Bathtime

Noah loves baths. In his short little life so far, I can count the number of times he has fussed in the tub on one hand. But even when he has fussed, he always quiets down for his favorite part--having his hair washed. :) Enjoy a couple pics of bath time with our little dude.

Love, Lauren

Noah's Baptism

Once again, I am way behind in blogging...a least I am blogging (ahem, Daddy).  Not that Daddy isn't insanely busy between work and play time with the little one. :)  What can I say, I like to tease.  But I digress...

A little over two weeks ago we were lucky enough to have many of our famly and friends celebrate Noah's baptism with us.  In true Dieckmann/Mungenast style, it couldn't go off without a hitch and we were without a priest until about 1:40 or so (the baptism was scheduled for 1:00) when we were able to locate the pastor's personal cell phone number in the back of chuch and were lucky enough to get in touch with him on the first try.  Not to say we hadn't already tried calling the parish office and tried, unsuccessfully, to locate a phone number for the rectory...again, I digress.  Also in true Tom and Lauren style was the fact that, while we made sure we had charged both camera batteries, we failed to take into account that our camera had 2400 pictures on it already (we are now more familiar with the delete button) and was full by the time the baptism began. (Many thanks to Auntie Kelly for snapping pics with what was left of our memory card!) Again, lucky for us both sets of parents/grandparents had cameras with them and both graciously shared their pictures with us (and allowed us to boss them around a little bit afterwards to make sure we got all the pictures we wanted to get.) 

I'm a little bummed we didn't think to get a shot of Noah all by himself in full baptismal gown and all (maybe we'll just have to dress hm up in it again sometime--soon--to get the shot.)  But we do have some great memories captured.

Here we are all ready for the baptism!

Father Santen let the kiddos help him bless the water, then taught them how to "bless" each other.  I think Carrie's comment was something like "going to mass will never be the same." :)

Noah cooperated so well by sleeping through the entire ceremony!  He barely even flinched when Father poured the water over his head.

Here we are with Noah's godparents, Aunt Carrie and Uncle Stephen.

After the baptism we came back to our place for an open house.  Thank goodness the rain held out and the kiddos were able to burn off some steam in the backyard!

We were so happy to have so many of our family and friends join us for this special occasion.  Even Auntie Kelly and Uncle Josh were able to come in all the way from Alabma!!

Couldn't have said it better myself.  God Bless Noah. :)

Love to you all!

Lauren, Tom, and Noah

Catching up...

It's amazing how well intentioned one can be to keep up with a blog (or anything for that matter) and then realize, suddenly, that their baby is now 6 weeks old (to the minute...it is literally 2:23 as I type this) and only one blog entry has been posted since his arrival.  I have found, though, that all I can do is promise that I'll TRY to keep up with the blog more.  The rest is really up to Noah and what he will let me get accomplished. :)

So let's see...Noah has had his first bath in his little tub (and many since then...I promise we don't have a stinky kid), been to Fritz's (yes, only once), met all of his cousins and aunts and uncles, been to several parks (we like to go for walks with Aunt Carrie, Ryan, and Emily), and so much more!  We even tried to go to Grant's Farm yesterday but upon our arrival, we saw the line and decided we had better not push our luck.

So much more to catch you up on but it will have to wait until a later time as I hear Noah waking up in the next room.  For now, I'll leave you with a recent picture to brighten your day.  Enjoy!

I love you!!

He's here!

After months and months of waiting and preparations, it was finally time for Buddy to arrive.

Labor began some time in the afternoon Sunday, July 17th and slowly progressed throughout the afternoon and evening.  We weren't totally convinced that "this was it" so after a nice family dinner at Nana and Papa's house, Tom and I decided to go for a walk to try to speed things along.  When that didn't seem to make too much difference, we went to bed around 11pm.  Contractions woke me up at 1 and by 2 I woke Tom up to start putting last minute things in our hospital bag.  By 3:30am we were heading out the door to MO Bap with contractions right around 5 minutes apart. 

Upon arriving at MO Bap, we were told we hadn't made quite enough progress to be admitted yet and were sent to walk the halls for a little over an hour.  By 6am, we were very familiar with the layout of MO Bap (and a few nurses we kept passing) and were able to return to our room to find out that we had made just enough progress to stay! (Thank goodness!)  By 7:30ish we were settled in to labor and delivery.  Over the next few hours we started a little pitocin, had my water broken, and, eventually, got an epidural.  It wasn't too long after that that we were able to welcome our precious baby boy...

Noah Thomas Dieckmann

7/18/2011   2:23pm

8 lbs 2 oz     21 1/2 inches

First shot of the happy family. :)

Noah wasn't a big fan of the bath...until they washed his hair.  Still his favorite part now that we're home.

Mommy and Noah once we made it to our room.

We are so blessed to have such a healthy, happy little boy.  It has been amazing to watch him grow and change so much already in his first 9 days and we are excited about what the future will hold for him.  Love to you all! 



Welcome Baby Emily!!

I'm late, again, but at least this time it took me less than a week!  Emily Virginia Trammell is finally here!  Emily joined her family very early Monday morning (1:50am...that party animal!) weighing in at 8 lbs 4 oz and measuring 21 inches long.  She is absolutely beautiful, just like her Momma. :)  Just see for yourself!

Again, Buddy wasn't so sure about who was sitting on him so he gave her a little nudge. 

I say it was a love nudge.

Emily sure does look comfy all snuggled up with her Uncle Tom doesn't she?  :)

Ah yes, and then there's "Burrito Emily."  This was before she got that one arm completely free and spent several minutes flailing it about, without getting fussy at all...too cute for words. 

