baby girl

When One Becomes Two and Sleep Becomes None

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Sophia reading to Maddie while Maddie sleeps.

Sophia reading to Maddie while Maddie sleeps.

The time was 3:01 am this morning and if it weren’t for the extreme exhaustion of the moment, this post would have been written then. This is what was running through my head at the time: “It’s currently 3:01 am, I just finished feeding Maddie and putting her to bed and am now fighting with a half-asleep-I-need-to-sleep-in-your-bed-and-kick-you-over-and-over-in-the-process Sophia and can hear the faint sounds of a breast pump running through the baby monitor.”

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My Last Post As a Dad of One…

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trail hiking

As one of our last moments as a one daughter-daddy duo, we went trail hiking

Times, they are a changin’. At this time tomorrow, I’ll be holding my sweet baby girl for the first time. It’s hard to imagine having a second child, as I’ve said before. But, that doesn’t make it any less real. I couldn’t be any more excited than I am right now, and I know that Sarah feels the same way (well, as much as she can while on bed rest for her final day).

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Bed Rest? More Like BORED Rest!

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When it comes to pregnancy, you generally tend to expect the unexpected and really prepare yourself for anything. Things can look great one week, only to take a turn the next. Why this happens, I’ll never know. It’s just the way the body works, I suppose. I’ll never understand it, and I’m quite certain I’ll never experience it with my own body. I’m also fairly certain that I’d be a gigantic baby if I were pregnant. I give an amazing amount of respect and admiration to women for going through it.

We had our second hiccup of Sarah’s pregnancy last week. At her regular check-up for 35 weeks, her blood pressure was elevated and her feet were swelling. For those of you who don’t know, we had Sophia 10 days early when Sarah’s blood pressure went up and it looked like preeclampsia was setting in. Obviously, this was a worry for this pregnancy. So, after being monitored at the doctor’s office for about an hour, we checked Sarah into the maternity ward at the hospital to continue to be monitored. What they found was that her potassium levels were critically low and they needed to do an IV to get the levels up to snuff. So, a one night stay in the hospital was on the books and then when she was released she was given two words you would think would be nice… BED REST. Continue reading →

It’s a Girl… AGAIN!

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Sophia will soon have a little sister!

Sophia will soon have a little sister!

There comes a time in a father-to-be’s life where he has to face facts, and understand that making remarks stating “I don’t make girls” is never a good idea. Because the time will comes when your pregnant wife will get her ultrasound to find out what the gender of baby number two is, and deep down, you know, it’s going to be a girl, again. That being said, yesterday we had the ultrasound to reveal the gender of Baby Browne #2 and–you guessed it–it’s a girl!

I do have a confession to make. I was hoping for a boy this time around. I was hoping to have one boy and one girl and that would be that. But, God has a way of making you pay for your words and this was his way. I am destined to have a family of nothing but daughters. I’m alright with that. The way I look at it, is now I won’t have to teach a son how to fix things, or tie a tie, or any of the things that fathers are supposed to pass down to a son. And I’m kind of happy about that since I don’t know how to do most of those things. Mr. Fix-It, I am not.

As someone who grew up with two sisters, in addition to my brother, I know what I am in for when the teenage years come around for my two little ladies. So, needless to say, I think Sarah and I are going to be looking for somewhere to lay low for a few years… In all seriousness, I am very excited about what little girl number two is going to bring to our lives. If she is anything like Sophia, I’ll be one happy man. Plus, I know how close two sisters can be, judging from how close my sisters are, as well as how close Sarah and her sister are.

We think we have a name picked out, but we haven’t shared the name with anyone yet. Once we do announce it to family, I’ll be sure to post it on here, or I’ll decide to leave you all in suspense. Depends on how I feel!

One last thing. The original title of this post is what my family will be known as from here on out: Nick and His Merry Band of Women.

