Livin' Off Love

Picture dump

2012-02-01T15:15:00.003-06:00

Braxton getting his first haircut

Man, was he pissed!

But looks so handsome :)

One of our friends got him this trampoline for his birthday, he's really starting to get the hang of it now. It's awesome too, the handle folds over so it's easily put away! Psh, like anything ever gets put away at our house.

Ohh... our poor cat, Jesse James. Braxton LOVE him. He mostly just wants to lay on him, and Jesse puts up with it, until B pulls his hair.

Peekaboo!

He was trying to make an escape!

Just hanging out.

On our trip to TX for Christmas we stopped at a Catfish Village (oh how we miss them!) and they had this cute UT hat for kids :) B hasn't gotten the hang of wearing it yet, but he will.

We have a picture of Tucker chewing on a bow from Christmas, and now one of B wearing one, haha!

On our way back to FL we stopped in LA and saw my oldest-bestest-friend-ever, Angela, and her two kids and ate lunch and spent time. We miss them terribly.

Seriously, when the hell did I get a toddler?!

He's obsessed with the dryer. Sad thing isthe light is out in mine, and he doens't care, he just wants to hang out.

Awww, Rich did this :)

See! He just lays on him.

Daddy and B sporting UT hats :)

We now eat PB&J, and love it! Ok, sometimes. He's in a picky food mood right now for some reason. Some stuff he won't eat today, then tomorrow he'll eat itall.

This is from this fall.

Around early winter.

Just playing with the letters on the fridge.

Mom got him this carseat cover, and it's the best thing ever! It was a lifesaver on the trip to TX - if he stopped food all over him, no biggie, just took it out, knocked all out and put back. Sweet.

Someone found my wallet :)

"What mom? Crap, stop taking so many damn pictures, woman!"

Mardi Gras beads are all he needs some days.

He got his year shots the day before (we actually did them last week), and he'd started to feel bad.

See?! Made me sad.

Backtracking to some Christmas stuff

2012-02-01T14:21:00.000-06:00

Somehow we turned into ornament people, and I"m not sure how it happened. But, my smaller white tree - the first tree we ever got as a married couple - has gotten pretty full over the last 7+ years, and I get excited every year to add more. Usually we each get one, and it can be whatever we want, then we get one for "us" together, sometimes the animals get one even. Ok, and even if we find one that is too cute, we grab it.

I didn't get to take any of the new ones we got this year, or all the ones my Mom got us, but these are some of our older ones we like.

I picked this up at Kohl's our first year in Florida - and I got it in Texas. Odd.

This was '10s ornament since I was all knocked up with B. :)

We're a UT house - and trust me, we have so many of these on the tree.

Yea, *NSYNC, baby. I've had this for 10+ years.

Mom got B this before he was born, it was his first ornament.

I got this the same time I got the FL one, I want to go to Paris, and until then, the ornament is a constant reminder I still haven't gone.

My best friend got me this 10+ years ago, I was a huge Elvis fan growing up (shocked?!), and I've hauled him around ever since.

Rich is a huge Family Guy fan (ok, and a American Dad and the Cleveland Show as well), so this was fitting for him.

We love the show Friends, and remember how they talked about Rachael and Ross being lobsters? Yea, we're cheesy and have a lobster ornament for us. :)

Rich dressed up like Santa this year in the hopes Tiff's kids would just flip out and be excited. B was terrified.

Know how the kids took it? We got up early to set stuff out, woke them up to come catch Santa and they just walked in there and said "We know it's you uncle Rich." and took their happt butts back to bed! Seriously.

Brax had just woke up, so it was taking him a minute to figure out what the hell was happening.

I have more, but they're not on this computer - and my other computer is being a turd. Hello, HP, I need it fixed, it makes me so sad I can't use my big awesome touch-screen computer, and having to use my 5+ year old laptop that hates me half the time. Hmmm... Santa?!

I'm in mourning

2012-02-01T13:35:00.004-06:00

   I've had one hell of a year, a lot wasn't great, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed 2012 is a hell of a lot better for us.

