Disneyland Half Marathon

My family signed up to run in the Disneyland half marathon last weekend. I wasn't released to do major exercise yet (and I had a 5 week old) so Mom, Levi and I stayed behind and cheered for the group. Dave stepped in at the last minute (without any training) and did great!

Here is Grammy and Levi hanging out by the pool at the Candy Cane Inn.

(He loves to cover his face with his hands when he sleeps.)

Some of the highlights of the run included the part through Disneyland and meeting some people from Star Wars. (I know I'm disappointing Bryan terribly but I really have no clue who these guys are!)

And running through Angels Stadium.

Bryan's girlfriend Alison and her parents ran in the marathon too. Here is Dave, Alison, Alison's Mom Claire and my dad.

Uncle Bryan after the race.

Everyone did great and we were so proud of them. Maybe next year we'll all do it!

One Month

Levi Daniel is one month old!

(Ok, so as of today he's actually 5 weeks and two days old but we were out of town so let's pretend.)

Our little guy is growing growing growing and, I'm no expert but, I'm pretty sure it's because he loves to eat eat eat! We took him for a check up and he's officially 10 lbs (75 percentile) and, they didn't measure him this time but, the doctor thinks that he's off the charts in height. She said it's a great thing because he has to grow into those huge hands and feet! It's hard to believe that he's already been with us for an entire month. We love him so much and we're learning more about him every day.

I know one month isn't that long of a time but here are a few of Levi's favorite things so far:

Hanging out with dad. Whenever. Where ever. Especially on his chest. Too. Stinkin'. Cute.

All his awesome clothes!

(Ok, this might be more of a mom thing but how cute is his little baseball booty?!)

His best friend Hannity.

Playing!

He loves making faces, smiling, when we sing silly songs, tummy time and he recently found himself in mirrors and likes to talk back.

Month one was split between his newborn-sleep-all-the-time stage and then a couple of fussy weeks where he didn't want to be put down during the day. We're learning to read his sleepy signs and think we may have been overstimulating him so he couldn't drift off to sleep. We've since changed some of our tactics and think we've turned a corner into official nap times during the day. Hallelujah! We're still eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day but at night we stretch it out to 3 1/2 to 4 hours. He's definitely growing and we're definitely learning! We love this guy so much and can't believe that we're already on our way to month #2.

First Trip North

Dave and I were invited to a wedding up in Santa Cruz for one of his college roommates. We thought it was the perfect excuse to head up the valley and introduce Levi to all of our wonderful extended family and a few friends. We were a little hesitant to take a four week old on a 6 hour car ride but figured if he was going to fit into this family he needed to be ready to go with us! He was an absolute trooper and we only had to stop twice on the way there and twice on the way back. We have found that he goes from completely quiet and content to screaming his head off in 0.2 seconds which makes for a few harried minutes to find a place to stop, but all in all he did a great job. Here are a few highlights of the week. (Note to self: get better at picking up the camera! And maybe put someone else in the picture besides Levi. Thankfully my Mom was around with her camera so hopefully she got some important pictures that I can borrow later.)

Dave & Levi in Bakersfield at our first pit stop.

There is a hint of a smile even in the 112 degree heat... he must be a valley boy at heart!

Auntie Amy holding a very sleepy Levi.

The first (reactionary) smile caught on camera! Mommy is so funny!

One of the "goodnight" pictures I sent to Dave this week.

He was in Chicago for business so I stayed up in Modesto with my parents. It was one of the best decisions I've made since being a mom! I was definitely not ready to be a single parent for a week and it was nice to spread out the visits from family.

Hanging out with Hannity.

Believe it or not, these two really do love each other already. Whenever we passed Levi on to meet someone, Hannity was at their feet as if to say "That's my baby!" And Levi gives some of his best smiles to her too. I'm so glad this relationship is working out because we were a little nervous how they would respond to each other in the beginning.

More pictures to come... We saw both sets of Grandparents, met two Great-Grandmas, lots of cousins and Aunties and Uncles, friends that prayed for us, and new baby best friends. We had so much fun but are glad to be back home.

Three weeks old

We are so enjoying having Levi finally here with us. He's a great eater, a pretty good sleeper and Dave and I thought we had this whole parent thing figured out... until this weekend when Levi decided that he wanted to be awake and eating every hour and half... then we realized that our success has little to do with us and everything to do with him! We're learning!

Here's our cool guy getting some sun before his drs appt. They were checking for jaundice, but his levels turned out to be perfectly fine.

He LOVES to be swaddled and Daddy is the best swaddler around. (It must be because he practiced on Hannity all those months ago!) We think he's already changed so much in his 3 short weeks.

