Our boy is 2 months already!

Braxton James has truly worked his way into every little part of our lives and heart and we love it that way! I can honestly say that the sweet boy has parts of my heart that I didn't even know existed! It seems that my heart just grows bigger and bigger when I have more people to love. And that's the way I like it. :) We don't have his 2 month appointment for a couple of weeks, so I won't have those stats to give you now, but I'll update them when we see the doctor!

Height/Length:                 22.5 inches
Weight:                             12 lbs 10.5 oz

Here are some of the high points of this last month....

---He has been in size 1 diapers all month, but some of them are barely fitting now! His pampers size 1 diapers are still fitting, but target brand, and seventh generation diapers are definitely getting too small to go around him!
---He's fitting well into 0-3 month clothes, but I have a feeling that I'll be pulling out the 3-6 month clothes before we hit April!
---Brookelynne still loves him and he's gotten to the point where he seems to know her. She will come over and get in his face going "Booooo" or "Braaaaa" (Brother and Braxton)
---He's eating 6 oz every 4 hours
---He takes his last bottle at 9:30ish, sleeps until 3, eats again and then sleeps until 7ish (most days).
---He's still in size 1 shoes, but they're getting a little tight. If he grows at all, he'll be in size 2!
---He still likes his bouncer, but has begun to spend more time in the swing. While he doesn't like to go side to side, like Brooke did, he does like to go front to back, so we've turned the swing and he loves it!
---He loves being outside! The other day he was screaming in his carseat and I walked outside, set him on the sidewalk so that I could load the car, and he stopped crying. He sat there totally content until I put him in the car and closed the door. He LOVES the sunlight!
---He sees us! It has been frustrating for me because I felt like he wasn't actually seeing me or able to focus on me, but in the last couple of days he's definitely been able to do that! :)
---This past Sunday morning, he went to the nursery for his first day of Sunday School!
---He spent most evenings being very fussy from about 3 weeks on, so after his dedication, we had talked about him possibly being lactose intolerant, so I've cut all milk products out of my diet for a week now. He's been better, so I'm going to stay away from most of them for a little bit longer and then start eating a little at a time to see if he gets worse again. We'll see.
---He likes to be patted on the back hard! People in the nursery were saying that he didn't like it, and I kept saying, "hit him harder", and sure enough, as soon as they did, he calmed right down! Don't ask me why, but he's happy as a clam that way!

Also- I will add pics to this post as soon as I can get my external hard drive to work again!

Back to the grind....

Tonight I started back to work...don't get too excited about it, it's just the nursery at church on Wednesday and Sunday nights. :) I am going to be covering in room 221 for a while until the regular worker in there finds out if she'll be able to come back to work, and if so, when. Anyway, tonight also marks the first time that I've put Braxton in the 'church' nursery (he's gone in the nursery on Tuesday mornings during mom2mom, but that's not the same). It's also the first time that he's been in the nursery at night. I dropped Brookelynne off first in her normal room with Angela and Lindsey there to take great care of her, as always, and then took Brax back to 202. Our sweet friend Julie is working in there through the rest of her pregnancy, and assured me he would be taken care of! (Don't tell anyone, but she said she takes 'extra' good care of our babies! jk) Anyway, I then headed back to 221 to start a new adventure with kids that I've never worked with before. Our age group was 2 1/2 year olds, and is quite a different experience for me because they are potty training, and talking and MUCH different!

Halfway through the night, Julie appeared at our door to tell me that Braxton had been very fussy/upset. This isn't unusual for him, since he was 4 or 5 weeks old, he's been getting fussy from 5 to 9 each night. So I went to 202 and he was sitting with Natalie, screaming bloody murder. His little face was beet red as I picked him up and tried calming him down. It took a minute or so, but I got him calm and gave him some milcon (gas medicine) and gripe water (colic medicine), as Julie went ahead and warmed a bottle for him. I left a couple of minutes later with him still calm, and walked by Brooke's room on my way back to mine. Angela came to the door and told me that she was doing great and had finished every bite of her food. I told her that they had come and gotten me because of how fussy Brax was, as tears came to my eyes. I said "I know he's not a bad kid, and they don't hate him or anything, but I hate feeling like my kid is the one that they are going to dread seeing." She and Lindsey both told me that that wasn't going to happen and Lindsey said that the fussiness was just a boy thing, that Chandler was fussy all the time, but grew out of it. I said "I know that this will pass, its just that I want them to love him and love having him because everyone loves Brookelynne and it just breaks my heart that they won't love him". Angela assured me that that won't happen and I dried it up as I went back to work.

The rest of my night was easy as half of our kids were gone when I got back. When all of our kids were gone and we cleaned up, I clocked out and went to get Brookelynne, and then Braxton. When I picked up Brax, they said he had eaten well and not fussed since then, which was nice to hear. We headed home, and so began the fussing... Brookelynne fell asleep halfway home and Brax cried on and off the whole way home. I spent most of drive on the phone, one of the ways that I drown out the fussing.

