All posts by RB

Events, Julie, Randy, Reed

Baby Shower II: Couples Gone Wild

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We are a little behind in our updates. Julie and I have each had intense work weeks recently, and we are both brain-drained when we hit the couch at home. Nonetheless, we need to keep you (our loyal readers) up-to-date, so it is only a temporary excuse.

Almost two weeks ago, we had our second of four baby showers. This one was hosted by Julie’s Grandmother, Mom and sisters.  Her family isn’t near as big as mine, so it was a perfect opportunity for them to invite many of their family friends, and for us to invite those friends that don’t fit into “Family” or “Church”, but are still very important and close to us. Julie’s entire immediate family was in on the gig, including Dave, who served up some great snacks from the BBQ pit.

The major difference this time was inviting the guys as well. The first shower was all about the ladies and had all the shower games and such. Julie’s goal for this shower was much less girlie and even less about the gifts. While we still opened the gifts for everyone to see, it was a come-and-go-as-you-please; mostly so the guy’s eyes wouldn’t glaze over and they could escape to stand around the BBQ pit with Dave if they needed to.

It was a blast and the puppies that Julie’s family are trying to sell provided great entertainment outside. Many thanks to her entire family for putting this on. It was fun for everyone… even the guys.

-RB

Events

Shiloh… Sweet Girl

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We’ve started this new year on quite a sad note. Friday we had to put Shiloh down after an aggressive form of cancer spread through her body and began to slow her down. The vet had diagnosed her with Lymphoma back in November and said she might not make it till Christmas. As you can guess, the news was very hard to take, and the reality was setting in that her long and charmed life was coming to an end. After the initial shock and the sorrow had subsided, we realized we had to make the most of the time we had left with her and actually LIVE with her.

She was showing no signs of pain so we did the same routine things we always did with her, like walks in the neighborhood, but we scaled them down so to not tire her out. Julie began giving her table scraps in the kitchen and even cooking small meals for her when the hard dog food was too hard to chew. She was getting the Queen’s treatment for sure!

Throughout the holidays we kept close eyes on her, but she was still the same Shiloh we had always known. With the exception of feeding her differently and not pushing her exercise, nothing was different. We kept hoping to see signs of pain or anything abnormal to know when the time was getting closer.

It wasn’t until just after Christmas that we noticed an irritation when she would paw at her left eye that had swollen a bit. We noticed it earlier this week and had to wait through the New Year’s holiday hours to get in to see the vet. Our gut feeling was that this trip to the vet would be the last, but we stayed optimistic in case the swelling was simply an irritation or allergy.

Luckily, Friday was a day off for Julie in her 9-80 work schedule, and she had the time off already to tend to Shiloh. I went to work and had an errand to run during lunch, and on my way back she called me with tears streaming that it was the worst scenario — the cancer had spread to her eyes and was now affecting her vision. The vet had confirmed what we already knew… it was time.

Shiloh is buried at my parents place, where we have a number of family dogs that we layed to rest. She was a special dog in Julie’s life and I believe it comforted her to know that Shiloh’s body would be taken care of and given a little more special treatment than any dog she has ever had. She was one of a kind and she touched so many people with her precious smile and an innocent nudge with her nose whenever she saw an open hand.

Goodbye, Sweet Girl.

-RB

Holidays, Julie, Randy, Reed

Proud to announce… Reed Matthew Baldwin

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Merry Christmas!!

We have picked today to give Baby Baldwin #1 an official name, Reed Matthew. The name has been circulating for several weeks now amongst our family and friends, but with all the new babies we have visited and announced, I felt the announcement and the title might have been lost in the mix. So I picked our “Christmas post” to make it official.

For those that don’t know, the initials “RMB” have been in my immediate family for 3 generations already. In the Baldwin extended family, all the boys at least begin with an “R” and have various middle initials. I have never wanted a Randy Jr, so the search for boy names started in the Rs and ended in the Ms.

Neither “Reed” or “Matthew” hold any significance in our families. My goal was simple, but distinctively a boy name. Not too trendy, but not old-fashioned. For the longest time, “Ryan” was my first choice, but within the last 3 years we have met a number of Ryans, so it was losing its uniqueness in my mind. To me, “Reed” fits the same mold as “Ryan”, and we’ve had a great response from it. The next challenge was to find an M-name that matched… and Julie picked “Matthew”.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!

-RB & JB

ps — After MANY requests, we finally have a belly pic to show everyone!

