Days at Home with Paeton

As my maternity leave comes to an end, I thought I'd show some pictures of what we do day to day that I have come to absolutely love and cherish. I try to spend every moment of her 'awake time' playing and interacting with her. Each day, Paeton has gotten more and more alert and playful. She has started to smile and giggle a little (even though I haven't caught this on camera yet!) and I think it's just the cutest thing ever! We do different activities throughout the day so she's not bored. These include long walks in her stroller, tummy time playing, sitting in her bouncy seat, swinging in her swing and of course cuddling (mommy and daddy's favorite).

Paeton is just like her mom in that she loves watching reality tv and reading US Weekly. In fact, her and I both can't wait to see who DeAnna chooses on The Bachelorette and we look forward to seeing the new celebrity babies each week when we read US! She can't wait each night for her daddy to come home so she can cuddle, play and eat with him.

I leave Friday morning for 11 days at my parent's house in New Jersey. Jodi will come on Wednesday to spend the holiday weekend with us. I'll be sure to post pictures and recap our trip when I get back!

Paeton loves tummy time!

Paeton also loves her Rainforest Bouncy Seat!

Just relaxing :)



Daddy with Paeton at the Milwaukee County Zoo.



Getting ready to go outside...her hat is a little too big!

Happy Father's Day!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow we will be celebrating Jodi's very first Father's Day! I know he can't believe it either!!! We are going to Oshkosh for the day to help Jodi's parents move into a temporary home while their new home is being built. They are so excited to be going through the process of designing a new home exactly the way they want it. They have wanted this for a long time and we are really happy for them.


The past few days have been rough. Paeton has not been sleeping (during the day or at night) as well as she was at first. She's been crying a ton and a lot of times I'm not sure what to do...she has a clean diaper on, was just fed and gave a huge burp so I know it's not any of those issues. I'll pick her up...she's fine; I'll put her down...she screams. Ahh...a day in the life of being a mom. I try to not get stressed out when I look around my house and see all the dirty dishes and laundry that I just can't get to. I have to put on a favorite tv show and hold my baby realizing she is worth so much more to me than a clean home.








Posing for a picture for daddy's office.

Our little angel...finally sleeping after a rough day!

Paeton's getting some good "tummy time" to tire her out!

Baby shoes are so darn cute!

Visitors Galore, Paeton turns 2 weeks and Grandma Marx says goodbye :(

Last weekend, Jodi's parents came to visit and spend the day with us and Paeton. Mark helped Jodi get a start on the firepit we've been wanting to build in the back yard which is turning out to be a lot more work than we had thought! They went back and forth to the stone yard several times picking up all the supplies and bringing them to the house. By the end of the day they were exhausted. We grilled out with burgers and all the fixin's that evening for dinner before they left to go home.

On Sunday, our good friends Phil and Lisa stopped by for a visit after the Brewer game to meet Paeton and catch up with us. We enjoyed seeing them and spending a few hours together.

That Tuesday (6/2) Paeton turned 2 weeks old. We went to the doctor in the morning and after her weight dropping the week prior, she was up to 8 pounds. We were so excited!

My mom and I continued the week with running errands and getting lots of little projects done around the house. She has been so much help during the 2 weeks she has been here. She leaves today for NJ and it will be a very sad good bye. I'm not sure what I'm going to do without her!

Grandma Marx and Grandma Ulrich with Paeton.

Grandpa Ulrich holds Paeton for the first time.

Leaving for church on Sunday.

Paeton turns 2 Weeks old!

Paeton taking a nap in her outdoor sun dome on the blanket Grandma Marx made for her.

Paeton's 1 Week Old, Our 1 Year Anniversary!

On Tuesday May 27, Paeton was one week old and we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that she's been in our life for a week already. The days literally have flown by with all the adjusting and catching up we've been doing. However, despite all the chaos in the house, Grandma Marx baby sat for us so we could go out to dinner and enjoy a meal with just the two of us in honor of our anniversary. We didn't leave till late that evening because Jodi had to work late. By the end of the meal we were both yawning and ready to go home. I have to admit, I checked my phone several times to make sure Grandma hadn't called with any problems! Jodi told me that evening I have "Mom Syndrome". I'm not sure if there's help for that!

Grandma Marx enjoying every minute with Paeton!

Celebrating our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary

Jodi having some snuggle time with Paeton

Welcome Paeton Violet!

All I can say is what a whirlwind this past week has been! It all started Saturday night (5/17)...contractions. They continued over the course of the weekend and were so bad at times I just knew there was no way I could make it to work on Monday (5/19). I called into work that morning and tried to rest all day but the contractions just kept on coming. They peaked in intestity that night and finally at midnight Jodi and I decided to go to the hospital. After spending 5 hours in the hospital between midnight and 5am, they sent us home due to hardly any progression. I was so frustrated because my contractions were so intense and I felt completely helpless. Luckily I had my final doctor's appointment at 9am so I tried to rest for a few hours even though it seemed near impossible.