And it must have been a night for discussing how people feel about my children and how that makes me feel, because that's basically what I ended up talking about with my mom, even though it was relating to a totally different subject. We were discussing plans that we each have going on in the next couple of months and there are a few days/weekends/events that contradict each other, and we have to decide to go to one or the other. We were discussing the fact that I had just assumed that certain people loved me as much as I loved them, and that they would love my kids and want to see and be around my babies just because of how much they loved me. What has become obvious though, is that they must not have loved me as much I thought, because they don't seem to have any desire to see my kids or even me anymore, and that completely breaks my heart. And unfortunately, it makes me want to avoid events that they will be at because of how hurt I am. And I can tell you, as much as it hurts that I'm not important enough for them to make an effort to see, I am 10 times madder that they don't feel that my children are worth that, because believe me, they are so worth it.

Long story short is that tonight I feel like a lioness who's baby is being picked on and I am ready to fight for them. It may sound stupid, and some of it completely unnecessary, but I just want to make everyone see that they are wonderful, and I don't want to see anyone who doesn't think that they are. I am in a place right now that I just want to cut people and places out of my life because of the defensiveness I feel. I'm going to give it to the Lord and wait for him to give me direction. Praying that tomorrow I will wake up feeling more at peace, knowing that I don't have to fight for them, because as their creator, He knows their worth and fights for them in ways I never could.

Braxton's Dedication.

Last night we dedicated our sweet little boy at church. It was a very sweet time where we commit ourselves as parents to do everything we can to raise him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This is a big commitment that we do not take lightly. Our prayer for Braxton is that he will come to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ at an early age so that he can live a full life of honoring and glorifying our Lord.

Here are his name's meaning and verse...

Braxton is Old English 

and means "Faithful"

James is Hebrew

and means"following after the Lord"

His verse is Psalm 36:5

"Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies"

 Doesn't he look like a little man? Love him!

Date night!

Last night, Mitch and I had our first date night since Brax was born!  We had a great time and really enjoyed getting to spend a few hours hanging out with each other. My mom came up to the house around 5:30 and we scurried around the house getting ready to go and sneaking out. We headed out and got to Dave and Busters around 6. The wait for the restaurant was an hour and a half, which would normally be ridiculous, and something we would never do just to eat dinner, but D&B's is not every other restaurant. They have MORE than enough to do while you wait! lol. So we checked the balances on all our cards (while we haven't been in more than 3 yrs, we used to go every few months when we were dating) and started to play. We learned some important things right up front! The first of which is that I have officially lost my ability to play basketball! haha. We used to play one particular game, and I was pretty good, but now, not so much! Mitch still had the touch though! Then we played the coin drop game, which we are pretty good at! Before they called us for dinner, we had won over 1600 tickets! For dinner, Mitch had the chicken and shrimp alfredo, and I had the steak salad (which was fabulous, btw). Then we went and played a few more games before heading home. It was such a great night and something that I really needed, so I'm so grateful that we got to do it! :)

Shower for Annaline!

 

The drink table, complete with my new tea dispenser! I was so excited to use it!

 The food table...

(Chocolate covered Strawberries, chocolate cake, white cupcakes,

Southwestern eggrolls, meatballs, fruit salad, veggie plate/dip

chocolate tray, plates and sandwich rolls!)

This weekend I got to throw a shower for my sister Tricia and soon to be niece Annaline! Annaline is the third child, coming almost 5 years after her older sister, and 7 years after her older brother. Needless to say, they have been out of 'baby mode' for a while! I was so excited to get to throw her a shower so that they could prepare for their sweet baby girl, and we had a wonderful turnout and a wonderful time!

We had a running game throughout the shower, that you couldn't say 3 words. If you said any of them, then someone could take your beads, and viceversa. The three words I picked were "Baby", "Due Date" and "Daddy". I told Taylor and Abbi that they needed to pay attention because I bet they could win if they did. Needless to say, they were paying very close attention and trying very hard not to say any of those words!

We started out the shower with prayer and digging in to the food! :) Once everyone got settled with some food and a drink, we started our other game. Its a fun version of "Never have I ever" where everyone has a handful of change and we start with the mom, who tries to think of something that most people have done, but she hasn't. Then we pass Annaline's piggy bank around the room and if you have done whatever the person hasn't done, then you put money in. :) We had a really good time learning things about each other that might not otherwise come up and raising a little money for Anna!

One of the girls at the shower, when it was her turn, said "Never have I ever been married". So we went around the room and most everyone else had to put in money. Taylor was sitting on her mom's lap and Carrie asked her to put the money in for her. So as she put the money in, I said "Who is your mom married too?" and just as innocently as she is, said "my Daddy". :) She immediately threw her hand over her mouth and we all got a good laugh as she gave me one of her necklaces. Later on in the shower, my brother in law came in with my nephew and I asked Abbi "Who is that?" and she did the same thing Taylor did and answered "My Daddy". We all laughed again, except Abigail who seriously looked like she was going to cry! I told her she could keep her necklace and gave Taylor back her necklace as well, which made them both happy! It was just so cute!

Diaper cake I made for them!

