And Then There Were Three...

I thought that I would be satisfied with two...however, last Thursday it became three...three naps for the baby, that is! :)

This has definitely been a journey for me and my smiley little guy, but I am so thankful that he is finally on the schedule that I believe is best for him (and me too!). Three naps are a good thing!

I am still so amazed at the difference that I see in him now compared to a few weeks ago. After we moved him into his new room (he was in our room in a pack-n-play until we got his room painted and new blinds put up) and he was no longer swaddled - he was not sleeping during the day like he was just a day before the move. It took almost 3 weeks to get him back to sleeping 3 naps during the days again, which was very tiring - but it was worth it!

I suppose any trial in our lives is really hard to work through, but when you get to the other side of the trial and look back on it, you realize that all of the sweat, tears, and prayers that went into it was worth it! Thank you, Lord, for helping me through this! I know this will not be the last trial that I will face, but it is a good reminder that I need to always keep my eyes fixed on Him in all things.

Sleeping and Naps

I have definitely gone through some more "trials" with this baby than I did with Brady, however, I love him just as much! :)

About two weeks ago, the baby started sleeping extended night - PTL! However, his daytime naps were not on the schedule that they "should" have been on...and there was a lot of crying from the baby and from me too! It has been a really tough 2+ weeks for me, but I feel that there has been a lot of breakthrough during this time.

There are many reasons that could have contributed to why there was so much crying and why the baby would not take his naps during the day - change of scenery, he was not being swaddled anymore, who knows what else! However, the good news is that he is finally feeling safe and secure in his new room and I think that we are also moving to two naps a day...which is a little "early" to do that...however, if that is what he is ready for, then it is fine with me! He is sleeping so much better...so the mommy is doing a lot better too! :) For those that I shared some of this with, thank you so much for your prayers! I really felt strengthened by them!

On another note, he had his four month appointment last week, and the stats are in:

Length 26 inches (90th percentile)
Weight 14 lbs 5 oz (50th percentile)

So, our "little" guy is on the road to being around 6'1" - no real surprise there considering Dawson's and my height! :)

And finally...he rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time yesterday, and he is loving this new achievement! Brady and I were cheering him on as he was doing it! :)

It was the Best of Times and the Worst of Times - part 1

Last week was a really good week and a really hard week too.

First, some of the good stuff:

Last Monday, our lil' guy finally slept extended night - he was 17 weeks! What does extended night mean? Well, I give him his last feeding around 7pm (or sometimes 7:30pm), and he sleeps until at least 6:30am! That totally rocks! Towards the end of the week, and last night too, he would wake up around 4:00am with a soaked diaper. Dawson, being the totally awesome daddy and hubby was the one to check things out with the baby, so that he would not suddenly think that it was mealtime again! After the diaper was changed, the lil' guy went right back to sleep! So, I am thinking that I might bump him up to a size 3 diaper at night - he wears size 2 during the day. I forgot to do that tonight, so we will start that tomorrow.

It is really late and I need to get my thoughts together on this, so I will write more - maybe tomorrow, if I get a chance, I just need some sleep!

Signed, Sealed, and Being Delivered!

I have finally finished filling in the info. on the birth announcements, printing out the photos to include and finishing writing and printing out the Christmas/New Years/Birth Announcement newsletter! I am very excited that I have been able to get all of that accomplished and it was sent out today (thanks to my mom and dad picking them up today and dropping them off at the post office!).

It was a lot of fun to make the announcements, but I am not sure that I would make them for the next baby...if there is another one! :) It is way too early to tell if we are "done" or not with having children. I am very happy with two, but I also want however many that the Lord has planned for our family and if it is two, that is fine with me! :)

So, now I will be focusing on the rest of the planning for Brady's two year old birthday party. This house needs to be cleaned up and I need to do some shopping - that might not happen until Thursday though!

Ahhh...

Yesterday was a hard day for my little guy - he still was dealing with the gas problem, but today...Today is a much better day! He has been sleeping throughout his whole nap!

I really needed that...he REALLY needed that!

So, now, I need to get some dinner ready for tonight and maybe tackle something else, or maybe just rest...I am a little tired from the past two days.

Gurgle, Gurgle, Gurgle

That is the noise that we heard from our little four week old's stomach yesterday. Yesterday was a very draining day for me...

