6 weeks and lots of firsts

Dear Kate and Riley,
The weeks are flying by over here. We are really adjusting and getting into our groove. Brady is sleeping pretty well most nights. Mom is trying to get back into shape, we got a double joggger and have gone running a couple times.

At his 6 week checkup Brady was 10 lbs 14 oz and 21 in, so short and chunky, just how I like him. He's so opposite of Zachary. We have seen some pretty cute smiles but he's still a little stingy with them.

We got a nice little heat wave here, my favorite thing that sometimes happens in March so we got to let Brady have a lot of firsts. First day at the beach, first night at Disneyland and first visit down to Uncle Adam's in San Diego. We had a busy week! For Brady, the days are all pretty much the same and as determined as I am to take more pictures, Brady sleeping in the front pack in 20 different places just doesn't seem that exciting!

First beach day. Basking in the sun. He really spent 99% of the time under the umbrella with a paranoid mom trying to keep every ray off of that lily white skin!

Zach even braved the water!

And contemplated life


First Disneyland Trip

See, he's not always asleep
(why is blogger underlining this for no reason!?)

The boys intently watching the parade

Zach's lollipop which was the highlight of his night. We didn't tell him that mom was holding it later and it stuck to some passing man's pants. I really considered chasing after the man and asking for the lollipop that was stuck to his pants but decided against it.

Uncle Adam's House
We headed down to San Diego to watch some basketball on the big TV but it ended up being a PERFECT day so Zach and I spent our time out by the pool. I think everyone was 100% happy--Zach and I by the pool, Brady sleeping on Dad while watching basketball.

Zach loved watching the big boys jump in to the pool off the rocks. He decided to try to copy them in the shallow end. Thankfully, he had a watchful cousin, Maddie to help him make his big jumps.

Zach spent about an hour pouring water into the buckets and cups

Brady and Dad joined us when it cooled off a little. Brady learned the fine art of hanging out by the pool drinking Diet Coke, my kind of Saturday.

Brady and Dad watching some pretty sad basketball

Much to Dad's displeasure, Zach got a manicure AND pedicure from Maddie

He was very pleased with himself and was pretty upset when I took it off before church (I left it on his toes though-- don't tell dad!)

Love,
Mom

Brady--One Month!

Dear Kate and Riley,

I can't belive a month has passed. It went SO fast. Brady is already looking different and getting so big.

At one month Brady--

• loves to EAT and screams like you wouldn't believe if I try to hold him off at all
• is really awake for a few hours every morning and a few hours every evening, otherwise he mostly still sleeps
• is starting to track things and people with his eyes--especially his big brother
• is sleeping a little better at night but still wakes to eat every 2-3 hours. No long stretches yet (except the occasional fluke)
• is outgrowing his newborn size clothes and has moved up to size one diapers
• is turning into a big spitter-upper like big brother Zach was
• hates the carseat and screams most of the time he is in the car
  
• loves to sleep on his side
• has a mullet of baby hair we hope will fall out!

Love,
Mom

Not a big fan of tummy time

Very big fan of the front pack

often the victim of a little too much love from big brother

check out the hair-- business in the front...

party in the back!

Poor Brady

Dear Kate and Riley,
Poor Brady gets no attention, I don't sit at home all day taking pictures of him like I did of Zach, the poor kid is going to wonder if we loved him! We do, very much but its a little different this time around. Zach keeps us busy and poor Brady spends a LOT of time in his swing, bouncer and car seat. He's pretty easy going and only demands to be held a few times a day (and a lot at night). But I didn't want more time to pass without some kind of update. Here are some pictures from his first week home, while Grandma Janice was still here and I actually thought to get the camera out more. I can't believe he's almost a month old and I promise to do better about taking pictures of him (or at least try to do better!)

Sleeping in the bouncer, what he does a lot of the day! He's a side sleeper and doesn't like to be swaddled, such a change from Zachary I almost didn't know what to do with him! I kept trying to swaddle him and he kept screaming like we were trying to kill him, well ok, fine then!

First bath in the baby bath. Unfortunately this kid gets bathed MUCH less often than Zachary did but my excuse is that his skin is dry and its probably not good for him!

Grandma Janice made sure the tradition of Valentine's sugar cookies didn't go unfulfilled and mom made sure my love of frosting and cookies didn't go unfulfilled! Zach was eating them as fast as we could frost them.