   My parents got divorced last year, and it took one hell of a toll on everyone. When I should have been concentrating on being sleep deprived from Braxton, I was sleep deprived from him (duh!) but also my parents. I'm one of those people that when something is going wrong, it really attacks me emotionally. I may put up a brave front, but on the inside I'm crumbling like a cookie in a toddler's hands.
   A lot of it is my own fault, instead of admitting that I can't hear anymore of this-or-that, I said I was ok, and let more and more pile up on me. It eventually became to take a toll on how I parented B, and our marriage. I shouldn't have allowed it to get to me that way - I need to learn how to seperate things better than what I do.

   But I finally figured out how I feel about their divorce: I'm in mourning. I'm sad at the loss of my parent's marriage, just like I'd feel as if someone had died. I'm sad at the loss of family gatherings, visits, birthdays, holidays - all of it.
   I need to mourn it, I do. But, they're both throwing daggers at each other, and it's making it more difficult. I don't like how their divorce has played out, but I can't do anything about that. They're adults, and however they choose to handle it is their business. Again, which is hard to let them do - haha!

   I've decided that this year, I don't want to hear the nasty stuff, I don't. I've told them this, but now it's up to them to respect my wishes on it. If you have something nasty to say, then put it in a letter and burn it to get it off your chest. Take up kickboxing, or yoga. Get a new hobby. Something - just don't tear me down with it all.
   Now that's not to say that I don't want to talk to them about what's goinng on, that's not the case - I just don't want the angry emails/phone calls/etc
   I feel as if I lost a whole year of Brax's life becuase of all the drama. I feel left out in some way, I feel Brax is forgotten about, that the other two grandkids sometimes matter more since they're physically in the same town - maybe it's the crazy "mommy emotions" that come with a new baby, but I can't help that's how I feel.

   I wish both my parent's happiness in this new stage of life. It's one of those things that you can be down/angry/whatever about it, but then stop and see that silver lining- one is always there! There are so many things to be happy about if you just look. I want them to just take a breather and see all that life has to offer. Take up traveling, crocheting, photography, whatever - just be happy in whatever you're doing now.
   All of us are still around, we're all just needing some time to adjust to the new life that's here now... to mourn what is gone, but be excited at the new prospects of what's to come. Silver lining people, silver lining.

Moments are fleeting

2012-01-25T14:34:00.003-06:00

   I have a thing were I want one “moment” with Braxton every day. It’s hard to describe the moment – it’s just something that happens, and isn’t planned.
   Like, two nights ago I’d just gotten out of the shower, and he was fighting sleep, so I went to change his diaper and lay him back down. Well, when I leaned down to get him from his crib, he noticed my wet hair and kept trying to touch it. After his diaper was changed, I was holding him facing me and he just smiled through his binky and just started running his fingers through my hair, laughing.
   It’s moments like that – the ones that give me chills, and make me tear up and smile. The ones that I’m going to remember as the years go on.
   It was a moment, in his night lighted room, him all warm from his fuzzy pj’s, smiling behind his binky that let me know I was secretly made for this.

Now that’s not saying we don’t have our bad times- trust me, yesterday was a bad day all around for me and Brax. It was just one of those awful days that snowballs and keeps getting worse.
   But, again, it’s moments that make them brighter when I thought the day was just going to get worse (which, trust me, I didn’t know how it could). He’d reach up to me whining, I’d pick him up and he’d just push his arms beside himself, under mine, and lay his head down on my shoulder and just lay there for a few seconds.
   Seconds. That’s all I get, but, man…. They’re worth it.

   As I’m sitting here typing this, I keep looking over at him playing in the living room, only a baby gate between us, and I just want to smother him in kisses. J He’s growing up way too fast, and there may be days I get overwhelmed and need a break, but he’s totally worth it.
   Becoming a mom has made me into a sappy mess – now I’ll say I’ve always been sensitive, but now I cry at everything, good or bad. I’ve turned into the mom that sneaks into his room to check on him while he’s sleeping, and if he’s sleeping in a weird postion, I’ll call Rich in there, and we’ll just stare and smile.

   Yes, I know… vomit. It’s deliciously cheesy being that kind of mom.

Catching up!

2012-01-16T15:15:00.002-06:00

I know Braxton's 13 months now, so we're going to have to backtrack a little bit - and I'm going to have to go back even further after I upload some other pictures, I'm so behind! Sham on me!