I could not really understand why our baby would not take his naps like he normally does. He would have such a hard time falling asleep, then he would not sleep for long and wake up crying. That repeated throughout the day. I could hear gurgling in his stomach and I tried to help him get the air out - either end would have been fine! However, I just could not seem to help him get all of it out.

It was a long day - feeding him, wake time, he yawns, time to put him down to sleep. He cries - but not the cry of "I will fall asleep soon, I just need to cry a little bit." This was a cry in which you know that their is gas trapped inside him. So, I would go back up, burp him (and he did burp - but not all of the gas would come out), I would do the backwards "C" on the left side of his stomach - some gas came out the other end, but not all of it, I would change his diaper, swaddle him and pray with him (petitioning to the Lord to please help!), put him down for his nap again, and hope that this would be the time that he would fall asleep. He would sometimes fall asleep, but not for too long.

By the time that Dawson came home, I was wiped out. Then we figured out that it was probably the cooked onions in the quesadillas that I ate and/or the spinach lasagna. Something that I ate gave the little guy gas...

Anyway, he slept well last night and this morning went well, but this afternoon has not gone too well...Hopefully, this gaseous milk will be out of my system soon so that I can have a little break throughout the day again!

Thanks to my mom who came over last night to put Brady to bed while I was putting the baby to bed and Dawson was at a doctor's appointment - she is the best! :)

Sleeping Through The Night!

No, I am not talking about my 3 week old or myself for that matter. I am talking about my two year old son, Brady.

This past weekend, he had a fever on Friday and Saturday nights, and would wake up crying and sweating about 5 or so times during the night. He was fine in the morning, but after his nap, he was feverish and lethargic - I think it is from his two year molars trying to grown in. So, one of the nights, after I finished feeding the baby, Brady started to cry and then I went in with him for a few minutes - to calm him down, give him a drink of water and get him settled in bed again. This was pretty bad those first two nights. Sunday was a little better. He would wake up, but we did not have to take him out of his crib, he settled down while in his crib and he was not sweating so much.

Then, it happened! Last night, he slept through the entire night again! PTL!!! I was very excited about that, especially since he has been sleeping at least 11 hours each night since 15 weeks old! I did not want this waking up in the night to become a habit, and thank the Lord, it has not.

So, now we will wait and see when our precious little baby will extend his sleep during the night. He has done a 6 hour stretch once, but he has mainly been consistent with a four hour stretch at night.

Speaking of the baby, it is time to go and feed him!

Our Newest Promise Is Here!

My eyes are filling up with tears of gratitude and thankfulness (and running down my face too) as I write that our precious little boy is here - safe and sound. He is a little cutie pie and I fall in love with him more and more each day that he is here.

I will eventually share more, but I need to use my time to do some other things right now - like shower! So, I will share the basics with you.

Our little blessing was born on Tuesday evening at 7:20pm. The labor and delivery was an answer to prayer - once things kicked in, it was REALLY QUICK! (I only needed the gel one time!)

He is 19 3/4 inches and 7 lbs 15 oz. He has a full head of black/dark brown hair! (Brady has blond!). And he is so cute a cuddly.

Thank you for all of your prayers!

It's About That Time

Today, I had another doctor appointment and we decided that I would be put on the schedule to be induced tomorrow morning. Please pray that I will go into labor on my own and/or all that will need to be used is the gel.

I am really excited that I will soon meet my new little boy! My mom is over here now helping me with some last minute details!

New Keys, A Lion, and Other Goodies

Today, I drove Dawson to work so that I could run a few errands. Let's just say that the Lord was with me throughout the day and really blessed me!

After dropping Dawson off, I drove to my parents' house - to see if Mom wanted to accompany Brady and me on my errands. Well, when I arrived, they were just getting up (oh, the life of retirement! They deserve it!). So, we stayed for breakfast - which was great!!! I had not had time to eat before we left! My Mom had to do some errands too, so I asked Dad/Poppy if he would be willing to watch Brady! He said "sure"! They both had a great time together - Poppy even had to change a poopy diaper, feed him lunch and put him down for a nap! He is the best Poppy!