Grandma Janice also revived an old tradition that I had kind of forgotten about-- doorbell ditching valentine's at the front door. Zach loved it (especially because it included presents for him!) Zach got a dump truck and Brady got a monkey (you can tell Brady was REALLY excited about his present!).

Love,
Mom

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Kate and Riley,

Well Valentine's is kind of a bust this year since I have been really sick all week and poor grandma and dad have had to do everything. I am starting to feel better so hopefully I can make up Valentine's to Dad another day.

But despite the fact that we couldn't go out or do anything Dad didn't drop the ball at all, poor guy probably set the standard too high early on and now he has to live up to it every year! Even if we couldn't do anything, I'm happy to have my three boys here and its fun to have Grandma here still, we're going to miss her SO much when she leaves next week.

So, this is cheesy and bordering on a Seriously So Blessed type post, but a few months ago I got the new Carrie Underwood cd. I was listening to it for the first time at the gym, rocking out on the treadmill and then this slow song came on. I feel sorry for everyone around me who had to watch the sad display of the pregnant woman CRYING on the treadmill because the song was so touching and just totally made me think of Dad. I know my parents spent plenty of time stressing about who I would end up with and this song just puts it perfectly-- "don't you worry about me". I love that the main line is "he is good, so good" that is one thing I've always thought about Dad, he's just a GOOD guy. I appreciate all he does for me and for our family.

Love,

Mom

ok, I'm technically challenged so the song is in its own post below!

Carrie Underwood-Mama's Song

Baby Brady is Here!

Brady Frank O'Farrell 7lbs 3 oz 20.5 in

Feb 3, 2010 6:45 pm

Dear Kate and Riley,

Well, I did NOT catch up on all of my blogging before baby Brady came but I do want you to know that we did celebrate his pending arrival and that we did do some preparation! If you looked at this blog I don't think you would even know we were having another baby! But since its been almost a week I decided to give up on trying to catch up and focus on his arrival.

Last Wed., Feb 3rd we headed to Hoag hospital in the morning for me to be induced. My induction with Zach was SO fast and SO easy that I didn't hesitate to do another induction and even though I hadn't progressed nearly as far as I had with Zach I still (naively!) thought that this induction would go equally fast.

We lucked out that Grandma Janice was arriving at noon that same day. So we dropped Zach off at his buddy, Will's at 6:30 and they took him to playgroup later that morning. Megan picked up Grandma from the airport and they picked Zach up from playgroup so that all went pretty smoothly and was hopefully not too crazy for Zach.

In the meantime we had a late start. Got to the hospital late, they had lost my early admission information so we had to re-do all of that, got in a room which had a broken computer so we had to move, and we had a student nurse shadowing ours so everything seemed to take about 10 times longer. Sometime around 8:30 or so they started me on pitocen which, in my expert labor and delivery opinion, was not enough! It didn't do anything so eventually they came in and broke my water. Still not much was happening so we kept upping the pitocen every half hour. Dad and I tried to pass the time by reading, napping and watching tv shows on hulu. You can tell that if I was doing all of that I wasn't in true labor at all.

Finally around one things got moving-- a little. I got a great epidural, man I am SO grateful that it was a good one considering how much time I had left ahead of me. I took a nap, my blood pressure got kind of low, I had to go on oxygen, all the while we're just trying to get me to progress. Poor dad was going stir crazy with nothing to do. FINALLY around six I was almost ready. We did a practice push and baby was ready. We called the doctor and waited what seemed like a long time. It was really amazing how calm and laid back this delivery was. We were joking around with the doctor and nurses, it was just so relaxed (again, thanks to a good epidural!). I actually watched the birth with the help of a mirror which seemed really weird but was actually really cool! His hand was up by his face so he had a little bit of a hard time getting out but after about 30 min of pushing he was here!

He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.5 in long. He was SO perfect and pink the nurses were all talking about how perfect he was, they wanted to give him a 10 on the apgar but I guess no one gets 10's so they didn't do it. (I don't really know what that means, just that he was really healthy!). Dad called Grandma as soon as he was born so she could come up with Zach. They arrived after about an hour and got to meet Brady. Zach was really nervous and didn't want to touch him or anything, it was really funny.

Brady has been easy and laid back. He caught on to nursing right away and that has made things 100 times less stressful than they were with Zach. I feel like I got to really enjoy my time with him at the hospital and that I'm getting to enjoy newborn time which was hard for me to do with Zach since I was always so stressed about nursing. I am SO thankful that Grandma Janice is here to help out since my recovery seems to be taking longer than I remember and I really need her help in dealing with Zach.

