Louie: 6 Months Old!

Well… it’s already been a half of a year. What the heck. Time can slow down anytime now! We had a great month with the little man. This was probably our most challenging month so far, but also the most …

Louie: 4 Months Old!

Another fun and exciting month! Every day Louie gets more fun… so interactive and such a personality! Louie had lots of 1st’s this month… it was hard to capture them all but here are a few shots: Louie spent a lot of …

The Most PINTERESTING Thing of the Week: September 7th

Here are my top 10 pins for the week!

How cute is this for a back entry? Wouldn’t this brighten your day?

A seriously romantic bedroom… LOVING the chandeliers hung over the nightstands instead of having one chandelier in the middle of the room! Soooo pretty 🙂

I was working with a client this week on adding a pantry to her kitchen plan. I love this idea of using up the wasted space in the corner of a kitchen. You don’t have to sacrifice much cabinet space for this!

How cute are these? I love everything monkey on Louie… there are A LOT of monkeys on boys clothes….

How darling are these booties? I think they could be unisex don’t you?

You have to click on this picture to get the recipe… but it actually sounds delicious!

I’m going to try this… put it on my DIY list!

These are so cute… might be making them for the baptism next weekend!

What do you think about painting a vanity a color? I’m loving this soft gray…

Interesting color for a door… I’m kind of diggin it…

That’s it for this week! What do you think of these? Anything inspire you?

Louie: 2 months old!

I cannot believe another month has gone by! It amazes me every day how much he changes. I never expected it to go this fast 🙂

Louie has had a very active 2nd month! Lots of traveling, meeting new people, being on the river, at the pool, the cabin, he is such a good baby we have been going non stop!

The weekend after the 4th of July we were able to celebrate Great Grandpa Jaeb’s 80th birthday! It was so fun to see my Grandpa hold Louie, his first Great Grandchild! He hasn’t lost his touch, that is for sure!

Great Grandpa Jaeb giving a kiss to Louie 🙂

4 generations of Jaebs!

1st attempt at sitting in the bumbo chair!

Such a happy boy in the mornings!

1st week of really smiling!!!

Louie is lucky to have 3 beautiful older cousins to play with already! They have been so good to him, love helping us hold him and even help him keep his passy in!

Ari being a good babysitter for Louie!

For Auntie DD’s (my sis-in-law Diane’s) 30th birthday we went to LaCrosse and spent the day on the river boating around. Louie did so good being on the river for 7 hours. It’s a little tricky at times making sure he is shaded at all times but with his hat, blanket, and an umbrella we did pretty good! Louie’s cousin Kaylee was good about sharing Grandma and helping to play with Louie.

Grandma Bena taking care of Louie and Kaylee helping to keep him company!

Every week Louie’s Papa helps take care of him so I can work. Sometimes all by himself because Grandma Kay is working! I think Louie is going to grow up watching old western movies and lots of sports!

“Papa” hanging out with Louie

Louie is so good when taking baths! He now smiles and coo’s, as long as he is covered and warm 🙂

One of Charlie’s closest friends, Matt Hickey, came to town last week. He is currently serving for our country in Afghanistan and was home on a 10 day break. Matt took time during his short visit to come and visit the little man, it definitely made our week! He brought Louie the cutest REI fleece jacket and onesie, definitely want to use it when we make our trip to Alaska to visit him when he is back home!

Matt holding Louie for the first time 🙂

People often ask us where we got the name Louie. Well, there is this little boy who Charlie and I have known for a long time that we have always loved… the perfect combination of a polite little man, and all boy racing dirt bikes since he was a really little boy. His name is Louie, and we have always said we were going to name our first born son Louie because we liked his name and him so much! It also helps that one of Charlie’s best friends nickname is Llewie, so it was an easy choice for us! We got to celebrate Louie’s 8th birthday with him, and watch him and my brother Nicholas race around on dirt bikes. It was a great night!

Louie and Louie meet at last!

And here are a few more pics from the past month!

Uncle Nick holding Louie! I think Nick will be more excited when Louie can play video games with him 🙂

Grandma Maria loves being with Louie. She feels like she is missing out if she goes more than 5 days without seeing him! Needless to say this boy is VERY loved 🙂

Wearing Uncle Brian’s hat at dinner!

I’m 2 months old!!!

Louie: 1 month old!

I promise to only post about our darling little son every so often- hoping to keep it to once a month 🙂 (I apologize now for the long post- who knew how many things you could do in a month with a little baby?!)  But I will say he is a big reason why Bria Hammel Interiors exists. I have always wanted to be able to stay at home with my kids once I finally had them, but I also knew that I could never give up my passion for design. Thanks to my loving and supportive husband, I am able to do both!

Needless to say this past month has FLOWN by… for how slow pregnancy can go at some times, once the baby comes, what feels like a day becomes a week!

A lot of people have been asking me about our birth story (don’t worry I’ll save you from the gory details) and how things have been going having our little man home, so I thought I would share some special moments and a few images from Louie’s 1st month!