So, Mom and I headed off to complete our errands. The first thing that I needed to do was to get some new keys made for our car. You see, our power locks will sometimes lock on their own when the driver's side door closes. That is not always a big deal, except when the car is running and your not even one year old is strapped into his car seat! Yes, that happened over a year ago - thankfully, AAA came very quickly to our aid! It is also a big deal when the car is warming up and you go out of the car to scrape the snow off, only to find out that you are locked out with the car running. Initially AAA said that they could not rescue my husband for about an hour! (this happened within the last month) So, when he called and told me that, Brady and I prayed, and AAA was there within 10 minutes! God is SO good! Anyway, we brought it to the dealership to have it checked out and fixed, but they said that we should wait until it gets worse so that they do not have to charge us crazy amounts of $$ to have them try to find out the problem, because it is not an all the time occurrence...

So, today I went to the dealership to have 4 keys made up - so that we can have one on us at all times besides the one that it in the car. The guy told me that the keys would cost about $7-8 per key! (GULP!) So, I was telling this guy why I needed that many keys. He suggested that I go to a place that makes keys. I had tried Home Depot before and they could not duplicate the key, but I had not thought of one of the key shops. Anyway, we went to a key shop and the keys that they made worked perfectly and they only charged $2.50 per key! So, I was able to get all four keys for $10.60 instead of $32! God is so good!

Another place that we needed to go was Michael's. My mom had to return a few items. While we were there, I looked around at some things for Brady's birthday party (which will probably not happen until February). His theme is going to be wild animals. I was looking for a cake pan and they had a lion cake pan - it was originally $10.99 and it was on clearance for $9.00 - big whoop dee doo (I thought)! It did not have the original photo attached to it any longer and I would have to look that up on the Internet, so I decided to ask if they would be able to give me a better discount that $2 off - there were other cake pans there that were on clearance and it was a true clearance price! I really did not expect the lady to give me a deal, and was completely surprised when she said, "Sure, I will give you 50% off of that price"! I was blown away by that! So, I was able to purchase this cake pan for $4.50! I am still excited about that!

Then, when I was driving to pick Dawson up from work, I decided to listen to the radio. When I initially turned it on, it was on talk radio - obviously my hubby was the last one to listen to the radio. There were just commercials on at that point, so I tuned in to the Christian station. The DJ was talking about how they are going to focus on one name a day and read from this new book that came out recently (cannot remember the name of it), that tells the name and gives a Bible verse, etc. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if they had Baby #2's name as the name of the day... when they announced the name of the day, I felt like it was even more confirmation that we did hear from the Lord as to what his name should be, because it was baby #2's name! I was blown away!

Today was a very busy day for me, but God's hand was truly upon all that I was doing. Thank you, Lord!

On another note...I seem to be getting more contractions throughout the day, but I have not been timing or anything like that - it just does not seem like they are coming that often yet! I (or my sis) will keep you posted!

Special Gifts

Recently, I received some very special gifts, and I wanted to share them with you.

For Christmas, I received a lot of great gifts that were on my Christmas list - pertaining to baking (thanks Mom, Dad and Dawson!). My husband surprised me with a Rachael Ray cookbook! That was not on my list at all, but I enjoy watching her cook, the tips that she gives and I like a lot of her recipes. I was so excited about this gift, and I am really excited to start to use it. The cookbook is set up a little different than most cookbooks, so it will take a little getting used to. Dawson is so thoughtful - I just love him to pieces!

My sister surprised Dawson and I with a beautiful afghan that she crocheted for us! She is truly amazing and very talented! The colors and pattern that she chose are so beautiful. And, if that was not enough, she also made a afghan for our little baby (who will be born soon! Sometime within the next week!). They were awesome gifts.

This past weekend (Sat., 12/29), my family and Dawson's family threw me a little family baby shower. It was really nice and they blessed us with a lot of practical things, such as: diapers, wipes, a special baby blanket, a new outfit, and a new paci for the baby - which Brady wanted to try out, but we did not let him! My mom also makes these amazing cut out cookies - baby carriages and baby bottles. She decorated them and writes things on them too - they are amazing and I really like them a lot! I felt very blessed by all of them. The funny thing, is that I sort of helped to plan the get together months ago - on the premise that we would all watch the Giants-Patriots football game together. My family is Giants fans and Dawson's family is Patriots fans, so it was fun to watch that together - and it was a great game. (Patriots won, but not by much!). So, after I made the plans for all of us to get together, my sister and mom planned the shower!

