The Journey of Parenthood...

Week Five Summary

2012-01-30T10:42:00.000-05:00

Brittlynn's fifth week of life was from January 3rd - January 9th. Here is what she was up to during this week (and it's a LOT):

Sleep: Whew. Week five was MEGA tough. I wanted to cry. I think I did cry. She just would not sleep during the day. Literally. Like the longest stretch she got of solid daytime sleep was 20 minutes. It wore me out! I knew the reason doing shh-pat wasn't working was that I wasn't doing it long enough. I'd "shh" and pat until she was asleep then leave. Hogg (in The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems) even says if you don't do it long enough the baby won't go into a deep sleep. Well sorry Hogg but I have a toddler to attend to and I can't be sitting by a crib for 40 minutes at a time!!!

I got pretty ticked at good 'ole Hogg on Jan 3rd and reached a breaking point during this week (yes, it happens to us ALL!). I said screw it and just let her cry. An entire nap. She literally cried for an hour straight. Don't get me wrong, I didn't enjoy the hour. I was miserable but I was too frustrated to go in and help her sleep since nothing I did seemed to work. Not the swing. Not holding her. Not the paci. (Speaking of the paci...we only give it to her when she's hungry but it's not quite time to eat or halfway through her nap when we've tried everything else first to get her to sleep. We never do it at start of nap or at night...she is a horrible paci girl b/c she sucks it so hard it leaves a mark on her face and she spits it out then screams!) Nothing. I spent the whole hour texting my two babywise bffs (thanks Laura and Kelly!!!) and they helped me feel better, feel less alone, and gave some great advice. After the hour she did fall asleep but, obviously, I'm not recommending you just let your 5 week old scream for 60 minutes. I felt HORRIBLE guilt for doing that but at the same time I know it's normal to get to that breaking point! The rest of the day I pretty much ran in there and cuddled her anytime she even whimpered ;)

After that day I totally abandoned the shhh-pat method. We still do all the beginning of nap things that Hogg recommends. I set the stage by singing "you are my sunshine" while I swaddle her then I hold her upright until she goes limp and put her down then leave. She usually will "buck" a good bit and do three cycles of fussing then getting quiet before she totally goes limp before I put her down.

I also realized, thanks to Laura and Kelly, that she was going through a wonder week. I hadn't ever heard of the wonder weeks but omg what a blessing to know about them now!!! You can see a breakdown chart of them HERE and you can learn about them in detail (as well as sign up to receive an email whenever your baby hits a wonder week) HERE. Basically a wonder week is a time frame when your baby is going through developmental milestones. It's actually based on their due date and it's so funny because both times she's hit one (I'm writing this during her week 8 wonder week) she's started it around Friday and she was due on a Friday ;) It is SO exact and right on. And it's a HUGE blessing because instead of getting mad at her, or at myself, or freaking out I realized it was just a wonder week and she'd be fine once we got through it. The developmental leap she was making was that she was starting to show interest in the world around her and she wanted to take it all in rather than spend her time sleeping. When we'd be holding her, trying to get her to sleep, she'd be wide-eyed and would move her head all over to look around. She also rolled over for the first time the next week and when that I happened I KNEW her issues during week 5 had been developmental for sure!!!

The best way to deal with the Wonder Weeks is to recognize them and get through them anyway you can. For me, it was letting her fuss in the beginning of nap unless or until she got REALLY worked up then I'd just hold her and love on her until she was very sleepy or even asleep then put her down. I'd do the same thing over and over again throughout her nap.

While it was a tough week, it was a HUGE breakthrough week...

Gas: THIS was the breakthrough!!! We were so frustrated with Britt's lack of sleep...then Zach came out of her room during one of her naps and told me she had been screaming then he walked in to help her and she lifted her legs and let out a HUGE fart then fell right to sleep. Gas issues can cause a baby pain and I thought maybe that was what was going on. We started to hardcore burp her whenever she took a break on the breast, in between breasts, after eating, throughout her awake time, right before sleep time, during naps, basically all day. It made a HUGE difference!

Ways that we help her to release gas (and yes, I researched ideas) include:

patting her in an upward motion on her left side with her on our shoulder
doing the same thing while having her in a sitting position on our lap
same thing but laying her on the boppy
varying the positions repeatedly as the movement helps to get the gas to move
pumping her legs, bending them and pressing them to her chest and holding it
pumping her legs without holding it but pressing them and releasing them back quickly
pushing her legs to her chest and moving them in a circular motion
moving her legs like she is riding a bicycle

A combination of all of these really makes a difference. We also started giving her mylicon at every feeding prior to her eating as I read it better helps to prevent the gas from happening to begin with. I couldn't BELIEVE the difference in our child. Not only with her sleep, but with her overall personality! To be honest...I didn't really like her very much. I loved her but I felt like she was ALWAYS crying and fussing and just unhappy. Until we started revolving our lives around getting that gas out of her system. Oh my goodness! Seriously, if she isn't eating or sleeping she is SMILING and COOING! It's precious and I totally missed out on that cuteness due to her being in constant gas pain! Feel guilty much?!?! Basically our sweet baby girl spent her first month of life in pain :(

The FIRST full day of us focusing on the gas...she had what I call her breakthrough day. She had her BEST sleep EVER for naps all day, I was even able to lay outside (yes, in early January I was laying out) for 15 min! And that night she slept from 11:30-5:30 which was AWESOME! SO proud of her and of Zach and I for figuring out that mystery gas!!!

Schedule: Her schedule was the same as Week Four.

Here are some more things she was up to this week:

I thought she had been done with the peeling skin, but her scalp started to peel this week and often looked like dandruff
The child grunts and moans constantly and reminds me of me!!! I am a bit of a moaner (especially during child birth...I get it from my Nana...and get ready because that means when I'm an old lady I'll be moaning nice and loud all through church services!) so she comes by it honest! Here is a video of her grunting when I pump her legs to release that gas. Here is another video of her making noises in her sleep.
I started to run our cool mist humidifier throughout all of her sleep periods and it REALLY helped her congestion (we even ordered her a hot pink one of her own!)
We took her to church for the first time! I skipped class that morning and fed her at home then she and I rushed to church. We were late, but only by 15 min which was better than Kye's first time at church ;) We tried to have her sleep in her car seat but she wasn't having it so Gramma got the special privilege of holding her the whole time!
Her awake times started getting longer, she would stay awake an hour to an hour and half each time (including feeding time) so it was WONDERFUL because I finally felt like we got to know her personality better
A couple times we've walked in to wake her up and have found her body totally moved in her bed. Like out of view of the video monitor. She'll still be swaddled but will be turned completely to the side?? (not on her side...she's still flat on her back) How is that possible???
Her nails are now hard enough to where it's easier to clip them with clippers than with my teeth
She lets out the CUTEST smile when she is falling into a deep sleep...precious!

Since she was awake longer, and she was so much happier...there are a LOT of pictures this week!!!

Lots of tummy time!

Britt and Sadie

She loves to be on her tummy

Here is a video of some of our sweet moments together, love those little sneezes!

No more cord!

Favorite activity is still bath time

Not only does she still have her hair...but it's becoming very crazy ;)

When Zach and I both looked at her on the video monitor we said she looks like Gary Busey!!!

Gary

Britt

Kye started back to school this week and I'm SO thankful for Mom, Zach and Mrs Charlotte. When I was pregnant I wrote them a long email talking about how important Brittlynn's schedule is and that is comes FIRST. Even before Kye going to school. I do not feel comfortable having Brittlynn nap in her car seat 6 times a week which is what she would have to do if I took him and picked him up every day. Once she gets on a four hour schedule it'll be easier because she should be able to make it to his school and home during her awake time so it won't mess up her naps, but right now it's just not possible. I asked them to please help me out and take Kye and pick him up for me as often as possible. My goal is to only have to pick him up once a week, twice if there is no other option. If it works out where no one can help me on a certain day then he'll have to miss school. That may sound crazy to some of you but I KNOW the schedule WORKS and it has to be top priority for our family during her first year of life. We have may have to make sacrifices but those sacrifices will benefit us all (yes, even Kye) in the long run!

I picked Kye up one day during this week and it was the first time doing that. My plan is on the days I have to pick him up to run an errand before going to get him. I pumped and fed her a bottle at ToysRUs so I could use some coupons that would expire. Man, I forgot how tough it is to go places with a new baby!!! She ate at 10:00 then would not stay in her car seat. So I ended up pushing the stroller and carrying her at the same time which made life difficult. She wouldn't sleep at all in it. She'd nod off when I was driving but when I stopped she'd wake back up and cry. Not good!!! I literally had like 15 minutes to do my actual shopping before we had to leave to get Kye.

changing diaper at ToysRUs

She did finally fall asleep so I left her to sleep in the car seat until she woke up then I swaddled her and put her back to bed (it's what we do whenever she falls asleep in the car seat...better to let her sleep than wake her!)

Here is a video of her with her playmat

Kye kept wanting to feed her the bottle that came with her cabbage patch doll

he was so serious about it

focusing on objects, her developmental leap this week!

being bossy probably

Kye is SO great with her, here's a video of him showing her all of her (tooooo) many stuffed animals (note to anyone who ever may buy her a gift, please no more stuffed animals! books are best!)

me and my babies!

The way her schedule worked out this week she had awake time from 7-730 so we were able to spend time as a family before Kye went to bed. I'm SO thankful I got some pictures of this! We all would sit in the hallway and read a bedtime story together. Yes, the hallway. When that baby shows the slightest sign of being tired I like to be mega close to her room ;) It was a wonderful little family time together and it makes me look forward to the many years to come. Of course, her schedule didn't stay that way very long and it'll be changing so much that they probably won't get to read stories together again before bed until she's much older!

yes, I was there too ;)

I realized I never got a picture of the stork bite on the back of her head...it's still there as you can see

Something I remember that I LOVED doing with Kye was checking the mail each day. It was nice to go outside together and, since he was a spring baby, the weather was so pretty. Around here lately the weather has been LIKE spring weather even though it's winter! Since Britt started staying awake longer I would typically take her out to check the mail after her 1:00 feeding while Kye was napping. We'd get some quality together time in reading through it on the back or front porch.

my girl

I LOVE how much more alert and happy she is...I wish I could take pictures of how precious she is while she nurses...but you can tell she's just as sweet right after!

action shot of that constant baby laughter

Postpartum Update: Zach and I officially started Weight Watchers. At our first weigh in I have 10 lb to lose...yes I gained three pounds over the holiday. It was an emotional week as I dealt with her nap issues and I found that taking a shower helped me to feel SO much better. More alive ;) I started to fall into a good routine...Zach and I watch shows together during her 8 feeding at night and have our nightly snack then I go to bed at 9:30 for a nap before her 10:30 dream feed. It is TOUGH to wake back up but somehow I get through it. My bleeding is still going on...so annoying...but light enough for a thin pad. My new bridesmaid dress arrived for the wedding and the 8 fit in the chest perfectly so I have some options which is good! I know with Kye even when I lost weight, I held on to the chubby junk until after I stopped nursing then I got my body back so we'll see how this goes.

I left Brittlynn for the first time for an entire day this week. I drove up for the day for Hallie's service. Zach kept her and Kye the whole day and it was REALLY good for us both. I got a needed break and he got to live a day in the life of mommy and see everything I go through. Often times he'll call me while both kids are napping and want to talk and he doesn't get it why I rush to get off the phone...it's because that brief alone time is SO rare and I want to enjoy it for MYSELF! I called him that day when both kids were asleep and it clicked with him why I'm always in a rush, because he wanted that alone time too!

While it was one of the toughest weeks yet, it was also one of the best thanks to ALL the many breakthroughs. I felt like I was starting to finally get to know Brittlynn better. It sounds horrible to say that I didn't really like her in the beginning but that gas made her such a grump and it's been a blessing to finally know the REAL Brittlynn and see her sweet, wonderful personality shine though. That smile makes EVERY hardship worth it!!!

Britt ~ One Month Old!

2012-01-28T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just like I did with Kye, I plan to post a monthly blog entry for Brittlynn and track her development using What to Expect the First Year. I am TERRIBLE at knowing developmental milestone stuff. Like seriously, I have no clue what kids should be doing when so this will help me see how she's doing and what I need to be working on with her. I planned to order monthly stickers for her from the same site I had my belly ones from during pregnancy but that seller when on a break because she had a baby too! So I bought these stickers from a new Etsy seller and you can purchase some of your own here!

I didn't do a monthly sticker thing for Kye (did they have them back then?) but I like the idea that every month will be similar pictures. I'm not sure on a location for them all yet, I may change it up each month. We got her an ADORABLE chair for her room but it hadn't arrived in time for the one month ones so I may use that in the future, we'll see ;) The day she turned one month old (Jan 6th) I took about 10 minutes and snapped these pictures to go along with this blog entry! Enjoy!

This makes me laugh!

At one month old Brittlynn is doing everything a baby her age should be able to do including:

lift head briefly when on stomach on a flat surface
focus on a face

She can do everything a one month old will probably be able to do including:

respond to a bell in some way, such as startling, crying, quieting (She cries! I didn't ring a bell but the dogs barking or Zach clearing his throat causes that reaction so I'm sure it's the same thing)

a little smile for you!

She can do everything a baby her age may possibly be able to do including:

lift head 45 degrees when on stomach
vocalize in ways other than crying (she coos and makes a little laugh sound I LOVE IT!)
smile in response to your smile

She can do most of the things a one month old may be able to do including:

lift head 90 degrees when on stomach
hold head steady when upright
smile spontaneously

such a goober face ;)

The only thing she can't do yet is from the "may be able to" category and it's:

bringing both hands together

looks like she's trying to grab the camera

I enjoy reading the monthly chapters in the What to Expect the First Year book as they help answer any questions I may have and understand some things better about the stage my baby is in. This month mostly covered breastfeeding...which I feel I have down pat! It did cover some things I found interesting though too!

It mentioned the blister thing on her upper lip and it's known as "nursing blisters." It's from vigorous sucking (which she does do!!!). It will go away on it's own and doesn't cause her any discomfort.

I found the section on spitting up very insightful. Both of my kids were/are BIG pukers. Kye spit up so much that I invested in bibs to match all of his clothing. Brittlynn is following in his footsteps and spits up after every feeding. Like more than once. I have been debating the past couple days about calling her pediatrician about it...but I KNOW they will say she has GERD (reflux) because they said the same thing about Kye. I KNOW that reflux issues are very common, however, I also think it's over-diagnosed. I don't want my child on medication that she doesn't really need. She never arches her back or cries any kind of painful cry so I was hesitate to call the doctor.

This book says that most babies spit up. It's extremely common and, although it's messy and smelly, it's not usually a cause for concern. It's typically a laundry problem, not a health problem. It may be related to an immature sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach and to excess mucus that needs to be cleared. It also may be coming up with a burp and sometimes a baby wisely spits up because she's eaten too much. If the spit up looks unchanged from when she drank the milk then it only went as far as the esophagus before coming back up. If it traveled own to the stomach before its return trip, it will look curdled and smell like sour milk. Hers is typically the curdled sour milk kind.

There is no cure for spitting up but some ways to help include:

don't feed her when she's crying
keep her as upright as possible while feeding and for awhile afterward
make sure she uses the right size of nipple when bottle feeding
tilt the bottle to minimize air
avoid bouncing her while eating or just afterward
when possible strap her into a baby seat or stroller for awhile after the feeding
burp her constantly during the meal

Most likely she'll continue to spit up until she is six months old. I feel confident, after reading this, that I do not need to call the doctor. She doesn't have the signs of GERD: she is gaining weight fine, doesn't have prolonged gagging or coughing, her vomit isn't brown or green and she doesn't shoot out the spit up two to three feet away. And she is a "happy spitter" meaning she doesn't seem in any discomfort so most likely she doesn't have anything medically wrong with her! Whew! :) It also said using a diaper wipe will help eliminate the odor when she spits up ;)

When she makes this face I TOTALLY see Kye!!!

big yawn

It has been a wonderful first month, if you'd like to see what Kye was up to during his first month you can see his post HERE. It's interesting that they both hit the same developmental milestones this month except the hands together thing!!! I don't think they really look alike at this age...do you???

my favorite this month :)

Monthly Summary - December

2012-01-27T15:59:00.002-05:00

December was a VERY full month...Kye welcomed a new sister into the world and celebrated Christmas. Even with all the craziness, Zach and I tried to focus on Kye and make sure he got special attention during this big transition period. Here's what Kye was up to in December:

Kye's House: I'm a hoarder with stuff and I totally keep boxes. I mean you never know when you'll need them right? For once it came in handy and Zach had the fun idea of making Kye a house out of the boxes. It was pretty awesome! Kye had a BLAST coloring it and playing in it. The downside was when Zach realized he made it so big it wouldn't fit through the doorways. It couldn't stay in the MIDDLE of our kitchen though either. It was a pretty humorous site to see Zach and I lifting the house and carrying it over the kitchen bar then over the stair case to put it in the dining room. It stayed there until we took down the Christmas decorations. I was nervous to take it down, that Kye would get upset, but we just told him it was a "Christmas house" and that he can get another one next Christmas. Worked like a charm!

Coloring his house

He told me that he'd have to go tee-tee on the grass because his house didn't have a bathroom :)

He loved it! Here's a video and one more video

Church: I tried my best to enjoy our times at church before Brittlynn was born. It takes a LONG time to get a baby adjusted to behaving at church services and I'm so thankful that we're at that point with Kye. He LOVES class and behaves, typically, like an angel through services. We take a lunchables and some snacks and he'll eat and color and play quietly. I'm always so proud of him and love how much he loves it. It's true motivation to get our butts in gear on days when it's tough to go ya know?

Crown he made in class

It is SO awesome to have my mom at church with us!

Check You: I think after visiting the hospital Kye is all about checking people. He has had this stethoscope in his briefcase with his other work stuff forever but recently he's started to tell us he needs to check us. Brittlynn is a great patient for him. He always tries to check the dogs but they aren't having it!!!