We are so thankful to add another little boy to this family. I know Zach will love having a brother even if he is a little jealous right now. I know that you girls were watching over him and helped him to get here safely.

Love,

Mom

New Year's!

Dear Kate and Riley,

The holiday celebrations continued on through the New Year! We really lucked out and had almost all of the O'Farrell clan come out to CA for Ashton and Braden's baptisms and to celebrate New Year's. We missed Austin, Jill and Jake but were so happy to have all of the other O'Farrell cousins in one place (and love that Uncle Adam can fit us all in his house!). So New Year's Eve we headed down to San Diego, took advantage of our last chance at a dirt cheap hotel room (goodbye Marriott!) and spent some quality time with the O'Farrells.

Zach LOVED being with his cousins and they are all so cute with him. I loved that he is old enough to go off and play and I could just sit and visit with the adults. We had such a good time and it was great for Zach to get to see his cousins be baptized. There are four boys who all got baptized this year and I am grateful that Zach and his brother will have great examples just a few years ahead of them. I know that when Zach is 13 or so and these boys all start going on missions it will be great for our kids to see. I am so thankful for strong, faithful family members who provide my kids (and me) with great examples! We always have so much fun with Dad's family, I can't wait until we can all get together again.

Shooting hoops with the cousins and Papa Frank

Zach and Camryn were best buds, its SO cute!

Feeding the ducks which was apparently one of the most exciting things he'd ever done!

Zach ROCKED Myra's pink scooter. I still wish Santa had brought him a scooter.

Ashton and Braden had a tae kwon do birthday party. It was so much fun and they were so nice to let all the cousins participate! Zach got pretty in to it!

Braden and Ashton got to cut their cake with the ninja sword, pretty cool!

All of the cousins (minus Jake) after the baptism

Uncle Andrew, Dad, Uncle Adam, Uncle Gregor

The sisters in law-- Stacy, Tracy, Amy and me. Aunt Stacy and I are due about 6 weeks apart

Love,
Mom

Grandma and Papa

Dear Kate and Riley,

The Christmas fun did NOT end on the 25th at all. The day after Christmas Grandma Janice and Papa Ross came for a short little visit. It was Christmas all over again! Grandma and Papa really outdid even Santa and now I'm afraid Zach thinks Christmas comes twice a year!

It was really fun to have Grandma and Papa all to ourselves and we had some great weather. We had our own little Christmas and spent the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We also got a babysitter and went out on a double date which was a lot of fun. Zach already can't wait for Grandma to come back after baby brother is born.

There was some serious crazed present opening going on this time, this kid got down to business

The giant dump truck was a big hit and it didn't take him long to also learn "DON'T HIT DA WALLS!" (dump truck has now been banished to the patio after Bella the dog suffered a few too many run ins with them)

Papa Ross got some pictures for his office

Grandma Janice got a snuggie! It was a hit.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Thanks Papa and Grandma! We had so much fun!

Love,
Brooke

Christmas!

Dear Kate and Riley,

I really want to catch up before this baby comes, so here's Christmas day. Santa came on Christmas eve and although Zachary may not have understood, MOM was so excited I could barely sleep. Dad and I decided that Zach needed to at least have some milk before diving into the mess of candy and junk that awaited downstairs. I got the video camera ready and we told Zach that Santa had come and it was time to go downstairs. He got really nervous! I think he thought that Santa was actually THERE so he made Dad carry him down the stairs and then didn't want to get set down.

Once he realized Santa was NOT actually downstairs and that there was a mountain of presents just for him, Zachary really got into Christmas. He LOVED every present and wanted to stop and play a little with each one before moving on to the next one. He even wanted to open all of mom and dad's presents. He just kept saying "PRESENTS!" it was so much fun.

We ate a big breakfast and played for a while then headed down to San Diego to Uncle Adam's for the day. Zach had a blast playing with all of his cousins and their new toys and we all got to go "swimming" in the hot tub. For our first Christmas on our own, it was a good one.

Even mom's water bottles were exciting!

McQueen bubble bath-- a true hit

And the cars, oh the cars. So many and each one was exciting, "OH! RED CAR! ANOTHER RED CAR!"

And the biggie-- the hotwheels ramp. Buys me an extra 30 min. of sleep every morning!

Love,

Mom