All smiles

I promised pictures of Grace smiling, so here they are. Jason came home from work today and got her to smile. We are enjoying every phase of Grace. She is more awake and alert throughout the day, and is cooing away! I love our daughter.

A few good pics

Jason hanging out with his little girl after work. Both Grace and I look forward to having Jason home. We miss him througout the day.
She loves daddy's voice!

Holding her own pacifier. So cute!

We are now getting smiles out of Grace on a daily basis. It's the greatest thing ever. Now I just have to capture it on camera.

First of many

Grace is just now getting over her first cold. It's so sad to hear your little one cough with all of her might, trying to dislodge the junk in her chest, and finally give up. She was not herself the last two weeks. You can see it in her eyes in the picture below. She wasn't sleeping or eating well, and wanted nothing more than to be held. Who doesn't want to be held when they're sick?

My poor little girl

Like father like daughter.
Grace being an angel as dad gives her her breathing treatment.

Where has the month gone?

On Monday, our little girl turned 1 month old. It is amazing how quickly the time goes. Grace has changed so much in that time. Jason and I have adjusted to the fact that we are now parents, but it's still crazy to think that she is ours. I find myself staring at her thinking, how is this possible? Our Heavenly Father has blessed us with this little miracle.
At her last Dr.'s appointment Grace weighed in at 10 lbs. 4 oz. and was in the 95th%. Despite the fact that I am in massive amounts of pain every time I feed her (more on that later), my milk must be doing a body good! She pretty much sleeps, poops, eats, and loves making all kinds of noises. Grace is by far the best thing that has ever happened to us.
This month has been filled with so much joy and excitement, as well as many other emotions that I can't explain (well, I can, but it has to do with me crying every once in a while). I'm just being honest. People always tell you that it's not easy, and you can never really know until you live through it.
As I eluded to earlier, I have had a really difficult time providing nourishment to our little one. Not that I lack milk production, but I have had everything else that can go wrong when it comes to breastfeeding. My first mistake was assuming that I knew how to breastfeed my child...therefore I have hamburger nipples. Jason explains it well, "it looks like a shark took a bite out of them". On top of that, my first week home I had mastitis. With that comes a high fever, engorgement, and more pain. After that went away I was still in tons of pain. I called the doctor, once again and I was told that the baby and I have thrush (not fun). With thrush, I've been told that I need to air out my nipples, use a blow dryer on them, use nipple ointment, and and clean them with vinegar. Are you kidding me? Could this get any worse?

I can now say that I am on the mend and feeling much better. Grace continues to make us smile. I can't believe how quickly the last four weeks have flown.

Our Amazing Grace Rose

February 2, 2009 at 8:37 am our lives were changed forever. Jason and I welcomed our beautiful daughter Grace Rose Gregory. She was 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. Now that she is 3 weeks old we are getting into a routine (if that's what you call feeding every 2 hours) and adjusting as a family of three! I will post more pictures later. She has already changed so much.

Jason has started his own blog...take a look http://jgmumblings.blogspot.com/

more to come, I have to feed Grace again.

The Birthday Boy

I am a little late on my blogs, for good reason. I started this post 2 days before I went into labor, so I wanted to finish this before I move on to the next one.

On Saturday, January 24th my adorable husband turned 33! Fortunately for him, his birthday has turned into a three week celebration. We celebrated with friends the weekend before. Our friend Chris took him golfing on his birthday, and then I got him the rest of the weekend. This Sunday, after he runs his 6th Huntington Beach 1/2 marathon along with his dad, Rick, mom, Sherry, sister, Carrie and my mom, we are celebrating again with family and watching the Super Bowl. (which is when I went into labor)
I love celebrating his birthday, because I get to spoil the heck out of him, and he is so deserving.
Jason is:
supportive husband
smart
the hardest working man that I know
dedicated to his job
makes sure that his family always comes first
compassionate
caring
funny as heck
great with kids of all ages - including our new baby girl
passionate about running and keeping good health
great cook
handsome
sexy
great writer
The only thing he asked for this year was guitar lessons. He has had a guitar for years, but never really learned how to play, and now he wants to be able to play for Grace. Did I mention how adorable he his? This is going to be such an amazing year.

Dinner at Roman Cucina, on the night of his birthday

Our favorite dessert after dinner.

Happy Brithday Jason! I love you.

What's so amazing about Grace?

This post is dedicated to my Grams, Grace Schioppi!

The woman in the picture above, my grandmother, is by far the most amazing woman I know, Grace. Throughout my life she has been there for me and has taught me so much. It is an honor to name our daughter after her. Below are a few things I want to share about my grams

Grace is:
*A mother of six, grandmother of 17, great grandmother of 14 (15 in a few short weeks)
*warm
*kind hearted
*loving
*dedicated to God and her family
*strong, after having a stroke and still caring for her youngest son with MS.
*hard working
*patient
*a great teacher
*funny
*beautiful
*the best cook I know
*thoughtful
*loyal

My favorite memories with grams:
*cooking with her in the kitchen
*playing cards with her
*listening to stories about her childhood
*spending the night at her house (3-4 nights a week while growing up)
*singing songs
*calling each other up and singing our rendition of Stevie Wonder's - "I just called....to say...I love you"
*teaching me how to sew
*our walks in the morning
*going to church
*making me split pea soup when I was sick
*making me laugh

I might add more to this post later, but for now I wanted to write down a few things...

I love my grams and don't know what I would do without her.