Big Brother: Kye jumped into the big brother role with ease. He LOVES his little sister and is so proud of her. He constantly wants to kiss her. Sometimes he asks to hold her, but not really as often as I would have thought. Mostly he says he wants to kiss her or play with her. And he means it when he says he wants to play! He'll get right down with her and show her toys and such. He says "Hey sweet girl" ALL the time and it melts my heart. After Christmas we asked what his favorite present was and he said, without hesitation, "Brittlynn" and I truly think he means it! If we talk loud or the dogs bark he'll be very serious and say "shhh the baby is sleeping!" I didn't notice any jealousy issues with her and he really enjoyed all the constant company we had over. We told him they were there to see him and everyone that came did a great job visiting with him and giving him attention too (not like he would let them get away with ignoring him!). One night he even prayed "thank you for my sister, I love her." So precious

While he loves his sister, he's not as helpful as I thought he'd be. He's only carried like one dirty diaper to the trash for me. He's more interested in entertaining her than helping me! One way he likes to "help" is by watching her monitor when she's asleep. He'll report to me constantly that she's sleeping or awake and if she's crying he'll tell me I need to go in there with her.

Treasure Box: On Friday's at school they do a treasure box prize as a reward for good behavior (and of course Kye's never had a Friday pass by without getting a prize!). Kye LOVES the treasure box and this month he became all about doing his own treasure box for us at home. His book bags and lunch box and any other storage type container turned into a treasure box and he FILLS them with all his little toys (or anything else he can get his hands on) then comes up to you and tells you he has a prize for you and let's you pick one. It's cute and a great way to keep him busy, although cleaning up all the treasures can be a bit of a pain! Here is a video of him singing the treasure song (and calling me Kelly for some reason???)

Jingle: Have you seen the interactive storybook characters at Hallmark? I'm a total sucker for cute stuff and I thought Jingle was too neat! We got him for Kye as a gift when Brittlynn was born and we dvred the interactive movie on Hallmark channel. The dog is supposed to respond when you read the story and when you watch the show. It doesn't work the way I thought it would...Jingle didn't make one sound during the entire show! Kye loves to play with him, and the poor kid tries to make him bark but he's never very successful. Here's a video of Kye trying to get Jingle to talk to him (and Zach and Jordan playing along)

Friends: Have you ever read the book Let Me Hold You Longer? It is one of my favorites and it is about how time passes us by so quickly and we forget to savior the last moments in life as we are too busy looking ahead to the firsts. Someday Kye will be done with his friends and I will probably miss the days of him having to have them to sleep. Of him requesting us to fix his blanket just right. Of him having to sleep on that dang little pillow each night. Of him waking up crying when he can't find Smyrna. Of me having to rush to get them all washed and dried in time for nap when they need to be cleaned. Here we were playing together in the living room and pretending to go night night ;)

Love that smile!

Room time: Kye does about an hour of room time a day. He'll go upstairs in the playroom and play on his own. The thing with independent playtime / room time is that I decide when it takes place and how long it lasts and he does it completely on his own. He does WONDERFUL with it and truly enjoys it! I'll usually call up there to tell him the timer is about to go off so he can start cleaning up and often times the room will be almost completely picked up when I get up there to get him (he knows where each thing goes and everything!). He also loves playing so much that he'll often ask to stay up longer. I'm SO thankful we got back on track with this as it's a godsend now that Brittlynn is here. I'll have him go up to room time during the second half of one of her naps then we can enjoy his movie time together while she nurses at the next feeding. Works out great!!! Here's a video of him cleaning up and signing the song.

potty break from room time

enjoying movie time like a TRUE MAN!

I sent Zach this picture on my phone and said "who does this remind you of?!" It's EXACTLY how I'll find Zach laying on the couch...even the feet crossed like that!

Hiding: Kye loves to hide! Zach isn't the best at playing along as he gets annoyed with Kye hiding in the same spot over and over again (I find myself often saying to Zach "he's only two!!!"). One afternoon Zach was upstairs working and Kye decided to hide from him. He came up with the BEST spot all on his own! He practiced the hiding spot on me and I really couldn't find him! I texted Zach and told him to come downstairs because Kye was hiding from him and he took like literally over 20 min to come down (he was on a phone call) and Kye just kept on hiding there. When Zach came down it took him AGES to find Kye!!! It was an AWESOME hiding spot for sure!!!

Where's Kye?

There he is!

He wanted all of his friends in with him and told me to put the lid back on so he could sleep in there

Woody Party: Kye learned at school when his birthday is and will tell you that his birthday is in March. He is SO excited about his party and soon after our Disney trip I asked him what kind of party he wanted (I was hoping he'd say a pirate one) and he said a Woody party! I'm, of course, going with what he wants and plan to do a Woody party for him. He's been PUMPED about it (we talk it up hardcore because I want him to LOVE it!) and these pjs Dad and Audrey bought for him as his Christmas gift are the perfect thing to help build the excitement. Aren't they too cute???

My Woody!

Big Helper: Kye may not be much help with Brittlynn, but he enjoys helping Zach and I in other ways around the house. Now he will put his plate and such on the counter by the sink and put his leftover drink back in the fridge! One less thing for me to worry about! Zach was super pumped about how helpful he was when taking down the Christmas lights. Zach said "it's the first time he's REALLY helped!" Usually Kye just thinks he's helping with stuff but he really did a good job with those lights!

Disaster Zone: Kye is going through a stage where thinks its SUPER fun to take out every. single. toy. in the playroom! Since I'm not up there during room time I'm not sure if he actually plays with it all or not but, thankfully, he does a decent job cleaning up. I love to go up there and see what I find him doing. I LOVE that he's at that age where he does pretend play and makes all of his toys talk to each other and live out different story lines. It's beyond precious to me.

Christmas: The entire Christmas season was SO awesome this year, thanks to Kye and how much FUN he was. He loved every part of Christmas and it made me so thankful that we have so many fun traditions to enjoy together. He especially loved our Christmas tree and talked about it all the time. He also adored Christmas songs and we played music on the reg around our house. He learned many of the songs and enjoyed singing them all the time! Here's a video of Kye singing Jingle Bells and here's a video of Kye singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (which is OUR song...he'll tell you that...we especially love the Bruce Springsteen version).

Zeke enjoyed the tree too

CHEESE

He MADE Christmas so wonderful this year :)

Here is other stuff Kye was up to in December:

I asked him what Isis' song should be when he/she was born and he said, right away, "I'll love you forever" So sweet!
We were talking about Zeke (a common topic around here, he loves that cat) and Kye said "Zeke's feet are gray like Mommy's car!" Maybe these colors are starting to stick
If you ask Kye who is best friend is he'll say Zeke and he likes to call him "Zekey"
When we tuck Kye in bed at night he wants to do BIG cuddly hugs with us both at the same time. He spreads his arms out wide for us to cuddle him.
He LOVES to play with his sister and in this video he's wrapping her up...I also love hearing him say her name and the way he says "pjs" (he calls them page-ons because he always hears us say "It's time to put your pjs on." haha!
For the first time EVER he actually made his lunchable into little sandwiches to eat it ;)
When Kye hugs me he'll now pat my back at the same time
Kye still enjoys playing like he's at work and talking on the phone. In this video he's "talking" to Jordan
During roomtime he'll sometimes yell stuff down to us. One time he said "Daddy come see my pictures when the timer goes off okay? Then I'll watch a movie, put on my jacket, and we will play outside. I love you so much!" He understands that neither of us are coming up there until that timer goes off and he understands order of things. He said all of that on his own and understood that he couldn't do anything else until after he finished the roomtime. Plus I love that he says "I love you so much" now ;)
When we pray together Kye will often say "thank you for our families"
We have to watch what we say more now as Kye said his first "bad" word. He and I were sitting at lunch and he said something was "stupid." I just told him that it's not a nice word and not to say it again and he hasn't
Kye enjoys singing to Brittlynn, in this video he's singing his ABCS to her!
Zach teaches Kye little phrases all the time (remember "Daddy's the man!" ???) the newest one is "swagger" Here's a video of Kye saying it. They take turns saying "swagger!" "Ballin!" haha
I finished up Christmas shopping SUPER early this year and had already told Santa what Kye wanted when Kye decided (like less than a week before Britt was born) that he wanted a bike. We had to have a talk about how we don't always get what we want right away and that his birthday is going to come up soon. I knew he'd forget about it on Christmas morning and, thankfully, he did!
Zach was singing (it's where Kye gets his constant singing from) "can't touch this" one afternoon and Kye watched him very seriously then reached out and touched him haha
Kye is all about secrets and he always wants to tell us secrets about Disneyworld ;)
We ate out a lot more in Dec so much so that Kye started saying "I want to eat out of the box" thankfully, we're back to home cooked meals more now ;)
I'm eager for Britt's schedule to get consistent enough (well that she'll SLEEP consistently!) so Kye and I can play outside more. He LOVES it and I could use the fresh air. In this video he's showing off his baseball skills
Being sneaky is one of Kye's favorite games, especially after his bath. If I see him he'll tell me to go away so he can sneak up on me in his towel. Here's a video of my little monkey
Kye can go to the potty completely on his own now...pulls down his pants, flushes it, pulls his pants back up!

I'm very proud of Kye and how smoothly he adjusted to having a sibling! We had a GREAT month to finish out 2011!

1,000 Posts!

2012-01-25T10:35:00.001-05:00

It is pretty crazy that I've written 1,000 blog entries isn't it? It's neat to me to think back to starting the blog in August of 2008 and to see how it's changed over the years. Literally back then I had like 1-2 hits a day and they were pretty much my mom and Rachael ;) Now I'm getting over 1,000 hits a day (and only a few followers away from 200...I plan to do a giveaway once I hit that marker so if you're a stalker admit it and follow the blog so we can get this thing going!) and have made SO SO many wonderful, amazing friends. Friends who I can count on for anything even if we only know each other through the cyber space world. It's pretty amazing and I don't know what I'd do without all of you wonderful women in my life! Kelly, who I literally met from blogging, is now one of my real life best friends. People thought I was nuts when I went and stayed with her without even having met her in real life! Same thing with Robyn...she contacted me through my blog and we started having play dates before Kye and Lorelai could even sit up! I love that so many of us have taken our online friendships into the real world and I hope that I can only continue to connect to more people through this blog in the future. I hope more of us can become online friends and real friends too!

I started to write this and had planned on doing my top 10 blog entries that I've ever written. When I wrote my 500th blog entry, I did my top 5 posts (you can read that post HERE and see ALL the posts I linked back too...there are some great ones!). I had a REALLY tough time picking a top ten. I picked so many good ones for my top five that it was hard to come up with new ones that I didn't already mention in that post. I was telling Zach about it and he suggested letting him pick out his favorites. He didn't want to write an actual blog entry for me (heck, it took long enough for him to write his birth story - I would have been on my 2,000th post by the time he was able to finish it!) but he did go back through ALL of my blog posts and picked out his all-time favorites.

I think it was a good idea to let him pick because it's hard to decide my favorites since I wrote them ya know??? I like an outsiders perspective...although there's a pretty decent trend in his choices (several involve my breasts or something about him haha). Here they are in random order!!!

Zach's Favorite Blog Entries:

I'm thankful that Zach chose this as one of his favorites as it gave me a chance to re-read it at a time that I really needed to. What I felt when Kye was first born is very similar to how I felt with Brittlynn. My love for her has only grown more and more with time just as it has with Kye. Zach and I both talked about how we love Kye SO much more now than we did when he was first born and I truly do love both of my children more and more each day. For you new moms, this is a great blog entry for you to read to let you know you're not alone: A Love That Grows.
As mentioned earlier, I think Zach was drawn to blog entries that focused on my boobs. Out of the 15 he said were his favs, several mentioned my ladies! It's hard for me to believe that it was at about this time after Kye was born that Zach and I went to Paris. I can't imagine leaving Brittlynn right now and I especially can't imagine pumping like I did! When I hear of breastfeeding moms who give up nursing because they don't like pumping I always think back to our Paris trip. I PROMISE you mamas...if I could do it under those circumstances, anyone can. I love re-reading this and am still astounded at the amount of milk I brought home: Traveling Tales of a Nursing Mother.
One thing I always joke about Zach is how much he loves...Zach. So it didn't surprise me that he picked a blog entry as his favorite that mentioned him in the title. ;) Zach's job requires him to travel a decent bit. Typically he is on day trips but sometimes he will be gone for an overnight trip or even a few day long trip. I thought it'd be fun to do a post about what Kye and I would do during those longer times that Zach was away. While Daddy is Away.
Our Christianity is the most important thing to us both and spreading the Word about God's love is so important, especially to the ones we are closest to. Jordan making the decision to get baptized was SO awesome and Zach was very proud of the blog entry I wrote about that day and about why baptism is essential to salvation: Jordan's Baptism.
I'm thankful Zach is so close to many members of my family and it was really sweet to me that he said "you have to include one of the posts about Uncle Spear on my list." He really admired my Uncle Spear and was honored to get to know him before he was diagnosed with ALS. When we moved into our house we quickly put a bird feeder out back so we could start watching the birds like Uncle Spear always loved to do. Here's the blog post about the last time we got to visit with Uncle Spear: Tough but Necessary.
Both of us agree that our yearly trip to St. Augustine for the 4th is one of our favorites every year. This past year was THE BEST one yet and Zach really enjoyed that Kye got to see the fireworks. I think he'll enjoy them even more this year: Celebrating the 4th
Zach and I take our roles as parents very seriously. It's been interesting have two children at home because instead of us being able to give 100% to one child we are having to get 50% to each of them. I don't think either of us get a chance to sit down very often right now!!! I recently wrote a blog entry about dealing with some of Kye's tougher spots in this adjustment phase. I was SO nervous to post it because I thought Zach might get upset, but instead he said it's probably his favorite blog entry of all time: Choices.
I've mentioned my luck in the past...I'm one of those people who has lots of things go wrong but where everything always ends up working out in the end. It's resulted in some pretty great stories over the years. I remember when Danielle and I first became close friends she told me she had thought I was a constant liar at first because all my stories couldn't have been true ;) Several of Zach's favorite posts include some funny moments. This one is something both of us had completely forgotten about (that's what so great about blogging!): Leveling the Playing Field.
Here's another one that talks about my breasts. Literally. I'm thankful to be on the bigger boob side right now (and I think Zach likes it too!), such a wonderful advantage to nursing! If only the rest of my body could be as sexy as my boobs haha: From DDs to Barely Cs.
It's interesting to me that Zach picked a DISNEY post as one of his favorites. For a guy that claims not to be a Disney fan...I mean we go on TONS of trips and I gave him 1,000 entries to choose from...I think this choice is pretty telling don't you? While we had a BLAST on our family trip this past year, we both think the last time we did Mickey's Christmas Party was one of our top Disney trips: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Part 1 and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Part 2.
I think funny titles drew in Zach's attention too...although this post is pretty humorous. We go on a Labor Day vacation with the Parker's every year and this was probably the most memorable trip yet: Drifting to sea, ER visit, and busted face: the untold labor day stories
I LOVE weddings and getting to be part of weddings is even better. However, I think the coolest thing is to get to be part of the engagement. Zach agrees and we both felt SO honored to be part of Casey and Jordan's engagement last summer. Jordan did a GREAT job giving her a special day that she'll never forget: My Story of Jordan and Casey's Engagement
Since we live down south, most of the parents we know spank their children however it's a hot topic anywhere you live. I'll admit, when we were dating I was SO freaked out by the idea of us spanking our kids someday. After becoming a Christian, and studying God's Word, I changed my mind and now fully agree with spanking as a form of discipline. There is a right time and wrong time to spank as well as a right way and a wrong way to go about doing it. Zach was so proud of me for studying up on the topic and putting my findings out there for everyone to read: Why We Spank.
Yes, another blog entry that mentions breasts in the title. I think that's three total! This was one of those HILARIOUS memories that we have made together and I laugh just thinking back on that crazy trip. For sure one of the great stories to tell the grand-kids someday: Exposed Breasts, The Feds, and Unmarked Vans: Our Travel to Mexico
Of course, any top list of blog entries will include the births of our children ;) Zach said the ones he wrote are his favorites, duh. But I'll link up to mine too! You can't really have any other blog entry top these: Mommy's Story of Childbirth, Daddy's Point of View, Brittlynn's Birth Story {By Mommy}, and Brittlynn's Birth Story {By Daddy}.

A BIG thanks to Zach for picking his favorite posts from the last 3 1/2 years. I hope that this blog thing never fades away and that I'll be sitting here writing it when I'm sending my kids off to college! I really do enjoy it so much and am so blessed by all of the wonderful people I've met through this avenue. It's amazing to me! Thank you to each of you for your continued support!!!

Do you have any favorite posts that Zach didn't mention? I'd love to hear about them!

UTI

2012-01-24T16:01:00.000-05:00

I swear my poor child! Kye rarely gets sick and he's never had the common kid things like ear infections...yet he's had unexplainable rashes, random huge bug bites, and now a UTI. Yes, a urinary tract infection in a 2 year old boy.

Kye has been fully potty trained for quite some time now and since Brittlynn was born he's excelled even more with the potty (most kids regress, not Kye!). He now goes completely on his own. He'll pull down his pants, go on his little potty (and hold down his junk so he doesn't spray it everywhere), then pull up his pants, dump the little potty in the toilet, flush it, and put the potty back. Pretty dang impressive. It's made my life easier because when I'm nursing and he has to go potty he can just go and doesn't have to hold it until I'm done. All I have to do it make sure I leave the bathroom light on throughout the day for him!

While Kye hasn't had potty issues, he hasn't been without his own ways of acting out since he's had to welcome a new sibling into the world. The issues we've been having are with sleep. He started finding excuses not to go to bed and would cry out once he was in bed with different things he "needed" such as: fix my blanket, pick up my Smyrna (his bear), etc. We worked hard to get that stuff under control and would punish him for yelling and screaming (He will NOT get out of his bed thank the Lord! He just yells to us). Then it happened where he had to go potty but didn't want to yell out since we told him he couldn't and he had an accident. After that we told him the only time to yell is when you have to go potty.

So, naturally, Kye started to "have" to go potty allllll the time. He'd cry out "I need to go potty!" and one of us would rush in there to tell him he was allowed to get out of bed and go. We both felt like he was just saying he had to go potty as an excuse to get out of bed, however, each time he went he would actually go potty. There was always tee-tee in the potty and often times poop too! You can't really punish a kid for saying he has to go to the bathroom then literally going to the bathroom!