Other Babies

Mckaylee Jane Nichols

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We’ve had an onslaught of babies this month, as we have already mentioned here before, but not since October have we seen any GIRLS! Today, we went to visit Mark and Jennifer Nichols, the proud new parents of their brand new baby girl, Mckaylee.

She came via c-section on Monday, December 22, 2008 with no complications. She was an average 7.8 lbs and 19 inches long. However, she apparently has freakishly long feet, and is affectionately nicknamed, “Flipper” by Jennifer’s mother. Mother and baby are doing great, but according to Mark, she poops a lot.

For the last few years, the Nichols have coordinated with the Reasonovers to host a spot at the San Antonio Rodeo Kickoff that comes around every January. We had our doubts this year with the arrival of Mckaylee, but Mark never doubted that he would make it happen this year. As it stands now, we are still set for this year and we are looking forward to it again. I’m sure that Mother and child, along with the Mother-to-Be will be hanging out inside the RV while the guys are BBQing and freezing our butts off.

-RB

This “baby stuff” isn’t so hard!!

This

Randy, Reed

facebook: the ultimate informer

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This blog does a great job for Julie and I of keeping all of our readers informed and up-to-date with stories and picture during the pregnancy of our first born. We’ve also added some updates on a few of the other babies that have come into the world during our own pregnancy. However, Julie and I are regular users of Facebook and recently it has been BLOWING UP with new babies!

It would be realistically impossible to stay in touch with all the friends we’ve made throughout the years, and human nature is very much “here and now” with the exception of those few timeless relationships most of us have. We loose touch for one reason or another and before you know it, you are asking yourself, “What ever happened to <insert name>?”

Well, Facebook, better than any other social media (IMO), has answered that question in our lives. Of course, it is limited to users of Facebook, but the numbers are growing everyday and it even spans generations. Many of my friends’ parents have made their way to Facebook to see what the buzz is all about, only to be swept up in the madness just like their kids.

Back to the BLOWING UP….

I’ve already posted about 3 babies we’ve known about in December, and two of them this week alone. Well, we are happy to announce two more THIS WEEK!

Coyt Johnston, an old volleyball teammate of mine from UTSA, just had his first born girl, Porter, on December 16, 2008. And yesterday (Dec 17), Shaun and Rachel Gardiner welcomed their first born boy, David. I know Shaun and Rachel from my previous attendance at Wayside Chapel and the young adult group they had there.

Thanks to Facebook we can send our congratulations and stay in touch as events occur with little to no effort. This blog is limited to those that know about it AND stay up-to-date themselves. Only the RSS feed makes it a little bit more effortless.

Speaking of the RSS feed, can I get a comment from those of you that are using it? I get no stats on the usage, so a quick show-of-hands by way of comment on this post would be appreciated.

Thanks!

-RB

Other Babies

Brody Christopher Davis

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The flood of babies is well under way… Sam and Shannon Davis welcomed their second child (and second boy) this morning! Brody Davis weighed 8 lbs 11oz and 23″ long.

We have been very fortunate to meet Sam and Shannon at UUMC and get to know them over the last few years. Shannon is a world traveller and Sam holds down the fort with their son, Connor. Shannon and Julie, as well as Sam and myself are very much kindred spirits. We are excited for them and can’t wait for our baby boy to grow up with the children of all our great friends.

-RB

(photo courtesy of Sam Davis)

Randy, Reed

the couch

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We’ve made some recent investments in our house and furniture, partly out of need, but mostly out of preparation and mentality that it will all be put on the back burner once the baby arrives. One of these investments was a sectional sofa to add an element of “feng shui” to our living room and allow for a much needed coffee table/ottoman. The change worked out two-fold because my parents were in desperate need to replace their 35-year old couches! (Seriously, they had been re-upholstered only once in my lifetime and had reached the “impossible to stand up” state). So, my parents took our “old” couches and we made room for the sectional.

I digress…

Julie’s sleeping patterns have changed considerably since her belly has grown and she can no longer sleep on her back or her stomach. She used to be out in a matter of minutes and hardly move a muscle all night.

Within the last month or so, her breathing during sleep has become considerably LOUDER. I’m a light sleeper as it is, and distractions make it nearly impossible for me to fall asleep. I’ve tried a few ways to drown out the nasal whistle, but when she is facing directly towards me, even the iPod doesn’t cover it up and still allow me to sleep.

