pop! (Now we can't wait for KiKi and Grandpa to get back here so we can get some great ones with them too!!)

It had been a long day, so Hayden and Pop fell asleep after dinner. :)

Then the next morning we grabbed some cute pictures in the frog suit!

GiGi stayed on Saturday night to babysit, while Tyler and I had our first night out at Lisa and Andy's Wedding. Hayden even got a quick visit from the Sandbanks and Ledbetters while we were gone! (On a side note...we learned a very valuable lesson about supplementing with formula that night. After several outfit changes and a couple of baths, we were VERY grateful that GiGi loves all 3 of us so much!!)

Then on Sunday morning, the Lowders and Halls came by to visit and meet the little guy!

On Sunday afternoon, Hayden and I rode with GiGi back to Greensboro for the night. Hayden sat through his first Passover Seder, saw lots of Greensboro family, met some very special Greensboro friends AND had his first sleepover at GiGi and Pop's house. 

We happily finished off the week with a sushi lunch date with "uncle" Brent! We've been staying close to home during the first month because of the end of flu season, but we are really excited to start going on some fun adventures now that we are moving past those first four weeks!!

Three Weeks Old

It's been 3 weeks and everything is starting to feel like real life now. :) Our visitors are gone and our help is gone, so we've spent the better part of this week settling into life with our newest addition. We are so lucky to have a very content little baby...unless he is naked! We spend lots of time in complete awe of how incredible this all is. 

Happy little monster now that bath time is over!

Checking out his play mat/gazing at himself in the mirror. :)

We have a busy week and weekend coming up, so stay tuned for more posts!

Two Weeks Old

Week two started with a visit to the lactation nurses. I was nervous about the visit, but they were thrilled with how well we were all doing! Hayden was already up to 7 pounds 6 ounces...well past his birth weight after only one week. We left the appointment feeling great about our first week of nursing!

GiGi and Aunt Tracy stayed until Friday. We celebrated our first night at the house just the 4 of us and looked forward to the weekend! On Saturday morning "Uncle" Brent came back to visit with Ashley and his mom, Sue. They brought brunch and spent a few hours hanging out with Hayden. Later that afternoon Tyler picked up his "little brother" Ethan to come hang out. We were so impressed with Ethan's desire to hold the baby. He knew exactly what to do!

On Sunday we had more visitors! My Uncle, Aunt and cousins made the trip over to meet the little guy. He was so zonked out while they were here that they passed him around for a few hours and he never woke up. He is a happy kid when he is being held!!

On Sunday afternoon we went on a family walk through the neighborhood. It had been raining so much, we were thrilled to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful day!

We discovered some fun things during week 2...like the fact that Hayden has a favorite sleeping position.

Tyler, on the other hand, seems to be napping on anything in sight. :)

We got some great pictures of the little guy this week. His eyes are starting to learn to focus, so we got SEVERAL cross eyed pictures in an effort to get a couple of good ones!

And we can't forget about our first baby....she has been INCREDIBLE during this transition!! She seems to like Hayden just fine so far, but the real apple of her eye these days is her stuffed giraffe. :)

Happy Birthday GiGi!

Yesterday was GiGi's Birthday! We could never thank her for EVERYTHING she did for us when baby Hayden arrived (not to mention the 10 months of preparing for him!), but we did make sure to grab a few pictures while she was here. We all miss her already and love her SO much!! Thank goodness she lives so close. :)

Mom,

I don't think many people are lucky enough to have the kind of relationship that you and I share. I will never be able to thank you for everything that relationship means to me, but...

THANK YOU for researching endlessly while we looked for the perfect stroller for our family.

THANK YOU for buying the Mamaroo for Hayden, then signing the card from Tess, Sophie and Scout.

THANK YOU for spending a weekend putting hundreds of dot decals on the walls, one by one.

THANK YOU for figuring out why our clothes have been shrinking. :)

THANK YOU for driving in the middle of the night to meet us at the hospital.

THANK YOU for being there in the delivery room, but somehow still making it about me and Tyler.

THANK YOU for taking care of our furry baby while we were first meeting our newest one.

THANK YOU for taking care of EVERYTHING at the house, so we could take care of Hayden.

THANK YOU for spending so much time away from Dad and Sophie, we are so grateful.

THANK YOU for coming back to spend the week with me when Tyler had to go back to work.

THANK YOU, mostly, for showing me what a mother should be.

I am so excited to be sharing all of this with you. A silly little blog post doesn't even begin to do it justice, but you deserve a little taste of just how much you're appreciated!

I love you!!

One Week Old

Hayden's first week was a great one! We had lots of visitors...and took LOTS of naps! 

We stayed 2 nights at the hospital and could not have had a better experience there. Family and friends came to visit and before we knew it we were on our way home.

 The grandparents and aunts spent lots of time with us at the hospital. I could kick Tyler and I for not getting pictures of Hayden in the hospital with ANY of his grandparents!! We did manage to get some with Aunts Amy and Tracy.

Meeting Papa (Great-Grandpa) for the first time.

We had visits from our close friends in Charlotte as well!

Then we headed home as a family where we were greeted by grandparents and aunts (at this point we could probably call them the paparazzi) and a very excited Tess!

We all napped through the weekend...dad, mom and baby.

Then on Monday we headed out to visit the Pediatrician for the first time. Hayden had already started gaining back the weight he lost in the hospital, so after a great checkup we were scheduled for his next appointment at one month.

Also on Monday, Hayden got to meet his other Great-Grandparents and his Great Aunt who drove all the way from Florida!

4 generations!

And to wrap up his first week, Hayden had a squirmy photo shoot with mom and opened a gift from GiGi....his very own Ya Ya! Tracy and I grew up with Ya Ya and now Hayden will too. :)

Hayden Day!

Well, we've got some catching up to do! March 23, 2011 marked one of the most exciting days in mine and Tyler's lives...we welcomed our son, Hayden Graham Key, into the world! My hope is to update the blog weekly, at the very least, with a picture of Hayden and a recap of exciting things from the week before. I'm going to put the highlights and picture on a 4x6 card so they can be printed and added to his baby book. To bring us up to date (how has it already been almost 2 weeks?!), here are the details of the beginning of our adventure. :)

My contractions started after a fabulous "last supper" out at one of our favorite restaurants. Around 11:30pm, on the night of Hayden's due date, I got out of bed and spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out if they were real contractions....the kind worth waking up my doctor in the middle of the night. :) We called the doctor and headed to the hospital around 4:30am and thankfully I was far enough along to be admitted. I happily got my epidural around 7:30am and was able to rest a little as the morning progressed. After just over an hour of pushing, our handsome guy made his grand entrance into the world at 3:18pm. He weighed 7 pounds 1.7 ounces and was 20 inches long. Both sets of grandparents and his fabulous aunts were all there to welcome him!

Our first family photo :)

SO in LOVE...

Our Handsome Little Guy on his First Day :)

The whole day seems like a bit of a blur already, but our first night as a family of 3 was so special. We brought in sushi for dinner (this momma was SO excited to be eating raw fish again) and enjoyed lots of snuggling and loving. We had so much to look forward to and we were already loving every bit of being a Mom and Dad!