The past few days he's started to go potty more and more and more. Like we'd tuck him in to bed and he'd go 5 more times before actually going to sleep. Yesterday Mom brought him home from school and said he was acting sleepy yet he'd had a great nights sleep the night before. She felt his head and said he was hot. Then he refused to eat any lunch. I took his temperature before nap and is was 100 degrees. I immediately assumed, as I always do, that it was teething. The kid will be three in less than two months yet STILL doesn't have all his molars. He's been cranky lately and very whiney. That combined with low appetite and fever usually means he's getting some teeth. I gave him motrin and put him down for his nap.

When he woke up he had broken his fever and was acting fine. He did his roomtime then we watched a movie while I nursed Brittlynn. During the movie he went to the potty like six or more times. I realized then that something was up. It's one thing to want to go potty when you are supposed to be asleep or when you want attention, but why would he use that excuse when he was watching a movie and was watching it with me? It didn't make sense and right away I thought he might have a UTI.

I looked it up and found out that only 2% of boys ever get a UTI. It's not common at all for young boys and if left untreated it can cause major kidney issues. His symptoms were all listed as symptoms of a UTI. We asked him if it hurt to go potty and he said no but we decided to continue to watch him. Last night after we tucked him in for bed he went to the potty over five more times. Since Wednesday is a CRAZY busy day for us both, we decided to take him to the doctor this morning.

I, of course, assumed I'd be taking him but the more Zach and I talked the more it made sense for him to take him and I would stay home with Brittlynn. It was the first time I haven't been with Kye at the dr and I was so upset not to be there with him! I know the more children we have, the more of those type things I'll have to let go of so I have to deal with it but it still made me sad and I was worried sick the whole time they were gone. On top of just wishing I could be there with him, I was nervous for how Zach would handle the situation. Zach is an AWESOME daddy but he's also a man. And men tend to want their boys to be tough and rough and don't tend to cuddle them too much. I read that Kye might have to have a CATHETER put in and I started crying thinking of Kye being upset and Zach doing the typical guy thing and patting him on the shoulder or something and saying "be tough" to him. I called Zach and cried to him a little and expressed my concerns and asked him to be overly nice to Kye for me.

Thankfully I got a text soon saying they didn't have to do a catheter! It was so sweet of Zach to text me right away and let me know that! Kye went potty in a cup for them to test it. They were at Winnersville Walk-In and saw my favorite person (who has asked not to be named haha) and he said that it does look like a UTI but since they are so rare among boys that it could become serious very easily. It typically means there is another issue (what kind of issue? no clue!) and that is easily leads to something else. He also said Kye had an elevated heart rate, glossy eyes and his throat didn't look so great either. I'm not really sure if he thinks Kye is sick too or just sick or what? (Let's not forget, Daddy took him so I don't know all the info) He prescribed amoxicillin but said if he's not better in three days that we need to go back up there.I'm not overly concerned because while Kye has the symptoms of a UTI he doesn't have all of them and I'm pretty sure we caught it early. It doesn't hurt him to go potty, his tee-tee isn't cloudy looking, it doesn't have a strange smell (Zach checked for me!), and he hasn't complained of any pain in his stomach or back.

He's not going to school tomorrow and we're taking it easy around here today, but honestly he's acting fine. He was excited to get to go to the dr (he LOVES the fish tank there) and I let him have a movie day but he has barely sat still to watch one. When he's sick, the kid won't move from the tv so I really don't think he's sick, I think it's just the UTI. I'm not really sure what caused him to have this, and the dr didn't tell Zach what it could have been caused by. You'd think it'd be from being dirty or something? But he gets a bath every night, we wipe him very well after poops, he changes underwear daily, plus it's winter so he isn't even getting sweaty! The only thing I read that makes sense to have caused it is that toddlers will sometimes be in such a hurry to go play that they don't fully empty their bladders. Since we've been letting Kye go potty on his own maybe he's not making sure to get it all out? That older tee-tee can cause issues and can create the urinary tract infection.

He slept solid for his nap and woke up when he had an accident. But I figure getting the tee-tee out is a good thing right? Would the more he go help him to get better? I've never had a UTI myself so I know nothing about them! I'm loading him up on water to hopefully flush it all out! While I'm not too concerned that this will get worse, since it is such a rare thing could you please say a quick prayer for him? Hopefully within the three days time he'll be 100% back to normal and this will just be another strange thing to add to his list! If you have any tips at helping to get this thing gone and to prevent it from happening to him again (Is it like a yeast infection where if you get them you're more prone to get them again???) I'd appreciate it!

Week Four Summary

2012-01-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

Oops! I forgot in the Week Three Summary post to provide a link to look back at Kye's third week! Here it is and for sure look at it because there is a picture of me on there that looks SO much like Brittlynn! Brittlynn's fourth week of life was from December 27th through January 2nd. Here's a rundown of what was going on during that week :)

Sleep: Her awake times started to spread out a little and she started being SO alert. FINALLY!!! We thought at the time that her tired cue was being fussy (spoiler alert...we have since figured out that she was fussy b/c of GAS and not because she was tired...). We took the sleep wedge out of the crib because it wasn't really helping and it only caused her to slide down from it so a lot of times she'd be out of view of the video monitor. IF we allowed her to be, I think she'd be a tummy sleeper. She would cry pretty constantly during naps but when we pressed her against us she'd fall right to sleep. She also would use my breasts as a pacifier if I let her! Often times when we'd get her ready for sleep she would try to suck on us but wasn't hungry. She isn't a big fan of the paci though! We used it sometimes but she would suck so hard on it that it'd leave a mark around her mouth and she'd spit it out constantly. Plus since she sleeps with her head to the side it falls out instantly. Def not worth the hassle it causes. It's good that she WILL take it though and I plan to keep using it occasionally so she will take it if we need her to like at weddings and stuff!

Nursing: Still going well. My breasts seem to have adjusted to nursing so much better this time around and I never even use any nipple cream or anything! I have even had to get up and walk while nursing a couple of times and, while it's awkward, I can mange it! At this point I realized there is NO point in rushing her because she takes her precious time eating. Still averaging an hour each feeding and I stopped keeping track of the time. Prior to this week I kept a note book and wrote down how long she ate on each breast, etc. At this point I could tell when she was done with the first breast and the entire feeding! On 12/31 I went out with Kye for a couple of hours and gave Zach a bottle to feed her while we were gone. It was a nice break for us both and she ate 4 ounces with him.

Schedule: During this week I pulled out my Baby Whisperer book (I highly recommend buying it in addition to Babywise...they work very well together! The legit title is: The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg). Zach and I used bits and pieces of it with Kye (especially her shh-pat method for naps) and, after reading it over, I decided to change Britt's schedule to match up with Hogg's E.A.S.Y one. Here is what Brittlynn's schedule became at 4 weeks old (I started it on 12/29):

7:00: start of the day, eat
8:00-8:30: awake time then down for nap
10:00: eat
11:00-11:30: awake time then down for nap
1:00: eat
2:00-2:30: awake time then down for nap
4:00: eat
5:00-5:30: awake time then down for nap
6:00: eat (this is what Hogg calls a cluster feed, I would feed her close together in the evenings to help her load up on food and stay full for the night time. The evenings are also THE fussiest time of the day at this age so it makes sense to feed her and keep her happy!)
7:00-7:30: awake time then down for nap
8:00: do bedtime ritual (massage or bath) then eat. Put her straight to bed after this feeding
10:30: wake her up for her "dream feed" (this is one extra feeding before we go to bed to, again, help her stock up and hopefully sleep through the night).

After the 10:30 feeding we would go to bed and cross our fingers! The first full day on the schedule (12/30) I was home alone with her that night as Zach was out of town and Kye stayed at Mrs. Charlotte's. I put her straight to bed at 11:30 (after she finished eating at 10:30) and she slept until 5 am! That's 5 1/2 solid hours which was AWESOME for me to get!!!

Here are other things going on with Brittlynn during week four:

I really felt like I was starting to learn her more and understand her better
Kelly sent us a miracle blanket and it's awesome! (I'll be talking about it in a future weekly post)
Britt's skin completely stopped shedding
During a feeding she sounded super congested. I researched it and it's VERY common for winter babies to be congested because of the heat/dry air. The best thing for them is to run a cool mist humidifier and also to take them out in to the cold air outside. I started taking her out for a couple minutes and it did help! We now run the humidifier during all her naps and it makes a huge improvement. I also did some of that spray saline stuff but it didn't have a long term lasting effect and she hated it!
We followed the Baby Whisperer schedule and also advice on helping her sleep. We'd set the stage before each nap (which we did with Kye too...you swaddle them and then hold them upright until they get limp, but not asleep, then put them down) and we'd also do shhh-pat during the nap when she would cry. We ended up doing shh-pat ALL the TIME and quickly went back to the Babywise recommendations for how to handle naps (let her fuss in the beginning then go in and comfort her in the middle if needed)
Her precious cheeks started to have the nasty baby acne
I noticed that she has hair on her ears and back just like Kye did, although hers is blonde instead of black like his was
Her hair is getting lighter and you can really see a difference in the sunlight, but she hasn't lost any of it yet!
On 1/2 the rest of her cord officially fell off!
I was hoping she wouldn't be a puker like Kye had been as a baby...but she is! The spitting up started getting more frequent during this week. I'm constantly covered in puke. Sexxxy
Another thing we learned from the Baby Whisperer was about burping. It's the BEST trick! When burping, go upwards only on the left side of the baby's back. It works so well and for some reason the left side gets the air out? I don't care why, I'm just glad it helps!

Here are some pictures from this week:

She loves her playmat!

Kye loves playing with her (and yes, the turtle did end up falling on her face when Kye was sweetly dangling it above her head so she could see it...I think he's gonna help her be a tough one!)

Here's a video!

And another video of her enjoying her mat

Enjoying her bouncer

Part of the shh-pat method is when the baby cries you turn them on their side and say "shhhh" really loudly while patting firmly on their backs until they stop crying and fall asleep. The problem with Brittlynn is that the SECOND you roll her back over to her back she busts out crying. SO annoying. I know it's still sleep training because you aren't rocking her or anything, but it felt like a lot of work and we would have to basically do shh-pat until she was hardcore asleep enough to wear when we turned her to her back, she wouldn't wake up. I used the sleep wedge to prop her on her side. She'd often fall right to sleep when on her side without even doing the shh-pat stuff! I'm pretty confident as soon as she's able to roll over that she'll be a tummy sleeper like her mama (although we'll be putting her on her back to sleep every time we lay her down!). It was frustrating feeling like she'd never sleep for naps. Nights were still great, but it was KILLING me to be in there alllll day with her shhing and patting. It didn't last long because I literally can't be doing that all day, it's not fair to Kye. I ended up letting her cry some at the start of naps then when she'd wake up (like 20 min into the nap then every 10 min from then on...) I'd go in, pick her up, comfort her (often with shhing and patting but while holding her rather than her in the crib) then put her back down. It was quicker than sitting in there until she fell asleep and it was just as effective because either way she was never napping in increments longer than 10-20 min solid :(

This face reminds me of the ones Kye would make as a baby

You can see the little blister looking thing in the center of her upper lip

Her little nose is so pudged that I joke with her about being able to see her brains...I can seriously see snot she has like way up there!

Robyn got her these adorable onesies! Doesn't she look so pretty in them?

my new favorite picture!

I didn't write a blog entry for Kye's fourth week, I combined it with his one month summary so you can read that here.

Postpartum Update: It seemed like this week things started to get a little better for me. I stopped taking the ibprofin from the hospital as well as the stool softener. I took them both longer after this pregnancy because I figured, why not? I noticed my night sweats got less and I was able to sleep on my stomach. My bleeding slowed down and I was finally able to use a lighter pad. I tried on my bridesmaid dress for Casey's wedding...I had to buy it when I was MEGA pregnant and wasn't able to try it on then...and it fit except for the boob area was WAY too small so I exchanged it for the next size up. I kinda forgot how HUGE my boobs get while nursing. I really like the way the look though and especially how perky ;) I totally want implants someday! I did start to get some intense headaches this week though and I thought maybe it was from lack of iron? The hospital had prescribed me iron supplements but they forgot to give me the prescription when I was discharged so I never got them. I called Southern OB to see if I could get them now and they wanted me to come in for blood work and junk before giving them to me...no thanks. I can handle the headaches :)

Also this week I noticed my left breast was red and tender. Right away I knew that meant the early signs of mastitis. I went through so many breast feeding issues with Kye that I am pretty much an expert haha! I didn't have a fever (at least not yet) but I called Southern OB hoping to get meds to kick it's butt before it started. They told me they couldn't prescribe anything until I actually had mastitis so I spent a good 24 hours babying that breast, hoping to unclog the duct on my own. I had her nurse on that side longer then I pumped after each feeding. I also applied a heating pad, ran a hot shower over it while massaging it, and used cold booby tubes (they are AWESOME for breast issues...def good to have!) in between feedings and when sleeping so I could be comfortable. I'm super proud of myself because I unclogged the duct on my own and never did get mastitis!!! It is such a blessing that I went through the tough stuff my first time around as I know how to handle things this time :)

Brittlynn's Birth Story {By Daddy}

2012-01-23T16:17:00.001-05:00

I know you've been waiting on it...and here it finally is! I'm so thankful that I have the type of husband who is not only willing to write these blog entries, but wants to. Our children and beyond blessed and I love thinking about us all sitting around as adults retelling their birth stories together!

Daddy’s Story (From Gas to Glory)

I have said it before, and I will say it again, I am not asgood a writer as my wife so bear with me.

Have you ever eaten fast food or Mexican and had really badgas? The kind that hurts so badly but you are in the car with five of yourfriends (not that I have 5 friends) and you have to hold it in? Well, apparentlythat is similar to contraction pain. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’tthink that it’s even close, but Emily on the other hand must.

Starting around Thanksgiving, ever so often,Emily would call me in the bedroom and say, "I think I am in labor." I would askher how it felt and she would say that she wasn’t sure if it was gas or acontractions. Imagine how confusing this was. I just kept telling her, "if Ismell something I’ll let you know." Well on December 6^th I was on myway home for lunch when Em called me and told me she might be in labor. Surprise, surprise she was uncertain ifit was gas or labor pain. I did not get excited because I figured it was gasagain. Emily was on her way home as well, so when she got there we talked aboutit more. As time progressed it was apparent that she was in actual labor. The funnypart was how long she was unsure. I would look at her going through acontraction and I would think, “I have had gas but not like that."

Ok, I am sure you are over hearingabout gas so we will move on, gas free. When Emily told me it was for surelabor, first thing I did was call her mom. She was working at a prison a fewhours away and we needed to let her know asap so she could head home. I calledthe prison (no cell phones are allowed in) and asked for her. I was going to talkto her a little about it and let her know that Em was pretty sure she was in labor, but when she picked up the phone Isaid “ We think Emily may be in labor but…." And that's all I got out before she said ok while I was mid-sentence and hung up. Iassumed she was on her way. Deuce ( Icall Em’s mom Deuce, it stands for second mom) has a history of interesting travelto events of Emily's and mine, she got pulled over on the way to our wedding, and maxed out herHonda's speedometer on the way to Kye’s birth. Thankfully this trip was uneventful and she made it in plenty of time withno incidents.

This birthing process was awesome inmost ways. Emily did way better at home. Relaxed great, was more prepared, and was just overall more calm. The dynamicwas so much different with Kye there. We had to focus on her labor but at thesame time focus on Kye’s needs. We talked to Jordan and made sure he was readyto go. We put Kye down for a nap and then we kinda waited. The part that wasmost similar to the first time, was trying to decide when to leave for thehospital. I am not sure how much it is talked about in the blog world but it isan interesting thing to me. I compare it to one of The Price Is Right games.The music plays and the arrow moves higher and higher until you say stop. Youare trying to get as close to the price of the car without going over. You want to labor at home as long as possible butyou definitely don’t want to go over. Itis a strange, anxious feeling to me. Iknow Emily gets tired of me saying, “You think we should leave?" I keep askingover and over again. I am a smart guy, well a really smart guy, but I am notabout to deliver a baby. (And yes, I was kidding about the smart part.)

Well we finally left. Thank the Lord above. Yes,literally thank the Lord above. I know Em wants to stay home as long aspossible but the moment she says, “ok its time," a large weight is lifted of myshoulders. I feel even more relief when we get into the room at the hospital.Notice I did not say when we get to the hospital. When you first get there you pre-register for theentire thing and it's so pointless. It is comparable to when you call a 1800number and the robot voice asks to you key in you phone number so theycan have your information ready when a representative is available. Yea, thenthey answer the phone and say “telephone number please." EHHHHH, that drives meinsane. I always ask, "so why did I spend 5 min keying in all my info???" Same concept at the hospital.

This go around we got put straight into a labor and delivery room which was great. With Kye we had to stay in a smallroom while they asked us a ton of questions and it took awhile. I also had tolisten to Emily talk to me about the two nurses like they were not standingright there. She was so funny. She kept saying, “they think I am stupid don’tthey?” over and over. But this time we went right to the room and then we waited.

There were only three bad elements tothis delivery. I will get these out of the way so I can continue with thepositive. First, The IV situation. I am not sure why it is so difficult to giveEm an IV. She has small veins I guessbut, wow, it is not easy. Although Emily hates this more than anything else, she didpretty good. I never have understood the fear of needles. I understand the fearof pain but just not specific items that cause the pain. Emily does so well with the contraction painbut the needles bother her. Once we got the IV out of the way, things becamea little easier.

First thing, cover up the mirror!

The second tough thing was the baby beingturned. Sometimes people haveexperiences that can affect them on a different levels than others. Emily wasturned the wrong way at birth and they had to turn her over with forceps. Longstory her head was cut and affect some nerves and she can’t smell. When theytold Emily that the baby was turned she lost it. Even when they said the baby wasjust turned on her side, not all the way, Em didn’t even hear that. All she heardwas, "the baby is turned." The fears about her own birthhad spilled over into her child's birth. I felt so bad that this was happening but there was nothing I could do.Now, when I say she "lost it," I mean by Emily's definition of "lost it." She wasn’t yelling and screamingand going crazy, but she was a little frantic. I tried to comfort her as muchas possible but she wasn’t having it. The amazing thing was that during allthat she turned over and followed Teresa’s instructions like a pro. She turnedBrittlynn over in like 15 min. I was so proud of her for being able to do it,even when her mind was focusing on her nightmare.