We didn't do anything special for B's birthday really, we thought that when we went home for the holiday's we'd do something then, but that never panned out, which makes us a little sad he didn't get to do anything special for his first birthday.

We took him that afternoon to get his first haircut - we were able to put it in a ponytail on top of his head, that's when you know it's time to take your son for a haircut, lol! He did pretty well, and I"ll go into that one after I upload those pictures later from my external harddrive.

After his haircut, where he came out looking like a little toddler I might add, we took him to McDonald's to get him his first Happy Meal - which he hated. Yes, my kid hated everything about it. We actually had to feed him again after we got back to the house since he hardly touched anyting from it. LOL!

After that, he got to take a long nap, and while he was down I baked a cake and we played with food coloring to change it up, along with frosting. I thought I was going to get him a pretty cake when we went to Texas, so I didn't care if this one turned out ugly, which it did.

After he was up, Rich let him open one of his gifts he'd picked out for him, which was a Sleepytime Elmo. Brax coudl care less about the paper, and we had to open it for him. (Along with all his other gifts from people!)

Just got up from his nap, and not looking too happy. But he does look pretty snazy with his haircut! :)

This face is awesome -he just looks like he's thinking 'Ok woman, take the damn picture so I can do something else already.'

See, told you it was a not-so-pretty-cake. It's got bright green frosting and a teal color cake.

Wow... and boy was he pissed.

He refused to taste it, and hated it being on his hands.

This will so go in his baby book for his first birthday cake picture - he did that the whole time. Even in the shower when I was cleaning him up. He was so angry at us.

To try to convince him the cake was good I tried eating a piece, and then Rich slammed a whole bunch in my face - even up my nose, which is always fun.

The next morning the cake-storm was over, and he was A-OK, again.

After we got home (we were housesitting for a friend during his birthday) we gave him all his gifts for his birthday and Christmas since we were going to go home for the holiday's. I wish I'd take a picture of all the stuff he got, but I forgot. He racked up though - seriously, the garage sales here are amazing. Yes, I got my kid stuff from garage sales (and several new stuff, no worries!) - they grow out of it way too fast, why pay full price for everything?! I'll do a blog post on my garage saling and some of the goodies I got.

(Matter of fact, that horse thing in the background is called a Rody, and he loves it. Look on YouTube for them, they're from Italy or something. Garage sale. That thing he's sitting infront of, garage sale. Now that car Rich is playing with is new. *lol*)

The day of his birthday I broke out his birthday onsie (I got it at Carter's when he was 3.5 months old on clearance for a $1), and we just had a good time.

(Mom got him the Sesame Street couch, he loves that thing! We use it like crazy - especially since it lays flat in the playpen, so it allows for a "mattress"!)

He watched some cartoons

He got a present fom his PopPop back in TX, and his favorite part? The bow.

It's so cute :)

He loves Jesse James...... not sure if it's mutual.

I have tons more to update on, but I dont' have all the pictures here right now. But, this'll do. :)

I'm a mom to a toddler, and he's pretty damn awesome. :)

Dear Blogger,

2012-01-09T11:11:00.001-06:00

I'll be back to blogging soon. Hopefully. :)
Love,
Me

He's ONE!

2011-12-21T14:28:00.000-06:00

On the 13th Brax turned one! ONE, people, ONE!

Holy crap.

It's hard to belive that much time has gone by, espeically when I look at the above picture and remember all of it like it was yesterday.... and now I'm peaking at him watching Elmo on TV while I"m at the kitchen table typing away.

He's gotten so big so fast!

All that cliche crap people spew at you about having kids, it's true... I hate to admit it. I used to look at them like they were crazy, but it came back to bite me in the ass. That little man rocks my world to the core.

Le sigh, oh how time goes by!

2011-11-23T12:48:00.001-06:00

   We took B to get his birthday photos done - even though it's still two weeks away - and this is the funniest one! :) We tend to go for the more funny/odd/silly photos, and not the smiling ones, we want them fun!
    I still can't believe he'll be one year old next month - my heart aches now. He's gotten so big! Before I know it I'll be sending him off to pre-k! Yikes.

He's a growing boy

2011-11-10T14:08:00.001-06:00

I'm getting excited - and sad! - that Braxton turns ONE in a month! How crazy is that?! I have a toddler, people. Seriously, where did the time go?

