Back in the Swing of Things

Today was my first day back to teaching violin. It was lovely to pull out my beautiful instrument, which I haven't played in many weeks for obvious reasons. The A string had gone completely slack, but that was quickly remedied. I started back into my musical career by playing "For the Beauty of the Earth," an arrangement my mom gave me for Christmas. 

I was a little nervous about how lessons would go with a newborn in the house. Brett didn't sleep much at all during the generally accepted nap time earlier today. However, during lessons he was a perfect little angel. He swung and slept through both lessons I taught today. 

I sure love this baby of mine. 

Photo Binge of One Cute Boy

We love having Brett as part of our family. Here are a few photos of his first weeks at home. 

Brett has a knack for the "pirate eye" expression. He gets this one from his dad.

Celebrating Brett's first week. Grandma made him a cake. He didn't get to eat it, but I gave him every opportunity since I ended up dropping some on his hand. Grandpa Bezzant would have snuck him some for sure. 

Sleepy little angel in his bassinet. 

My friend Karolin gave Brett some cute Baby Gap outfits and had Godiva chocolate cigars for the siblings. They loved it, and so did I. The "mommy tax" is a wonderful thing when it comes to good chocolate. 

Another angelic picture. Brett is snuggled in the soft white blanket Grammy gave him. Looks like heaven. 

Spencer is a great helper. He had a late start at school one day due to some icy roads and helped me feed Brett a bottle. He was so proud. 

S-T-R-E-T-C-H!

While we kept Brett home for the first 7 Sundays of his life in an effort to stay cold/flu-free, I did dress him up in this cute little tie onesie my visiting teacher made. 

Meeting Great Aunt Janet. 

3 Generations

Meeting Aunt Celeste

Celeste made him this super snuggly blanket and 3 matching burp cloths. He sleeps with the blanket every night. 

Meeting Aunt Melinda

Grammy and Papa LOVE their grandbabies. 

Tummy time! Just like John, Brett has proved his muscle strength early on. He rolled over for the first time at just 11 days old! 

I love this picture. John has been a super-loving older brother. He was patting Brett softly and said out loud "No hurt baby." I love hearing John's internal dialogue voiced now that he is talking more and more. 

Emma wanted a chance to feed Brett too. He is lucky to have all these great siblings looking out for him.

Momma and baby

One of Brett's first baths.

Spencer likes to hold Brett while standing up. We make sure to stay close at hand, but it is pretty sweet to see this big 7 year old brother lovin' on baby Brett.

Bringing Home Brett

We had a bit of a wait when it came time to leave the hospital on Friday night. At the 24 hour mark, the nurses took sweet little Brett to do his pku test and final check-up. We waited (and waited...and waited) for the lab to finish analyzing some of my blood so I could get one last Rhogam shot and we could be on our way. (Adam and I are compatible in so many ways, but, alas, blood type is not one of them). By the time all the i's were dotted and t's crossed, it was nearly 11:00pm. 

Here we are getting ready for the drive home. 

For his going home outfit, Brett wore a "play ball" onesie and a cute blue sleeper with a dog on it. He was less than thrilled to get strapped into the car seat. 

Nothing a binkie and a blanket couldn't fix. This blanket was given to us by our next door neighbor, Carla Callis. This is our first time having a winter baby, so we didn't think to bring a blanket to drape over the car seat to block the wind. It was a chilly, albeit short, walk from hospital lobby to car. Fortunately, Adam had pulled up close and had the heat going. We drove home in the trusty Toyota Corolla, and Brett slept all the way.

My cute parents had arranged these flowers and the cute bear on a chair in the entryway, where we would see it as we walked in. Spencer, Emma, and John were having another sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house since we knew we wouldn't return until late, so the first night home was just Brett, Adam, and me. We arrived home at about 11:30pm and finally collapsed into bed at 12:30. 