The third, and last tough thing, was Teresa's timing. Iam not a quick to anger kind of guy. I have a slow fuse in most cases, althoughEmily will probably tell her that my fuse is shortest with her. The exception to the rule is messing with myfamily. Last birth one of the nurses was super mean to Em and I got upset. This time,though not intentional, the midwife really upset me. Let me say that I do notknow the circumstances, and I have no idea what happened. When it took Teresaso long to get to the hospital I was very mad. I hate seeing my wife in pain. I know that it is part of the process,but it still bothers me. I always wish I could take the pain on myself. The fact that Emily was ready to startpushing for over an hour and Teresa had not shown up yet, let say I wasbeyond perturbed.

The most difficult part wasnot showing my emotion to Emily. Thelast thing she needed was to see me worried. They said she would be there in 10 min and over an hour and a half latershe showed up. I mouthed to (nurse)several times “where is she?” I just kept telling Em she was almost there. Several times I stepped out into the nurses’station and asked where she was. Theywould say she is on the way. I told them, "that is what you said an hour ago, sosomeone please get her here now." I triedto be nice but I was a little past trying to be nice for everyone when my wife wasready to push. Finally, Teresa got there. I was very tempted to saysomething, but didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot. I do want to say thatshe was very good at her job. She was great with Em and was a godsend during the birth. I onlywish she could have arrived a little earlier. Then again, you don’t always getyour way.

Now that we are past the negative,let’s get started with all the amazingly great things that happened. First ofall, I did not have to hold the stupid I fan. Ok, just kidding (well kinda). I truly feel that this experience wentgreat. Emily was unbelievable. People do not realize the strength, physicallyand mentally, that God has put in them. When this process began with the second child, Emily voiced to me thatshe was nervous about labor this time around. She said that people just expected herto do well this time where with Kye's delivery no one believed she'd be able to do it naturally. Honestly, Ithought she would do great and never for a second doubted her. I knew she would do even better this time with therelaxation and the laboring at home. The surprising thing to me was thepushing. Em was a different person this labor when it came to pushing, I could really tell. Like Isaid earlier I am not a doctor but man, the difference was amazing. By the third or fourth push Icould see the head.

This brings us to the actual birth. Ifelt way more comfortable with Autumn there taking pictures than I did thefirst time. I tried to just let her do her thing and not pay too muchattention. I still did not want to seewhat was going on "down there" so I stayed by Em’s head. I gave her ice chipswhenever she needed them. The great thing was that this time was I felt more like acoach than an onlooker. Emily did agreat job listening to me and, having gone through it before, I knew some keyphrases to say (and what not to say) to keep her motivated and on the right track. Everything just seemed smoother. There were a few bumps in the road but the first time around the whole thing seemed like a bump in the road.

Onething I did differently this time was I did end up looking at the "situation"a lot more. I still did not havea direct line of vision so that was good. The reason I ended up looking was to be ableto relay info to Emily. I know how she ticks and the encouragement she needs. Iwould tell her that when a push was great and when I could see the head. I also told her thatTeresa needed to cut her a little because she really did need it. I basically couldlet her know that all the pushing was working, that she was doing everything right and it was progressing like she wanted it to. I am sure it is difficult to lay there, putting in so much effort, to not be able to see the results. Itprobably seems like pushing against wall. Ithink that me relaying that to Emily really made a difference in the pushing process and helped speed it along.

Now for the main event. I thought that Brittlynn was a girl the entiretime, and just like with Kye, I was right. The great thing about not knowing the sex is the excitement! I was so excited to see. I thought thatbecause it was baby number two that it would be great, but not on the same level that the first baby was.Boy was I wrong. I coached Emily a lot more and when I could see the head comingout I just went into this weird coaching mode. I wanted to see and hold mychild. When Brittlynn came out I was amazed. Not that I was right about the sex,duh. I was amazed by how beautiful shewas. I was not expecting it. Her skin was so pretty. She had gorgeous hair. I immediately began to cry.Yes, cry. Regardless of my large stature and am a bit of a softy. When it comesto my family my heart just wells up with pride. I am so lucky to have awonderful wife, awesome son, and at that moment I was staring at another partof my family and of me. I know that I will have disappointments with mychildren one day. I know at some point I will let them down as well. Anytime Iget frustrated with one of them I hope I can remember these moments in life. How proud Iwas, how I got to hold them, and stare into their eyes. It is AMAZING.

They put her on Emily's stomach to let the cord stop pulsing then I cut it. I was just ready to get it over with so I could hold her, but I was more calm with it and it seemed tougher than Kye's did (probably because the blood was all gone from it?) and I kinda had to saw through it. The nurses cleaned her off, and I was hovering over them like a vulture. When she was done cleaning I snatched her up andcherished that time I had. I remember how special it was with Kye. I wanted tohave it again with Brittlynn. With Brittlynn I found myself thinking about allthe moments we would share in the future. I thought about Kye and how I hope hewill protect her in moments that I can’t. How she will grow up and marry someundeserving man. How clean my shotgunwith be when she is in highschool. If Ihad to right a list of top ten moments of my life, holding Brittlynn and Kye forthose first thirty min of their lives is right up there at the top.

Cutting the cord

First time seeing Daddy

Finally, Emily got to nurseBrittlynn. When she was done we brought in Kye. Another moment I will neverforget. The raw love and wonderment in his eyes was amazing to witness. He wasso sweet. I love when he calls her his baby. After the introduction, I went to get the family to come in. This was also alot smoother than the first time around. The flow was better and I will cherish the moments of witnessing theirjoy. There are very few moments in lifethat are all around great for everyone. It is nice to be apart of something sopure. No one is fake or trying to find a tactical way to say something. Everyone justreacts naturally to the wonderful moment. The tears of joy, the laughter, myfather who raised me so tough (which I am thankful for) just melting as he held his new granddaughter. Thesemoments are what makes life so incredible.

Ok who is ready for a footballreference (you knew it was coming!)? When I think analogy it isusually football related. The two experiences ofchildbirth were just like the two national championships I played in. The firstone, both child and championship, went by so quickly. I was very nervous and didnot know what to expect. Because of the uncertainty of what was going tohappen, just winning the game or in this case getting the child out, was my mainfocus. Everything went so fast that Ididn’t appreciate all the things that make it so special. I was so much morerelaxed the second time around. Iappreciated the little moments of both that championship game and of Brittlynn's birth. I appreciate the small moments that Emily and I shared together. The reason I was able to relax more and just soak it in this time was because of my amazing wife. I have so much confidence in her and her ability that I could relaxand know that she was going to do great. My only moment of worry was the baby turning, and of course she knockedthat out of the park. I am so glad thatI never have to experience a screaming wife, who says nasty things during thedelivery. Or one who is so doped up on drugs that she isn't herself or doesn't know what's going on. I get to experience a wife who handles it all like a bad case of GAS.And that is glorious!

I would like to say thank you to all those who have helped inthis process. Those that came to visitin the hospital, it means so much and when you come up there it really shows us how much you love us and care about our children. Those whosent food, you know I am always hungry and all the food was terrific. It soundskinda silly but getting food makes things so much easier. To our families,thank you so much. Jordan watching Kye, Casey and Courtney just helping in anyway we asked. Mom who is always helpful goes above and beyond. Deuce, thank youfor helping as well. I would thank my dad but he never reads this so he won’t ever know I thanked him here. Also thank you to all of Em's friends who continue to shower her with their love, help, cards, and support. We are so grateful to you all and so blessed to have two amazing children!

You can go back and read Zach's version of Kye's birth here, and my story of Brittlynn's birth here.

Goals for 2012

2012-01-21T10:22:00.004-05:00

I love having goals! Every New Years since I was young I've made a list of goals to try to achieve for that new year. It's a great way to really look at myself and areas in which I need to improve. It seems like every year the list just gets longer, and this year is no different. Here are the things I'm hoping to achieve in 2012 (of course they are in totally random order)!

READ the BIBLE both on my own and as a family
Spend smart
Continue having a giving spirit, but don't let people take advantage of it either
Lose all baby weight and look as good as possible for Casey's wedding
Raise Brittlynn, to the best of my abilities, like she is a "first born" baby
Use our timeshare trips!
Even after losing baby weight, continue with Weight Watchers lifestyle
Focus on quality time with Zach, even if it's just watching tv together at home
Don't spend so much time "plugged in" especially with my phone - it's there for my convenience not the callers (or "texters")
Start walking again and try to do it a couple times a week
Go on a family trip where the kids get to fly in a plane
Put Brittlynn's schedule second only to worshiping the Lord!
Help Kye to know all of his colors and with letter and number recognition
Have company over more often, host events
Have patience with Kye and focus on spending quality time with him
Manage LLC effectively and keep all bills and such organized
Remember that it's okay to say no
Support Zach with work and be his biggest cheerleader
Have Kye learn stroke swimming by the end of the year
Blog regularly, do my best to stay current
Do a better job with brushing Kye's teeth twice a day and washing his hands after going potty
Choose to be happy each and every day
Be a living example of Christ and His love for us
Take the kids outside to play on a regular basis
Be optimistic, don't complain
Spend less time focusing on the people in my life that "should" care about me yet don't and more time focusing on those that don't have to care yet do
Discipline with love, never anger
Pray multiple times a day and truly have a conversation with God
Don't lay out in the sun so often and when I do wear sunscreen EVERY time
Breastfeed Brittlynn until her first birthday
Swim more often
Get my skin in the condition I really want it to be in - get melasma handled
Encourage other mothers and be a source of help for them on their parenting journey
Try my best to stay current on facebook photo uploads
Go visit Dad more often and make more of an effort to stay in touch with him
Take the kids to see snow for the first time
Have special time with each child individually
Continue to pay down debts
Put Zach's happiness before my own
Make some dang blog books!!!
Keep my car clean
Get back going with Stella and Dot
Focus on living a full life and making wonderful memories
Be a good friend, especially to those that are such good friends to me!
By the end of the year have the outside of the house complete: stain fence, stone around back, stain porch, plants in back, oak tree in front, front porch done, pool furniture, playground, bench storage, and back porch furniture
Cherish the wonderful moments of motherhood and don't beat myself up when things don't go my way
Reach out to people who aren't baptized believers, especially those closest to me
Do a better job of making sure Kye has vegetables for at least lunch and dinner
Be company ready at all times...with a clean home and presentable appearance
Back up all pictures and important computer files
Keep growing and learning in all areas of life - as a wife, mother, and daughter to God
Try to take the kids somewhere at least once a month so they can be well traveled

I'd love to hear some of your goals for this new year...any big ones??? Any of the same ones I have? I'm SO excited about 2012 and all that we have planned. It's going to be another wonderful year for the Parker family :)

Week Three Summary

2012-01-20T13:31:00.001-05:00

Brittlynn's third week of life was from December 20th - December 26th. Here is what Brittlynn was up to during her third week!

Nursing: She was rather fussy on the breast at times during this week. She would have this piercing scream sometimes that would totally break my heart and freak me out at the same time. It seriously sounded like a velociraptor! It typically meant one of three things...either she wanted more food, she was pooping or she had gas. Even after having her tongue clipped she still ate for at least 45 minutes each feeding. She was also very sleepy while eating and I found the pretty much the only things that would wake her up would be to rub her feet mega hard or get her semi-naked and tickle her side. Basically I'd mess with her until she became annoyed/angry then she'd eat more!

Sleep: Still an amazing night sleeper. Only would wake once in the middle of the night to eat. She fell into her own natural eating schedule of every 3 hours right at 10 days old which is when Babywise says it will happen! During her third week we were able to finally start a schedule! (More on that in a second!). Even with the schedule and with me hardcore watching her for sleep cues at naps...she was still waking every hour into her nap. Then she'd sleep on and off (like in 10 min increments) for the rest of the nap. I thought newborns were supposed to do nothing all day except sleep and eat? Well not this child!

Schedule: I started her on a schedule when she was one day shy of two weeks old so the beginning of her third week of life was the adjustment phase. When setting up a schedule it's critical to chose a time to start the day and this becomes the time your day will start for a long time. We picked 7:00 for her since it's also Kye's time and that makes the most sense. Yes, Kye wakes up EVERY morning at 7! At her age it was still important to have 7-8 feedings a day. We would wake her to eat at the appropriate times if needed and hold her off to eat if she was already awake. It is fine to go 15 min early or 15 min late on each feeding when needed so if she was not sleeping I'd feed her earlier, if she was really in deep sleep I'd feed her later. Here is what her schedule looked like:

7:00: Wake up for the day, 1st feeding. We change her diaper after each feeding and have some awake time with her during the day.
8:00-10:00: Nap (put down for nap at first sign of sleepiness)
10:00: 2nd feeding
11:00-1:00: Nap
1:00: 3rd feeding
2:00-4:00: Nap
4:00: 4th feeding
5:00-6:30: Nap
6:30: 5th feeding (Here I went 2 1/2 hours instead of three because this is a babies toughest time of the day and the most fussy)
7:30-9:00: Nap
9:00: Massage/Bath bedtime routine (I reversed the bedtime routine to be before she ate her last "meal" so she could go straight to bed after and I would nurse her to sleep basically at that feeding. All other feedings I made sure to keep her awake and have awake time after the feeding! For the night feedings we change her diaper before she eats so she could go straight to sleep after eating)
9:30: 6th feeding then straight to bed
Whenever she woke up (typically around 3:30 or 4): 7th feeding, then straight to bed

I was pretty happy with just having a schedule. It was a VERY easy transition because she naturally fell into close to a 3 hour schedule by 10 days old (if you're a nursing mother use the first couple of weeks to focus on FULL FEEDINGS and your baby will do the same thing). I realized quickly that I HAVE to have a schedule. I don't function well without one!!!

With Kye I would have never reversed the bedtime routine. It was ALWAYS eat-awake-sleep. Never awake-eat-sleep! But my wonderful babywise buddies (Kelly and Laura) convinced me to give it a try and we liked it right away. She always fell asleep during that feeding and it made putting her to bed easier, although she was typically fussy during the bedtime ritual. Better a little fussy then straight to sleep than to accidentally overstimulate her with the bedtime stuff and then make it hard for her to fall asleep (which was what was happening prior to us reversing the order)

Typically she wouldn't even make it to these nap start times. Ume. It was frustrating because neither Zach or I felt like we knew her and it made me feel sad b/c I wsually she'd eat and soon after start to fuss so I'd put her down. She'd literally have MINUTES of awake time! It made me a little sad b/c I worked hard for this baby and didn't even get to really enjoy her! I had to keep reminding myself that it'll all pay off soon!!!

Here are other things I learned about Brittlynn during this week:

She moved up to size one diapers (she went through those newborn sized ones so much faster than her brother!
She started responding to voices and would turn to find you when you were speaking
Love to stare at the lights
Skin started shedding less
Her nails got harder where I couldn't trim them by biting them during her feedings anymore, so I pulled out the nail trimmers!
To me, she's starting to look less like Kye
That beautiful baby acne started showing up
Her top lip looks like it has a little blister at the center, Robyn said LL had it too so I assume it's normal
She LOVES tummy time and I think she'll end up sleeping on her belly once she can roll herself over
Still VERY gassy and we found that we like Mylicon drops better than the Gripe Water
We put the sleep wedge in her pack and play (it goes under the sheet and fits across the width of the crib/pack and play so it is not a SIDS risk) hoping the incline would help her gas issues.

Some pictures from this week!

I let Kye watch a movie in our room while I nursed and he wanted Britt to sit with him after she was done!

She was much more interested in Mommy than the movie

I LOVE this girl!

Enjoying bath time with our new routine

FINALLY got some girly swaddles!

I gave her her first bottle on 12/22 prior to leaving to meet Santa. She did really well with it but I only gave her the amount I pumped and it was only 1 1/2 oz! I realize now that was not enough since at the same feeding time on 12/24 she drank 4 oz. Live and learn :)

She celebrated her first Christmas! I love this picture of our sweet Christmas baby!

Postpartum Update: At night I was getting about six hours of broken sleep. That's it. I was pretty much a walking zombie as we all know that broken sleep isn't very good quality sleep. Especially since she took so long to nurse, I would be awake for a LONG time between those sleep moments. My eyes looked horrible with HUGE dark bags under them. I was always starving and pigged out waaaay too much (I'm sure I GAINED weight that week with all the holiday food). My skin was super super itchy. Especially fresh out of the shower (I think b/c it's winter so it's dry and then a hot shower bothers it?). I noticed that some of my hair started falling out and I'd find a lot of it on her while nursing. I was also still bleeding heavily and would still have to change my padding every time I used the bathroom. On the positive side of things my skin started to clear up..it looked ROUGH this pregnancy for some reason! And when I went to Steel's to let the kids meet Santa I had my push present ring sized. Zach bought it at a 6 1/2. They put a sizer in it for me while I was pregnant at a size 6 and that was only a week before she was born! After her birth my ring size went down to a 5!!! Guess I was more bloated than I realized!!!

Even though I felt pretty cruddy I did my best to keep pushing through, especially because I wanted to have wonderful memories of the holidays. I did a good job and don't think you can tell in any of the pictures or videos how out of it I really was right? ;)

2011 In Pictures

2012-01-19T21:55:00.000-05:00

I love yearly traditions, even blogging ones :) You all know I have a HARD time editing down my pictures and I typically post way more than anyone probably really wants to see so this is a fun yearly challenge for myself. Pick one picture from each month of the year! Here's 12 pictures that allow a look back to 2011:

January: Getting settled in our new home

February: Family photo for our featured article in the paper

March: Kye's second birthday

April: Announcing to the world that Kye was going to be a big brother!

May: Bermuda

June: Beach trip with the Megow Family!

July: Celebrating the 4th in St Augustine

August: Kye's first day of school

September: Our first family Disney vacation

October: Halloween

November: Cherishing time with Kye as my only child

December: Welcomed Brittlynn into the world and became a family of four!

I have done this same thing for a couple of years now...here is the post from 2010 and the one from 2009! It's a fun way to look back on the past year. I remember being SHOCKED at how much Kye had changed during 2010. He still changed a lot in 2011 but not as much now that he's getting older. It'll be fun to see what changes will take place in 2012!