Here's my boys watching the Dodger game.

(Don't mind the mess, it's a controlled chaos at this point still!)

Levi also loves his swing! Really, he does!

He was swinging so calmly and peacefully that I grabbed my phone to capture the moment-- and this is what I got! He must've been done with it at this point, but normally it's his favorite.

Here's Daddy trying on Levi's first Dodger hat-- it's a little big!

I'm having a hard time getting out my big camera so all of these are just from my phone but we are trying to capture some of these moments as they happen. It's pretty incredible to think that he's only been here a few short weeks because it seems as though we've loved him forever. Next up, a trip up North to visit family! We'll keep you posted how the big road trip goes...

Friendly Visitors

One of my biggest fears of being in the hospital for four days is that I was going to be bored. I know, it's a silly fear and obviously when the time came Levi didn't let us get bored! But we were still so grateful that so many friends came to help us welcome him into the world. They kept us busy and occupied and well fed! Here is a few pictures of some (but not all) of the people that came and held our little guy in the hospital...

Lauren and Levi

Tara and Levi

David and Levi

Janice and Levi (Janice also works at the hospital and brought us extra desserts from the cafeteria. They were so good!)

Jim, Levi & Dave

Jim was in town for a conference (he's from Fresno) and was able to drive out to see us!

Krista, Me, Dave, Levi & David

(And little Abigail in Krista's belly! We can't wait to meet her too!)

Sheri & Levi

Sheri had her little girl this past Saturday! We can't wait to introduce Levi and Stevie... I know they'll be great friends!

Crista & Levi

Crista, Mike and her little Jackson drove all the way from Modesto on Monday morning. We were so surprised they made the trip on such short notice with a 9 month old! What great friends they are. :) And we can't wait for Levi and Jackson to grow up together just like Crista and I did!

Jonathan & Lacey & Levi

Angela & Levi

Angela lives in Colorado now but she helped throw us a baby shower in the South Bay and happened to be in town on work travel. What great timing that she was able to be here to visit!

Again, that's not all of our friends that came but those are the ones we have pictures of. I know I say this a lot, and it probably sounds cliche at some point, but we LOVE our friends here and feel so blessed by their outpouring of love and support and encouragement as we start the journey into parenthood. We have been totally humbled by this experience and appreciate everything they have done from visiting to bringing dinners to calling to check up on us. We love you guys!!!

We Are Family

We'll have to do this in two posts because so many people came to visit us at the hospital! Here is Levi meeting his immediate family. We were so glad they were able to come down and visit us in the hospital and meet him the day he was born. What a special treat!

Grandma and Grandpa Lockridge

Grandpa and Grandma Harden

Uncle Bryan

Auntie Sarah

Auntie Alison (Bryan's GF)

Uncle Charlie and Auntie Christina

Grammy H enjoying Levi the day we came home from the hospital.

Cuddles with Grandma L.

Three of my favorite Lockridge guys.

This time with Uncle Charlie. (We need to get all four together in one picture soon!)

Napping with Auntie Christina!

Thumbs up from Grandpa Steve! :)

I know I say this a lot but, we really are so blessed by our amazing families and we're so excited that Levi has so many wonderful, loving people to help us encourage him and grow him into a man of God. We cant wait to come visit soon to meet the rest of our Northern California family!

Introducing Baby L

Levi Daniel

August 2, 2010

7:28 pm

7 lbs. 13 oz.

21 inches

We were scheduled to be induced on Monday morning at 6 am but Levi had his own plans. My water broke Monday morning at 1 am and contractions started soon after. We went to the hospital already 5 cm dilated and hoping for a lunchtime baby. Progress was slow, after 17 hours in labor and 3 hours of pushing the doctor decided that it was time to get him out. We did a c-section at 7 pm and had a healthy, beautiful baby boy at 7:28 pm. It wasn't our plan, or how we thought the day would go, but he's here and we're all healthy and grateful for a successful day!

New Dad Dave got to watch all the proceedings after birth while our friends and family watched from outside the nursery window. It was so special to have so many people stick around for such a marathon day. Levi is a lucky and very loved little boy already!

The hospital photographer was AMAZING! These are from her. You can check out the whole slide show at her website: bellababyphotography.com and our password is: 0802levilockridge. The slide show will be up for another week or two.

Dad, Mom and Baby Levi

It has been an incredible week of getting to know our little guy, spending time with family and friends and recuperating from a rather long birth. We feel so loved and blessed by all the outpouring of support and encouragement we've received in the past week and we are so excited to introduce you to Levi in the coming weeks.