Ohhhh yea, I was sleep deprived for about half of it, and the rest just flew by - people, heed the saying of "I'm up from SON up to SON down", it's true. Around 7-9 months old B just stopped sleeping well. I remember one night, thankfully a weekend, I feel asleep standing up, crying, and B had woke up, in the living room. I told Rich I physically just couldn't take deal with B at that moment, I needed sleep, I couldn't function - hello, I fell asleep standing up! I was exhausted. I was mor ethan that actually... I was a fuckin' zombie.
So, being that amazing husband that he is, and that he can function on little sleep whereas I can not, he took B while I went to bed. I think. I don't remember much, just the start ofthe whole deal. *lol*
Nights like that went on for about two long months - pair in his ability to only sleep in 30 minute intervals about 2-3 times a day, and you had one tired momma.
I'm thinking it was because he'd learned so many new things those months - rolling over, sitting up, cruising, etc - and he just didn't want to sleep, he wanted to move!

Now I'm going to knock on wood a million times over, but B is sleeping through the night - LORD, please don't let me have jinxed myself. Heck, last night he went down at 8pm and slept until 10 am, and I put him down for a nap at 12:45pm! The other day he was only up 7 hours total, the rest of it he was sleeping. I'm guessing a growth spurt? No idea, I'm winging it.
It'd be different if he didn't want to go to sleep, but he does.... so I let him. Not sure if it's entirely right or not, but, again, I'm winging it.

No plans as of yet for the B-man's birthday - mainly becuase it'll just be me, Rich and him here. So I may bake a cake, let him smash some of it, take pictures/videos and that'll be about it.
It's anti-climatic, I know. I bothers me. But, with no family around, not really any friends here, I can't do much more than that. So, it'll do.
We'll bake a cake, fix him a good dinner, and let him open a gift or two and call it good.
Maybe we can do some family/friends type of thing for him when we go home at Christmas, who knows.

Speaking of Christmas, not sure how that'll go. It's too stressful to think about, we'll deal with it another day.

There's tons more to write about, but I want to catch up on some of my shows on the DVR while he sleeps - priorities, people! :)

Life's truckin' along

2011-11-04T11:16:00.001-05:00

Im horrible, I know! Seriously, you mommy bloggers, how do you do it?! I spend the majority of my day crawling/growling/chasing/laughing after B all day, the last thing I want to do after he's in bed is get online. But, I need to start - I'm missing out kn blogging so much!!

Brax is "cruising" everywhere - wont be long until he's walking everywhere!! He's about to be 11 months - which makes me so sad, he's growing way too fast. ((Shh, makes me want another one!))

We took B trunk-or-treating in his cute dinosaur costume, he didn't seem to care too much abojt what was going kn, but we did. :)

I'll come back Blogger, I promise. Until then, I'm enjoying the time with my little man.

2011-09-21T14:05:00.001-05:00

This blogging thing is so hard once the baby is here, I don't know how other bloggers do it! I'm exhausted when I go to bed at night - and trust me, I try for as close to 10 pm as I can! *haha* I want to get on here and spill about my day, but by the time I get him to bed, I need to eat, shower, clean up some (I've pretty much reserved myself to one big cleaning a week, adn small ones throughout the week), spend time with Rich and catch up on any TV shows that I can.

It's tough! That, or I suck at time management, which is a huge possibility. :)

But, with that said, I'm trying. I really am. This blog has been neglected, and so has my personal one, and it makes me very sad. I wanted to be able to blog every day (Psh, ok, like that'll happen!), or atleast every other about how life is going with a new baby, but, alas, that hasn't worked.

I WILL TRY.

Dangit. Maybe. Ok, I'll give it my best shot, that's all one can ask, right?

So, what's been happening lately?

* Braxton is almost 9 1/2 months old. Shesh! We're already thinking of ideas for his first birthday - which makes me sad because he'll be a year old. But, yay! I've kept him alive that long! My mother-in-laws-tongue plant isn't so lucky, I really need to water it.

* We've began walking as a family every day when Rich gets home from work. Braxton seems to enjoy it, he gets to look around, and he really loves it when kids go by - makes me want to give him a sibling ASAP. *haha*

Rich is down nearly 30 lbs from watching his calories, walking with us, and running/working out on weekends. Me? I've gained weight. I'm an emotional eater, and trust me, there is enough going on in life to be emotional about.

