Month One...Check!

Pop the champagne, we made it through our first month as parents!! Although we don't have it down to a science yet, everyday is getting a little better and Hadley is slowly becoming a little more predictable in her daily schedule...AMEN! :) A few lessons learned during our first month include: 

1.  The discovery of Dr. Brown's bottles...we started out with the Madela and Playtex bottles, but after 2 weeks of a gassy, screaming baby, I feel like I need to write a thank you note to the company for giving us back our sweet baby and sanity! 

2.  I-540...it's not the most pleasant sound when you're looking to relax on the back porch with a nice cold beverage, but to a screaming baby it has proven to be music to her ears and to us, the greatest silencer a new parent could ever ask for!
3.  Soothies/Paci's...I know not all babies take them, but Matt and I swear by them! 
4.  Packing an extra change of clothes in the diaper bag...Yeah, we learned this one the hard way!  Two seconds after ordering our dinner, a silent vomit episode forced me to learn  this lesson the hard way!
5.  Travel during nap time...enough said! :)
6.  PATIENTS!!!! :)

Here are a few pictures to show how much she has already grown...I can't hardly believe it has already been one month!  We are ready to tackle whatever month two plans to throw at us, except for our two month shots, which we will NEVER get ready for.  :(

First day home...

Day 2:  Eyes Wide Open 

Week 1...Weighing in at 7 lbs and 7 oz 

Week 2...Weighing in at 8 lbs and 2 oz

   

Week 3...Weighing in at 8 lbs and 14 oz  

Celebrating Memorial Day and her 1 Month Birthday with her cousin Caroline!  

Hannah's Pre-K Graduation

Today, we went to our niece Hannah's Pre-K Graduation and had two rows of family members there to celebrate her big accomplishment.  It is crazy to think that she is starting kindergarten in the Fall...it seems like just yesterday she was learning to crawl and now she is telling us what's cool and what's not! :) I will admit that during the graduation program, I kept thinking about how fast time flies.  As I was watching Hannah walk across the stage, I glanced over at Hadley asleep in my Mom's arms and thought about Matt and I sharing a milestone memory like that with her before we know it.  More than ever, I now realize that we need to make sure we cherish each and every second we have with her, even the ones that consist of non-stop crying spells, dirty diaper changes, and lack of sleep!

Our Graduate!  

Proud Parents...

Hadley was pooped from all the celebrating!  

Hannah is going to be the best BIG cousin!

Scrub-A-Dub...My First Bath!

So, our first sponge bath before her umbilical cord fell off was quite dramatic...during the middle the bath, our phones began ringing off the hook, leaving urgent messages from WRAL's weather center stating that we were under a tornado watch! Me, being a weather weirdo who is terribly afraid of severe storms, freaked out!  So, we wrapped up the first bath experience super quick and headed downstairs to turn on the news and put up the patio furniture out on the deck.  Thankfully, 30 minutes later the dark clouds rolled away without a drop of rain falling and the "first bath" story will always have an exciting twist!

This is what you call "bathing under extreme caution" 

Thankfully, she loved it!  

Our grand audience...Mom, Aunt Lynn, and Little Sugar!

After getting several sponge baths out of the way and becoming more comfortable with the whole bath thing in general, her umbilical cord finally fell off on May 16th when she was 18 days old! Now, it was time to really get down and dirty with a full blown bath! She TOTALLY loved it! :)

Look, Mom...no cord! :)  

Bubble Bath Baby!  

So fresh and So Clean...

My First "Real" Mother's Day...

We already have two very special 4 legged children in our house...Ozzie Man and Fenway, have always looked out for me and made sure that I was taken care of on Mother's Day.  However, this year brought an entirely new meaning to celebrating Mother's Day because I finally get what my Mom has always said about not understanding what real love is until you have one of your own.  I am so thankful that I have my Mom here to go through this experience with me...without even knowing it, she has set the "motherhood" bar high and has shown me how to be a great Mom to Hadley.  This year, we celebrated Mother's Day at my sister's house on Saturday and then with Matt's parent's on Sunday.  We are so blessed to have such strong families in our corner and even luckier that those families are full are fabulous women and Moms! :)

Our First Mother's Day...

One Proud G-Ma!

One Excited Nana!

Three Generations...

Just the Girls! :) 

My Mother's Day Prizes! :)

Newborn Session or Cover Model???

Last Saturday morning, we had the pleasure of having Amber Byrd come to the house to do our newborn photo session.  Amber is a dear friend of mine from back home and happens to be a phenomenal photographer out of Chapel Hill!  She did an amazing job on our engagement pictures a few years ago, so it was a no-brainer when it came time to find a photographer to help capture all the milestone months throughout Hadley's first year!  Here are a few sneak peaks she sent us, but I will post more once we get them all back and pick some of our favorites.  Thanks Amber for sharing in this special time with us and for capturing the pure CUTENESS of our sweet girl! :)

Home Sweet Home...

After two days in the hospital, two trips to the house by our parents to take all the flowers we received home, countless visitors, and the doctor's "cutting the new parent cord", sending us out on our own with a ton of paperwork and and a new baby, we were on our way to the new reality that was awaiting us.  Talk about being a nervous...it took us 10 minutes just to figure out how to get her in the car seat correctly and once we got in the car, Matt drove with his hands tightly gripped at 10 and 2 and drove10mph under the posted speed limit the entire trip home!  However, after a longer than usual car ride, we made it home safely and were greeted by our family to a house decorated in nothing but PINK!   

Heading home for the first time as a family of THREE! :)

                                                                                                                        

All decked out in our PINK! :)

On the Grow by Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes...

We found out we were expecting a new addition to our family on August 28, 2011.  As you can imagine,  we were a little shocked, extremely nervouse, but SUPER excited about what was getting ready to take place.  Our families were beside themselves with joy as we started down the path of parenthood or in our case, the path of the unknown.  39 weeks and 2 days later, on April 28, 2012, that path finally took us to Rex Hospital, where we welcomed our baby girl, Hadley Taylor Bishop into the world at 12:33 pm.  She weighed 7lbs, 9oz, and measured 21 inches long.  To say that she is perfect doesn't do her justice...she is beyond amazing and words can't begin to describe the instant love we felt the very second she took her first breath. 

How it all got started...

34 weeks and counting... 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!