Breton...Seconds

Second Month Birthday 12-9-14

Second Day at Goddard School; 1-14-15; Mommy and Nana came to visit

Breton...More Firsts....

First One Month Birthday First Birthday Celebration for Daddy!!! Happy 31st!! First Christmas First Surprise Birthday Party & All Girl Get Together :)

First Doctor Appointment

Breton's First......

First pic to daddy at work First Bath First Xmas Card - photo shoot! First Thanksgiving First Stroller Walk

Baby is here Nov 9 2014

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Our lil Bubby arrived over 2-1/2 months ago and one thousand iphone pictures ago. Gosh, so much has happened that I regret not documenting every second of it but the time has kept us busy. We are both back at work into the swing of things. So to go back in time.... It all started around midnight (Friday turning into Saturday) on 11-8-14. I felt the first contractions. I downloaded an app on my phone to track the timing. Sure enough they were ranging from 5 minutes to 1 and half minutes and lasting 30-50 seconds. I knew he was late so it was time for him to come but I couldn't believe it was happening. I texted my best friend Katie a picture of the contraction log and she quick called. She asked to speak to Joseph and said ok, it's time to go in. We packed up. A long night but I never dilated. I didn't know whether to induce or go home and wait for it to happen natural. I texted my friend Jess in San Diego, she quick called me in the hospital and said it is so much better to just let it happen on its own. I listened as she has been through it twice and my go to person for all my advice for mommy to be things. She missed her calling as a consultant in this department. We went home around 3am. Then for the rest of the weekend, I spent having on off contractions day and night. It was not fun. Taking baths to soothe the pain, hot showers, trying to sleep them off if possible. Then around 8pm Sunday night, I felt the strongest of them all after a bath. There was blood. I was in tears. Joseph was so worried, he said that's it we are going in again. THANK GOODNESS!! This same night....hours later....and going from 4cm to 8cm within an hour.... Joseph Breton Mann was born a healthy 7lb 15oz 20oz at 11:04pm He might have been late but when he was ready to come he came zipping out We left for hospital around 8pm and he came out sideways three hours later. My mom and Schatzie were there by our side to experience it all with us. Our coworker Phil even showed up to support us. I can still hear Joe counting down 10,9,8 then saying " I see hair" lol and there he was in this new world He passed all his in-hospital tests with flying colors & we were off to our home together two days later The first night Joseph and I hardly slept not because he kept us up. He was so good we were paranoid we should be doing something and kept checking to make sure he was breathing Our nurses that kept taking shifts and checking on us were great. Everyone at Gwinnett Medical made it a relaxing and comfortable environment. I was able to bounce back like nothing on the second day when we were ready to go home. Carrying our little boy to his new home in our world, priceless

Sept / Oct Updates (weeks 33 to 37)

Besides just trying to make this house a home for the past month, we have had a few other things going on here. However, don't get me wrong, we have been trying to do as much as possible during the week and weekends to "fill space" as we say, lol, so that alone has kept us pretty busy in our own little world. The two most complete rooms are probably the dining room (for our upcoming Thanksgiving celebration) and the nursery for "junior" who surprisingly is sneaking up on us. Only 3 more weeks to go! More to report here....we had the doctor suggest an ultrasound yesterday to make sure he is still growing accordingly. If not, he was ready to induce but I was ohhh not ready just yet. Apparently he thought my belly looks small this week but come to find out I have lots of hiding spots and room so it doesn't poke out. He is snug with plenty of fluid and nutrients deep within. At 7lbs and 56 percentile, he is right on track. 155 heart rate and limbs measuring on point for his gestation. No worries but we got some cute pics out of the ordeal! Yay, I love checking up on him. Look he has his dads pouty lips and the Fagan chin, adorable! Some other things we have been up to are weekend activities like visiting my Aunt Candy and Uncle Mike at their second home in Keowee,SC. The guys went golfing, the girls went shopping and cooked dinner. We all spent the night and enjoyed a little getaway together. Visited our friends house for a full day of college football games, went to the Square in Lawrenceville for Rock n Ribville, and had my parents over for a cookout. Dad and Joe did a dry run with the turkey fryer to make sure they had the Thanksgiving touch. We deep fried a 3 lb small turkey, lobster tails and french fries. It was quite delicious! We also had our first baby classes at the hospital, Newborn Care and Breastfeeding Basics (luckily Joesph wasn't the only guy there, phew, I would've felt bad but would have felt worse if I was the only one without a partner, ha) They are a couple hours long from 7-9pm after work at Gwinnett Medical with about a total of 10 couples (someone even brought their parents for a refresher course, interesting). We are both glad we picked up some nuggets of information in preparation but no matter how prepared you think you are, you aren't ...are the dear words of my friend Ashley. So we also know we are ready to "wing it" by the seat of our pants. Yet we still hang the certificates they gave us for attending the class on our fridge with pride, lol. And finally, I got to redeem my birthday present that Joseph had given me for my birthday. I met my mom on the square in Gainesville at Princeton Spa for a massage. I told the lady to please focus on my feet and shoulders. Wow, amazing, I think she temporarily healed my swollen feet from all the moving and fluid accumulation. It felt like a miracle. There was also the Mule Camp yearly festival going on that same weekend so we made a day of it downtown Gainesville. It was a nice fall day to play "hookie" from work. So other than all this it's just been basic work weeks, getting the townhouse ready for the renter, painting or shopping, chasing Allstate for our claim and wondering if our little guy will come early or right on time. To be continued....Ps - ask Joe about his feelings on getting a flu shot, haha

MOVING!! and the Gwinnett County Fair

Finally , we can say we have finished all our financial and loan paperwork we started towards the end July after putting an offer on a house in Buford. It seemed to have everything we needed so we jumped on it after looking at multiple homes for months. We closed on it last week and now are in the midst of moving. We have a lot of work ahead of us to make it our "home" but we couldn't be more excited to start our new life in it. The nursery is one of the first rooms we will have completed too. Joe is working on painting it tonight (navy and white)to match the bedding we had made. Right now it is more of a royal and pale blue. Also, the furniture has shipped in from overseas waiting for us in their Georgia Babies warehouse and is all ready to be delivered tomorrow. We don't even have our master bedroom or living room yet, lol. This weekend we plan on looking for all new things. We were too afraid to buy anything in advance in case the closing didn't go through or jinx it so this will be a fun task in the month ahead before "junior" gets here! Besides all this work, we did have some fun. The Gwinnett County fair is in town and we went there last week. Sadly since I am pregnant I had to bypass all the rides, I was quite bummed out. I kept urging Joe to ride them without me so I could live through him vicariously but he declined, ha. Instead, we competed in friendly competition of basketball which we both lost, neither of us made a basket, lol. We tried to win a lizard, crab or goldfish for throwing a ping pong ball in a bowl of water. We only got one ball so we won a goldfish but forgot to pick it up later, oh well, the kitties might have taken a grab at him at home so we probably spared a life. Then last but not least we did the squirt guns to see who could get the clown to the top first. We were the only ones playing so it ended up we both won one time, ha! We like those odds. So, in the end, we did win two stuffed animals for junior. Then off to find more carnie stuff to buy which led me to the airbrush trucker cap station. Joe made friends with the dudes running the tent there. They were all from San Antonio so they were talking Spurs & showing him pictures of the game they went to. Small world! Finally, festival food, don't leave one without it. To sum it up, it was a fun, successful & delicious day :)