* We gave away one of our cats, Diego. I hated to do it, but he was a VERY needy little man who we've had for 3 years, but it was honestly for the best. He went to live with Melissa, our friend, and loves being there because he has 2 other cats to play with, and gets to go outside -which he couldn't do here since we literally live in teh middle of town. We get to see him often when we go out there to spend time, so it's nice.

We still have Bocephus, dog, and Jesse James, the other cat.

* We're planning out trip home for Christmas, it's stressful.

* I've introduced Brax to milk. Yes, at 9 months, shun me mothers! *haha* I feel he's ready to start weaning from the bottle - he does it on his own a lot anyway, and only gets 3 a day. The Nurse Practioner about had a fit when I told her, and told me to take him off now. No way, Jose. Brax loves it, and has done amazing with it, no reactions (knock on wood!), and now gets it twice a day, 3 bottles, watered down juice or just water.

We'll continue with giving him milk, and bottles until he's one, where I'll cut the formula out completly. It works for us.

When I give him something other than formula, it goes in a sippy cup of somesort, so I'm well on my way to having him bottle free before a year I hope.

The Nurse Practioner also freaked out because he's had eggs... months ago. I told he was hungry, he hadn't had any reactions to anything yet (again, knock on wood) so I gave it to him and he enjoyed it. He gets it every now and then, and it works for us.

We're not pushing the envelope on anything, but we're letting him lead us onto what he likes.

* And the little man is up from his nap - less than two hours this time. Shesh. Heard of sleep, man?!

I made spaghetti noodles mixed with spaghetti squash and sauce and he loved it :)

Something on my nose?!

My kid loves water. *haha*

Oh, my little man.

Rich picked the binky, can you tell? Dang football. :) *haha*

Seriously, those blue eyes will melt anyones heart.

Cell phone picture dump!

2011-09-04T16:39:00.001-05:00

I take a TON of pictures of Braxton with my phone, so I went through the past few months and picked some fo my favorites :)

He's graduated from this duck tub - which was awesome, and another garage sale find! - to the regular tub, but he loved it. His face is just too funny.

Yes, poop. Everywhere. It was so foul.

Our friends teenager daughers boyfriend brought this back from Spain for B- he looooves it. It sings the Spanish soccer anthem-song-thing.

Hej ust looked cute.

Snuggling in bed with me :)

Yuuuum, corn!

Father's Day morning

He wanted to help fold clothes - he really didn't do much. *haha*

See this red wagon? Don't mess with it, he'll bite your head off.

He loves that piano. Also the foam mat thing he's standing on has been moved into what was our dining room, so all his big toys are now in there on that.

Silly face

He zonked out when we me and my Dad went to Destin.

What I'm thinking will be Brax's halloween costume, not sure though. We got it at a garage sale for .50!

Mom calls him Buddy, and I just happened to find a My Buddy doll for $1 at a garage sale, I couldn't resist.

Loooordy, he loves making a mess. He'll pull everything off of the microwave cart.

He was "talking" to me, and it looks like he's screaming at me, haha!

I wish my living room looked this clean right now.

Just a funny picture - he looks so proud of himself.

I picked this up on clearance at Carter's when he was about 3 months old, I got it for $1.

I can't keep him in the living room, especially when there is a cat to be chased.

See, no dining room. Baby room.

Him being a sick boy snuggling with me for a nap.

Sick, but loving Sesame Street - it's the only show that holds his attention.

I taught him "raise the roof!", and of course "give me five!" - should have started off with "hi/bye", haha!

Everytime he smiles he does this snort face.

More playtime.

Raising the roof again.

Messy boy.

Sick boy.

It took us nearly 8 months before he'd hold a binky by himself, now he loves the thing and doesn't want to go without it.

Brax and Daddy watchign "Despicable Me"

Snotty nose and kidney stones, oh my!

2011-09-03T12:26:00.003-05:00

It's been an interesting week here - we've never really had Braxton sick before until now. Rich came home with some sniffles from work, which isn't unusual since he teaches adult students, who have their own kids, germs are everywhere! We figured it was just allergies, and he was fine within 48 hours anyway. Next thing I know, I've got the sniffles and so does B.