Anyway, after the game, Tricia started opening presents. Abigail helped open all of the presents and did a fantastic Vana impression with each item, showing off shirts and dresses as well as stuffed animals and toys.

Abbi and Taylor

Abbi with all of the beads that she won!

The big brother and big sister!

Davis and Abbi

They got a ton of stuff for Anna, including a swing, stroller, car seat, diaperbag, clothes, sheets, blankets, diapers and wipes! I made her a bow holder for her room, and since she'll be moving into Abbi's room in a year or so, went ahead and made a matching one for Abigail as well! (I unfortunately forgot to get a picture of either of them, but Tricia is going to take one of them when they get up on the walls!). Hopefully they'll get everything washed, sorted and put away before Anna makes her appearance! Just a few more weeks to go! (And then my baby boy won't be the baby anymore!!! That part's not fair! lol) :)

Tricia with the cake!

Tricia, Abbi and Me!

One month already!

I canNOT believe that a month has already flown by! We are having so much fun with these two and Braxton is growing like a weed. I don't know how coherently I could write a synopsis of this month, so I'll do bullet points instead!

* He is gaining weight wonderfully! He was 7 lbs 8 oz at his 2 week appt (10 days old) and we had him weighed just a few days ago and he was up to 9 lbs 2 oz! That's a full 2 lbs above his birth weight!

* He was in newborn diapers for almost 3 weeks. For those weeks he barely seemed to even grow, but in the last 10 days or so he as seemed to grow by the hour! Now he's actually filling out those size 1s!
*He's wearing 0-3 month clothes now, after about 20 days in newborn clothes. His legs were so skinny that they even looked small in the newborn sized clothes!

* He has gone to church a few times already, and even got to hear Dr Vines on his first visit! :)
* He has begun to be awake more often is starting to look at things. He's still not doing it consistantly, but every once and a while you can put your face in front of him, catch his eye, and he'll follow you when you move!

* We put him on a schedule, and it has been working great! At about 2 weeks, his eating/sleeping schedule was just about to drive me nuts because it was completely inconsistent and irregular. Sometimes he would want to eat every 4 hours, sometimes every hour. Sometimes he would take 4 oz, and sometimes he would take 1. We borrowed the book "Baby Wise" from our friend Summer, because her son had been on a very tight schedule, and it worked great for him. After a day or so of working on the schedule, it was like second nature to him. We're not doing a super strict schedule with him, mainly because I'm still trying to work out a time schedule that works best for him (we're at 3.5 hours right now, but sometimes he wants to go 4, but not consistently).

* He wakes up once a night, usually at 3 am on the dot, to eat. We're doing well with that, because then he sleeps until 8ish. :)
* He likes bouncing and vibration more than swinging. (But every once and a while he will only want the swing).
*He's still sleeping in our room. :( We're just waiting to get another baby monitor. We bought a video monitor for Brookelynne's room a month or so ago, and had been planning on just using her old monitor for Brax until he starts moving, but when I went to plug it in, it won't turn on. Hopefully we'll have him in his bed soon. I'm searching craigslist for another video monitor that we can use.

* He's already in the big bottles! This seems so crazy to me because I know that Brooke used the smaller ones for longer than this, but the liners for the smaller ones are just a little too small to hold what he's drinking.
* He's eating about 850 ml each day. :)
* I'm pumping about 1700 ml each day. :) :)  and we already have 2 diaper boxes full of frozen milk!
* He usually could not care less if you sing. LOL Brookelynne would (and usually still will) quiet immediately if you started to sing to her, especially if it was one of 'her songs', but except for once or twice, you could sing your heart out and it doesn't mean a thing to him!

* He does take a paci. He takes it when he's going to sleep and often when he's fussy, but doesn't always have to have it or anything. I'm hoping that this continues and that he doesn't get attached to it. Believe me, it will be gone by a year old whether he likes it or not!
* He's started smiling at me! :) When he hears my voice as he's waking up and on a few other occasions, he has obviously reacted to a specific thing with a smile. And his little grin is SO precious!

* Mitchell seems to think that he prefers me, but I think it has more to do with the fact that Brookelynne prefers Daddy and therefore, Daddy hasn't had as much practice at calming Braxton down.
* His circumcision has healed easily and Dr Kim said that it was one of the best ones she's ever seen, and that Mike got pretty much every bit of the foreskin off, meaning that there isn't anything that can re-adhere or anything like that. 
* His umbilical stump/scab took almost 22 days to fall off. It seemed like an eternity and was driving me crazy that I couldn't bath him. We finally had to start using cotton balls full of alcohol and saturating it with the alcohol instead of using the wipes, but it is gone and he has a very cute little belly! Button and all!

That is all I can think of right now, but what an adventure this has been. We are so looking forward to the next few months of him being able to have more and more interaction with us!

Braxton's First Photoshoot!

 

Last week we had Braxton's baby pictures done! Just like with Braxton, our sweet friend Sarah came up to the house to do them for us! She's so sweet and does such a great job, and we are so thankful to call her 'our photographer'! :) She got several pictures of Brax by himself, as well as some of the whole family!