Year End Review ~ 2011

2012-01-19T13:23:00.000-05:00

It's time again for my year end review! I LOVE doing this every year at New Year's. At the start of each year I make a list of goals then at the end of that year I go back over them to see how I did before making the goals for the new year. Here's how I did in 2011:

Take time out of my day to visit with God and His Word: Well. I bought a great daily devo book with short little devos in it. And I did good reading it. For like two weeks. It is SO hard to start a routine of digging into the Lord's word. I know this is a common struggle for many people and it needs be a TOP priority in my life. Not only is it vital for my walk, but it's critical for my children to be raised in a home where a Bible is found sitting out, opened, and well read!
Be the wife I need to be for Zach, our marriage, and our Father: All relationships have ups and downs but overall I'm super proud of myself for how well I did during my pregnancy! When I was pregnant with Kye I let those hormones roar and took a lot of things out on Zach, this time around we got along great and I think he'd agree with that! I'm far from perfect as a wife but I continue to strive daily to do better.
Transition Kye back to his scheduled lifestyle and keep it that way consistently: Did great on this one! As soon as we moved in the house we got him back into the grove of things and we stay on his schedule very hardcore still. We also got him back to independent playtime and by the end of the year he was doing an hour of room time with no issues. He often asks to continue to play! And he cleans up all on his own!
Stay current with my blogging and blog daily whenever possible - also catch up and stay current on Facebook picture uploads: I am almost caught up on the facebook pictures, it took a lot of effort on my part to do that and I did REALLY great with blogging. I pretty much did blog daily, even though I often stayed behind of the current...it's just something I'll probably always continue to struggle with. We travel so often it's hard to stay on top of it!
Swim laps regularly and enjoy the new pool: I did enjoy the pool...but more from a mother's perspective. It was SO FUN to swim with Kye all summer! I did not swim as much as I should have though but think I'll do better this summer since we'll be stuck at home so much with Brittlynn's schedule.
Have a minimum of 1-2 Stella and Dot Trunk Shows a month: Phhh. Didn't come CLOSE to happening. I really love Stella and Dot and enjoy hosting trunk shows so much but it's tough to get it going around here!
Have Kye sleeping in a big boy bed by the end of the year: It's crazy for me to believe that he wasn't in a big boy bed at the start of last year. He adores his bed and it was a very, very easy and smooth transition for us.
At least complete 2 blog books, but hopefully more: Didn't happen :( This is a MUST DO for 2012 because if I died tomorrow it'd be one of my biggest regrets!
Take very good care of my skin and wear sunscreen each and every time I go into the pool or lay out: I also did great on this. I wasn't perfect but I pretty much wore sunscreen every time I went out in the sun and I didn't lay out nearly as much as normal. I'm weaning myself off of it slowly ;) I'm THE palest I've ever been (well since high school anyway)!
Have a more "Dave Ramsey" lifestyle. Save more. Spend less. Get stuff paid off. : Out of everything we accomplished in 2011 this is one thing I'm the most proud of. We had a LOT of medical debt from Zach's back surgery and we paid it ALL OFF after only 10 months. That's amazing and I really do credit Dave Ramsey for that!
Become better friends with people in our church and fellow Christians: I have gotten to know several women from our church better this year and look forward to continuing to develop those friendships. Christian friends are so important to have as we can help build each other up and keep each other focused on God!
Get rid of the paci around Kye's 2nd birthday: Again...Kye had the paci in 2011??? It seems like it's been AGES! That was another pretty smooth transition for us!
Spend more quality time together with Zach - regular date nights once a week or at least twice a month! I'm not sure how many date nights we had or how often we had them but I think we did pretty good on this. Of course it's hard to remember since it feels like we NEVER go anywhere now that Brittlynn has been born, but we had some decent together time last year. One thing to improve on is simply spending quality time at HOME together. So often he'll do his thing and I'll do mine at night and I think it's nice to even just take 30 min to watch a show together or something each night!
Have Kye swimming on his own by the end of summer: Thanks to Tiny Bubbles this goal was achieved beyond my expectations...we have a little fish!!!
Go on walks with Kye 4-5 times a week: Phhh yeah right...we'll try better for 2012...
Have family Bible study time: It saddens me that this also didn't happen. Zach was raised in an awesome Christian home but they did NOT do a family bible time and it's something we both feel is important. It's, again, a tough thing to start doing when you're not already in the routine of it though. Kye and I did read completely through his children's bible and have started it over again. I try to read him 1-2 bible stories each morning over breakfast. While it's not nearly enough, it's a start!
Have Kye fully night and nap potty trained by the end of the year: Wow. I think with the parenting side of these goals I pretty much rocked them! We totally had this down with no issues too!
Slow down at yellow lights instead of speeding up: Haha. I know this seems random but it is something I needed to work on as I ran SO many red lights in the past. I've gotten much, much better about this though!
Start to save for retirement or invest in more Aflac stock: This didn't happen. We focused on paying down debts and once that's done then we'll have a lot of money to put towards retirement. We actually had to dip into the stock savings to pay for the storage shed.
Do better at responding quickly to emails, facebook messages, and blog comments: Didn't do well on this either. I appreciate ALL the comments I get from you all and need to do better at responding, it's just bombarding sometimes and I tend to focus on writing blog entries and getting them posted in my free time rather than spend it replying to stuff.
Create a cleaning schedule for the new house and STICK to it:Didn't happen. Mondays are laundry day though and I do great with sticking to that! I'd say our house is pretty clean at all times (not super clean lately but I have a valid excuse). It could always improve and, again, something to strive for.
Use up all of our timeshare trips that will be expiring: We didn't use hardly any of them but I was pregnant and that's something I didn't realize would be happening when I wrote this list :) We'll def start using them up this year though!!!!
Have regular dr. and dentist visits: I did good on this one too!
Send cards, cook meals, volunteer - have a more servant heart: I also think I excelled in this area. I need to send cards more often but I stepped up whenever someone needed me this year. It isn't always convenient to help a friend but it's always the right thing to do and is so rewarding to me to know I helped someone else during a time of need.
Do fun, creative, interesting things with Kye: I need to do more crafts with him, but I'm just not a naturally crafty person. We did go and do a TON though and had a BLAST before bombarding his life with a sibling :)
Visit my friends and family in the Atlanta area more often: I went up 2 or 3 times I think? Not too bad! I hope to plan some more visits that way, it'll be tough with nursing all of 2012 but it's well worth it. It always makes me feel rejuvenated and more like ME when I reconnect with my wonderful friends up there.
Be under my goal weight before becoming pregnant: Nope. I was exactly my pre-pregnancy weight with Kye as I was with Brittlynn. Oh well. I think my body just likes that number ;)
Pray more and have my prayers be more specific: I can't say I did better at this in 2011 but already in 2012 my prayer life has gotten stronger (something Hallie Green taught me!)
Do better at trusting Zach to handle his work stuff and just be supportive: You'd have to ask him how I did on this...I think it was an improvement from years past? He also ROCKED OUT this past year so there wasn't too much for me to be worrying about, which made it easier. He's also in a management position now though and it DID cause a lot of extra work stress on him (and on me too..)
Make the best choice for Kye that we can regarding pre-school: Hands down we did this for SURE. I LOVE Carpenter's Kids and am so thankful we made the choice we did. He adores school and is really excelling there!
Save throughout the year so we can fully enjoy our big vacation trips: We did amazing at this as well! Even though the big Mediterranean trip fell through, we have a GREAT savings going for Italy in May!
If pregnant then follow Bradley Method exercise routine daily, don't gain more weight than necessary, and ENJOY pregnancy more than I did with Kye: two out of three isn't bad! Isn't it funny that I wasn't pregnant at the beginning of 2011 but that by the end of 2011 I had a baby?!?! I didn't do Bradley Method daily like I should have but I did GREAT on my weight gain and I do think I enjoyed this pregnancy more :)
Get a full body check-up to check for any cancer type moles and such: Did it, thankful to be cancer free!
Pay at least one extra house payment: How about like 3 extra??? We pay a TON of extra money each month towards the principal on our home. We're hoping to pay it off in under 20 years so we can buy a beach house!
Have our new house feel and look like HOME by the end of the year: It is home for sure and it's almost completely finished. I know MANY of you have been DYING to see it and we've been living here for over a year now and I still haven't blogged about it. But I will...someday soon hopefully. I guess I need to just realize it'll never be completely done ya know?
Be the smiling, happy, nice wife my husband wants to come home to: Again, you'd have to ask Zach but I think he came home to an overall happier and nicer wife this past year than any other year before?
Use our Wild Adventures Passes: We def got enough use out of them to justify buying them. I am glad Mrs. Charlotte didn't get them for us this year though as with Brittlynn's schedule I just doubt we'll ever get to go.
Floss: Well...the goal didn't say how often...
Get dressed and ready even when just hanging out at the house all day: Zero percent happened!!! I'm off to a WAY better start in 2012 though. At the end of 2011 I bought a ton of cute pjs that match and have been wearing them. Zach said he hasn't once come home and looked at me and thought "ew" which I guess is an improvement? haha
Choose a new car based of needs, not wants, and find one that will be a financial good choice: Proud of us for this too!!!!!! I worked my BUTT off on the car situations and I think we made wonderful, financially smart, choice!
Take Kye on several trips : Did this! And will continue to do it every year!!!!
Comment more on my friends blogs :): You all would be the ones to judge that...I think I did okay...I appreciate all of your comments so much that I try to do it back to others!
Learn how to teach others the Gospel and help lead them to becoming Christians: I feel MUCH more comfortable talking about God but I still have the hardest time talking about Him to those that are closest to me. Isn't that odd??? I feel uncomfortable about it and am SO scared that I'll say the wrong thing and will push them further away rather than bring them closer to God ya know?
Have more creative fun times with friends instead of just eating or watching shows together: Hello Vegas!!! You can't get any more fun and creative than that right Katie? Plus our Twilight night is pretty dang awesome!
Don't buy more lotion, perfume, chap stick, or other stuff until I use up ALL of the products I have : I literally didn't buy a SINGLE thing of lotion until the end of the year. Isn't that SICK that I had THAT much lotion?!?! I stuck to this and it was good to use up stuff. I am a saver and it's good in some areas but bad in others. Who needs 20 million things of lotion? What the heck was I saving it for???
Cherish each day I have with my sweet boy as he'll be grown up all too quickly: Funny that I ended on that goal when I didn't even realize just how much I'd really truly cherish those times with JUST Kye. Now that he has a sibling my time is never just his and I'm so, so thankful for all of the fun moments we shared during my pregnancy this past year. I did cherish each second and I'm thankful for that!!!

Overall, I think I achieved more goals this past year than any other. Maybe I just set more realistic goals for myself??? There are for sure some areas that I need to improve (spiritually especially!) and I have several goals that will be repeated for 2012 but we are all on a walk and journey and need to be improving in all areas of life! I'm thankful for all the blessings 2011 brought to my life and am eager to get started on my goals for 2012!!!

Christmas Card Roll Call!

2012-01-18T12:08:00.001-05:00

This is my 1,000th blog entry!!! I didn't realize I was creeping up on 1,000 posts so I wasn't prepared...I will be posting my top 10 favorite blog entries soon though :)

Last year I started what I thought would be a fun yearly blog tradition. I LOVE getting Christmas cards and I thought it'd be neat to post all the ones we get on here to share :) Enjoy seeing the cards from this year and have fun comparing them to last year's cards!

Something I did this year was I went through all our photo Christmas cards that we have gotten through the years. I bought some metal rings from Hobby Lobby and punched holes in them all and put them on the rings in chronological order. Now we have a fun Christmas card book to look through every year. Kye really enjoyed looking through it! Many of the cards we got this year were from people we may not know (or at least Zach may not know) in real life. It cracked him up that people from the blog world would want to send us a card and would want one of ours in return. I love it though don't you???

Anyways...here's our card collection from 2011:

1. My sweet nieces!

2. Newlyweds Taylor and Jordy (you can read about their wedding here)

3. My cousins

4. Claire and Dan (and you can also see their wedding here!)

5. Missy (who sent a letter along with hers which I love!)

6. Sweet friends from church

7. Good friends of Zach's from childhood (I've never actually met in "real life" though)

8. The Harners (Kye wore the SAME pjs this year!)

9. Zach's cousins

10. New friends!!! Amanda has a blog too, and I'll be adding it to my sidebar soon I promise!

11. Zach's cousin and my new buddy Lindsey! Can't wait to get our baby girls together!

12. Newlyweds Cassandra and David (who is my sister-in-laws brother)

13. Ashley with cutie Preston who celebrated his first Christmas!

14. My cousins Ben and Liz

15. This cracks me up! The Colsons, wonderful friends of ours from church

16. The Megows always have a great card...pressure is on for next years guys!

17. Not sure who these people are...I think maybe they work on our cars?

18. These are, hands down, the BEST pics of Courtney and family!!! LOVE them!

19. New friends and also newlyweds (here's there wedding post!)

20. My kids. Okay, not really but that's how I'll always think of them! Theirs is my favorite card to get each year to see how much they have grown and changed. Madeline is a KNOCK OUT (which I always knew she would be) and Candler just keeps getting cuter. And yes, my Candler (Kye's first name) is named after this Candler!

21. Liz, this was Kye's favorite card of the year...he kept pointing at Damian in the Buzz outfit and saying "that's me!"

22. This is the reason Stacy couldn't deliver Brittlynn - she had a newborn baby herself. Guess it's a valid excuse right? ;)

23. Kye also loved this card. He kept it at his seat at our table and would just stare at it...I wonder why? It's his favorite girl Kailyn!

both sides of the card were too cute not to show off

24. No longer newlyweds (I'm so used to think ya'll are that I almost posted your wedding link too haha), Danielle and Jonathan!

25. More of our wonderful church family

26. Zach's childhood bff Michael and my new babywise bff Laura :)

27. More newlyweds! Melissa and Ryan

28. One of Mom's former favorite students and a fellow mommy Julie with her family

29. One last look at our card from this year!

Isn't it fun to look at them all? Do you have any favorites??? Thanks to everyone who sent us a card! We enjoyed each and every one of them and hope you enjoyed ours too..and those of you who didn't mail any this year (slackers!) I hope to see something in my mailbox this Dec!!!

Christmas at Mom's {Part 2}

2012-01-17T15:17:00.000-05:00

Zach said it best this year...we are SO lucky that we get to have two Christmases every year because we get to have lots of kids and craziness at Mrs. Charlotte's which is really fun then we get to have a relaxing Christmas where our kids get all the attention at Mom's which is also fun! Both mornings are so different and we really enjoy that!

I liked that Kye got to open each gift and take his time and that we all got to watch everything as it happened. We opened presents from 7 until noon. Yes, FIVE hours! We do take lots of breaks though ;) We actually ended up having to wait and open stockings the next night because we had to get home for Kye's nap! Here's some of the moments from our morning:

When Kye got to take one of his Christmas gifts to school for show and tell he picked this one so it must be a favorite!!!

Helping Brittlynn open her present from him

After Brittlynn ate we had her open some of her gifts (here's a video)

I love this picture!!!

I bought the hat at a Kelly's Kids party (I'm not really into those type of clothes so this was about the only think I liked haha) and I'm glad she at least wore it once!

Mom bought Kye his monkey for his first Easter and Britt has a lamb for her first Christmas!

Kye showing her how to work her new computer

Gramma getting some present time in too!

listening to Gramma read her a story

I LOVE that Mom got her some books because most of Kye's have inscriptions to him in them and I want her to have some of her very own books too

Twins ;)

If I'd taken off the elf hat these would have been so cute

Yes, I broke down and bought Kye a THOMAS. But NO, we are not doing Thomas stuff. For the longest time anytime I asked him what he wanted from Santa he'd say "Thomas" so I felt bad and figured having one Thomas train wouldn't be a big deal. He won't be watching the shows or getting anymore of the stuff, just the one (and that ONE little train cost $12...and you wonder why I'm not a fan of Thomas stuff?!?!)

So happy!

Christmas ornament for our first Christmas in our new home

My own personal tradition is to just PIG OUT on Christmas cookies allllllllll of Christmas morning. Well with Kye being old enough to know what's going on I held back as long as I could but eventually broke down and had to have some. It wouldn't be Christmas without them! Duh, Kye wanted some too so we gave him his own plate of them. He never ate them all (I snuck bites of his when he wasn't looking) but it was pretty cute that we were both chowing down on Christmas cookies together ;)

Kye talking to the train conductor and showing him how to open presents

Britt's first Christmas ornament

Kye using his spy kit to spy on the Christmas tree

too funny

One of Kye's big gifts from Gramma was a trampoline! Here's a video of him opening it (I love how well he closes his eyes...)

Helping Gramma open her newest piece of Snowvillage (couldn't resist buying the Chick-Fil-A one!)

At almost every event I host I borrow my friend Ashley's cake stand...now I have my OWN!!!!!

the last present

Zach's last gift, a shop vac. I love how right when he sees it he goes into high-five mode

It was a MEGA fun morning! Sometimes when you're really tired you either get crabby or goofy (or at least Zach and I do) and this morning we were pretty goofy. We took these two videos and were CRACKING up at what Kye was doing. Like tears we were laughing so hard. Now that I rewatch them...um...not that funny. In this one Kye was doing some leg kick thing with the trampoline and in this one he randomly hit his head back on the couch and said "boom boom pow."

We, as always, had a wonderful Christmas and were so blessed to have both of our families here in town. While we were exhausted after it all...I said to Zach "can you imagine if we had driven to Melbourne?!?!" I really, really can't imagine doing all of this, plus traveling, with a newborn! So glad we didn't have to and that Mom lives 2 seconds away now :)

When we got home we had one last present for Kye to open. We waited until after nap then took him upstairs in his playroom where he found something HUGE wrapped up! Here's a video of him opening it!

Through Pinterest I found this site where people used Ikea stuff to make a lego play table. Zach bought all the pieces on one of his trips up there and put it all together! It's a duplo table for now since Kye is too young for real legos but the board pops out so he can just have it without legos for his cars and trains and so, one day, we can make it have a big kid lego top! I LOVE all the storage under it too and think that I'm pretty lucky to have such a thoughtful, handy man for a husband :)

Another VERY successful Christmas!!! We had a BLAST and truly cherished each moment with our wonderful children and families! Kye is already counting down until next year ;)

Christmas at Mom's {Part 1}

2012-01-16T15:50:00.001-05:00

After our mini Christmas stuff at our house we headed to Mom's for Christmas dinner. I like that we do something on legit Christmas day together and we enjoyed a super yummy meal (she actually made a recipe I've made before for pork and omg sooo yummy!). Mom bought this outfit for Brittlynn before she was born so I wanted to get a couple pictures of her in it!

