Baby's 1st Christmas!

Brayden had so much fun on his first Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve at my Aunt Barbie's and Uncle Jerry's house. Things have changed in the past couple of years because now there are 6 little ones running around and it gets a little crazy...but so much fun! On Christmas morning, we woke up bright and early and got a visit from my Aunt Kathy. We made the trip up to Wadsworth and spent the rest of the weekend with Jeff's family. Not only did we get lots of presents for Christmas, we got a new member of the family. Pat, Jeff's brother, proposed to his girlfriend, Erin, after Christmas dinner! We are so excited for the wedding this year! All in all it was a great weekend and Brayden was spoiled rotten by everyone! :)

Brayden and his Papaw

Will, Adrian, Kenna, Gracie, Kylie and Brayden

4 months!!!

Brayden is 4 months old today! He had a doctor's appointment which wasn't the greatest thing to do to celebrate the day since he had to get 2 shots. He was a champ as always and barely cried. He is 26 1/2 in long (90th percentile), 16 lbs 11.5 oz (80th percentile) and his head circumference is 17 1/2 in (90th percentile). He is sleeping about 10 hours a night which has been AMAZING!! He even slept 12 hours one night last week! Naps range from about 1-2 hours and he'll take 2-3 a day. He's drinking about 5 bottles a day which range from 6-8 ounces. We are going to be starting some cereal this week, so that should be an interesting experience! Brayden makes all kinds of sounds and "talks" to us all of the time. He smiles and will even give us a belly laugh every once in awhile when he's tickled. He seems to be the most ticklish up around his neck. Last week, he rolled over from his belly to his back for the first time and he's rolling from his back to his side. He just can't quite make it all the way over yet...might be that 90th percentile in weight thing that's holding him back :) He loves to lay on the floor or on his activity gym and hit and kick. He grabs at toys and is now at the point where he puts everything in his mouth. He is a drool monster! I'm sure that it won't be long before we see some teeth pop through! There are times that he looks just like his Daddy and there are other times that he looks just like me. I think that we've decided that he looks like Jeff when he has serious looks on his face, but he looks like me when he has confused looks on his face...haha! He is such an awesome kid and we are looking forward to his first Christmas!!!!!

All I Want For Christmas...

Brayden didn't ask for much this year...I'm sure that will change in years to come!

3 month pictures!

We went this past weekend to get some 3 month pictures taken. I'd say that Brayden did well for his first photo shoot! :)

3 month update!

Three months ago, our life changed so much...for the better of course! Brayden seems like such a big boy! He is over 15 pounds now and was 25 inches long at his last doctors appointment. He loves to smile, giggle, and give flirty looks! I can already tell that he will get away with a lot when he gives me that look in the future! He is starting to grab at toys and he will hold onto things for quite awhile. Brayden is holding his head up and will sit up with support. He is sleeping about 7 hours straight at night, usually about 9:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m.. He'll go back to sleep until about 8:00 a.m. on days that he doesn't have to go to daycare, otherwise I have to get him up around 6:30. He takes about 3 solid naps during the day that range from a half hour to 2 hours, although he does fight the sleep. I guess he doesn't want to miss any excitement during the day. Obviously he's a good eater since he's keeping up the weight! He is drinking about 7 bottles a day of 5oz of formula...sometimes more, sometimes less. He loves getting a bath and will now splash around and soak his Mommy! He has been on many road trips up to Columbus and Wadsworth to visit family and he loves car rides! He loves to be in his swing and will spend so much time hanging out on his activity gym. He talks to us a lot and many mornings I will hear him talking to himself in his crib. I usually sneak up on him and look down and he'll just give the biggest smile! We are just enjoying every moment with our little man!

Brayden's first Halloween!

In the years to come I'm sure that he'll want to dress as a superhero or something "manly"...this year I got to dress him in something "cute".

2 month checkup

Yesterday was one of those mornings when you wake up and just have a feeling that the day is not going to go your way. I was feeling exhausted. I just went through the morning routine, got Brayden to daycare and made my way to work. I hit traffic on my way to work, which rarely happens (of course it happens when I'm running late). As I unlocked my office door, I could hear my work phone ringing already. It was daycare telling me that Brayden was acting really fussy and had a fever of 100.2 and needed to be picked up. I grabbed my stuff and headed right back out the door.

