One Month

On Saturday, Gabe turned one month! We celebrated by tailgating in Ames and cheering on our Cyclones. It was a great day... pictures to come! But for now, here's Gabe at one month! He sure is growing!!!!

L.O.V.E.

I am definitely in love with my little man. We had a mini photo shoot today to capture all of his cuteness!! (and let me play with my camera) Enjoy!

Busy Days (and Nights)

Life is pretty good around the Schmelzer house. Gabe is growing and becoming more and more active. He loves studying our faces, and we are just waiting for those first real smiles! He spends his days cuddling with Mama, laying and kicking, and of course eating :) He also really likes bath time, which is good, because sometimes it is the only thing to calm him down in the evening...which brings us to our busy nights.

Let's just say that Gabe has been a bit "challenging" at night. We have had a couple good nights lately so we are hopeful that we may have weathered the storm. However, I most likely just jinxed us... Luckily he is super cute, so we can't be too upset with him ;) 

The last few days we've been able to get out and about. Gabe and I spent Saturday over at the Weesner's watching the football game (boo), and all of us took a trip to Ames today! We went shopping and ate at Pizza Pit, one of Noah's favorite Ames food joints. It was a good day! 

Mom let me sleep flat on my back! It was awesome!
(Because of his reflux, he doesn't get to do this often. He did really well!)

Hello!

Loves to lay and kick, and kick, and kick some more. 

Practicing with the bottle! He took it like a champ! 

Cousin Cece just loves babies, especially "The Boy" 

Hanging out by the fireplace on a cold, rainy day.

Big eyes!

Cuddling with Mom :) 

3 Weeks!

I thought I would give you a glimpse into the life of 3 week old Gabe. It's a tough life :)

Visitors :)

This weekend we had some visitors stop by and meet Mr. Gabe. Erin (Tyler's GF) snapped a few pictures that I wanted to make sure I shared with all of you. They are great!

We have been pretty busy this week. We made a trip to Des Moines and had lunch with Noah on Tuesday, and yesterday we went over to my school to get some grades ready for conferences, and to introduce Gabe to some of the teachers.

Today we are staying home. It is cold and rainy and seems like the perfect cuddle (and nap) type of day :)

2 weeks!

Gabe is 2 weeks old today! We had his check-up this morning and everything is looking great. He is gaining weight - up to 8 lbs 3 oz. and has stretched out a inch since birth.

We had our first outing by ourselves yesterday... A trip to Target! He slept the whole time :) and today we went to the Dr. and down to Des Moines. We are getting brave!

I am feeling great as well. I'm tired, but functioning. Gabe is (usually) a pretty good sleeper. The last few nights have been rough but we are managing! It's a good thing he is so cute ;)

12 for 12

Gabe is 12 days old today... so here are 12 pictures of our Lil Man :)

A Baby Story...

I absolutely cannot believe that a week has gone by since Gabe entered our lives. It has definitely been the most exciting/terrifying/happiest week of my life! We are learning as we go, but have settled somewhat into our new lives.

Now to look back at that day a week ago...

Last Thursday (the 27th) I woke up having fairly regular contractions. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for about the last month, so it was a little difficult for me to decide if this was the real thing or not. I continued to get ready for school, but the contractions were consistant at 8 minutes apart, so I decided I should probably stay home just in case.

Well, that was a good decision :) The contractions started to pick up a little and were getting stronger. Noah stayed home and we headed to the hospital at about 11:00 in the morning.

We actually didn't get to meet with the Dr. until about 2:30 in the afternoon. By then we had made dozens of laps around the delivery floor, and the contractions had picked up...now they were about 2-3 minutes apart. When the Dr. was able to check, I was dilated far enough to have my water broke. It was quite the whirlwind when this all took place. We can laugh now, but this all happened in about a 2 minute period of time. There was no turning back!!

We continued in labor for a while, and at 7:39 that night, Gabe entered the world. Everything went smoothly. The cord did get wrapped around his neck in delivery, but didn't cause him much stress. He also had had a bowel movement before birth...and on the table while the nurses were cleaning him, but that also turned out to be fine. He was a healthy baby boy - 7 lbs 11 ounces, 20 inches long!