Welcome, Baby Beckett!

Shonn and I are thrilled to introduce a new member of our family. After years of waiting, God blessed us with Beckett James Hild. He was born on April 14, 2011, at 12:37, and has since taken the front seat in our hearts and with our time. It's amazing, looking at the posts from one year ago, how much can change! We are so thankful for this little blessing. Here is one of his newborn photos:

At this posting, Beckett is almost 3 months old, and he is such a happy guy. He smiles, coos, and loves interacting with others. He quickly developed a schedule and enjoys his naps!

Thankfully, this week, he has started sleeping for longer periods, about 5 hours at a time! This is such an improvement from the past couple months, when he was up every 90 minutes or so. I never imagined I could get by on so little sleep! It's definitely love, because no matter how tired I was, as soon as I got into his room and took a look at him, I went from tired to incredibly thankful and in love. I'm not complaining now that he's up less frequently, though, that's for sure! Now a typical night has him up at about midnight and again around 4:30. He has discovered the soothing powers of his thumb, which has helped, and I read that cognitively, babies at this age are more capable of transitioning between the various stages of sleep. Initially, I was hesitant to let him have a pacifier or suck his thumb, but the way I look at it is that both make him feel better, and at this young age, that's important! Here's our little thumb-sucker now:

Shonn and I have adjusted to parenthood pretty naturally. We both cherish every moment with him, and since we both have to go back to work soon (another topic for another post), I doubt I'll have much time to blog. I want to make it more of a priority (which shouldn't be too hard since it's been nearly a year!) because after a recent visit with my dear friend, Krista, I was reminded how nice it is to have a way to share life's special gifts with those we don't see very often. For that reason, I'm going to try to make posts. (Thanks, Krista. PS: She bought Beckett the adorable shirt he's wearing in today's pictures. It was also a hit at church this morning!) We also have a YouTube Channel, Beckett414, that relatives far away have enjoyed (http://www.youtube.com/user/Beckett414?feature=mhum). Finally, Facebook has become an awesome way to share our little miracle with our friends and family. My cousin's 4-year-old son, Gabe, told his mom he wanted to go look at facebook so he could see Baby Beckett grow up. Precious.

So welcome Baby Beckett! We love you. Time to go hang out with my guys.