I got back to the house and we got out the ear thermometer. It was the first time that we had used it so Jeff ended up testing it on me first...100.8! No wonder I wasn't feeling so good! I was achy and had a sore throat, headache and chills all day. Brayden and I spent the entire day on the couch. Luckily, he had an appetite and was able to drink all of his bottles throughout the day. The doctor wasn't too concerned and said that she would just see him the next day since he was already scheduled to come in for his checkup. He continued to be pretty fussy throughout the night, but only got up at 2:00am and 6:00am. I was expecting to be woken up a lot more than that! He was still stuffed up this morning, but was starting to act more like his normal self. His fever went down to 99.7 also!

We got to the doctor this afternoon and our "sick" child was smiling and "talking" to the doctor. You would have never thought that he was ever sick at all! She felt comfortable enough to give him the shots that he was scheduled for today. The doc said that she thinks that he is fighting off the cold just fine and she isn't concerned since his chest sounded clear. Today he was 13 lbs, 9.5oz (75% percentile) and 25 inches (90th percentile). His head circumference was 16 1/2in (80th percentile). Hopefully he'll stay healthy!!

Homecoming 2009!

We love Homecoming! It's always so great to see people that you don't expect to see. It's so nice to catch up with old friends and relive the college days a bit. Brayden got to share part of the day with us this year...even though he slept through most of it :)

2 months!

Here are some pictures that I took of Brayden on his 2 month birthday! It's amazing how much he has changed!

This is his look right before he smiles. I guess he has to check you out and make sure that what you're doing is worth smiling about! :)

There is a good smile!

Sleepy boy

Best friends

Jeff's family moved into a new neighborhood when he was about 3 years old and he ended up meeting Doug. They've been friends for about the past 25 years. Doug and his wife, Jen, just moved to Cincinnati and I hope that Brayden and Corin will have a chance to have the same friendship that their dads have had for so long. I think that it will be funny to show them this picture years from now! GO BROWNS!

Jeff, Brayden, Doug and Corin watching the Browns game, 10/11/09

The boys hanging out 10/20/09

1 month checkup (a little late)

Brayden went for his 1 month appointment today even though he's almost 2 months. Our doctors' office called us to reschedule his checkup, so he finally got to go today. He was 12 lbs, 10 oz (80th percentile) and 24 inches long (90th percentile). His head circumference is 16 1/4 in (85th percentile). Needless to say, we have a big boy on our hands! The doctor said that he looks very healthy!

Brayden been so much fun in these past few weeks. He's really started to make more sounds and he "talks" so much more. He is starting to smile a lot when you talk to him... or when he's looking at the ceiling fan. He's drinking about 4.5-5 oz each feeding. Bedtime is going better since he's now sleeping anywhere from 3-6 hours at a time. He'll usually eat around 7:30-8pm and not wake up again until about 1:30am. He'll usually wake up one more time around 4:30 am. We are really hoping that he starts sleeping all the way through soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

He got 2 shots today, Hep B and DTP. It was not too fun for him, but he only cried for a second. There will be about 4 shots coming next month, so that will not be an appointment that we're looking forward to.

I have been back to work for about a week now. It was good to go back and I am really enjoying my job. Brayden goes to Kindercare on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I'm just glad that I get to spend all day on Mondays and Wednesdays with him. Jeff has been doing a lot of work from home lately, so we're able to see him a lot during the day too!

We can't believe that he's almost 2 months already!

Cousins!

My cousin, Mark, and I are only 2 months apart. We spent a lot of time together when we were younger and over time there were a lot of "classic" pictures taken of us together. It's only fitting that we now have children that are 6 months apart and now we can capture some more "classic" moments with them!

"Who are you and why are you playing with MY toys?!"

Happy 1 month to Brayden!!!

Can't believe it's been a month! He has already changed so much!

First UC home game!!

Yesterday was the first Bearcat tailgate/home game! FINALLY football season is here again! We decided to take Brayden to enjoy all of the festivities with us and he did great. He slept through the entire game up until the middle of the 4th quarter...which is when he ate and had another diaper blowout so at that point he wasn't too thrilled with the experience. I'm amazed at the noise that he can sleep through though!