Socks Dad and Audrey got for her

Kye wanted a picture with her too, like I'd ever turn that down :)

Mom has collected Department 56 Snowvillage forever. As a kid I LOVED helping her set it all up and enjoyed going shopping for her newest pieces. I'm beyond excited that Kye is old enough to appreciate the collection and now he has taken over the duties of helping to set it up. She has well over 20 houses and buildings...enough to where Zach suggested making a big display table for her to use every year. It's SO neat and something I adore. I'm glad she has started to put it out again, I've missed it and Kye really enjoyed it!

That morning I got up early to get ready and run to McDonald's for an ice coffee to help perk me up a bit (still exhausted from the days before...having a three week old will do that to you haha) while Zach got ready and got Britt ready. Once Kye woke up we went over to Mom's to all come out together to see if "Santa" came (Santa only comes on the 24th but he brings some of Kye's presents to Gramma's to open on the 26th). We love to do a surprise face pic when we come out...I love how Brittlynn participated, she looks shocked at all the presents!!!

Here is Kye opening his second round of gifts from Santa (here's the video of the action)

He got the choo choo and choo choo track he was hoping for (Sadly, Santa failed on this one...it didn't work...so Mommy and Daddy are getting a much better replacement as a birthday present)

Pro present opener

tool bench so he can work like Daddy!

You may remember from years past that we always do Tacky PJ's with my mom. The tradition started when Zach joined the family and we LOVE it. We draw names at Thanksgiving and exchange the pjs on the 24th (we all hold the tacky pj gift we bought then on the count of three we hand them at the same time to whoever's name we drew super fun!). We HAVE to wear whatever the person bought us the entire time we open presents (which is pretty much ALL day). This year Brandon and Chrissy weren't with us but we decided to do it anyway, it's too fun to skip out on! It may seem silly since Zach and I have to buy four sets of PJS but it's totally worth it! Zach bought for the name he drew as well as the name Brittlynn drew and I bought for my name and Kye's.

Brittlynn got Kye's name and "she" bought him this:

It's tacky b/c it's totally not something I'd ever buy the kid...the shirt says "This is What Cool Looks Like" The slippers aren't super tacky but Kye really liked them!

"Kye" drew Zach's name...

Western pjs with a rockin' pink cowboy hat ;)

Zach drew Britt's name...technically this isn't tacky. It was a gift from a sweet family member who had it thoughtfully made for her since she's a Christmas baby. Unfortunately it's a little too big for her...

It's a sack thing so if we cut the bottom of it maybe she can wear it in a couple years :)

Mom got my name - I LOVED my fun Elf outfit ;)

And I drew Mom's name...yes, it's a one piece pj outfit with bunny footies. Awesome ;)

There were SO many pictures from Christmas at Mom's that I'm dividing it up into two posts :) If you want to see our tacky pjs from years past...here is 2008's, here is 2009's, and here is 2010's!

Our Mini Christmas

2012-01-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Most of our Christmas traditions involve our extended family (Aren't Zach, Kye and Britt now my immediate family and everyone else is extended??? Never really sure how that worked?) but we have established a few of our very own traditions as well!

Every year we hit up the dollar store and buy each other 10 stocking presents each. Kye and Britt took turns going with each of us to pick out presents for everyone. This year we went right after Brittlynn got her tongue clipped...probably not the greatest timing as she wasn't very happy. Kye had a BLAST though and it's always a good thing to teach him how to give instead of just receiving all the time.

That same day (the 23rd) we also made our Santa cookies. My mom does the BIG cookie decorating each year but I still want that tradition at my own home with my children too. I thought each year we would just decorate Santa shaped cookies to leave out for Santa on the 24th. Someday I'd like to do home made cookies (I probably won't ever do home made frosting like Mom does though, I'll leave that for her to make her cookies extra yummy!) but this year I bought sugar cookie dough ahead of time and just used that.

That's a microwave plate cover he's using for a hat btw

I think Santa has enough sprinkles!

Daddy even got to help!

Yes, you can see directly down my shirt...this is what happens when you give your husband the camera!

Since we have Christmas morning twice (once at Zach's parents and once at my Mom's) we have a TON of presents to sort and load up! I made sure each gift had a bow and divided them up while Zach loaded!

On Christmas day, we wake up at The Parker's and do Christmas there then we head home. We got home in time for Brittlynn's feeding and after she ate we opened the gifts my dad had brought with him during his visit and we opened the stocking stuffers we had bought for each other.

Kye helped Britt open, of course!

LOVE the little reindeer socks Dad and Audrey got her

Kye was stoked about his Woody pjs

Dad and Audrey made this mirror for me using a bunch of my old toys...the fact that they still had these toys impressed me!

Dad also gave me two of my grandmother's bracelets and they got me a pretty pink bracelet too

Kye was more excited about the gifts he bought for our pets than he was his own stocking presents

"talking" on his calculator

Sadie loved Zeke's toy best

Spiderman pen Kye got for him...I'm sure he'll be using that to sell some Aflac!

When we left Mrs. Charlotte's that morning I asked Kye was his favorite gift was. He said "Veggie Tales movie." SO random because I bought that movie at a used kids sale for $1 haha. After we got done with stockings and such at our house I asked him again and he said "Levi's toys" Once Christmas was COMPLETELY over I asked him again what his VERY favorite thing he got for Christmas was and he answered, right away, "Brittlynn." Too sweet!

That afternoon I napped while the kids slept to try to get my energy back up for Christmas round two! We typically spend the night at Mom's house Christmas night but this year we let Kye spend the night there while Zach, Britt and I came home. It was just TOO much on us to try to spend the night away from home two nights in a row with a newborn...plus we live less than two minutes away so it didn't make a big difference! Before heading to Mom's for our Christmas dinner, we played outside a little bit with Kye's Lightning McQueen (here's a video!)

A big thanks to Dad and Audrey for their thoughtful gifts, we enjoyed having something left under our tree for us to open at our house :) It was nice!!! I'm also thankful to Zach for putting up with ALLLL our traditions. Between the ones with his family, my family, and our little family we are about as traditioned up as you can get huh?

Christmas Morning at the Parkers

2012-01-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

I know I re-explain this every year but I figure someone new may be reading and may think to themselves: "why in the heck are they all spending the night at Zach's parents house?!?" The Parkers are hardcore about this tradition. Up until Mr. Rusty had his first grandchild everyone spent the night at Little Mama's and Big Daddy's on Christmas Eve then opened presents that morning all together. Now that there is another generation we all spend the night at Mr. Rusty's house. Once Kye's generation has our first grandchild then we'll split up and Zach and I will (assuming our kids spouses are as on board as we've all been...) have our children and their children spend the night at our house. Kinda confusing huh?

The night before Christmas wasn't easy this year. Brittlynn and I slept in Zach's old room (now Trey's room), Kye slept in Casey's room, and Zach slept on the recliner in the living room because Brittlynn slept too loudly for him. I was up feeding her a good bit during the night and I myself couldn't sleep. Hearing her little noises made me wake up afraid that she was dying. Hallie passing away that day mega affected me and I cried every time I held her that night while nursing her just thinking about Katie and what she went through that morning.

After Brittlynn's 4 am feeding I heard people in the kitchen. Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Charlotte had slept out in their RV (there's THAT many people staying there that they were simply out of house space!) and had come in to get coffee started so I just went ahead and stayed up with them. We ended up getting all the "big" kids up at 6:15ish to get this thing started!!!

SO excited to see what Santa brought him!

Another Parker tradition is to get a picture of all the grand kids waiting in the hallway before going out to see what Santa brought them. Brittlynn was sleeping so she didn't get to take part in the annual photo!

Trying to get a good one of three toddlers is no easy task!

Here's the video when the kids opened their Santa presents!

Santa brought Kye: a track for cars

A pirate ship

And a Lightning McQueen!

He was thrilled

Brittlynn got up at about quarter till 7 to eat so we held her off for a little bit so she could enjoy some of the Christmas fun. She was so excited that she didn't even fuss or act hungry at all! Mom came over early that morning to spend Christmas with us all and she did the honors of showing Brittlynn what Santa brought for her :) (Kye helped opening, of course) Here's a video of Britt's Santa gifts

Happy first Christmas sweet girl!

Little Mama also came over to enjoy the fun!

He quickly mastered the art of opening

Here's a video of some the the random Christmas fun!

I enjoyed watching everyone while feeding Brittlynn her breakfast!

We let the kids tear through all their presents as they were being passed out and the adults waited to open until after all the gifts were handed to everyone

I'm thankful to the kids consignment sales...Kye got several used toys this year which helped out with the budget!

He was ALL about "sharing" Colt's cars though

After Brittlynn ate we used her, brief, awake time to open some of her presents. With the free store credit we got when I posted a video on Steel's website we bought Brittlynn her first jewelry!!! I'm pumped about having her wear it. I was ALL about jewelry when I was little and I think it's precious to see a little girl wearing sweet little bracelets and rings (NO she will NOT have her ears pierced until she's older!).

First Steel's Box

Putting on her new bracelet!

Here's a video of Brittlynn "opening" some of her gifts

Mermaid from Mrs. Charlotte to match her nursery
(it's a Bla Bla Doll)

First baby doll

Since Britt missed out on the cousin picture pre-Santa presents, we wanted to try to get one of all the kids together before her nap. It was a HUGE failure...but the attempts are pretty hilarious :)

the best we could get

Once all the gifts were passed out, things got much more calm and relaxed

G-Mama got all the kids real cameras, great gift idea!!!

Zach and I each had a special gift for Kye this year. Zach made him a lego table (which we didn't give him until after all the Christmas fun...so you'll see it soon) and I made him a shutterfly book from our Disney vacation! Our first trip to Disney was SO special and I wanted to do something to help him remember it since I know he's too young to always remember the fun we had, I hope the book will help. I was so excited about it that I kinda saved it to be his last present ;)

His reaction was better than I expected, he LOVED looking at each page!!!

studying the pictures

BIG kisses ;)

Afterwards Zach had me open my present from Kye...
(He got me a Target gift card so we can go get our favorite cookies together!)

Then he showed me this video as a bonus present (and yes, Zach STILL won't realize that I can't flip the videos when he makes them sideways like that!!!)

Zach and I have been to Disney practically once a year. He doesn't like to admit this, but he LOVES it. I think he loves it because I love it so much and it's one of the things that brings me pure joy. He made this HUGE stink about how we wouldn't be going back to Disney until baby #2 is 2 1/2 years old like Kye was when we took him. I was soooo mad about it b/c I want to take Kye every year so he'll always love it the way I do. I don't want to do some BIG trip like we did for his first one (I only want to do a BIG trip once every few years, especially for each kid's first Disney trip) but I just want to take him to Magic Kingdom for a day once a year. I don't think that's a lot to ask and it annoyed me that Zach didn't want to go yet wouldn't allow me to just take Kye on my own b/c he didn't want to miss out on what should be a family trip. He kept pushing and pushing that we wouldn't get to go again for a long time (like literally Kye talks about Disney at least once a day and Zach would mention how it'd be a looooong time until we went back like once a day too...buzz kill!) and it got to the point that I was seriously mad about it. Deep down I knew that Zach wouldn't really hold to it, but it annoyed me all the same. I DO think it was super cute to make a little video like he did and surprise me that we get to go again in 2012 ;)

Super excited can you tell?

While the kids enjoyed their toys the adults opened our gifts

I opened for Brittlynn too since she was sleeping :)

LOVE this towel!!!

Her mobile for her room

Trey got Mrs Charlotte this necklace, so sweet of him

Mom MADE this burp rag for Britt, too pretty to use! Def only using it for church!

We got this little wallet/clutch for Mrs. Charlotte

His gift from Kye ;)

This CRACKS me up! All the kids were allll over Mom when she was trying to put together this pirate toy for Kye...

The last present - a double bagger for Zach's lawn mower
What's a double bagger???
Mom's answer: "I thought it was a really ugly woman" hahahahaha

We opened stockings and Kye got LOTS of gummies in his. Poor kid...we kinda forgot about breakfast and it was almost 10. Oops. So yes, I let him eat like FIVE packs of gummies. Sleep deprivation makes me super cool.

Playing with Payton's vanity, you can tell he knows he's probably not supposed to be doing it

Our first Christmas as a family of four!

It was a VERY successful morning! We didn't have to rush like crazy and it was much more calm than usual. All the kids had a BLAST too which made it even more special and fun! Next year we'll be sure to get some type of breakfast going and a good picture of all the kids when they wait to see what Santa brought them ;)

Tongue Tied

2012-01-13T13:43:00.000-05:00

{Sorry! This should have been posted yesterday instead of the Christmas Eve post!}

When Brittlynn was born we started off with a wonderful nursing relationship! She nursed for over 40 minutes in the delivery room alone! Over the next few days we got into a rhythm where she nursed about every 2-3 hours (starting from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next) and would take an hour or more to nurse each time. Um, that's a long time to nurse.

All of my friends (and all of you!) were well aware how important it was to me to establish a good breastfeeding situation from the start since I encountered so many bumps along my nursing journey with Kye (I still exclusively breastfed for 10 months - it was just a beast for the first several until we got everything going smoothly!). When I posted Brittlynn's birth pictures I got a message from my sweet friend, Kelly, and she told me she thought Brittlynn might be tongue tied. I'm very thankful to her for pointing that out...honestly I wouldn't have ever noticed it if she hadn't told me!!!!

Being tongue tied (technical name is Ankyloglossia) means that the membrane connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth is unusually short and thick. It's that little thing that looks like it connects your tongue to your lower mouth...you can see how short and thick hers is here:

Once Kelly told me, I looked into it and read that it can cause issues with nursing because the baby is having to work extra hard to get any milk since they can't push their tongue out far enough. It can be fixed by a simple procedure where they cut the membrane so the tongue can move better. I asked about it to every baby nurse, her pediatrician when he came to see us, and the lactation consultant. They all said since she was doing fine nursing that it was fine and not to worry about it. The day we left the hospital I asked her discharge nurse and she finally looked at the child for me! She said she was tongue tied but that her tongue could reach her gum line and her lips (barely her lips) so it wasn't severe and since we had a good nursing relationship going, not to worry about it.

Once we got home I realized that spending over an HOUR per feeding just wasn't feasible. Not that I would ever stop nursing because of the time she took to nurse, but I would like it to take less time especially since Kye needed my attention to. I had also learned being tongue tied can cause speech issues down the road, who wants that? When we took Brittlynn to her two day hospital visit I asked about it and the nurse said that I'd have to call her pediatrician to get a recommendation from him in order for the procedure to take place. She said I'd probably have a hard time getting them to do it since she was thriving and doing so well!

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted it cut. It's my child, I should be allowed to have it happen if I think it's what is best for her. Sure, they can do the procedure at any age...but why wait to see if she will have speech issues because of it??? Why not go ahead and do it when she's young, when she won't remember and when it might help her to nurse faster and more efficiently????

I called Dr. Griner's office and told them my daughter was tongue tied and I wanted to see about getting it fixed. They told me to come in sooner than her scheduled two week well visit (so it's why we went when she was only 8 days old!). They said we could discuss it then, and assuming she was healthy enough, they could count it as the well visit too. I was all prepared to defend my case to Dr. Griner, but I should have had more faith in him that that. When Mom and I took Britt to the check up it was the first thing on my agenda to discuss and, without even having to go into an explanation, Dr. Griner said he'd refer me to where we needed to go!!! I was hoping they could just do it there, but we'd actually have to see an ear nose and throat specialist about it. I was SO happy that it was so quick and easy to decide what to do and was eager for her appointment on Dec 23rd.

Exactly one year after Zach had his back surgery we were dealing with another kind of surgery! That morning we went up to the ENT dr (the same one that saw me about my sense of smell, or lack of it.). We were the first people there and the girl who checked us in said that she had her tongue clipped as an adult and that it was very painful so she thought it was great that we were going ahead and doing it while she was so young. I think God used that girl to make me feel better about our decision :) It worked!

When the dr came in he said "let me look at her." She was crying and he glanced at her mouth then grabbed some scissor looking things!!! I grabbed Kye and raced out of the room...I did not want either of us to witness that junk! Poor Zach was stuck dealing with it, glad I'm not a man in times like those ;)

before leaving that morning Kye was singing to Brittlynn to calm her down (here's a video)

waiting for the procedure

Zach said he just kinda cut/sliced her little area under her tongue and that it was over mega fast. Kye and I could hear her screaming. We tried to give her the paci and she didn't even want it. They had told us that the pain was minimal (I LOVE how people tell you that things don't hurt a baby...how in the world do they know!?!?) and that she'd be able to nurse right after with no issues. When we got home she was still very, very fussy and seemed to be in pain to us. She nursed a little faster but needed a lot of love and affection that day. Zach actually held her for one of her naps because she was hurting :( Poor thing!!! I felt somewhat guilty but then, at the same time, Kye had to go through circumcision and there's no way what she went through was more painful than that!!!

Even on that first day it looked so much better. I could see that she could stick her tongue out further and I had zero regrets about having it done. It's been about three weeks since she had it done and I can't really say that it made a HUGE difference. She still tends to take 45-60 minutes to nurse. But that's an improvement from 60-90 minutes so I'll take it! Plus, I KNOW that when nursing issues come up that it's not because of her tongue ya know? It's nice to have that off the list of reasons something could be wrong. I also know that we won't have to worry about having it done later in life or have to deal with any other issues it could have caused. It turns out that a TON of the Parker family has been tongue tied!!! I guess it's a genetic thing maybe???

Here is what her tongue looks like now:

Thank you again to Kelly for letting me know that Brittlynn was tongue tied and thank you to Zach for supporting me in wanting to have it handled :)

Christmas Eve

2012-01-12T19:27:00.001-05:00

I was pretty nervous about the holidays this year. We go and do a TON during Christmas and I didn't know how it would all go with a baby who wasn't even three weeks old yet and a mommy who surely wasn't through all the "fun" postpartum healing and hormones. Zach and I agreed that the kids come first. We were going to do whatever it took to make sure Brittlynn was able to eat and sleep when needed (at this point she was falling into her own schedule beautifully, which I'll discuss more in the weekly summary) and that WE got the rest WE needed. We skipped the big Parker dinner on the 23rd because it simply didn't make sense to load her in the car and take her just to turn around and come back to feed her again. I suggested letting Kye spend the night at Mrs. Charlotte's like we usually do but having us three come back to the house. However, Zach is hardcore about that tradition (even though all we'd be missing was the sleep) so we packed up all our stuff to spend Brittlynn's first night away from home!