I still think it's a bad case of allergies since we have another friend who's daughter is doing the same thing, but we've kept an eye on it. So he gets a dose of baby Benadryl at night, baby Vicks VaporRub on the bottoms of his feet and chest, saline drops in his nose and we're now the proud owners of a battery operated nose-sucker. It's amazing.

Brax hates, loathes, just gets plain ol'pissed off when we use regular nose-suckers, so we shelled out the $20 for a glorified snot-sucker-upper that plays music. *haha* It's been worth every penny in our opinion. He still hates it, and squirms away, but it gets the job done faster.

So I've had a sick B-man for a week now. Downside: besides him being sick, he's not sleeping well and a bit irritable. Upside: He wants to snuggle (which can also be a downside when I have things that need to be done), and keep us close while he plays. Can't beat that.

We bought this ottoman from Target a few months ago, and at the time it was the perfect size for his toys - not so much now. We have one of those huge tubs that Walmart sells with the rope handles for them now, and this is used for his misc stuff animals.

I watched him the other day lean over to grab a toy, throw it out, and go back for another one that was further down, inturn he got stuck half in-half out. It was too funny and cute, and obviously I stepped back to see if he'd be able to get himself right, but had to do it for him.

I really do try not to be a "helicopter mom" around him - I want him to fall, bump his head, smash his fingers and such to learn, but in a controlled enviroment where I know he won't hurt himself, just enough for him to realize that "ouch! that hurt." kind of thing.

We have our cells and house phone with us at all times, so he always wants to play with them, which he obviously can't. Rich pulled out a box of our old phones from Alltel, and gave B his old Blackberry - no battery, no worries! It keepshim from playing with ours, and lets face it, it's too cute to see him hold it up and babble at us.

I have no idea why I never thought of taking B outside to play with the waterhose before, but he loooved it! He's a huge water-baby to begin with, so it wasn't a suprise.

We sat him up on the glass pation table - with us behind/beside him, he was in the middle - and sprayed him/me with it. He mainly wanted to drink from the spout, but it was hot outside, so he enjoyed cooling off.

Yes, he's naked as a Jaybird. To be honest, I hardly put him in swim bottoms when we play in the water (just make sure he's already pooped for the day, haha!), we just let him go natural.

Who can resist a baby tushy? Haha!

I picked up this touch-book at a gargae sale for .25 cents, and it's been awesome! Brax likes touching stuff, we read it a few times a day, and I usually just leave it in the floor with him, and I'll catch him playing with it.

See that penguin beside him? It was the best $2 find at a garage sale ever for this age. About a month an da half ago he was scared of it, two weeks later it was his best friend. He'll scream at it, bat it around so it wobbles and the balls move and it "wooohooo's!" at him, and he's a happy little man. I have some of the funniest videos of him on my phone with this, I'll have to upload them.

I knew kids were messy, I have a niece and nephew for goodness sakes, but wow. WOW. This is only a quarter of our living room, so you can't see how much of a mess he makes, but it's a lot. I used to go behind him and clean it all up, but I figured it was a waste of time. Now I just make sure there is a path out the door to the kitchen during the day, and wait until he goes to bed to clean everything up, it works out better.

That's it, we're putting a phonebook on his head!

2011-08-13T17:27:00.000-05:00

Braxton is 8 months. 8! Where did my little baby go? There are times I miss him being so tiny - as tiny as my Godzilla baby could be - and used to sleep. *lol* But to get to watch him figure stuff out, laugh, play, feed himself - it's all wonderful, even if it breaks my heart a little bit.

I used to think people were crazy when t hey'd say "the days are long, but the years are short" when it came to babies/kids - but they're not! It's flown by so quick already, we're down 4 months left before he turns a year old. Whoa.

I sat yesterday and just watched him play with some of his toys - he's such a boy with them! He wants to figure out how stuff works, why's it doing whatever it's doing, he wants to know! Guess it won't be long and he'll be tearing things apart, using that excuse. *lol*

He's also all boy in the fact that he likes boobies. Yes. Boobs. Chi-chis. Tata's. Whatever you want to call them, he's about them. If a pretty girl walks by, he's turning his head to look. Oh, oh - as a matter of fact, me Rich and him were grocery shopping at Walmart and a very pretty lady walked by, Rich turned and peeked (hey now, she was pretty!) and Braxton didn't just turn his head, oh no. He turned his entire body around in a circle while I was holding him. So, yes, he's all boy. Ladies watch out.

