Welcome Home

My mother-in-law suggested I make a blog to keep everyone updated on how life is down here. So, I guess that is what I can do...when I can find time which apparently I only get after bedtime at night.

A little background information about us: We are Brandon & Samantha (and Gavin and Prints) Kludt. We are originally from the Perry area in Michigan and we moved to Austin (8/8/08) when we were only in a relationship and since then we have been engaged (8/18/08), gotten married (4/25/09), lived in 2 apartments, rescued a puppy (8/09), gotten pregnant (10/21/09), bought a house (2/10/10) and had a beautiful baby boy (6/25/10).

Now we are happily living in Canyon Lake, TX in our new home that we have worked on and are working on fixing up to make it just the way we want.

 This is us!

This is Prints when we first brought him home

This is our new home...minus that ramp

This is Gavin (at the hospital)

Brandon is a Canyon Lake Professional Fire Fighter (and paramedic). He took the job here August 2009 and commuted from Round Rock where we had our apartment. He has always had to commute so far to his place of business since his times in Michigan so when we bought our house in Canyon Lake, it was nice for him to be able to sleep in a little (well, before baby). When Gavin grows up I hope that he takes as much pride in his career that his father does and if he has just an ounce of Brandon's work ethic then I won't have to worry about him at all. Brandon truly is the best husband and father to us. He works very hard to provide for us, he is an excellent cook and he has shown that he is also apparently an electrician, a carpenter and so much more. 

Brandon also currently is the president of the local fire fighters union and takes pride in that as well. 

                                         

I am currently a stay-at-home mom. Some days it is very challenging but I am getting the hang of it. At the beginning, bringing Gavin home was the first thing I wanted to do. I felt like we were at the hospital forever and they never let me sleep. I was pushing and pushing to come home so that I could have the things I thought I needed to make everything easier on me, on us. BOY WAS I WRONG. Whether you are at the hospital or at home, being a first time mother is hard work. You can read about it and listen to people tell you horror stories all day long but until you are actually in the moment you have no idea what it is like. I try not to scare people away from having children but sometimes when I see a pregnant girl at the store I want to just shake her and tell her to run away- though that won't help her, it makes me feel better thinking about doing it. That was the first few weeks of having him home and now it's WAY better. 

This was taken the day we went into the hospital

My weekends before having Gavin (before pregnancy) used to consist of sleeping in, having a few drinks now and again, staying up late, going to the movies, going out to dinner... having fun. Now, at 2 months old, my days (I say days because weekends don't exist around here when you are home every day and your husband works 24 hour shifts and has 48 hours off-usually) are usually like this: Gavin wakes up at sometime between 3-5am for a feeding and I change him and put him back to sleep where he stays there until about 7am. When I get him up- depending on how challenging it was for me to put him to bed again in the middle of the night- I might try to cuddle with him on the couch (if he gets up before 7am) to try to get him to sleep just a little longer so I am not such a zombie. We get up at 7am typically and he gets another feeding (4 hours after his previous feeding) and I change him and we look at the dining room and the kitchen and smile. This is his new thing is that something in those rooms makes him so happy. We haven't figured that out yet. Gavin naps usually from 8:30am/9am to 11:30am and he gets fed and changed and probably dressed as well. This is just the pattern we have set. I try to live on the method of sleep, eat, wake (Baby Wise book) and it is working I guess. I try to have Gavin awake from 5pm to bedtime so that he is really tired by the time we are done with our nightly walk at 7pm and he gets a bath at 7:30pm and a bottle before bedtime. I find that sticking to this routine is what helps him sleep through the night (thanks Ashley) but I always am prepared for him to get up more often than just once. 

I try not to just pawn Gavin off on Brandon when he gets home from work in the morning but it's hard sometimes when he works for 2 days straight and I am losing my mind with all the hissy fits that Gavin has developed when he doesn't get his way or all the times I have to just hold him during the days and he's not getting any lighter!  We are trying as a family to figure out how this whole baby thing works and I know that since Brandon works a job that this is my job to be home with Gavin and teach him about Court TV, Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown and Maury. ;)

    

This is our growing boy...not recently but you will see in my next blog how he has changed!