Six Weeks Old

Dad styled my hair!

This week was full of new adventures for Brody. On Saturday he spent his day with Grandma Sue while Jim, Neal, my Dad and I all went to the Penn State vs. Michigan State Football game (Yeah MSU!). Since MSU won the game it was decided that next year Brody would be wearing MSU gear on game day! (Edit by Jim - This will not happen!)

We left on Sunday for Pennsylvania and Brody spent his first night in a hotel. We arrived in Pennsylvania on Monday evening and Brody got to meet his newest cousin. I can't believe how small Dylan looked! It is amazing how much growing is done in the first month of life!

Brody's first night in a hotel

Living it up like dad does on his business trips!

Brody and Cousin Dylan

Brody was definitely loved while we were there! There is a lot of family to love him! He celebrated his first Thanksgiving (sleeping through dinner so mom and dad got to enjoy the food hot!). He had a special outfit sent by Grandma Christiansen to wear and a bib from Grandpa Christiansen.

On Saturday Jim's family had a "Welcome Brody" baby shower. It was very nice with a lot of friends and family getting a chance to meet Brody.

Brody was all dressed up for the big day!

Our ride home went fairly well - although Brody definitely let us know that he was hungry about an hour before we made it to our hotel! I have never seen him turn so red! Overall he did very well with the long drive - he slept whenever he wasn't hungry.

This is how he spent most of his car ride to Pennsylvania!

We enjoyed our first night home. Brody and I are going to be on the go again tomorrow. My great Aunt Martha passed away this weekend so we will be going to her funeral tomorrow and then staying with my parents until Saturday. Jim is out of town again this week and my dad is going to babysit for the first time on Friday while I go to my doctor's appointment.



Here are some more pictures to enjoy from the week! We will be updating the blog again next Saturday - enjoy your week!

Brody enjoyed his time with Grandma and Grandpa Raguckas

Cousins Amber and Nathan

Five Weeks Old

Like most aging men - My hair is starting to thin!

This week Brody celebrated his one month birthday at my work. They had a lunch party for us (since Brody arrived before they could throw a "going away for a while" party). It was nice for me to visit with some of my co-workers and have a little adult conversation. I weighed Brody while we were there and he is over the 10 pound mark! We don't have to worry about his appetite!

We spent the majority of this week at Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen's house because Jim was out of town for work. I definitely have a lot of respect for all single parents! It was a difficult week of sleeping for us! Brody had his first sink bath while we were at my parents and he really enjoyed being fulling submerged in water!

Tomorrow Jim and I are going to the Penn State vs. Michigan State football game with my brother and dad. My mom is going to babysit Brody while we are gone (I think she is looking forward to their alone time!).


Sunday we are leaving for Pennsylvania. We are going to drive halfway and stay in a hotel since we are not sure how well Brody will do with the drive. So far he mostly sleeps in the car but I'm not sure he could make it the full 11-12 hour drive. We will be staying the week with Jim's parents and Brody will have the chance to meet all of his Aunts, Uncles and cousins. I am looking forward to seeing him next to his new cousin Dylan - I think we will be amazed at how much bigger he is! It is hard to remember how small he was when we first brought him home.


I will be a little late on updating the blog next week since we won't be home until the 26th. Here are some more pictures for everyone to enjoy!

One Month Picture (from the first sitting!)

Two of the pictures from the second sitting (amazing what a little food can do!)

Just relaxing at home (wouldn't it be great to not have a care in the world?)

Some quality time with Dad!

Four Weeks Old

This week was a busy week for Brody. On Monday he became the second newest Raguckas when his cousin Dylan was born to Jim's brother Dave and sister-in-law Krista! We went on Wednesday to get his one month pictures taken and we were there for almost 3 hours! The first photographer had a rough time with him (Brody was crying in every picture) so they offered to redo them with a more experienced photographer. The second session went much better and we got a lot of cute pictures! Way too many for us to choose from so we ended up spending more money than expected (I think this happens to all first time parents!) From there Brody and I went to my parents house to stay while Jim was away for work. Brody was very spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen -after all it had been a whole week since they had seen him.

This week we have seen that Brody stays up a lot more during the day and seems to be able to focus on faces. He watches all of the new people that hold him and looks up at me when I am talking to him. It is pretty exciting to get to see his blue eyes so much now!

Our nights are still pretty long. Brody now enjoys staying up until midnight or 1am and then will sleep until around 3am and then we are up with dad around 6am before he leaves for work. I guess I am lucky because we really only get up one time during the night now - but then again I am not going to bed until the middle of the night.

Grandpa Christiansen made Brody the most beautiful cradle! He is almost finished with it so Brody got to test it out yesterday before we headed home. Brody is definitely a spoiled little guy!

Brody and I will be heading back to my parent's on Monday because Jim is going to Connecticut for the week. Then the following week we will be heading to Pennsylvania to visit Jim's side of the family and spend Thanksgiving with them. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we will be celebrating Brody with a baby shower with Jim's family.

Here are some more pictures to enjoy!

Three Weeks Old

This week started out with Grandma Christiansen spending a few days with us because Jim worked in Big Rapids for the majority of the week. We went to my work on Monday and had Brody weighed - he is already 8lbs 8oz! I feel like my baby boy is growing up so fast!!! We also learned while we were there that we had started some bad sleeping habits so mom and dad had to start holding Brody off to eating every 2 hours during the night so we will hopefully get multiple hours of sleep in a row during the night! Monday was a little rough but we did pretty well during the rest of the week.


Wednesday was the first day I spent completely on my own with Brody. I was a little nervous but things turned out okay. He sounded pretty congested all day but we made it through the day just fine. Wednesday was also Brody's first holiday - Halloween! We celebrated by dressing him up as a horse - although he slept through all of the trick or treaters.

The days still seem to go by really fast! I didn't know that time could fly when it doesn't seem like you are doing anything other than feeding and changing diapers! Brody and I will head to Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen's next week because dad is heading off on his first business trip since Brody was born. He will be gone Wednesday - Friday and I am just not sure I can handle the days and nights all alone yet!

My friend from High School, Barb, is heading to visit tomorrow with her daughter Skylar. It should be a fun weekend catching up with each other.

Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy. I will post an update next Friday!

Just hanging out in my chair (this is one of my favorite positions)

Relaxing at Grandma Christiansen's (isn't this the cutest outfit? We got it from Jim's Brother and sister-in-law)

Bonding with dad after the first night of 3 hours of sleep in a row!

Jim's friend (Klembecki) found a baby Penn State onesie that Jim just couldn't wait for Brody to wear (it only lasted about an hour before he spit up on it!)