I saw it a lot, but I mean it too, he's a damn good baby. Now that's not to say that he doesn't have his horrible days - trust me, we just went through 2+ weeks of them. Downfall of him being grumpy and not sleeping is me being grumpy and not sleeping. I'd contimplated on going back on Prozac, I was snippy, wanted to cry, short tempered and just plain tired.
I'd gone on Prozac about two months after he was born, but got off of it after about 2-3 months before the "baby blues" had passed, and have been feeling fine ever since. (I have no issues saying I've been on Prozac, I have situational anxiety, and every now and then when my life is going crazy, I have to go on it until it settles back down. *lol*) But, I realized that I didn't need the meds this time, it was a phase and would pass... eventually. *lol* And, I'm knocking on wood as I type this , it has I think.
He's still a little fussy, I think we're cutting some new teeth and going through a growth spurt, so it's to be expected. One day at a time! :)

Could that face make you melt anymore?! Aww. :) He's my blued-eyed monster baby! *lol* Who's 8 freakin' months. Since Florida has a butt-ton of phonebooks every year - seriously, we get, like, 5-6! - we'll put some on his noggin' to stop him from growing up so fast on me.

He'll be 8 freakin' months in 2 days, really?!

2011-08-11T15:18:00.000-05:00

I suck, I know. I really don't know how these new moms do it, how they're able to find the time and get online to update - hell, I don't know how they find time to go to the bathroom, muchless anything else.

That's my problem - budgeting time. That and I honestly spend all day in the floor playing with B. He's not interested in the tv - and trust me, I leave it on all day so I can watch my shows while playing with him. I can't tell if the no-tv is a blessing or a curse. *lol* Guess we'll find out. But, I do suck at finding time to do anything.

Here's the breakdown of my day - and please note that it changes depending on if he slept through the night, or woke up a few times or a bunch, naps, etc.

7am-8am Brax usually wakes up, and gets to eat his breakfast. If he wakes up earlier he gets a bottle until this time.

We play. He might take a 30 minutes nap.

11am-12pm is when I try to give him lunch, but that depends on if he decides to take a nap or not,, and it could be up to 3 hours.

3pm-ish is a snack.

Play.

4pm-5pm Rich comes home and relieves me, that is if he doesn't have stuff that needs to get done.

5pm-6pm I cook dinner, and might get some cleaning in there.

6pm-7pm Brax eats dinner and Rich gives him his shower.

7pm+ Brax goes to bed.

And if does like he's done the past two weeks of Hell we've been in, he'll wake up once or twice for atleast an hour up to 2+. Yea. Fun.

So, see? Where do I have time to do anything?! I wasn't lying about finding time to even use the bathroom, I put Brax in his walker and he follows me in there, and then I proceed to play peekaboo with him with the door. Ah, the life of a mother.

He's eating a ton. Seriously. The boy isn't fat - thank you, Lord! - but he's freakin' tall as all git'out.

Aw, those beautiful blue eyes. :)

Who doesn't love a faux-hawk?!

He's not standing up by himself, he's actually leaning on Rose behind him. *lol* BUT, he can crawl like lightening now, pulling himself up and "cruising". I'm in trouble now.

There are times we just let him play with hisfood and get all messy - its usually days I have to mop. *lol*

Crawling towards me through his sea of toys. Again, garage sales!

We've graduated, yet again, and now take baths in the tub - long gone is the blow-up duck tub, which was awesome. He enjoys it.

Almost two weeks ago my dad came down for a very short visit, and we went to the beach in hopes of swimming, but the algea was so bad, you couldn't wake into the water really. Iinstead we let Brax play in the sand and get wet.

Ha-ha-ha, you funny G.I.!

Me and Brax :)

Rich, Brax and dad

He ate the sand, yes. It's going to happen, atleast it wasn't poo or something.

Toesies in the sand :)

Dad and Braxton

He enjoyed himself!