It was so nice to hang out with all of our friends and watch the Bearcats destroy SE Missouri State. Bearcats won the game 70-3! We are disappointed that the Buckeyes and Browns couldn't pull off wins this weekend, but we're definitely enjoying the Bearcats success so far!

September is here?!

The past couple of weeks have just flown by! Brayden has kept us busy and we are learning more and more about him every day. We are doing our best to try to establish some sort of routine, but he has his own plan most of the time. :) We've gone to the park to throw the frisbee with Lucy, gone to Target and he's even had his first real bath (which he loves)! Brady went to the doctor last week (8/26) and weighed 8 lbs, 9 oz which puts him back above his birth weight. Jeff went back to work last week, so my mom spent the week here to help out. She loved getting lots of time with Brady and I know that Brady loved spending time with her too.

Brayden had his first big outing this weekend to our friends' wedding. All I asked from him was 20 minutes of quiet during the ceremony and he did just that...well, almost. He whined once and I got worried since it was almost his feeding time. Sometimes one whine turns into a full out scream if he's hungry, so I was prepared with the bottle which held him over for the rest of the ceremony. He did not make a peep the rest of the night and spent most of his time sleeping in his car seat next to his new friend, Arianna. I was very impressed with how well he did!

On Sunday afternoon, we got a visit from my mom, Aunt Kathy and Aunt Patt (who was in town from California). It was nice to see them and I'm glad that they had a chance to come spend some time with Brady!

I have no idea where this summer went! The weather lately has been beautiful and a reminder that football season is here at last. Saturdays will be filled with Skyline Dip, tailgating, cornhole, great friends and hours of football! Let's hope that the Bearcats and Buckeyes don't let us down!! This year will be quite different than the past, but we know that Brayden will grow up to love Saturdays as much as we do!

First road trip!!

We decided to make the first road trip this past weekend to Wadsworth (Jeff's hometown) and stop in Columbus on the way home to see some of my family. The trip was smooth as can be and we really didn't hear a peep out of Brayden until we would get off of the highway. I think that he definitely enjoys the movement of the car. Brayden got to meet lots of new family members and did a great job with all of the excitement!

In Wadsworth hanging out with Great Grandma.

Great Grandpa holding his 3rd great grandchild!

My cousins, Mark and Regina with their 6 month old, Adrian.

Spending time with Great Aunt Kathy

Stephanie, Brayden and Great Grandpa

Cousins, Adrian and Brayden

Brady had a follow up with a home health nurse this morning and checked out just fine. He has some clogged tear ducts which is causing some discharge in his eyes, but nothing to be concerned about right now. It's nothing that a warm washcloth can't take care of. He weighs 8 lbs, 5 oz, so he's almost back to his birth weight. He continues to sleep about 2-4 hours at a time at night which has been great for us. He only cries when he is hungry, fighting sleep or sometimes when he is getting a diaper change. There are just times when he really does not like to be messed with. :) When placed on his tummy, Brady already will lift his head and turn it to the other side or just look around at everything (he actually started doing this on day 3). He has been a wonderful baby so far and we hope that things continue to go well!

First checkup!

We took Brayden for his first pediatrician visit today. He got the Hepatitis B shot which he did not enjoy, but overall the doctor said that everything was looking great. When we left the hospital he weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz which is 6 oz less than his birth weight. They usually lose weight in their first 5-6 days then start to gain it back. Today he weighed 8 lbs even (55th percentile) and the doctor is expecting that he will only go up from this point since he's eating so well. Brayden was only 21 1/4 inches long (85th percentile) today as compared to the 22 inches that he was at birth. He shrunk because he lost his conehead!!! :)

We could not have asked for a better baby these past few days at home! He woke up at 1:00, 2:00, 4:30 and 7:30 during the first night which wasn't too bad. Last night, he only woke up at 2:00, 6:30 and 9:00. We actually went in to check on him several times because we hadn't heard a peep from him. He was all curled up and fast asleep! I know that this will not last, but we are definitely enjoying the sleep when we can get it!!

We are going on our first road trip this weekend to Wadsworth to hang out with the family. Brayden is looking forward to meeting everyone!