When we arrived at the doctor, my contractions were as bad as ever and I couldn't walk into the office. Jodi grabbed the nearest wheelchair to bring me in. Just as they called my name I had a very intense contraction and started crying out of frustration and sheer exhaustion. My doctor checked me right away and said the greatest words I'd heard in a long time..."You're having a baby today!"



We immediately were escorted to the Labor and Delivery wing and checked into the very same room (#12) we'd be in all night long. My dear friend Krista came right away to the hospital after bringing Kona and Brewer to the kennel and picking up lunch for Jodi. She brought magazines to read, comfy pillows from home and most importantly herself. Just having her and Jodi there with me all day helped me to focus through my contractions and rest when I could. She is truly a wonderful friend and Jodi was such an amazing coach.


In the meantime, we had booked a flight for my mom the day before to arrive that very night. Jodi called her continually from the delivery room and put her on speaker phone so she could coach me through my contractions. It was wonderful...I couldn't wait for her to get there! Unfortunately, her flight was delayed twice which didn't get her there till very late that day.


After laboring all day long, our little angel arrived at 11:28pm. She weighed 7lbs, 9.8oz and was 19.5 inches long. She had a huge mop of dark hair and the prettiest skin ever. Jodi and I were just smitten right from the first sight. Krista picked my mom up from the airport and they got back to the hospital just after she was born. We were all so tired but grandma and Krista got to sneak a peak at her for a few moments before they whisked her off to get checked out and cleaned up. At that point I was so starving after not eating all day. The nurses brought me a personal pizza which was just wonderful!


We spent the next few days in the hospital with Paeton recovering and enjoying every minute of being with her. This experience has been so completely amazing and she is worth every contraction and every sleepless night we've had so far. Enjoy the pictures!

A New Cousin for Baby Ulrich!

A new cousin for Baby Ulrich arrived today and we are so excited! Jodi's brother, Ryan, and his wife Laura gave birth to Fern Ulrich in Oshkosh, WI this afternoon. Laura and I have been pregnant for almost the exact same time....due dates that were only 11 days apart!


Ryan and Laura welcomed Baby Fern to their growing family now of 5. Included in the below pictures you will see their daughter Irelyn ("Irie") and their son Leo. May is a huge month for the Ulrich family in general. All 3 of Ryan and Laura's children have birthdays in May with Leo turning 2 and Irelyn turning 4 this month. Jodi and I have not only my birthday in May but hopefully our child's birthday and our wedding anniversary. What a great month for celebration!

I will post a "Baby Cousin" photo of the two new arrivals as soon as I can....so cute!

Baby Ulrich's Room - Finally Done!

This weekend brought closure to an ongoing project which seemed to last for all nine months - the baby room! As much as this project was so fun to work on, I have to admit I'm thrilled it is done and ready to go.

When we purchased our house, this room was the nursery for the former owners. The color scheme was green and yellow with the outline for the polka dots already set on the wall. We loved the accent wall but wanted to change the colors to match the bedding we picked out and that is exactly what we did. Over several weekends in the winter, we painted the walls and added the tulip accents you can see from the pictures. We slowly added the decor on the walls which includes framed pictures of my own 'art' that I made growing up. You can also see the family tree that we created and framed...just waiting for Baby Ulrich's name to be added at the very bottom.

The furniture came in piece by piece and was all put together by Jodi. I was usually on the couch with my feet up reading the directions to him! All pieces came together quite nicely with hardly any frustrated words coming from his mouth :) With the room not being very big, we knew we wanted to use the walk in closet to it's capacity. Jodi added to the existing closet system that was in place to make more shelves and storage area. We collected baskets over the course of the pregnancy to fill with all of her many essentials.

All in all, we're very happy with the room and we absolutely cannot wait for her to get here. It was a great bonding experience working on this room together and making all these decisions for our child. We've got 10 days left till our due date and we're hoping to not go past 5/22 but we know she'll come when she's good and ready. It's hard to believe she's in charge already!

2 Weeks To Go!

Now that we're married and expecting our first child (2 weeks from Thursday!), we've decided to start a blog to update all our loved ones on our growing family. We're so excited for the arrival of our baby - we can't wait to share the entire experience with everyone.

We just celebrated our 27th birthdays this past week. Overall, we kept things pretty low key but definitely enjoyed ourselves. I gave Jodi a Wii which totally surprised him and he loved it! He's been playing Mario Kart and Guitar Hero every day since he opened it. I received a new camera for my birthday and a 'kid-friendly' purse...that is, one that's much smaller that can fit in the diaper bag along with an equally small camera that I can tote around to capture all of our child's cutest moments!

This weekend kept us busy with working outside to try to get a head start on all the landscaping needs for our yard. We're trying to get a lot done before the baby comes and we're making some decent headway. I unfortunately am not much help but I'm definitely out there to support Jodi in his efforts and make fresh lemonade to keep him going! So far this spring we've stained the deck, planted some flowers, moved our vegetable garden across the yard and created a new flower garden in the backyard. We have a goal of adding a fire pit with a stone patio surrounding it by the end of the summer but we'll see if the new baby allows this to happen!