My last resort was to get up, leave the bed to her, take my pillow and try out the new couch. I really had not even given it a spin for a Sunday afternoon nap, but it was long enough to stretch out on (strong selling point), so it was going to have to do. Low and behold, in a matter of minutes, I was out for the night. Julie woke up at some point during the night and I had to break the news to her that I was actually more relaxed out on the couch than I was in our own bed. I know she felt bad, but I assured her that I would have rather moved myself than woke her to complain.

She went back to bed and the next morning we each had a hard realization that we had each slept very well that night, better than recent memory.

My last resort has now become my first, in the event that either Julie’s breathing or our collective tossing and turning is preventing both of us from sleeping well… the couch has become my new best friend.

-RB

Other Babies

Charles Rylan Knight

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Adam and Brittney Knight welcomed their first born, Charles Rylan Knight. He will be known as Rylan, just like his dad and grandfather that have the name “Charles”, but each go by their middle name.

Brittney was due on December 12, but Rylan hadn’t made his move yet. Our group of friends had made plans to get together on Sunday afternoon/evening for a basketball-video games-cookie exchange-BBQ-white elephant gift exchange-fantasy football-birthday party, and we all crossed our fingers that the Knights would be able to join us. However, Rylan decided to make his presence known somewhere about 1am Saturday night, after Adam has just turned off the TV and settled into bed. Brittney’s water broke and they were off to the hospital.

Sunday morning at church there was a buzz all around about Adam and Brittney heading to the hospital. We were all anxious… but what the guys really wanted to know was if Adam would be able to play basketball with us later! (We all know it sucks to play with only 5… we had our priorities!)

Nonetheless, the Knights were in the hospital but the contractions had stopped. They had a window of 24 hours to deliver naturally after the water broke.

We went through with our basketball-video games-cookie exchange-BBQ-white elephant gift exchange-fantasy football-birthday party sadly without the Knights, but we were all on-edge waiting to hear something from them. Afterall it was Mark’s birthday we were celebrating and he wanted to share it with the newborn Rylan.

We heard nothing until the next morning when Adam informed us that they had to do a C-section after the 24 hour window had passed. Rylan Knight was born around 1am on December 15, 2008 at a healthy 8 lbs.

-RB

Other Babies

Christopher Seth Shuler

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Chris and Nicole Shuler welcomed Seth Shuler on December 6, 2008… 3 weeks early!! He came out at a healthy 7 lbs and no complications. He was just ready to be out!

The Shulers live out in CenterPoint, Texas, so Julie and I traveled out last Saturday to see them. We had a great time hangin’ out for the afternoon and got to see Chris’ new location for his body shop just down the street from their house (Boerne Stage Body Shop).

-RB

Julie, Randy, Travel

Babymoon 2008

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In our last post, I eluded to the fact that Julie and I were taking one, last trip before the baby comes. We’ve been calling it our “Babymoon”. Really it’s just one lasy hurrah before our lives are taken over by the next generation. The term derived from “Honeymoon”, might be a little off, since a honeymoon is taken AFTER the wedding… and this “Babymoon” is BEFORE the baby arrives. All in all…. you get the idea.

Our trip was to Cozumel, Mexico. Primarily for a destination wedding for our dear friends Meghan and Wade, but it was much more than that for us We decided to take a few days before the official festivities started and celebrate our 3-year anniversary together. Little did we know, it was just what the doctor ordered!

Apparently Julie and I had forgotten how to sleep though the night. Our dogs have been waking us up during the night for one reason or another, and it really has taken a toll on us and the amount of rest we get. Most of you reading this would say,”It’s preparation for having children!” This may be so, but eventually you can talk to a child and reason with them… dogs just don’t seem to get it sometimes. Regardless, the first night in Cozumel was some of the best sleep that Julie and I had had in months. We slept so hard that the maids had to wake us up the next morning around 9am. It’s a good thing they did, because the breakfast buffett was only till 10!

The majority of our trip involved, sleeping, eating and laying on the beach. We mixed in a few activities like beach volleyball and snorkeling, but otherwise, if we didn’t have to do it for the wedding, we didn’t do it. We did our best to stay relaxed and fun. The wedding party and the family were a whole lot of fun, so that wasn’t a problem… we had a blast.

It was interesting to be a part of a destination wedding during the same time of the year that we had considered doing the same thing. After being a part of one, it’s hard to imagine that we would have had the same type of experience with our family and the people we knew at that time in our lives. It was truly a blessng that our wedding plans turned out the way they did, because we would not have changed them for the world.

Full Photo Album

-RB