First thing the next morning, we had to go to the pediatrician's office for a little check-up. Around lunchtime, Grandma and Grandpa brought Spencer, Emma, and John to meet Brett for the first time. It was so sweet to witness their excitement. Thanks to iPhones, we have the scene filmed from every possible angle. 

Are Adam and I really old enough to have FOUR children? 

Each sibling took a turn holding Brett. Spencer had asked days earlier if he could be the first, so we took turns and followed the birth order. 

Spencer and Brett

Emma and Brett

John and Brett

John was so sweet and soft with this new brother.

Next, it was Grandma's turn for a little bonding time.

And don't forget Grandpa!

The at-home Cummings clan came to meet Brett and welcome him as well. 

(back row: Marie, Brett, Papa, Grammy, Joel, Trina, Sarah; front row: John, crouched by my feet, Emma, Spencer)

Random note: Right after the kids met Brett, Adam and his parents took them to the Target clinic where everyone got flu shots. We should have done it weeks earlier, but after all the hype at the hospital, we decided better late than never!

Baby Brett

 January 17th, 2013 is the day Brett Cummings Wride joined our family. 

His due date was the 15th, but as was the case with all of our babies except Spencer, he was feeling pretty cozy in utero and there were no signs that he was going to make an appearance any time in the near future, so we went ahead and scheduled an induction. (Remember, John came into this world weighing a hearty 10 lbs. 2 oz. My goal was not to  break that record, so no need to go any further past the due date). The morning of the induction, we got Spencer ready for the school bus, took a quick family picture, and left Emma and John in Grandma's care.

The obligatory belly shot.

Settled in, waiting for baby. Adam loved the hat and mask he got when I got my epidural; he wore it for a few hours, feeling very official.

Most of the day passed pleasantly. We were both pretty exhausted since the night before baby is akin to the night before Christmas, which means I was too excited to sleep. I had some intense contractions, and the epidural was sometimes only effective on one side of my body. We watched some Downton Abbey on the iPad mini as a distraction and regularly checked in with the family on Path. Thank you, all, for the words of encouragement. It was great fun to feel like our extended family was cheering us on throughout the day.

The doctor started me on pitocin about 10:30am. By 6:30pm, I had made frustratingly little progress (did someone tell baby that there was a chance of snow?). Dr. Menezes decided to take me off the pitocin for an hour. I had been at level 16 (or was it 18) with the pitocin, and by the time they worked the pitocin back up to level 6 and I had thrown up a few times it was time to have a baby. Two contractions of pushing later, out came Brett.

Brett was born at 8:42pm, weighing in at an impressive 10 lbs., 1 oz. (John's record is intact, but only just barely). He was strong and fiesty from the start. Brett has impressive muscle tone in his legs. He was my most consistent, constant kicker and put on a regular kickboxing routine every night at bedtime while he was in the belly. Once born, he quickly figured out how to put his cute little hands to work, grabbing at the sleeves of the nurse who was trying to clean him up. 

Here I am holding my sweet new babe. 

Mom, Dad, and baby Brett. It's hard to keep a little newborn cap on that Barnard head.

I love this picture...and those cheeks! SUCH sweet cheeks on this little man.

Spencer, Emma, and John had a full day bouncing from Grandma's to Grammy's and back to Grandma's for a sleepover. They got to stay up late since there was no school on Friday (teacher work day), and we were thrilled that they were still awake when we called to tell them they had a new baby brother. We facetimed (video conference) so that they could see Brett and we could see their reaction. Brett - your big brothers and sister were VERY excited to welcome you into the family. 

LOVE those sweet cheeks. Brett looks a lot like his big brothers. In fact, for the first while we had a hard time calling him by the right name.

Sleeping peacefully at the hospital.

The hospital where Brett was born treats new parents very well. They wheeled in this table and chairs to serve up a gourmet meal for Adam and me. My other favorite thing is the postpartum massage that one of the nurses gives the day after baby is born. Heavenly!

Adam fancified the room with this gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Love that man!

