Ty's First Christmas

I can't believe we just celebrated Ty's first Christmas! It was definitely the most magical, fun, and eventful Christmas ever. There really are no words to truly explain how blessed Jeff and I feel to celebrate and share the season as a family. I think the holidays always make you feel happy and thankful, but this year it was amplified. Even with all the ups and downs of the year, we are humbled and grateful that God blessed us with Ty. Our little man is into everything! He's almost figured out the crawling thing. I feel certain we are within a week or two of Ty taking off. He came into this world early and I think he may just do everything early....there's no slowing him down!

Our Christmas involved another hospital visit. Unfortunately this year has been plagued with scares, illness, and poor health for Ty. We are hoping we have gotten through all of it and our little guy will be in the best health for the coming year. Here's how we spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning.

I love now that mine and Jeff's pictures all have a wonderful addition of a third person. We're a little family and I never dreamed how life changing, how wonderful, and completing having Ty would be. Every day Jeff and I tell each other how much we love Ty. I'm not sure what we did before him because our life definitely revolves around him now!

It looks like Ty is developing a thirst for knowledge (to his mommy's delight)! He LOVES books. We spend time every day reading and he seems to enjoy soaking it all up.

The holidays were spent with family (in some cases briefly since Ty was sick enough to warrant a trip to the ER). It warms our hearts how much everyone loves Ty. He was spoiled rotten during his first Christmas, and we are grateful for people who have taught Jeff and I how to be great parents.

Here's Jeff and his brother and mom (Nana) with Ty. It was such a great family moment. I know Ty enjoyed every second.

Speaking of spoiling Ty rotten; no one does it better than aunt Lauren! Not sure which one of them loves the other one more!

There really are no words for moments like this....I only hope that Ty will grow up to be as wonderful of a man as his Poppy. With guidance like this how could he not.

We tried to start of few of our own traditions with Ty. This year we purchased Elf on the Shelf for Ty and adopted Elfie to watch after him. Every night when he went to the North Pole, he must have reported what a good little boy he was because Ty got more presents than he deserved!

This year we wrote to Santa for Ty, but we can't wait to post in the years to come what Ty writes on his mug to Santa....we can only begin to image!

Even though we were up all night at the hospital, it didn't take an ounce away from the magic of our first Christmas morning as a family. Jeff and I both remember how special our childhood Christmas mornings were. We hope we started off Ty with that same wonder, joy, excitement, and life long memories of Christmas.

As we look at Ty now, Jeff and I are both realizing he's not a baby anymore but more of a little boy. He's developing his own personality and traits that are so fun to watch. In the words of Alissa, he's JJ (Jeff Junior) through and through!

More spoiling! Darlene and Megan were sweet enough to come down and keep Ty one day so I could work. They brought him the sweetest present, and he was happy as a clam all day. I love that he got to spend some quality time with them....again, wonderful influences.

And one more great influence to round it out! Ty enjoyed a fun visit from his Pa during the holiday season. I think it's safe to say he's a pretty loved kiddo!

That about covers Ty's first Christmas. Of course, I could gush and gush and post more and more pictures, but we will keep it at this. Merry 1st Christmas Ty. You have been the best present your dad and I could have ever asked for. We love you more than you could ever begin to understand, and we can't wait for all the fun Christmas celebrations that we will share in the future.

4 months of bliss

Our little boy is 4 months today. Here is a picture of the "birthday boy" on his big day! He wanted to pose with his friends the sock monkeys who were given to him by his favorite aunt Darlene.

On this day we are thankful for a happy, healthy, growing baby boy. We are overjoyed to celebrate you today and every day that we get to spend with you. We love you son.

Too long...

It's amazing how fast time flies now! And that means my poor little baby blog is getting neglected. Here are a few quick updates. Ty is sleeping through the night.....yay!!! We are getting between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night. I forgot how wonderful sleep was! But, I will say every sleepless night was worth having this little guy. He has blessed Jeff and I so much!

Ty's first "arts and crafts" project. It's a footprint ornament for the Christmas tree.

