One month later...

Brody celebrated his 1 mo. mark last Sunday, and I can't believe how fast it has gone by!!! He is growing up so much already, I can hardly believe it. When I look at pictures of him the day he was born, he looks so small. He is finally starting to fill out a bit, and I've put the first pile of baby clothes that don't fit back in storage for any future babies.

Mom caught both me and Kevin snoozing with Brody (at different times) while at their house for dinner one Sunday - catching up on much needed sleep!!

Kristi and Shauna Leavitt put on a baby shower for me in Lethbridge! Thanks for the baby monitor Shauna!!!

Lynnae Wright and Karen Gilroy at Brody's shower

Mom took an evening off to show me how to can tomato sauce!!! My favorite! Thank you mom! Look at all those jars!

(sorry on the fuzzy picture)

Brody and I went to visit Aunt Ruth and Aunt Mary in Taber! Ruth was so excited to tell me that Brody was born on her father (my great grandfather's) birthday! It was nice visiting with Mary too! She was so kind to give me a cooler full of frozen Taber corn that she slaved over this summer. Mmmm. Nothing beats Taber corn!

Brody was excited to go to his first football game last weekend too! It was Raymond vs. LCI at the new football field! Brody even wore the nice 'football' hat that Grandma Bennett gave him! Of coarse, Brody cheered for LCI with me, while Kevin cheered for Raymond. 'Uncle' Wes is helping to coach LCI's team this year, so we were sad for him when LCI lost. We'll get them next time I hope!

Cousin Zac and Brody finally met last Sunday in Calgary at Zac's baby blessing!!!! We're sure they will be best buds growing up!! Everyone had a good laugh at the fact that they both look so much like their dad's and not much like each other! Oh well... I guess the Bennett genes must be recessive.

Four generations for both families!!!

Proud Moms!

Four generations with the women this time!

Got to love Grandma Smith's broken arm! She was supposed to go on a big European cruise next week, and now they have to wait to see if the last minute x-ray turns up good. Poor Grandma doesn't have much luck when it comes to big vacations. We are all glad that nothing more serious happened!

And then there were THREE!

We are so excited to announce the birth of our baby boy!

Brody Dennis Nelson, on August 27, 2009.

That morning I woke up at 6AM with slight pains every 10 minutes. Because they weren't to hard, I sent Kevin to work, making him promise to call me every hour, just in case things progressed. By 11:00AM, things were still the same, so I decided to take things into my own hands and mow the lawn on the ride-on mower, hoping that it might bring on a change. Sure enough, a change occurred... the contractions completely stopped. Kevin phoned soon after, and I told him that it was a false alarm, but just in case, that he should call in a couple of hours to make sure they hadn't started again. Sure enough, an hour later, the contractions started up, and they were not quite as pain-free. Unfortunately, Kevin was out of phone service when I tried to call, so with the help of his brothers, someone eventually drove up and found him, and told him to get home. He made it there by 2:30... when my contractions were 4 minutes apart and Shawn's wife, Brett, was keeping me company in the hour while I waited. We arrived at the hospital around 3:30PM.

Here I am seconds before my water broke, feeling a bit sore. (Thank goodness it didn't happen two minutes earlier while I was coming up the elevator, or in the car!) The nurse had just told me that they would have to monitor me for at least half an hour to make sure that they weren't sending me home to wait longer. I was not impressed. I was in pain, and I did not want to go home...
...Then my water broke and I realized that I hadn't known what pain was before then! The nurse picked a great time to ask if I was interested in pain relief, and I quickly agreed to an epidural, which I had previously convinced myself I wouldn't do. I am SO glad I got it. I can almost say I enjoyed the whole labour experience once the epidural did its thing. I quickly went from 6cm-10cm in about an hour, then pushed for another hour, and Baby Nelson was born at 7:12PM!

7lbs. 7oz.

20 inch. long

~4 hours of hospital labour.

Baby Nelson takes his first few breaths of air! Happy Birthday buddy!

Proud dad got to stay with him while the nurses cleaned him up and checked him over.


Our first family photo!!!! We've disguised Baby Nelson's cone-head with the blanket here! It was looking pretty normal by the next morning already though.


Me and Brody finally made it back to our hospital room, and Kevin promptly brought us some food to eat! What a great dad! I was pretty hungry.

Here is Brody getting his first bath from the nice nurse at the hospital! He looked so different after his hair had been all cleaned up. It definitely has a bit of curl when it gets wet!

After a two nights and a day in the hospital, we got the go-ahead to take Baby Nelson home. Here is the cute outfit Grandma Bennett bought for him to go home in. He decided to pee on it while getting his diaper changed just before we left, so the back-up outfit had to come out.

The last thing we did before leaving the hospital was to finally commit to a name. We had a really hard time deciding, but felt that Brody Dennis Nelson should be his name. We hope he follows the examples of his Grandpa and Great Grandpa Bennett, who he was named after, as he lives his life.

He doesn't really like his car seat! -Still cries every time we put him in it.

Brody and I coming in the house after the drive home!

Grandma and Grandpa Bennett came out to Stirling to help us the first evening home. After making us a delicious supper, mom showed me house to bathe Brody (I was pretty nervous!) We were delighted to see his curls show through when his hair got wet! Here is a photo of him right after his bath.

My little sleeping angel!

Kevin thinks its child abuse when I spike his hair, but it is just so cute! It never stays like that for long anyways.

We love our little boy!