Those are just a few things that people have done for me which made me feel special. I am also thankful for all of the help that my mom, dad and father in law gave to us to help get Brady in his new bedroom on Sunday evening. Their time is a priceless gift!

So, now we are going to focus on the baby's room. Dawson has to first fix the ceiling - where he stepped "wrong" in the attic the other day! Thank goodness he did not go through the ceiling, but he made some cracks in it! Hopefully, a lot of that room will be done in the next few days: ceiling needs to be fixed and painted, walls need to be primed and painted - and then the trim could also use some paint too. It would be nice to have that all done within the next week - it is not a huge room, so hopefully, it will not be too hard to do! I just need to decide on the exact color of paint that I would like in there!

By the way, the birth announcements are finally put together! I might just add something to the back of it! I am thankful that they are completed. They took a lot longer than I thought that they would - but they are done and are so cute. So, it was worth it! :) All that needs to be completed on it is the info - but we will have to wait a little longer for that to be added!

Baby Announcements and Bread Making

This past Saturday, MIA at our church hosted a "Super Saturday" event. It was held from 9-3, sandwiches and drinks were provided, and no kids were allowed! So, what did we do there? Well, it was a day where you could come and catch up on something that you have been wanting to do - paint your nails, talk with friends, make cards, scrapbook, crochet, or whatever you little heart desired!

My husband was so gracious and did not mind that I left him home all day with our cute little son. I know that this was a sacrifice, because we have so many house projects that we need to work on - so, I was so thankful that he "let" me go! I love you, Hunny!

So, I decided to work on the birth announcements for baby #2. I have never really made cards before, so I did not really realize how long it would take to do everything involved! So, the things that I did get done are as follows:
1. Cut out the paper for the main card
2. Cut out two sizes of paper for what I am going to stamp on the front
3. Began to stamp the background for the front of the card
That is all that I got done! I could not believe that it took me that long - yes, I did take two little breaks and I was talking a little bit, but I was also working very diligently!

So, what I still need to do is:
1. Complete stamping the background front of the cards
2. Add ribbon to the front
3. Stamp/color the teddy for the front
4. Cut out paper for the inside
5. Stamp the inside stuff
6. Add two other things to the inside: parents and brother's names and a Bible verse.

LOTS to do, but it is fun. I know that I cannot procrastinate with this! I HAVE to get this done soon!

Something else that I need to work on is our Christmas newsletter. My goal is to have it completed by Thanksgiving (or the week before). I will just leave a section of it blank so that I can write something about the baby when he is born...so, it might actually be a New Year's letter! My plan is to send that with the announcements (save on postage!).

So, that is what I have been up to recently. Other things have been on my mind - but have not been up to blogging a whole big bunch.

Oh, one other thing that I did last week was to make 4 small loaves of French bread. I used the breadmaker for the kneading and rising, but then I took the dough out and I did a little more kneading, shaped it, let it rise one last time, and then baked it (only took about 15 minuted to bake!). I was a little tentative to do something like that initially, but it was really fun and gave me confidence to try something else like that! Something that I REALLY want to make are cinnamon buns - I know that they are not that healthy, but they are REALLY YUMMY! So, I will have to put that on my "to do" list!

I've Got It...I Think!

I searched the website splitcoaststampers and got a lot of great ideas of what to do with the stamp set that I have. I was having such a hard time deciding what to do for the birth announcements, so I decided to go a little simpler. It is nice, but not too hard.

So, I need to complete my thoughts tonight on how I want it to look, so that tomorrow I can "crank" these babies out!

The News Is Here!

We are having a BOY!!! We are so excited about the new addition that will be entering our lives sometime around January 2, 2008 (give or take a few days!).

I had my followup doctor appointment today and was told that the baby looks healthy. My placenta was lying a little low, so they will do another ultrasound around 26 weeks to see if the placenta moved - the same thing happened with Brady. That will be a nice treat to see my baby again before he is born!

We have been praying about a name for him, but do not have one yet - but we still have lots of time before we have to name him! I am so excited to meet him and to see what he looks like - will he resemble his brother? We will find out relatively "soon".