Because the flu had reached epidemic status in VA the week that Brett was born, the hospital restricted visitors. That meant our other kiddos couldn't come visit, but we were sure glad Grammy and Papa stopped by. My dad had just flown in from Azerbaijan, if I remember right. It was really fun to introduce them to their newest grandson. 

Some things worth remembering:

*At one point during Brett's first night, he was sad. He wasn't hungry and didn't need a diaper change...just sad. I started singing to him while I held him, and he quieted right down. This baby has heard a lot of music (mostly during violin lessons), and it seems to have a calming influence.

*Brett was an awesome eater right from the start. 
*Abena was our nurse at first, and she was the same nurse we had when John was born. Both times, babies were born just after the shift change and Abena went home. 

*We stayed in the hospital for just over 24 hours, thanks to a hefty daily copay and the doctor's flu-related warning to make haste and get home. 24 hours was PLENTY because there was a sweet little babe next door who was having a hard time nursing and cried most of the night. We were happy to get home and have a little peace and quiet...until the next morning when we had to trek down to the pediatrician's office for a weight and jaundice check. (The only downside to leaving the hospital early). 
*Brett is named for Adam's uncle, Brett Barnard - one of the finest men I've ever known. Uncle Brett passed away in June 2012, and we are pleased that his wife and daughters allowed us to use his name. We hope our Brett will be very much like his great uncle. 

Baby Day

Alright, folks. That's all the binge blogging for now. Can you tell that I've been nesting?

The house is clean; the counters are wiped; the floors are vacuumed; the basement is organized. Tomorrow, we go to Reston Hospital to have a baby! We are so excited to welcome Wride Baby #4 into our family. 

Wish us luck!

2013: A New Year

The Pascuals came down with Maddie, Daniel and Ryan (Wride cousins) for the week of New Year's. We spent many additional nights at the Wride's house so that cousins could capitalize on playtime and we could play games when the little ones went to bed. Here we are playing Ticket to Ride, which Jorge Luis dominated.

I wanted to take a picture of the girls on the Sunday before New Year's, but the boys wanted in on the action too. Result: cute cousin photo. Just missing John who was likely wrestling one of Adam's Sunbeams in the other corner of the classroom. 

Emma and Maddie were twinners. 

John, Spencer, Daniel, and Ryan are sure handsome in their church clothes too.

These cousins have the BEST time together. They are very creative in their play, although there is a good amount of Wii and computer/iPad games in the mix too. This year a favorite iPad pastime seems to be Minecraft. 

Here, the cousins are making up their own version of RISK.

On New Year's Eve Day, we needed to get a little energy out and found the church gym to be the right place for the job. It's important to have a change of scenery every now and again. We pulled out lots of basketballs and bouncy balls and after the kids had played basketball for a long while, we turned it into a game of dodgeball (pictured below). It's really fun that these cousins are old enough to play structured games. After dodge ball, they ran the lines on the court playing a game of Fox with Gma. 

All this fun can be exhausting! John was a champ. He didn't get all the naps he is accustomed to, but he was still a cheery fellow through all the celebrations. Here he is catching a cat nap at Grammy's house.

We had our traditional fondue dinner and dessert at the Wride's house. Yum!

The cousins donned some festive hats to welcome in the New Year. This photo was taken just before John went to bed...at a very reasonable hour. Emma made it until about 11pm, and all the other kiddos rang in the New Year with sparkling cider and grapes. (I had to take a little 11pm cat nap to make it to midnight. Ah, pregnancy.)

New Year's Day we had the classic white elephant gift exchange. The foam fruitcake is still in circulation. Other "winners" this year was the Afterglow Country CD and a slice of Jarlsberg cheese that had been left out overnight. It's always humorous to see what this crowd comes up with. Since Aaron was not in attendance, no toilet paper rolled in the mud was in circulation this year.

Here are darling Emma and Trina in dress-up.

Playing games with the fam on New Year's Day.

A few days later, Laura, Adam, and Valerie met up with cousin Tyler in Baltimore, where he was having a job interview. We sure love having all this family close by!