Life with Dominic

The last 8 weeks have been quite an adventure! Dominic is so much fun, he's smiling and talking and will hold onto toys. It's so cute! I love staying home with him all day, he's normally pretty happy and still sleeps quite a bit. Spencer has been back to work for about 6 weeks now, when he comes home he hangs out with the little man, we eat dinner, put him to bed at 8 and then we do our P90X workout. We have a busy evening routine, but it works for now.

We have been following the Babywise sleeping philosophy and Dominic is only waking up once (at most) a night, there are times that he will sleep til 6 AM so I'll get up with him and feed him. We started this new routine when he was about 4 weeks old and he started sleeping better instantly. He's so awesome. :) Hopefully he will sleep through the entire night soon, 8-8 would be nice!

Here are some cute pics from the last few weeks

We've been doing tummy time and he is getting so good at holding his head up, he also loves to stand up. This is our official Tummy Time blanket.

We've gone on several walks with Dominic and the dogs. Sometimes Dominic will sleep the whole time, but sometimes he will scream the whole time. lol

This was Dominic's first holiday, St Patricks Day. His cute shirt said 'Irish you would kiss me', we went to grandma and grandpa Smith's house for dinner. Notice Spencer's and Dominic's matching hats!

At first, Dominic didn't like the bouncer chair, but he's warming up to it. He likes to look at the mobile that attaches to it. He's so funny and starts kicking his legs and moving his arms all over the place when he gets excited.

Here's a cute picture of him smiling! I need to get more pictures like this one!

He loves walking around with dad :) If he's crying Spencer will pick him up and start walking around with him like this and he stops crying.

Here we are on Easter, he fit in his giant egg from grandma! Too funny! It's hard to tell, but Spencer and Dominic have matching ties on :)

Dominic has met a couple friends over the last few weeks. Here we are with my sister Hillery and baby Caleb. Caleb is 2 1/2 weeks younger than Dominic.

Here we are with Lindsay and baby Dan. Dan is 6 weeks younger than Dominic.

This is one of my favorite pictures of us, it was taken right after his bath. He just looks so sweet!

Spencer and Dominic at Spencer's birthday brunch. They have matching shirts on here. I like to make them match :)

Dominic loves his swing!

Newborn pictures

Dominic had some newborn pictures taken when he was 1 week and 6 days old. We LOVE his pictures! He is just a beautiful baby. He was so good when he was getting his picture taken, he slept the majority of the time and only fussed a little bit, such a good baby. :) Enjoy!

Dominic Preston Smith

I started having contractions at 3 AM on March 1st, I woke Spencer up at 3:30 to tell him what was going on. The contractions were about 6-8 minutes apart and not too painful, but they started coming every 5 minutes apart soon after. We got up, got dressed, fed the dogs, and Spencer ate some breakfast ( I didn't feel up to it). By 5 AM I had been having contractions 5 minutes apart for about an hour and they were getting really painful so we headed up to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital the contractions were 3 minutes apart. I got checked in and attached to the monitors. Unfortunately I was only dilated half a centimeter ( which I had been at for about 3 weeks), so I was started on cytotec and pitocin. I was having really painful contractions by this point and the IV medications weren't cutting it. I ended up getting an epidural at 10 AM. I thought I would be free of pain at this point, that was not the case. I was still in a lot of pain for the duration of my labor, I'm not sure why the epidural didn't really work for me. Because I was in so much pain, the nurse anesthetist upped my dose on the epidural, it didn't relieve my pain though and it just made my whole body go numb. So throughout the day they were going up and down on the epidural and eventually turned it off because I was so numb and was having a tough time breathing. I was finally dilated to a 10 around 4:30 PM, but I didn't start pushing til my midwife got there around 6 PM. This hour and a half period was one of the most painful all day. Dominic finally arrived at 6:51 PM. He weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 19 inches long. He was much bigger than I thought he would be! My midwife guessed he would be in the 6-7 pound range.

Spencer and I couldn't be more excited about him being here! We are loving every minute with him, he doesn't cry too much and is a good sleeper.We still can't believe that we are parents though!

Here we are in the hospital when I was in labor

Holding Dominic right after he was born

Spencer holding Dominic for the first time. Proud daddy!

First family photo

Getting ready to go home from the hospital

Nursery

We have FINALLY finished our nursery, just 6 days before our due date! It is whale and boat themed and we love it! The room took quite a bit of work to get it looking this good, but it was totally worth it! We now feel ready to have a baby! We have everything put together and we got new carpet all throughout the house, so we don't have to worry about Dominic crawling on nasty carpet. :)

How cute is this crib?!

We have everything stocked-diapers (mostly cloth diapers with some disposable), wipes, diaper rash cream, burp cloths, blankets, you name it! (In case you're wondering, that bucket is for dirty cloth diapers)

Getting Closer!

On January 22nd, my stepmom and mother in law threw me a great baby shower! There were fun games, some delicious food, and adorable decorations! I really appreciate all of the gifts that everyone got for little Dominic, we have pretty much everything we need now...except the baby!

This was my favorite decoration from the party, the Dominic letters! They will definitely be in the nursery.

Me and my dear friend Rachael and her 2 kiddos came to the shower (don't mind my chubby face:( )

This is me, my sister Hillery (who is also pregnant, she's 5 weeks behind me with a boy) and my niece Andrina

Me and Jamie

Poor Spencer has been SOOO busy with work lately and I have been feeling a little neglected. So he surprised me by sending this Cookie Bouquet to me at home! It's adorable, I love it! And the cookies were delicious too! Thanks honey! <3

We have also been working on the nursery lately, it's all done now except we still need new carpet. Which is such a pain, because we can't really put anything in the room or organize anything until we get carpet. So we have baby stuff scattered all over the house! lol I will post pictures when it's all done!

I still can't believe that my due date is in 20 days!!! It's hard to imagine that I am going to have a baby and that is what I feel moving and kicking me all the time. I was talking to Spencer about it just last night, we can't even begin to imagine what life will be like once he is here. Our lives are going to be SO different, but we can't wait for it. I have been trying to get us prepared to stay home for a few weeks and have tried to keep the house clean and stocked with food. I have made and froze a few meals, including a casserole, soup, cookies, and bread. So hopefully we don't have to get carry-out food from local restaurants too often.

Well that's about it for now, hopefully my next post will be announcing the birth of our baby boy! :)

Maternity pictures

Spencer and I got maternity pictures taken a few weeks ago. Here are my favorites from the shoot!

34 Weeks

According to babycenter.com my baby is the size of a cantaloupe, I feel like he's the size of a basketball! I look and feel huge!

I am 33 weeks and 6 days in this picture.