I am just so filled with love for both Emily and Leighton and I cannot wait to add our little man to the mix here very soon!  We have made pretty darn good progress in the past few weeks so we are eagerly anticipating his arrival any day now.  In the meantime, tomorrow is Erin's big day and so far it looks like I'm gonna make it to the wedding!  For now, it's time for a little pampering with the bride-to-be, mani/pedi style.  Ciao!

Leighton is here!

Well I'm over a week late with this post but most of you are just finding out about this blog so no biggie right?  :) (ps...if you're just reading this via email make sure you visit the actual blog to check out our past posts)

That's right, Leighton Elise is finally here!  At 10 days late she came out surprisingly small...well...average actually.  I have to admit I was anticipating a LARGE baby but at 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches long she is just perfect! See for yourself!

Just one day old and already so alert!

Buddy wasn't so sure who was resting cheek to cheek with him so he gave her a few nudges.

What a sleepy girl!

We are so excited to welcome the first of the new babies to the family and can't wait for the arrival of baby "Sally" here in the next several days! (And to find out her real name!  It's gonna be weird not calling her "Sally" anymore!)

In the meantime, we have been in full nesting mode around our house.  Between cleaning/organizing, cooking to stock the now full to capacity freezer, and stocking up on general supplies to minimize the need for trips to the store once Buddy is here, we are go go go these days. (and I do mean we...it has been a REAL team effort between Tom and I to get ready!) We've visited/met two pediatricians with one more to go, completed all of our childbirth and breastfeeding classes and baptism class.  Check, check, check...I'm slowly running out of things on the list to check off, which is a very strange feeling for me.  I look around the house for things that still need to be done and while there is always something small to do, I'm thankful to say the big things seem to have all been accomplished.  Hope I didn't just jinx it...

Not much else new...38 week dr appt tomorrow.  It's strange going to the doctor every week now.  I keep having that "wait, didn't we just do this?" feeling on Wednesday nights.  Hoping to only have one or two more of these after tomorrow but I guess that's up to Buddy, well, and Dr. Ahlering. 

That's all from me for now.  Hope everyone is having a terrific week!

Daddy's Recap

My son likes to kick (or punch, or headbutt...to be honest, I'm not really sure) me in the face.

It's true.

I like to put my face right up next to Lauren's belly and talk to the little guy. He is a pretty good listener at this stage after all. But then he proceeds to kick me, almost without fail. I'm not sure if it's a sign of affection or irritation, but I do know that he reacts to the sound of my voice, and that has been one of the coolest experiences of our pregnancy so far.

Once I figured this out, I decided to subject the poor guy to one of my favorite pasttimes: reading. I have read to him every night for the past several months, and hope he enjoys it half as much as I do.

I have also thoroughly enjoyed looking through all of the wonderful baby clothes and gear given to us by our far-too-generous friends and family. I especially enjoyed the "boys'" shower, playing golf with the menfolk while all of the ladies were at their shower. We had gorgeous weather and a good turnout (four groups of golfers!), and I hit a few nice shots to top it all off. It was especially great to see my 91-year old grandfather tee off and join in the round - three generations of Dieckmann men celebrating the upcoming arrival of the fourth!

I have also had a great deal of fun putting together with Lauren all of these baby things - strollers, furniture, glider-rocker, book shelf, swing and much more (including what must have been a 1000-part Exersaucer) - and learning with Lauren about labor, delivery, and childcare during our seven weekly classes.

The first 35+ weeks have brought some perhaps unwanted excitement as well, such as watching Lauren struggle through a wicked sinus infection and pink eye with limited medicinal intervention and spending an evening at the hospital for some early labor, but these have only been minor difficulties (well, easy for me to say), and I am grateful for an otherwise relatively smooth pregnancy. I hope labor and delivery go as well (as does Lauren, no doubt!).

Mommy's Recap

Well, here we are in the middle of week 35 and just now writing the first post in a blog that was physically created months ago but created in our hearts well before that. (Yes, I know, cue the sappy music and gags...sorry.) 

Where do I even start?  The past 8 months have been such a roller coaster ride.  Parts seem like an eternity (like the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas when I fought the worst of the "morning sickness" or the first week of March when I landed myself in the hospital with a stomach bug and dehydration) while others seem to have flown by (feeling the first movements on February 1st, Tom feeling movements shortly thereafter, finding out that "Buddy" is indeed a buddy, and all the amazing showers we have had!)  And, like I said, here we are in the home stretch, trying to figure out...ok, what's next?

Other pregnancy highlights to this point?  Telling family and friends, of course, finding out we weren't the only ones expecting a baby this summer in our family--Carrie, Stephen and Ryan are expecting a little girl just a couple weeks before us and Tommy and Lauren are expecting a little girl ANY DAY NOW! (Did you hear that Leighton? Feel free to come out any time! Aunt Lauren can't wait to meet you!!!) :)--Tom's nightly story time with Buddy (he's read everything from Dr. Suess to The Hobbit to Eric Carle and is currently working on the first of the Harry Potter series), seeing the nursery come together....ah I could go on forever.  Also important to note is that we landed at MO Bap a bit early about 10 days ago at 33 weeks with a little preterm labor.  Nothing too terribly exciting.  We had a chat with Buddy, as we often do, and he has been very well behaved since then.  :)

The upcoming weeks hold a lot of excitement for us as we make final preparations for our little man including: choosing a pediatrician, car seat installation inspections, the births of Buddy's cousins (hooray!!!), and Erin's wedding.  And no, I don't mean we have a wedding to go to, I'm in this one...6 days before our due date.  Stay tuned for details on this event because I DO plan on waddling down that aisle in heels--and then possibly dancing myself into labor (sans heels) at the reception.  You wouldn't want to miss that now would you?  ;)

I leave you with the most recent photo I have of myself with Buddy...just a couple weeks ago.  Guess we're due for a new snapshot!