Kye and I have a tradition together of doing our countdown calendar and getting a picture on the last day before Christmas :) Excited for them to take turns putting one up each day this next Christmas!!!

While I was nervous about how all the activities would go, once Brittlynn fell into her schedule it worked out so perfectly with the things everyone already had planned. We got up on the 24th and I fed her while Zach gave Kye breakfast then we used that nap to all get ready and loaded up to go. As soon as she woke up we tossed her in the car and headed over to Mrs. Charlotte's (they live 25 min away so you gotta plan for that trip!). When we got there I nursed her while we all decorated our ginger bread houses. Usually it's pretty stiff competition but this year the kids were old enough to be involved so it turned more into helping them and attempting to prevent them from eating all the candy...we weren't very successful on that one!

Payton and Kye

Zach was still trying to be all hardcore about his house...c'mon Daddy let Kye help!

When she got done feeding Daddy got to hold her and Kye and Mommy got to decorate

Our family!

Everyone had planned to go to Little Mama's for lunch then come back to the house for a bit and go back to Little Mama's that afternoon to exchange gifts. That was too much for us, even though they live literally around the corner from each other. We opted out of the lunch so our kids could both get solid naps (before his nap Kye wanted to play outside...here's a video of his batting skills). It worked out great and after Brittlynn's 1:00 feeding I was able to go out and watch a little bit of the annual Parker football game.

OUT! What I love to see ;)

After both Kye and Brittlynn woke up we got ready to go to Little Mama's to do the gift exchange with the big family. I pumped and took her a bottle (her second time eating from one, that will also be mentioned in the weekly post!). We got over there and Mr. Rusty, of course, wanted to feed it to her. She downed 4 ounces in like 3 min flat!!!

Kids got to open their gifts

And Big Daddy got to hold Brittlynn for the first time

This is them "closing" their eyes for a surprise gift haha

Look at Kye's hand obviously not covering his eyes!

Aunt Karen got them a wagon! Fun!

This picture of Casey reminds me of her in high school for some reason

The older kids wanted to play outside so we took Brittlynn out to enjoy the pretty weather!

Zach and I had to go back to put her down for her nap (we were there for right around an hour and that was it...just enough time to do the gift exchanges) but Kye was having so much fun in the leaves with Colt that he stayed longer to play

Bath time!

We gave them an early bath and early dinner so there would be time to watch a Christmas movie together. I brought our cookies and letter to Santa from home. Kye's letter was precious...and yes, I asked him what he wanted to say to Santa and he told me what to write. Here's what it says:

Dear Santa: Ho! Ho! Ho! And ROAR from Kye! Kye as been a good boy. Please bring him Lightning McQueen, a choo choo and a choo choo track. Please bring Brittlynn and giraffe and bring Sadie a Lightning McQueen car. Mommy and Daddy would like an alligator this year! Enjoy your cookies! We love you!

On a pallet on the floor to watch the classic "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer"

Reading The Night Before Christmas
(and you can tell Brad was LOVING it hahahahaha)

so sweet with G-Mama

I crack up at this for two reasons:
1. It was like 7:00 and all the kids wanted to eat bananas
2. During the movie Mrs. Charlotte said randomly "oh no problems!" and we all couldn't stop laughing about it...it looks like she's saying it in this pic ;)

Banana heaven

Colt really wanted to hold Brittlynn before bed

Ready for Santa to come!!!

All the kids were in bed by like 7:30 (Colt takes awhile to go to sleep and even he was asleep by like 8:45) so us adults were able to enjoy some quality time before going to bed. I nursed Britt while we enjoyed hot cocoa and cookies and talked a lot. Mr. Rusty, Mrs. Charlotte and Courtney finally looked at Brittlynn's birth pictures (I'm telling you they are not a very tech savvy family haha) and Zach and I shared Hallie's Christmas story with everyone. She was such a perfect Christmas miracle and a wonderful reminder of what the season is all about! A wonderful way to end a fun (and a little bit crazy) day :)

Meeting Santa

2012-01-11T11:47:00.000-05:00

On Thursday December 22nd we decided to take the kids up to Steel's to meet Santa! It's a yearly tradition and I LOVE going to Steel's because it's so laid back and FREE. :) I didn't have anything for Brittlynn to wear and Crissy was sweet enough to let us borrow this precious dress. I'm sure Olive will be wearing it for her first Valentine's Day since she'll be a week old then and it's neat that Brittlynn got to wear it to meet Santa!

I snapped a few pictures in front of our tree before leaving

Kye has been very excited to meet Santa. For like the past 6 months I've been telling him that instead of telling Mommy all the things he wants he will have to wait to tell Santa. It's great because he will now say "I'm gonna tell Santa that I want that!" Takes away from the whole begging for junk all the time from me ;) Thank you Santa! I didn't tell him we were going to meet Santa until after he got up from his nap, but he was very excited. We discussed what he was going to tell Santa that he wanted for Christmas! Right when we got there he went through his little speech for Santa. You can see it here in this video! While he was happy about Santa, he was confused about where Santa's reindeer were. He's all about the reindeer :)

He asked Santa for a choo choo and cars. It's was cute because he came back later to Santa and said "I already have a choo choo I just want another one."

Santa's looking a little funky here, but Kye's too cute to delete it!

Santa LOVED Brittlynn

I love this for two reasons: 1. Britt is loving Santa's beard with her sweet hand, and 2. Kye is totally making an Emily face!

Family pics with Santa

Brittlynn's first time meeting Santa

Hallie Green had been born the Monday before we met Santa so we took advantage of being dressed and ready and having people available to take photos for us and did our family picture with our Hope for Hallie signs! About 200 people posted signs on the Facebook Group in honor of Hallie and it was an awesome thing to be part of...you can join the group (which is now Hope FROM Hallie!) here! Please continue to pray for The Green's and donate to the funds to help carry on Hallie's legacy.

Steel's did a gift card giveaway on their Facebook page where if you posted a video of your child singing Christmas carols you'd get a $50 store credit! Duh, I took advantage of that deal! And Kye was totally a little celeb up there...everyone kept talking to him about his version of Jingle Bells. After we met Santa I did a little shopping (I wanted to get Brittlynn her first jewelry!) while Daddy watched the babies :)

She slept in her Daddy's arms the whole time I shopped

When we got home we were ALL in the Christmas spirit. Zach had the idea to have more family time and watch a Christmas movie while I nursed Brittlynn at her next feeding time. I bought our family the whole collection of the classic Christmas movies so we watched "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" together. I don't even ever remember seeing that one as a kid so it was new to me too.

I think she found the movie rather boring ;)

Every year around the holidays we typically drink a TON of hot cocoa but we just hadn't this year. Zach thought it'd make the night even more fun by making some for us all. We've never allowed Kye to have anything to drink other than plain white milk, water, or juice (only a blend of v8 fushion and green machine though). I agreed to let him have one cup of cocoa with us as long as he understood it was a one time thing. He did GREAT with it. He enjoyed his cup then never has brought it up again :)

He was so excited about his "special Christmas drink"

The guys with their cocoa!

Technically we all really did drink some since Brittlynn nurses and drinks whatever I eat right?

Since I was actually semi-okay looking I wanted a couple pics of Britt and I!

Enjoying our family night under our beautiful tree

The fun thing about traditions is that you can go back through the yeaars and see yourselves doing the same things again and again! You can see Kye's first time meeting Santa here (poor kid with that HAIR!) and you can see his second time meeting him here :)

Do You Blog???

2012-01-10T15:24:00.000-05:00

My right sidebar is in desperate need of some updating! Now that I am nursing so often I'm also able to read more blogs and I realized that only a handful of the blogs I have listed on my page are regularly updated. I also realized that I have a lot of friends who have started blogging that I've never put on this list and new blog followers whose blog sites I don't know! Even of the ones on the list that are updated regularly, many of them have changed. You've changed to a new blog site or even just changed the name of the blog.

Here's your chance to help me out and give me some new reading material! Also I've noticed that a lot of my blog traffic comes from other blogs who have me listed on their sidebars. I'm all about helping other bloggers out and hope that by listing you on my sidebar you'll also gain more readers! It's encouraging to know people read what you write (it's why we all smile when we see a comment on a post right?!?) and, personally, it helps to keep me motivated to work as hard as I do on this little blog of mine!

If you have a blog, PLEASE leave a comment here with the name of your blog and the correct website address. I'll be updating my sidebar soon!!! When I update I'll also be deleting blogs that never seem to post new entries...if you see your blog leave my sidebar, please let me know when you start getting back into blogging so I can add you back (MELISSA!)!

I'm excited to have some new blogs to read and hopefully get to know some of you a little better!

Thanks!!!

Week Two Summary

2012-01-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

I promise these posts will start to get a better order to them eventually, blogger has been funky lately with picture uploads for me so I have to post them in the order that they were taken!

Here's what Brittlynn was up to during her second week of life:

Nursing: Babywise says if you focus on full feedings from birth that your baby will fall into a natural routine by about day 10. This happened sooner for us with Brittlynn, she was in a natural schedule of eating 2 1/2-3 hours during the day and going 4 hours at night. Regardless on the length of the feeding, she tended to eat four times on the breast. Two from one side, then two times from the other side. Usually feedings were lasting an hour or more. Since she took SO long to eat, her awake times were only 5-10 min long each. She is a very sleepy nurser...so frustrating! I try everything to keep her awake but typically the only thing that works is to change her diaper mid-feeding (which she usually needs it anyway!). Sometimes I'd just let her snooze for 5-10 min in between breasts and she'd wake up on her own wanting more.

Gas: Whew this child is gassy! I read on the babywise blog that Valerie gave her kids Mylicon drops after each feeding so we started doing that this week. Brittlynn also started being a "happy spitter" meaning she started puking quite often. Kye did this too. I think it's from my abundant milk supply???

Angel Care Monitor: I mentioned that I was too scared to sleep with Brittlynn in our hospital room, when we got the Angel Care Monitor at a baby shower from Mrs. Charlotte we didn't open it. I didn't know if I'd really need it and always kinda thought of it as a rip off for panicky mothers. Well...welcome to the panic mommy club ;) The minute we got home from the hospital I had Zach set it up. It's a mat that goes under the baby's mattress and it detects movement. If it doesn't detect movement for a certain number of seconds, it will beep. A few more seconds and an alarm will sound. I slept GREAT knowing that she had that monitor and knowing it would wake me if something was wrong with her. During her second week of life I was in the living room and heard it beep. I freaked. Then the alarm sounded before I even reached her room. Double freak. I instantly thought of Tripp then of Titus when I found him unconscious. I snatched her out of her bed and blew in her face. Thank GOD she was fine but I bawled my head off and was a basket case about it. Was something wrong with her? Or something wrong with the alarm? It wasn't a one time thing. It would beep decently often (4 times within the first 24 hours after the first time it went off). I was MUCH more calm about it though and would just go in and make sure she was breathing. She always was. I started researching it as I worried she might have sleep apnea. This article relieved my fears! Especially this part: "Keep in mind that it's normal for babies who are less than 6 months old to experience what doctors call periodic breathing. You may notice that your baby breathes faster for a period, then more slowly, then pauses for up to 15 seconds before resuming normal breathing. his isn't anything to worry about. In fact, your baby may breathe this way up to 5 percent of the time he's asleep" The Angel Care Monitor goes off prior to 15 seconds so it makes sense that Britt was just having this type of breathing and the monitor would go off. I'm thankful we have the monitor as I'm GLAD I know that she may stop breathing from time to time and I'm GLAD I can run in there and check on her. It's a peace of mind for sure. I found that it most often went off when she would initially fall into her deeper sleep so it definitely makes sense that maybe she held her breath during that transition.

Other Stuff About Britt This Week:

Her poop turned into the yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop which is a great sign that she's getting plenty to eat!
Her skin was still shedding and it started to shed on her feet and face
She sleeps with her head on either side, never straight up like Kye always did (hopeful this will mean she won't lose as much hair as he did either!)
She sleeps well in the car seat which is how we handled all the holiday events and such...it's kinda rude but we didn't let people hold her! We just kept her in the car seat, with the sleep sheep (she likes the rain sound best it seems like, Kye liked the ocean) and we'd rock it back and forth while she slept. If we got her out while at events then she'd just want to eat anyway so people still wouldn't get to hold her!
I bought the same amount of newborn sized diapers for her as we used for Kye and we RAN OUT of diapers by week two!!! She goes through them like crazy
Her umbilical stump thing was kinda bloody on her clothes and such and one day I noticed part of it was missing. What was strange is that I didn't see it in her clothes or diaper. I kinda forgot about it then went to change my clothes and the stump was IN MY BRA. Makes me wanna puke just thinking about it...so gross.
Since the dr didn't tell us her stats at her first appointment I looked them up online (thanks for the idea!) and she is in the 90-95th percentile for length, 75-90th percentile for weight, and only 10th percentile for head size!!!! She may look like me in a lot of ways, but she def has her daddy's small head!

Here's some pictures from this week:

Sleeping Swaddled Baby!

First Outing: On Tuesday Dec 13th Brittlynn had her first official outing! As I mentioned before, both of my kids were born ONE day prior to my hair appointment! I'm hardcore about having my hair done (I hate roots!) so it bugged me that both times my hair was in desperate need of some touching up. Renika, who is THE BEST, squeezed me in so I could get some fresh hair so Britt and I headed up there!

Sleeping in the car :)

At Jordan's Salon!

She did great the whole time. Never once woke up! It was GREAT to relax and have my hair done, yet it really wore me out. Sitting that long not on my ring thing from the house was painful and my back was killing me. I guess you don't realize how much you're hurting when you're at home dealing with a crying newborn but as soon as you get a chance to relax it ALL hits you!!! The little outing wore me OUT and I was exhausted afterward...but my hair looked good and that was the goal ;)

Swing: I didn't do Babywise with Kye until he was 3 weeks old, didn't get hardcore until he was 6 weeks old. So a lot of the stuff with Brittlynn is all new to me. Something I learned is the sleep hierarchy which means that the most important thing right now is that she SLEEPS. Then you try to get her to sleep without a prop, then in her bed without help. I was not doing anything but keeping her in the bed and it wasn't working. She was crying allll the time and not sleeping so I tried different methods to achieve sleep. The swing is something a lot of babywise moms love. Kye wasn't crazy about his (he did use it at this age though). We have three swings (1 was Kye's, 1 is a travel swing, and 1 is the Mamaroo). It seems like Britt only likes the travel swing and I started using it for times when she just would not sleep! (sidenote: it no longer works...it quit helping at about 3-4 weeks old)

Tripp, the Aflac state coordinator, sent us these pretty flowers!!!

We enjoyed them while Britt got her bath ;)

She's holding her daddy's finger!

Since Zach gave me my push present before Brittlynn was born he promised me a Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake after her birth. During this week he delivered!!! It was AMAZING and I ate the entire thing myself (not in one sitting...but it didn't take long, trust me!)

The night after her first dr visit we went ahead and put her in her own room to sleep. With Kye, we waited until he was 5 weeks old. With Brittlynn, we waited 8 days. I was nervous about it but Zach needs his sleep too and I need my husband in OUR room. It's not good for Kye to wake up in the mornings to find Daddy on the couch. Sure, it's not due to arguing but I don't want him to think that Mommy and Daddy don't share our bed, ya know? She did FINE in her room and I def didn't regret the decision!

First time in her bouncer!

Levi kisses

With breastfeeding, it is important to make sure (at this age) to get in 8 feedings a day. While I didn't have a schedule at this point, I did wake to feed her during the day if she had slept to that 3 hour point. I love how sweet she is when she first wakes up and took a couple videos of it. Here's the first one and here is the second one!

This swaddle was Kye's and it's WAY too big and drove me nuts, glad our new ones came!

SO sleepy!

Paci: Many of you know of my love hate paci relationship. I seriously went through spurts with Kye where I HATED the thing and swore I'd never do it again. Now, though, I kinda miss it. When I see pictures of Kye with it I think "oh my baby." It's a very, very "baby" thing to me and it brings back memories of Kye being that sweet little baby of mine. With Brittlynn we didn't buy a single paci before she was born. We wanted to see what she'd be like and decide from there. Since she was taking so long to nurse I thought maybe she just had a need to suck and would benefit from one so we bought some. Here's a video of my first time giving it to her. I introduced it on 12/16...and she did NOT take to it the way Kye did. We really didn't use it much after that...we would try to use it when she wasn't sleeping but she'd typically suck it MEGA hard then spit it out. It'd only work sometimes and often it would fall out pretty quickly and she'd be fine without it.

attempting both the paci and the swing

Kye and Britt - both fresh awake from naps :)

Milkies: I'm pretty sure it was my friend Danielle who introduced me to Milkies. OMG. Seriously THE best parenting invention ever. I waited until week two to pull it out and try it and it's AMAZING. You put the cup thing on your breast that you aren't having the baby nurse on. There is a little hole in it that covers your nipple then the thing catches all the milk you leak from that breast during the feeding. I NEVER realized how much "free" milk I was wasting in my breast pads!!! It holds up to two ounces and that's how much I'd get from one breast. That's a LOT of milk!!!! I dump it into a bottle then put it on the other breast when she switches sides (obviously I don't get nearly as much, sometimes just a few drops, since that breast has already been emptied). It takes practically ZERO effort and results in stored milk. I only do it during the daytime feedings, not the late night ones (so I do it 6 out of the 8 feedings) and I get around 6 ounces total a day. With Kye I would do a pump session each day. Once he got on a good schedule I started pumping an hour after his first feeding of the day. I'd use that milk to store up for when we traveled and such. With this product, I don't have to do a daily pump session! 6 ounces is a LOT. It's much more than she would need right now for one feeding so I'm storing up plenty for the future :) Then when I use that milk I will be replacing it with whatever I pump while away from her. With Kye I always pumped more than he ate so if that's the same this time around I should have extra milk left when I'm ready to wean her from the breast. The Milkie allows me to store that milk without the hassle of pumping!!!! SCORE!!!! If you're pregnant or nursing BUY THIS RIGHT NOW!!!! Seriously!!!!!

As of this week, she still has all that hair!!!

She does have very light eye brows and the roots of her hair are blonde so I'm interested to see when it'll start getting lighter!