Brayden's first photo shoot

A woman came around at the hospital and took some professional pictures. Here are the proofs
http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=c2d161fa-1001-4c4b-be5e-a5db9f66c19f

Brayden Daniel is here at last!!!!!

We are now done with our hospital stay and settled at home! It has been an amazing 48 hours but so exciting!

To continue where Jeff left off...our family arrived after dinner and we were able to visit with them for a few hours while we waited for the baby to arrive. I progressed nicely and wasn't feeling any of the pain...thank goodness! :) At about 9:30 p.m., the doctor came in and checked and I was at 10 cm. It took 2 1/2 hours of pushing, but Brayden arrived at 12:31 a.m. on 8/16/2009. It was actually kinda funny that we didn't know if he would be born on the 15th or 16th (I was hoping for as soon as possible, of course!). Brayden ended up with a bit of a cone head, but his head looks normal now :) He weighted in at 8 lbs, 7 ounces and was 22 inches long. Even the doctor was shocked when she heard his weight. None of us expected him to be that big!

Yesterday, the grandparents came back to visit and we got visits from our friends KC, Kyle, Kirby, Jen and Doug. Doug and Jen brought their 3 month old, so Brayden made a friend. Today, we mainly relaxed before getting discharged. Some girls that I work with came up to from the 8th floor to visit and a photographer came by to snap some shots of him. Brayden got checked out by the pediatrician and everything was great! Sleep has been very hard to come by, but I'm hoping that now that we are out of the hospital we can have some sort of a routine...key word HOPING :) He really has been a great baby so far and we feel very lucky that everything was gone so smoothly!!

Brayden and Corin Ryan becoming friends :)

Baby Day is here at last!

This is Jeff posting for the first time.

We are sitting in the brand new Labor and Delivery Suite at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati.

Stephanie was having a rough night last night and finally had significant enough regular contractions starting about 1030am today. After 2 hours of regular contractions, we called the doc and headed into the hospital.

We have been set up nicely and Steph is already 5cm and has had her epidural! Things are progressing nicely and we should have a new addition to the Keenan family by breakfast! For up to minute updates you can follow me at twitter at JDKeenan!

More to follow..

The waiting game...

No baby yet! The due date is about a week away though so we're getting excited...and impatient! :) Jeff had to travel to Indianapolis this week for work so he was gone Sunday and Monday night. I was a little worried with him being gone, but I knew that he could be home within a couple of hours if needed. On Monday night, I barely got any sleep. I woke up on and off all night long with cramping/contractions. I just tried to stay in bed and get some rest because I figured that if the pain got too bad, I wouldn't be able to sleep through it. I ended up calling off work since I knew that I wasn't well rested and I had no idea what the day had in store for me. I continued to feel a cramping feeling all day, but it wasn't really something that I could start timing since it was just a constant feeling. I called the doctor's office after I woke up and they said to just take it easy, take some Tylenol for the pain and call if the contractions are 5 minutes apart.

So after the long couple of days that I had, I thought that I may get some news today at my doctor's appointment. Turns out that I'm still at 3 cm...oh well! My weight stayed the same and my blood pressure was normal. The doctor said that it's just a matter of time and we just have to wait until the water breaks and/or for the contractions get regular. She said that she really doubts that I will last another week. I guess the baby will come when he/she is ready! I'm still feeling a lot of cramping/contractions, but I'm still not able to really time anything yet. Hopefully something will happen soon!!!

38 weeks!

Keeps growing and growing...and growing!

37 week update!!

Baby Keenan is full term now! 37 weeks...crazy! Crazy to think that he/she could make an appearance at any time now. The past week has been more of the same. I finally feel that we have the house/nursery completely ready to go. I went out earlier this week and picked up some last minute stuff just to make myself feel more at ease.

I've been feeling ok, just starting to get a lot of hip pain. I definitely feel a lot of stretching and even laying down hurts my hips. I have felt contractions, but nothing regular enough to start timing or anything like that.

Now for the exciting part...our doctor's appointment this morning. I'm at 3 cm and 50% effaced! I was going to be quite upset if I wasn't further along than last week with all of the hip pain I've been feeling. The doctor said that it's definitely a good sign and everything is progressing nicely. She said that it's a good sign that labor will progress nicely when we get to that point and it probably won't be a really long 20 hour labor or anything. We made her take a guess on the due date and she said that if she had to guess, she would say the 16th or 17th instead of the 20th. We'll see if she's right! Not sure that I can grow much more :)

Moving right along...

