newborn photoshoot

We haven't had professional pictures taken since we got married. I love nice pictures, and they're important to me. But I just never wanted to spend the money on pictures of just Ty and myself...it seemed a bit vain. Enter Bryson. Now I feel like I need professional photos to commemorate every single day of his adorable life! I don't care if it makes us look vain anymore. My baby is gorgeous, and I like looking at him!

However, since we do not have a money tree growing in the backyard, I'm going to have to stick to doing most of them myself (see Halloween post tomorrow!) But it was very important to me to have some nice pictures taken while Bryson was still a newborn. I found a sweet photographer who was willing to come and shoot at our house, which I think is super special. Now we will always have pictures in our first home.

Our photographer arrived around 6:00pm, since Ty works during the day. Up until this very night, Bryson had been the most perfect baby. He hardly ever cried or fussed. But I swear, the instant that photographer came in the door and started charging us money, he became a different child altogether! He was so fussy the entire time. I literally fed him FOUR times in the time we were taking pictures. The photographer even stayed an hour later than planned because of it (and 8 months pregnant to boot!) I was worried we weren't going to get any decent shots. But we did, and I'd love to share them!

I'm not going to include every single picture that we got, but I will share some of my favorites. I ordered a few to hang on the walls, and made a photo book out of the rest. So now, without further ado...an insane amount of pictures of my sweet family.

Is it just me...or has he gotten even hotter since becoming a dad?!

We got some super cute shots of his sweet little yawns!

I'm so glad we were able to get some photos in his nursery. It's my favorite room in the entire house. 

At the VERY end of the night...literally the last 10 minutes, he finally fell asleep and was calm/easy to move around and pose.

I get emotional every time I see this picture. 

And just in case you didn't believe me...this is what we were working with nearly the whole time haha! I can't imagine how many pictures the photographer had to delete because he was screaming and crying! But this is real life, and I'm grateful we have a picture to document that the newborn phase was amazing and wonderful, but not always sunshine and rainbows.

I think I'm officially addicted to family photos now. I'm off to go get an extra job to fund photo shoots for every major milestone in his life now!

xoxo, wife (& mommy)

bryson's baptism

We had Bryson baptized on October 20, 2019 in front of our church's congregation. We were so blessed to have friends and family there to celebrate him being baptized into a life of Christ. We chose Ty's brother and sister-in-law to be his godparents, to support us in raising him in a Christian household, and to hold the values of Jesus. It was such a special day. During the ceremony, I was surprised to find that I wasn't crying, because I bawled like a baby during my own baptism about 11 years ago. (Fun fact: I freaked out a tiny bit when I was being baptized because I thought I was tainting the Holy Water with my tears and snot!) Instead, I just experienced incredible joy for my son, and I think Ty would say the same thing.

This same pastor also baptized me when I was 21!

Bryson loves water and did a great job. He didn't make any noise until the pastor handed him back to me...then he made a couple angry noises, but nothing too bad!

Bryson's godparents: Jason and Tara

Bryson with the adorable bear his godparents gifted him in honor of his baptism. 

Ty and I have a big job ahead of us. Not only to we have to raise and protect our son, but we've accepted the task of raising him to be a godly man who loves Jesus with his whole heart. It won't always be easy, but with the help of his godparents, our family, friends, and of course our Heavenly Father, I know we will do our very best.

bryson's first month

Now that I got the major posts out of the way (pregnancy, birth story, jaundice journey), I can finally start dumping some photos in here. All of these pictures are from the day we came home from the hospital until Bryson turned one month old.

This was our first day home from the hospital, when we discovered Bryson's adorable "whistle" face.

Right after Bryson's first bath.

This sweet boy loves to smile in his sleep. He still does it now, even though he has learned to smile when he's awake, too.

Meeting cousin Silas.

Meeting cousin Lydia. (Still hooked up to the bili-light.)

Meeting cousin Caleb.

Baby's first trip to Target!

Bryson's due date. This is the outfit we bought the day we found out we were having a boy. It was also Bryson's first time at church!

Laying with the stuffed dog my uncle Joe lugged around the hospital while my mom was in labor with me. I've had it 32 years, and now my baby snuggles him too. 

And finally...the day Bryson turned one month old.

His little face in these two pictures gets me every time. He's just absolutely beautiful!

At one month old, Bryson liked: eating, baths, his bouncy seat, car rides, and staring at his mommy and daddy.

He disliked: being hungry, tummy time, when his bath was over, when his paci fell out of his mouth, and sleeping during the nighttime!

our jaundice journey

jaundice: a yellow tint to the skin or eyes caused by an excess of bilirubin, a substance created when red blood cells break down. If left untreated, it can lead to severe brain damage, or even death in an infant.

While in the hospital after having Bryson, we noticed that he began to look a little orangy-yellow. Along with his routine blood work, he also had a jaundice check, which came back elevated. This isn't always a huge deal, and often the issue will resolve on it's own with little to no intervention. It's fairly common, especially among babies born early. Bryson was born at 37 weeks. Unfortunately, Bryson's bilirubin levels continued to grow. During this time, all Bryson wanted to do was sleep. I couldn't even get him to stay awake while he was nursing (which eventually led to a major drop in my milk supply, but that's a whole other story that I may or may not get into.)

His nurse had to continue checking his levels to see if he would need additional support when we left the hospital. The pediatrician at the hospital determined that we needed to meet with Bryson's actual pediatrician the next day after leaving the hospital.

When the doctor saw him, she knew immediately that he needed some help just by looking at the color of his skin. She sent us immediately to get more lab work done. This was probably the 5th time he'd had to have lab work. It required pricking his heel with a needle and squeezing blood from his foot into a vile. Depending on how well he bled, it was about a 5 minute process each time. And those 5 minutes were excruciating for me. I had to leave the room crying on more than one occasion because of how awful it was. I was so thankful to Ty for stepping up and being the strong one during those tests.

His bilirubin levels determined he would need intervention. We had to have a home medical company bring out a bili-light. It was a machine connected to a flat panel that emitted a blue light. The light had to be against Bryson's skin 24 hours a day, unless he was being changed, bathed, or in the car going for more lab work. The light would cause the bilirubin levels to drop. We had to go in nearly every day for more lab work to make sure his levels were coming down.

Orange baby. You can see some of the blue light up by his neck. 

It was difficult enough navigating life with a newborn, but having one attached to a machine at all times was tough! But after a few days, we got a call that his bilirubin levels had gone down enough to disconnect him from the light and send the machine back. His skin slowly returned to a regular pinkish-tan color, and he began to be more alert and want to eat more often.

And he was quite happy.

I felt such a huge relief sending that dang light back. I was so grateful that Bryson would no longer have to go back for daily blood work, and was happy to actually be able to carry my baby around the house.

The good things to come out of our journey: I was sort of forced to recover a bit quicker because I had to get up, get ready, and actually leave the house every single day after giving birth. Ty and I were also able to desensitize ourselves a little bit toward lab work. When he got shots at his 2 month well-check, we hardly batted an eye, because the shots were way easier than blood draws. We also got to appreciate the fact that we have a healthy baby boy who only had to be hooked up to a machine for a couple days, when we know there are millions of babies who have to be hooked up to things all the time. 

While it wasn't the most fun, it really did bring Ty and I together as a team, which is what our baby needed the most.