She still gets the hiccups a TON...here's a video of her with them, but you can tell she's happy as can be!

First time doing skin to skin with Daddy (something he always loved to do with Kye...GREAT for bonding!)

When Kye is playing with Brittlynn, he enjoys covering her in stuffed animals

And whatever else he can find (here's a video! I LOVE the way he says her name don't you?)

Mom gave me this baby blanket of mine so I used one of her short awake times to get some pics of her on it :)

Gotta use that head band as often as possible right?

Love how the sun hits that baby hair fuzz :)

How she is most of the time haha

Kye: During this week we started to notice that Kye was struggling some with the adjustment. He got really upset one night at like 4 am and told Zach he wanted him to sleep with him. We've NEVER (not even ONCE) slept with Kye. Not for naps or night not in his bed or ours. Never. So this was an odd request. We evaluated things and realized that ALL my time was spent with Brittlynn or sleeping. I rarely saw Kye or had any interactions with him. And if I did those interactions also included his sister. Zach was very sweet to suggest that Kye and I go have a special date just the two of us while Britt slept for one of her naps. We ran up to McDonald's and got some ice cream together. I thought we could have a little picnic in the backyard to eat it but Kye just wanted to eat it at the table. Some date huh? But he was happy and I enjoyed the one on one time in the car and when we got home. It was nice to just soak him in!!!

I hooked him up with some sprinkles in his sundae and here he is mixing it up like Mommy does!

Postpartum Update: I weighed myself and only have 7 lb left to lose until I'm back to pre-baby weight!!!! And I was still hardcore pigging out!!! Not dieting one bit! I guess this time around breastfeeding is helping me out :) Yay! While I'm thankful for Brittlynn, I don't really like having a newborn so close to the holidays. It was stressful and hard to manage everything we had to do (and making it all fun and special for Kye) while dealing with a newborn and constant feedings. I was exhausted. I felt like I just couldn't keep up and I wasn't able to enjoy things as much as I would have liked!!!

I was able to sleep on my stomach some again right after she'd empty me (but then I got a clogged milk duct the next week and read you shouldn't sleep on your stomach while nursing so I quit). I had MEGA bad night sweats and would have to change clothes in the middle of the night sometimes b/c I was so gross. It was nasty to feel that dirty all the time but it was impossible to shower as often as I needed. Since she was still taking an hour or more per feeding, I was sitting...a LOT and the pressure from sitting made my privates hurt badly. I ended up pulling out the ring from when I had Kye to sit on all the time. Even when eating dinner I'd need the thing or else my private area would ache in pain. My bleeding was still heavy and I actually ran out of the heavy flow pads I'd bought! Zach had to run and get me more b/c I bled through the light ones!!! Having to wear pads ALL the time for such an extended time caused me to get little sores on the inside of my legs from the constant rubbing against the wings of the pads. I recommend not getting wings and I started to cut the ones out of mine before wearing them. I was still using the dermoplast spray and spraying warm water down there after each time going to the bathroom.

Once I get through alllllll the holiday posts I should be back on track so these will get posted on the actual weeks...right now she's actually 5 weeks old and I'm still back at week 2!!! At least I'm recording it all for her though, even if it is behind :)

Perspective

2012-01-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

On Saturday morning I drove up to Atlanta to attend Hallie Green's memorial service. It was the second time in less than three years that I've attended a memorial for a baby under three months old. That doesn't seem possible, doesn't seem like it could happen to one of my friends...let alone two of them. But it has, and so I was there.

There are no words to describe Chris and Katie Green. To say I'm in awe of them is not nearly saying enough. During the service one of the speakers told us to really think about how Hallie impacted our lives. I've been thinking about that a lot these past couple days. Hallie made me realize I need to grow up. That I am far, far from the Christian woman I want to be. That God wants me to be. That my husband and children need me to be.

When I first learned of Hallie's diagnosis I was about 15 weeks pregnant with Brittlynn. It terrified me. Katie and Chris have two perfect healthy girls...how could baby #3 have something so horribly wrong? Selfishly I prayed over and over and over "please not me, not my baby too." I lived in constant fear for the maturity of my pregnancy. It seems that every single friend I have had been touched by tragedy in some way with their babies. I already had a wonderfully healthy son, surely baby #2 would have to have something go wrong right??? It really tested my faith and I believe it was the devil himself trying to make me stray from God. On the day I broke down and blogged about it (you can read the entry here), guess who was one of the first people to contact me? Katie Green. She texted me saying I was in her prayers. Are you kidding me?!?! Here she is a few weeks into finding out that her unborn baby has a rare disorder and will not live, maybe not even live until birth, and she is reaching out to me?!?! That small gesture from her made me say WOW. Would I have done that? Heck no! If I were in her shoes I would be all about me. All about my pain and my hurt and my need for prayers...I surely wouldn't be "wasting" my prayer time praying about some girl with a perfectly healthy pregnancy who was just a little scared.

Hallie was born about two weeks after Brittlynn. When I, like all of you, read Katie and Chris's blog entries and facebook posts, I was surprised that they had so much of their family with them during Hallie's life. Again, I thought about myself. What would I do? If I knew my baby would not be on this earth very long I would be selfish with her. I wouldn't want everyone there. I'd want to keep her all to myself and not share her with anyone. Not "waste" one precious second that I could be holding her letting someone else have her. Soon after Hallie passed away, Katie wrote me an email. Asking me what kind of gift card we'd like her to send us for a meal. Um, again...are you kidding me?!?! I should be the one asking her that question. Not the other way around. How, in her pain and grief did she even think about me and want to do something to help us out?

I was very undecided about going to the service. Typically when my friends go through tough spots I do whatever I can to help, but in this situation I felt awkward. Uncomfortable to reach out to them. Surely, they wouldn't want me to be there. Surely, they wouldn't want help from me. All I would do is remind them of the healthy baby girl they didn't have. I would secretly hate me. I'd think "Why does she get the healthy baby and I don't? Why does she get to watch her child grow up and I don't? What makes her so special to not know this pain?" Even at the service I felt a little strange being there and wasn't sure if I should wait in the line to hug them. Wouldn't I be a painful reminder? I can't relate at all to what they are feeling or going through, what good can I bring to their situation?

Again, Katie and Chris surprised me. Again, they left me speechless. As I got closer to Katie in the line our eyes met and her face lit up. She hugged me and thanked me repeatedly for coming. Not an empty thank you, but an honest, I mean it, thank you. I have only met her in real life once. ONCE. And it meant that much to her that I was there? I hadn't even planned on "wasting" Chris's time saying hello but Katie told me to be sure to see him and when I did HE was genuinely happy to see me. He also genuinely thanked me. Really???

The service was beautiful. Seeing Farrah sing "happy birthday" to her little sister is an image I will never forget. Seeing Katie's eyes filled with nothing but love as she spoke about Hallie. Hearing Chris talk about fatherhood and how Hallie's life taught him what the love of God really is. Hearing the beautiful songs, especially the one written by Chris himself. Hallie was only here on this earth for less than 5 days. 5 days yet to see the love so many people have for her, for such a small baby, is breathtaking.

When I found out that Hallie had passed away I was, like many of you, celebrating the Christmas season. I was at my in-laws house watching the annual Parker football game when I got the text to check Katie's blog. I started sobbing immediately. This was a special Christmas for me, Kye's first one understanding the whole thing and Brittlynn's first Christmas ever. But Hallie made it even more special. The rest of that day my eyes filled with tears whenever I held Brittlynn. My frustrations at her lack of sleep were wiped away. I was grateful. So, so grateful. And that has stayed with me. As I wear my "Hope for Hallie" bracelet I am constantly reminded of the blessings I have. I kiss and love on my children more than I have ever. I pray more. I love more.

I am thankful to Hallie. To Chris. To Katie. Through this experience I have been changed. I have seen myself through new eyes. And I don't like all that I see. Pre-Hallie I walked around feeling pretty good about myself. I'm a baptized believer, I'm going to Heaven, I know God and love Him. I'm good to go right??? Hallie forced me to examine myself a little closer. A little deeper than the do-good, church-going exterior. If I had been in their shoes I realized I'd be selfish. Jealous. Negative. I'd be angry with God. Chris and Katie are none of those things. From day one of learning about Hallie, they have leaned on the Lord. They have grown in their faith. They have been thankful for Hallie and for this experience. They have seen good in a situation that 99% of us would only see bad. They have seen the light in darkness. They have helped all of us to do the same.

Who would have ever thought that a newborn baby would make such an impact? Hallie has forever altered me. She has helped me to become a better person. She has helped me see myself as God sees me. As a flawed sinner who needs His grace and love. Who has a lot of growing up and maturing to do. Who is thankful that I have a chance to change. A few short months ago I lived in fear that something awful was just around the corner. While I don't know if I could handle a "bad thing" half as gracefully as the Greens, I know that when my time comes (As it will come for us all at some point! We WILL have times of valleys, not always mountain tops!) I have amazing examples to look up to. I am blessed with friends who have shown strength in times of sorrow and gratefulness in times of pain.

I encourage all of you to take a long look at yourselves. To see who you are deep down inside and to examine some areas you may need to work on and grow from. Thank you to Hallie for giving me a new perspective on life and thank you to the Green's for sharing her with us all.

Christmas Cookie Decorating

2012-01-09T07:54:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating cookies with my mom. I've done it as long as I can remember and have enjoyed scarfing down on the beautiful creations through New Years ;) Mom knows how much I love the cookie dough and she made me an entire batch of just dough to enjoy (which I downed in like two days...I know...kinda gross!).

This year my brother and his wife decided not to celebrate Christmas with us when we do it on the 26th and instead the came up over the weekend of Dec 16th to visit Mom and celebrate with her. Mom thought it'd be a good time for us to all decorate cookies together. It worked out pretty well! Right when we finished up with the photo shoot we jumped in the car and headed to her house. We were still even in our Christmas outfits and just changed when we got there!

Brittlynn's stocking, ready for Christmas morning!

Kye is at SUCH a fun age!!! He's able to really understand things and is old enough to get into our traditions. He was stoked about decorating, but especially about eating, the cookies. He ended up decorating probably a good 80% of them on his own!!!

Kye and Gramma

The sprinkles were a hit

Some of his creations

Brandon and Chrissy

Chrissy and Me

I'm glad I got to participate in some of the decorating...I was able to do a few cookies, and help Kye do a few, before Brittlynn woke up hungry. I knew the craziness from the photo shoot would result in an early feeding and it was okay. I REALLY don't mind to nurse places now, the only annoying thing is when men are present because then I have to cover up. I have a cute hooter hider (thanks Crissy!!!) but Brittlynn gets so hot under there and it's harder to keep her awake, switch breasts, etc. I prefer just to let that junk hang out and not worry about it, but I can't do then when there are guys in the room other than my son and husband! So it can be annoying!

the decorating champs!

my favorite tradition

So sweet to decorate with one hand and rock Britt in her car seat with the other

Before feeding her Chrissy got to meet her for the first time

I pulled up a comfy chair and let her nurse while I watched everyone decorate. Kye got into it and he didn't really have too much supervision (don't let the three adults at the table fool you haha) so he ended up eating about as much as he decorated and several things of sprinkles quickly got empty :) He had a blast though and that's what matters! He rarely gets to see his aunt and uncle and I'm glad he got to have a good, although brief, memory together with them!

Everyone sat down to dinner and I was, shocker, still nursing. Once she finally got done eating I ran over, interrupted them from eating, and told Brandon I wanted him to get to hold her before she fell asleep. They were at the hospital when Kye was born so we have lots of pictures of them holding him as a newborn, but they didn't meet Brittlynn until that night so I wanted a couple cute pics to remember the event by!

Kye wanted a picture too, of him with his beloved bread of course

He wanted cookies for dessert so we gave him a plate of ALL the ones he'd taken one bit of. It was quite a few cookies! I was sneaky and took bites of them all when he wasn't looking, trying to get rid of them so he wouldn't have so much junk food. Luckily, he even got his fill before they were gone and we brought them home for him. He carried those things around like they were GOLD and kept opening the wrapping just to look at them haha

Cookie Boy!

Since we weren't seeing them for legit Christmas, and Mom had exchanged gifts with them that morning during their Christmas together, we went ahead and exchanged gifts before we headed home. Kye has seen presents under the tree but has never attempted to open them and he couldn't believe he was getting to open something!!!

He loves this airplane thing...it's some thing where they land on it in water? I can't remember what it's called (I may have a son, but I'm still a girly girl haha)

Kye was the official present opener helper ;)

We got Brandon an orange Express shirt and Gator tie!

It was a short visit but I'm glad we got to see them and that they got to meet Brittlynn. I don't think Kye had even seen Brandon since over the summer so it was a good reminder to him of who they are so he won't forget!

It was a CRAZY busy weekend...I didn't blog about it (b/c I was so out of it and didn't take pictures) but the night before we had Christmas at Mema's house. Then Sat we had the photo shoot then went to Mom's. I was WORE OUT. I literally was falling asleep at Mom's house and don't remember much from that weekend...having a baby around the holidays was tough b/c there was SO much going on and I wasn't quite to the point of healing to really handle it all. Thankfully I got in a better groove of things by real Christmas!!!

Christmas Family Pics

2012-01-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

I've always wanted to get professional pictures taken at the holidays to use for our Christmas cards but it's just never made sense to spend the money at such an already expensive time of the year! Plus we get professional pictures taken decently often already. Our plan has always been to have pics taken four times a year for each child's first year (newborn, 3 months old, 6 months old, 9 months old). When they turn one we then do a photo shoot at one years old, 18 months old then when they turn two just start taking them yearly. So Kye will have his one photo shoot for the year at his third birthday (which falls right at Britt's three months so we can combine them, awesome!). The GREAT thing about Brittlynn being born in December is that her yearly photos will always fall at the perfect time to get pictures for our Christmas cards. You know I totally planned that when we conceived her ;)

After we finished up with the newborn shots, Brittlynn was hungry so I nursed her while Zach and Kye got changed into Christmas outfits. After she nursed for a few minutes (not a full feeding...just enough to get her through) she and I got changed into our outfits. Then I nursed her for a few more minutes so she'd be happy for the shots and we snapped a couple before ending the session! Thanks again to Lindsay from Captured by Colson!

1. our mantle!

6. The one I used for our card :)

9. Kye's smile was getting pretty goofy by that point haha

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13. I LOVE her Christmas outfit, it's a shame she barely got to wear the thing over the holidays!

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I also had to order the Christmas card from Walmart and do the one hour photo thing. While I'm not a huge fan of Walmart, I thought both of our cards turned out pretty great! I LOVE getting Christmas cards from people and enjoy reading the ones that write family update letters each year. I thought about doing that in the future then realized, duh, I don't need to. If anyone wants to know anything about us they can come to the blog. It FOR SURE gives an update on what's going on in our lives am I right?!?! It may be lame that I put the blog address on the card, I felt lame doing it and I'm SHOCKED that no one made fun of me for it but I thought it was a pretty good idea. Especially since majority of both sides of the family doesn't read it :)

Now that you've seen the FULL session, what do you think? I still can't get over how amazing they all turned out. Right when we finished up I felt like it went awesome and I wasn't disappointed when I saw the finished products :) I REALLY appreciate Lindsay's patience and flexibility with us...it all went pretty smoothly considering we had a brand new baby, a mom who was pretty much still hormonally whacked, and a two year old! Be sure to contact Captured by Colson for your next photography needs - I know I plan on it!!!

Newborn Photos ~ Family

2012-01-07T05:45:00.001-05:00

I love working with a personal photographer over a studio...the options are endless and we aren't stuck in some stuffy room doing the same lame poses over and over! These images are from the family portion of Brittlynn's newborn photo shoot and were taken by Lindsay at Captured by Colson!

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, she got to our house at 2:00 so we'd have plenty of time to just devote to Brittlynn while Kye was napping. I LOVE family pictures of all of us, and they are the ones I'll be using around the house and such, but I think it's so important to have pictures of JUST Brittlynn with us, without Kye in them. Can you tell I'm hardcore about that? My #1 goal of raising my second child is to treat her as much like a first born as I can :) I'll probably be repeating that over and over again in posts b/c it's so important to me!

Here are the ones we got of just the three of us:

3. Ugh. I look like I just had a baby...

4. I love our solo ones!

5. Out of ALL the pictures from the day, Zach said this is his favorite because it's of his two girls. Tell me he isn't the sweetest husband ever!

6. BTW I'm wearing my Stella and Dot grey pave bracelet, black pave bracelet, silver vintage twist bracelet, black chelsea necklace and soiree stud earrings.

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12. He looks so cute in this one

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15. I like how we're out of focus :)

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18. I think Zach looks the best when he's not trying at all! :)

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20. My new FAVORITE family picture of us! Already hanging on our wall!

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22. I thought the idea of us on the stairs was GREAT!

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25. Kye's feet are so precious

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That's the end of the newborn photo shoot...after we finished up we asked her to snap a couple of quick shots just to use for a Christmas card so I'll post those next!

Newborn Photos ~ Siblings

2012-01-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

While getting pictures of Brittlynn alone was important, I was excited for pictures of Kye with his little sister too :) I love sweet sibling pictures and if Kye is anything, he is a sweet sibling! These images are a continuation of our A-MAZING photo shoot session with Lindsay from Captured by Colson. And again, I'm going to number them so you can reference back if you want to comment :)

Kye got up from his nap around 3:30 and he was thrilled to have company (the kid is super mega social). Zach changed him and got him ready to do some pictures!

1. See his Jingle in the background? :)

3. I didn't even know he was doing this until I saw the pictures! This is SO KYE!

4. close up of the same pic

5. Um how old is he? Doesn't he look beyond handsome here?

8. You can just SEE the love he has for her in these shots

10. Part of her cord had fallen off but she was still holding on to some of it :(

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14. ALL of these are beyond precious to me. I could do an entire photo wall at the house of just these pictures and look at them constantly!

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23. I have this framed sitting right next to my computer so I can look at it all the time!

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25. This is another one where you can see his love for her!

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The sweetest thing about these sibling pictures is that we didn't have to beg and plead with Kye to take them. He truly adores Brittlynn and was eager to shower her with kisses! I think they all turned out so adorable and it makes me excited for all the photo shoots to come because we'll always get to have some sibling shots now! I think they are my favorite kind of picture :)