Today was my 36 week appointment. I usually hate going to the doctor, but I really look forward to it every week now just to see how the baby is coming along. When we moved here, I started going to a practice that has 7 doctors. They have tried to set me up to see a different one each time that I go so that I will get to meet all of them before delivery time. I have seen 4 out of the 7 and I have liked all of them so far! Hopefully I will get to meet the rest of them before the baby gets here!

Jeff got to go with me for the first time today. He was able to meet me for all of my appointments when we were at Ft. Campbell, but his new work schedule really hasn't allowed him to come to any here in Cinci yet. There are some days that he is working at Good Samaritan (where I work and where the baby will be delivered), so that could be convenient if I go into labor at work!

Today my blood pressure was normal and my weight remained the same since last week. We heard a nice strong baby heartbeat and the doctor said that I really don't look like we're having a huge baby or anything...haha. Good thing for me! The baby's head is down and ready to go. Now for the crazy part...I'm already 1 1/2 cm dilated and 25% effaced. Holy cow! The doctor said that this is no prediction of when delivery will take place, but it's a great start. She said that most first time moms go into labor right around their due date, so the progression is no indication for anything. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next! It's still nice to know that we're getting somewhere!

I've been feeling pretty good. I've noticed the baby dropping quite a bit in the past few weeks. I've felt a ton of movement and I can feel the movement a lot lower these days. It's exciting because that means that he/she is making their way down, but it's not too exciting for my bladder! haha I've definitely been having Braxton Hicks contractions and there are some days when they can be kinda painful. I usually just take that as a sign that I've overdone it for the day and I need to take a rest.

The strep B test came back negative which means that I won't need any antibiotics during delivery. I have not heard anything yet about my glucose tolerance test, but I'm taking no news as good news! :)

Well, hopefully things will continue to move right along and we'll get to meet the baby soon!

36 weeks!

Not really sure that I can get much bigger...but I'm sure I will!!

35 week appointment!

As the doctor said today..."the countdown can now begin!". I went first thing this morning for the glucose tolerance test and we should find out the result of that in a few days. It was so boring to sit there in the office for 4 hours and get my blood drawn 4 times! Hopefully I'll pass this time.

The doctor's appointment went well and doctor said that everything looks perfect. The baby's head is down and heartrate sounded good. From now on, I'll go to appointments once a week until the baby gets here.

Only a month to go!! 35 weeks!!

Very hard to believe, but Baby Keenan may be here only a month from now!! We are getting very excited and it's starting to sink in more as the time gets closer. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and from that point on I will begin going to appointments once a week. I wasn't able to get an appointment for the glucose tolerance test until this Wednesday morning, so luckily I'll have that over with soon as well. Overall, I've been feeling pretty good. I'm getting to the point where it's not too easy to get comfortable sometimes. I've had an ongoing problem of the skin and muscles at the top of my abdomen stretching and sometimes it just kills me! I'm very thankful that I'm only working part time right now (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays). It's sounds crazy, but by Friday night I'm actually exhausted from working 2 days in a row. We went to the Reds game this past Friday night and I thought that I was going to die! haha I just did not feel well, but it was great to go to a Reds game again! I just am learning that I have to take it easy more. I'm feeling lots of kicks and movements, but I'm sure he/she is running out of room!

The baby's room is about ready. The pack and play, stroller and carseat are downstairs and ready to go and the bags are packed for the hospital. Recently I've talked to a lot of friends who actually had their babies weeks or even a month early, so I began to get worried and decided to just pack. I figure now that we're ready to go the baby will be 2 weeks late. haha We still have one more baby shower on August 1st in Columbus with family, so after that we'll do one more shopping trip to Babies R'Us and Target and pick up anything else that we may need.

We've had 2 childbirth classes so far. I feel like we've actually learned a lot. The thing that we realize the most is that we really can't plan what is going to happen the day of the birth. Luckily I'm a very laid back person and we're really not going into it with any sort of a plan. I'm just going to trust what the docs tell me and get the baby out. We're just going to have to see what the baby has in store for us!

33 weeks (Sarah, Alex, KC and I)

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