Ty had a nice visit from his Nana (Jeff's mom) a couple of weeks ago. It had been a while, so I know he enjoyed getting to spend some time with her. As you can see he was "kicking it out" and showing off on his playmat for her!

We also celebrated our first Turkey Day with Ty. We had an amazing day at Nona and Poppy's house (Beth's parents). The Hubbard clan joined this year and it was truly a day of thankfulness. We are so blessed this year to have Ty and amazing family and friends who love up and support us with unconditional love. I love how each holiday has a whole new meaning now! I won't bore you all with tons of pictures from the day.....even though I really want to!

I finally gave in and got Ty a bumpo seat, and he seems to really love it. I know he's enjoying having a new activity to do. He is so active, we have to get creative to keep me occupied. So, needless to say, Jeff and I spend a ton of time on the floor playing with Ty....and of course, we love every second of it!

And, Ty is spending lots of time on his tummy getting ready for crawling...gosh help us when this kiddo takes off. He will be into everything!

On the tooth front, we have 2 full teeth on the bottom now. At this rate, we will have a mouth full before his first birthday. It's crazy!

So, I went a little overboard buying clothes for Ty's first Christmas, so he will be wearing nothing but Christmas clothes from here until Santa comes. I just love them, and after all, I will only get to dress him for such a short while. I know he will die about this when he gets older!

I promise to post tons more soon. I'm trying to do this blog not only for friends and family but as a scrapbook of sorts for Ty. We just love this little guy so much, and we love that he is getting such a fun personality now. Having Ty is truly the best gift Jeff and I could have ever gotten. We are so lucky that we get to shape a life, and we are trying to make sure we don't take a second of that forgranted. Every time we're rocking him to sleep and thinking about the 800 other things that we both need to be doing we try to stop and remind ourselves that he's only this little once. And of course, that puts it all in perspective...there's nothing either of us would rather be doing than spending every second with Ty. We love you more than you could ever possibly know son. Thank you for enriching our lives and teaching us to slow down and enjoy it!

Ty's 3 month pictures

It's amazing how much time flies now! Our little man is growing up way too fast! We are thrilled to share the link to his 3 month photo shoot. The images are courtesy of the very talented Rebecca Walker of Rebecca Walker Photography. We absolutely love her!!! Hope you all enjoy!

http://rebeccawalkerphotography.smugmug.com/Babies/Ty-3-months/14660121_CUUCk

Stay tuned for some fun snapshots since Halloween and some great Turkey Day pics! We are loving celebrating the holidays with Ty. It makes us realize how lucky we are to have a little family of our own to start traditions with. XOXO!

Happy Holloween

Here's a little peak at what our first Halloween with Ty Jacob was like. It's amazing how different the holidays are with a little one....there is so much more excitement! We were thrilled to spend the day with our little man and we can't wait until next year when we can take him out. Jeff and I are so lucky to be Ty's parents. We love him so much, and we can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with our family and friends. This truly is the best, most wonderful, blessed, joyful year of our lives!

XOXO!

Thankful

I am so thankful that I get to post a much happier post today. We received Ty's 3 page summary from Dr. Hamid at Vanderbilt and everything checked out normal. The skeletal survey came back within the normal range, so we are on cloud nine! We will repeat all the tests at 2 years-just to be safe, but all signs point to a healthy, happy boy. We are so appreciative for all the prayers and thoughts and love that everyone has sent Ty.

In more exciting news, Ty is actively rolling from his tummy to his back on both sides. This kiddo is on the go all the time! He's even standing on his legs with support. Unfortunately, Blogger won't let me upload videos, but I did catch this shot with the camera as he was mid roll!

Lastly, crazily enough, Ty already has one tooth and is working on a second one! He got his first tooth at 9 weeks...yes, 9 weeks! Although this is very rare, it is considered normal....let's just hope I can continue breastfeeding!

Stay tuned for more exciting news. We are super excited to celebrate our first Halloween with Ty. I'll post pics of him in his little pumpkin outfit (courtesy of Nona!).

Whew....