In the meantime, I have lots to keep me busy - we need to decide how we are going to paint Brady's "Big Boy" room. We were recently thinking of painting the walls blue, but we may change our mind and do a theme - I will keep you posted!

Anyway, I think that a few of the "funniest" questions that people are already asking me is, "Do you think that you will have another child?" or "Do you think that you will try for a girl?" It makes me laugh because I have no idea what it is like to have two children - so, I will first see what that is like and pray and ask the Lord if we are to have anymore. He may say that we are to have more, or He may tell us that our family is complete with the two boys. I love both of my boys and will be happy if they are all of the children that God has designed for this family.

Sleepless Nights Won't Last Forever!

As I am getting closer to the arrival of our second child, I am thinking about those beginning weeks of being woken up in the middle of the night to feed the baby and probably do a diaper change too. Part of me is not really looking forward to that, but that is the way things go.

I am reminded that Brady did sleep 12 hours through the night at 15 weeks, and I am praying that this little baby will sleep that extended night before 15 weeks (some babies are able to do it at 9 weeks - which would be wonderful!). So, I will need to brush up on the scheduling technique that is described in On Becoming Babywise and Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. I really appreciated both of these books, and the support of my sister while raising Brady. He is still a great sleeper and napper - and I am thankful that he is!

So, sis - can I borrow those books again?

On The Road Again

This past Wednesday, I had my 17 week well-baby check up. Everything went just fine. The baby's heartbeat was between 136-140 - so, it is still "on the fence" as far as the old wives tale is concerned. What is your guess? Well, we will hopefully find out the gender of our baby on the way in about 3 weeks!

Well, on to what was on my mind today. When I first found out that I was prego, I was so faithful in going for a daily walk with Brady (who is currently walking around the house with one sneaker on and plastic star sunglasses on his face - he is so adorable). Anyway, the weather started to get really hot, we went on vacation, and maybe a few days of rain, and that was it - I was out of the routine! I have been thinking about going for walks again, but that is all that I have been doing - thinking about it...until today!

This morning, Brady and I went for my regular walk around the development, and let me say, I felt really out of shape during the last 1/4 of my walk! It was also a little later than I wanted to go, so it was already starting to get a little hot and humid! So, I have decided that I am going to exercise every weekday morning, unless I have an appointment that is early in the morning (that does not happen too often, but once in a while).

Today was a beautiful day to restart my walking routine - and I am planning on continuing this!

Fifteen Weeks and Counting!

Here is an update of our Baby on the Way! I had this ultrasound done last week (just a little "behind" in my posts!). The baby is right on target with its growth. The gender of the baby is not known at this time - hopefully, we will be able to find that out in a few weeks.

One midwife that I saw said that based on the heartbeat, she would say boy. The heartbeat was at 139 one time, around 138 another time, and 145 another time. I don't think that it is telling me much at this point! According to an old wives tale - above 140 means "girl" and below 140 means "boy". Grammie keeps thinking that it is a girl - for no reason...she does not know why she keeps thinking that. She laughs when she tells me that. Well, one of them is correct, and I will keep you posted!

We desire to have a healthy baby. The Lord knows who we are supposed to parent next...and I am so excited to meet this baby (Just not for a little while - I still have some colors of paint to choose!).

First Appointment

Today was my first prenatal appointment for our second precious gift from God. Isn't our baby so cute? Just so you know the orientation - the bottom left little circle is the yolk sack, then there is the head, body, and cute little feet!

The appointment went well. They did the routine work, and the ultrasound, and I will be back in one month. So, they confirmed that I am 9 weeks pregnant, and they have predicted my due date to be January 2, 2008 - the same day that I calculated. So, Brady and his new sibling will either share the same exact birthday, or just have birthdays that are very close to each other!

It was very exciting for Dawson and I to see our new little baby's heart beating, and body wiggling a little bit. We are so blessed to have another blessing being added to our family. This child is a gift from the Lord, just as Brady is, and we are so thankful that the Lord has entrusted us with His child. We look forward to meeting this precious little baby.

Thank you to my sis, TCC, for watching Brady while we were at the doctor's! She was very excited to see the photos of her future niece or nephew!