To Find Out Or Not… That Is The Question

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One of our belly bump shots from the first time around with Sophia

One of our belly bump shots from the first time around with Sophia

One of the first questions expecting parents get asked, aside from the due date, is “are you going to find out the sex??”. It’s an interesting debate, both for the to-be parents, as well as for family members, friends, and those random belly-touching-strangers-you-meet-on-the-street (Sarah doesn’t understand why they keep touching MY belly). When we had Sophia, we found out what we were having. We found out, but only told our immediate family members what we were having. It came out at the baby shower that we were having a girl, but at that point, we were so close to the due date that we didn’t mind our cover being blown. Well we didn’t mind THAT much… Continue reading →

Big Girl Bed or Bust? When’s the Right Time to Switch From a Crib

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Big girl bed or crib for this little cuddle-monkey?

Big girl bed or crib for this little cuddle-monkey?

Two of the best parts of my days are when Sophia goes to sleep and when she wakes up in the morning. Every morning while I’m getting ready for work, she wakes up and I hear through her door “Daddy! Come HERE!!” over and over until I walk in to pick her up and out of her crib. At night, I generally carry her to bed, with her head laying on my shoulder. Followed by a hug and a kiss and down into the crib she goes. It’s those little moments that make life as a parent pretty great. But, we now face ourselves with the decision of whether it’s time for the crib to go and move to the toddler bed. Continue reading →

Terrible Twos, I Think You Arrived A Little Early

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If you’re like me, then when you had, or have, your first kid, you told yourself that the terrible twos would never arrive for your sweet, little baby. And, if you’re like me, you would have been dead wrong. Dead.Wrong. I thought there was more time. I thought it wouldn’t

I don't trust you, snow. Not.One.Bit.

I don’t trust you, snow. Not.One.Bit.

happen, until, ya know, Sophia actually hit two! Nope. They seem to have arrived a little bit early.

It’s not that she behaves badly, it’s just that the reactions, and of course, overreactions have gotten a little over-the-top. She’s also not a fan of listening when we tell her not to do something. Then again, Sarah tells me I don’t listen, but I usually don’t hear her tell me because, well, I’m not listening…
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Do You Wanna Play Repeat? No, Do YOU Wanna Play Repeat…?

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What’ did you just say? Oh, well let me repeat that…

There comes a point in time when you have kids that you realize it’s time for you to really watch what you say. That point is NOW. When they say that kids are like a sponge and they soak up everything you say or do, they are correct (whoever “they” are, anyway). Having to watch what I say probably isn’t going to be an easy thing for me to do. I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t have a potty mouth. I do. Do I like the fact that I do? No, of course not. It’s a habit I’ve been trying to kick for a long time.  Continue reading →

Words, Words, Words

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“Do you understand the words that are coming outta my mouth?!” — Chris Tucker in Rush Hour

Learning to talk is a big deal. Heck, I’m 30 and I barely have a handle on the English

Sophia eating her ‘fren fwiiis’

language when I speak (and write…). So, needless to say, witnessing and helping Sophia learn to talk has been fun, awesome, entertaining, and sometimes, downright hilarious.

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Who’s the Boss? Not Me… (or Tony Danza!)

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Growing up as a kid in the 80s, I was treated to what could be considered a great age in

The Boss

TV sitcoms– The Cosby Show, Who’s The Boss, Family Ties, Growing Pains… and the list goes on… Like many other people my age, I was a huge fan of The Cosby Show, and I honestly couldn’t even begin to count how many lines I quote from the show, but there are a lot. I’m pretty sure you’re sitting there right now, thinking to yourself, “Nick, is there a point to this??” Obviously, the answer is no, I just wanted to tell you what my favorite shows were when I was younger… Of course there’s a point! For whatever reason, and I don’t know remember the season or the episode name, (If I did, I’d have the clip and the full quote on here) one scene and conversation has always stuck out in my head. I mean, aside from the classic “I brought you in this world, and I’ll take you out!” The scene has Cliff and a soon-to-be dad, Mr. Lee, talking in his office. The conversation goes something like this:

Mr. Lee: “I’m an old fashioned guy. I want my wife barefoot and pregnant. My wife and that baby are gonna know.. I’M the boss.”                                                                                        Cliff: “Mr. Lee, I’m sorry, but you are not the boss.”                                                                  Mr. Lee: “Doc, I’m tellin you, I’m the boss!”                                                                               Cliff: “No, that BABY is the boss!” Continue reading →