Wow, where to begin with this post. We have had a really rough go of it with Ty over the last week. Ty went for his 8 week check up, and Dr. Lett found 2 items of concern. The first one being a heart murmur and the second one being some bone/growth issues. So we have been at Vanderbilt much more than I would have ever hoped we would be.

After meeting with the cardiologist she found that Ty has a small hole in his heart (this part will require no repairs as about 20% of people have holes in their heart) and an open valve between his lungs and his heart. This part is something that will require action (there is a small chance that it could correct on its own). It's a simple procedure that will happen when Ty is 1 year old. So we are beyond thankful that he doesn't have a major heart condition.

We met with a genetic specialist yesterday and found that Ty has some growth/bone issues. The good news is it is not a major condition like dwarfism, but the bad news is we don't know what it is yet. They did a series of tests in addition to a skeletal survey. We have to wait a week to receive the results, as we are working with very specialized doctors in figuring all this out.

So, as you can imagine we have had a lot of sleepless nights. We just want our baby boy to have the very best life possible. We love him more than anything, and we will do whatever we need to do to give him the very best life we can give him.

We ask that you please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we find answers to all these things. We appreciate all the love and support right now. We are beyond lucky to have such amazing friends and family to lean on. We love you all.

A Big Weekend

Ty's umbilical cord stump finally fell out, so he got a bath!!! It only took 6 weeks and 2 days to come out, but it was worth the wait. Ty hated his sponge baths, so we were really scared to see what he would think about a real bath but he loved it. We had the best time giving it to him. Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures.

And he loved wrapping up in his hoody towel afterwards. He was in the best mood and slept wonderful afterwards.

And, here he is right after his bath. Doesn't he look precious?!?!

I also went back to work this Saturday, and as you can see Ty did just fine with it. He's even waving by to me!!!

The reason I didn't worry for a second about going back to work was my wonderful aunt Darlene kept Ty. They had a great day together, and Ty just loved Dar keeping him. He can't wait for her to come back again (and neither can Jeff and I). She even brought us dinner....how lucky are we to have her?!?! We are thrilled she was the first "sitter" for Ty. I think she set the bar really high for anyone else who will keep him! We love you Dar!

We love all the "firsts" we're getting to experience. Being a parent truly is the greatest gift in the world, and we are soaking up every moment of it. We appreciate all the love and support of everyone, and we are so happy to share these moments with you.

Stay tuned for more amazing moments!

Updates

Last Sunday, we had another exciting first at the Bowman household. Jeff gave Ty his first bottle! Jeff has been dying to feed him, and we decided that would be a perfect birthday present for him. As you can see Ty took right to his bottle....thank goodness! What a wonderful bonding moment for them. Jeff couldn't love that little guy any more than he does.

And on that note, I couldn't be any more grateful to Elizabeth Maxwell for letting me borrow her her breast pump. That thing is incredible! I am so lucky to have a great friend like her. It will make life much easier as I return to work (she also happens to be my very talented business partner-she has been amazing while I've been on maternity leave-I owe her BIG time!).

Sleep? What's sleep? We are finally getting some 4 hour stretches at night (meaning start of one feeding to the start of the next feeding). Thank god for this swing. I never thought I would love something so much! It has been our lifesaver. Ty sleeps in it every night....it's been the only thing that actually works...and believe me, Jeff and I tried EVERYTHING in the beginning.

During the day, Ty does great sleeping in his nap nanny. Thank goodness for it! We are so lucky that aunt Lauren and Pam Hubbard had heard about this. With Ty's tummy issues, we have a hard time laying him flat on his back, so this is perfect! It's great when people know what you need more than you know! (and aunt Lauren is great at knowing what Ty needs...she and uncle Brent are spoiling him rotten...but we love it!)

So, that's what's going on. We can't believe Ty is right at 6 weeks old. Where does the time go?!?! We've had some crazy ups and downs through this journey of becoming parents, but we wouldn't change a second of it. He's only this little once, so we are genuinely trying to soak up every moment. We are thankful every day that he's growing and healthy. We are so lucky that we get to be parents and shape a life.

We love you all. Thank you for making our lives so rich!