Louie’s Birth:

We checked into the hospital on Thursday evening at 7pm for a scheduled induction due to blood pressure issues. All went well the first night with only moderate contractions, and thanks to sleeping pills we actually got some sleep that night. Friday morning my water was broken at 9am and the pitocin began. Throughout the day everything was progressing nicely, and thank goodness for an epidural, I actually felt ok. Around 4pm Louie’s heart rate started dropping with each contraction, and after a very long contraction (actually 2 contractions back to back) things became a little intense because his heart rate wouldn’t come back up (they said this was due to the pitocin). Thanks to my mom for some Dr. intervention and the help of the wonderful nurses at Fairview Southdale, they were able to get us both stabilized. After 26 hours of labor, giving my body a chance to progress on its own and not succeeding, and with Louie being “sunny side up” and causing horrible back labor, around 8:30pm the Dr. decided a c-section was the best thing for us. 1/2 hour later, Louie was born! It’s an amazing thing, those c-sections… Louie was out in about 30 seconds of the surgery beginning, and 20 minutes later I was in the recovery room.

Our first family picture!

Daddy holding Louie for the first time 🙂

We were so lucky to have my mom in the operating room with us! When Louie was taken by the nurses to get cleaned up Charlie went with him and my mom stayed with me and held my hand while they finished up the surgery!

We were in the hospital for a total of 4 nights, and of those nights we were there, we counted Baby Louie had 42 visitors! The hospital was nice enough to let everyone who was waiting all day in the waiting room come visit us when he was born even though we didn’t get to our room until 10:45 Friday night. He had 14 people waiting to meet him that night! Talk about being a loved little boy 🙂

All clean after his first bath in the hospital

Grandpa spending time with Louie in the hospital

Louie having his first visit with “Uncle Llewie”

This is one of Louie’s “hospital pictures”… they are not the same as they used to be!

When we got home from the hospital, we had lots of help from all the grandmas! Our meals were cooked for us, laundry done for us, and house cleaned! I was thinking I should have a baby every month with this kind of treatment! Another HUGE help to us the first week being home was our dear friend Hillary, who seriously acted as a live-in nanny for us staying with us for 4 days when we were home! I don’t know what we would have done with out her, and needless to say she was GREATLY missed when she left!

Louie’s Aunt Diane is a photographer and took his newborn pics! We are soo soo lucky to have her in the fam 😉

1 week old!

And some other pictures from his first month:

Grandma Bena giving Louie his first bath at home

Daddy and Louie play time

1st time on the golf course!

A new outfit from Aunt Hillary

Spending time with Uncle Brian on father’s day

First time on the boat and 1 month old!

I’m a month old!

Nursery Reveal: Part 3- The Finished Product

Sorry it has taken so long to post the pictures of the finished nursery… we had a little present delivered to us on June 8th… Louie is here! I will keep the details for another post 🙂

Louie is really enjoying the nursery, he sleeps every night in his crib and does great! The glider chair gets plenty of use during the late night feedings, and the dresser is packed with adorable clothes we can’t wait to dress him up in!

One of the most important parts of my job is to create a beautiful space, but also a space that feels welcoming and “usable”. I can honestly say we accomplished just that with this room.

A special thanks to Diane H Photography for taking the pictures of the nursery! Stay tuned for some adorable (if I do say so myself 🙂 ) newborn pictures Diane took of Louie!

The day our lives changed forever.

October 3rd, 2011… the day our lives changed forever!

6am, for no reason at all, I decided it was a good idea to take a pregnancy test. After 1 year of trying, pregnancy tests became more of a “told ya you’re not pregnant” test then anything else. But, as with every month, I had to take it just to make sure.

Well, in utter shock, I looked down and it said “pregnant”! I had to look about 3 times before I actually believed it. Running back into the bedroom I shouted “Charlie!” and he bolted up thinking something must have been seriously wrong. I ran over with the test in hand and gave it to him… and with a huge sigh of relief (more so from the thought that something really bad had happened) he hugged me.

Enter tears… lots of tears…

That morning we had no idea what was in store for us the next 9 months, but we were happy. And in shock.

Sometimes I truly believe God gives you a gift as encouragement to carry on, even when things get tough. Baby Hammel was definitely our gift. And there hasn’t been one day in the last 9 months that we haven’t been thankful.

Later that morning we learned that my Aunt and Uncle had passed away tragically, and there would be some major family changes happening. My young cousins would need a place to live and support to help them through such a horrible tragedy. Charlie and I were blessed enough to have space in our home to take them in, and didn’t think twice about welcoming them in.

Instant education on parenting… maybe Someone thought we needed some practice? (Doesn’t seem too long ago I was negotiating with my parents on what a mature teenager as myself should have as a curfew.) It really has been a great opportunity for us to open our hearts and minds and build a special relationship with them. I feel so blessed to have them in our lives and soon in Louie’s life.

I couldn’t be more proud of my cousins for their courage through all of this. They have all excelled in their lives and I know are making their mom so proud every single day.

Such life changing events can really make or break a couple, lucky for us, Charlie and I have only gotten closer. And now… with anticipation to meet our little one, we look back on the last 9 months and how fast they have gone, and how much we have grown. (Literally speaking too- at least my belly!)

With only a week or so left before we get to meet this precious gift, we cannot wait to see what the next 9 months bring! Hopefully a few less curve balls, but either way, we know we will be ready.

All of the cousins with Charlie and I at Anna’s graduation. She graduated 13th in her class with a GPA higher than Charlie or I even knew existed and we couldn’t be prouder!