2011-07-13T14:18:00.000-05:00

When you're younger I think you think being a stay-at-home-mom is easy - I mean, come on, you get to play dress-up, make funny stuff out of play-doh, watch cartoons, eat snacks and sip juice! But, in all actuallity, it's hard as hell. Tough. Wears you flat out.
I will say that I haven't worked since me and Rich got married seven years ago- ok, I take that back, I worked less than a year somewhere, but that's it. So when Brax came along, it was tough on the both of us. We were so used to just hanging out, or getting up and going on a whim, being selfish with what money we did have to spend on extras, and you can't do that with a baby.
   I never thought about life insurance on anyone but me and Rich, or health insurance for that matter - thank you Army for Tricare, man do I miss it! - but that's on the forefront of our minds now. A few months before having Brax our insurance doubled to $1,200 a month - which is more than our rent! - and wow did that hurt us. Now our new insurance will kick off in August, and we'll be saving $100. Sure, it's more than what we had before, but it still sucks - but you have to have it, so you make due.
   Baby formula is expensive, along with bottles, diapers, wipes, clothes (especially if you have a Godzilla baby like mine! lol), sippy cups, bowls, food bullet, fresh produce to make baby food;.... that list could go on and on. I think some people go in with blinders on, life Rich, and some don't, like I thought I was... but you're floored by it all when they're actually here.
   You're blessed if you're close to home or have tons of friends whereever you are, and are able to have a shower to help get some of the items you need. If you're like us, we didn't get that luxury, and it stinks. Hell it stinks we didn't get to enjoy it all with anyone really, even my family missed out and had to see it via skype.

After having Brax, you realize all the things that you wish you knew beforehand so that you could prepare yourself. Sad part is I thought I was semi-slightly-maybe-prepared, but I was wrong. Things sneak up on you. You're life is thrown out of whack, it's scary, sleepless, loud, messy..... and somehow, totally right.

6 months to current

2011-07-02T22:18:00.000-05:00

He loves animal crackers

and his toes. And my toes - he wont leave them alone. *lol*

Animal crackers even make their way between his toes!

Old man babbling face, again.

He loves that teddy bear of mine, so now I want to go to Build-a-Bear and make him one :)

He's now officially on sippy cups for his water/juice. Formula is only in bottles. He actually has a set of small glasses for when he wants to drink like a "big boy" - I'm bound and deteremind to have him off a bottle before a year old.

I hit up garage sales for random toys, and this is only about half of what I've gotten so far for him. My house has been taken over by baby.

He's now able to eat those baby puffs by himself!

We'd played hard in the pool, and he's not relaxing while he watched daddy and Cam play video games.

Rich plays "bury the baby" iwth hte pillows and we hunt for him - makes his day. He just laughs his head off and plays peek-a-boo with you.

Little things make him happy.

If you look closely you can see his bottom tooth on the right - and today the left one's popped through!

*lol*

5 months and growing...

2011-07-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

He loves his alien so much that his eyes are now lopsided. *lol*

He's such a happy baby :)

My cheeks flush like that when I first wake up - it takes him a second to wake up.

Melissa and Cameron enjoy having Brax over to play

Just FYI - those baby swim bottoms may hold poop in, but let pee come out on your neck. *lol*

Yuuum, daddy's head tastes good!

He's been teething since around 3-4 months, hence the drooly, slimy baby. I just gave up on bibs at home (minues when he's eating of course), and jjust change his onsies a few times.

He's discovered he has a tongue and likes to blow rasberries all the time.

The cats and dog are amazing "toys" - he focuses on t hem all the time! He even chases them in his walker, we're workin' on his leg muscles!

Oh yes, rockin' the overalls :)

See, happy water baby. And, he just about never wears clothes swimming *lol*. Melissa just takes him in the pool all nakey - with sunscreen on! - and he has a grand ol'time. But I will say that if he hasn't pooped yet, he goes in in bottoms.

Hey ladies :)

Ohhhh goodness - guess what he's found?! Yep, his penis, tally-wacker, deedle (as Melissa calls it), peepee and whatever else name youc an think of. He found it the first time in his rubber ducky bathtub, and they've been pals ever since. *lol* So diaper changes have been interesting, especially if he's pooped, on how fast that hand goes down ther ebefore you can clean the area. It's all downhill from here! *lol*

I'm one of those people that don't care if the toys is pink/princess/etc and a boy wants to play with it - they're babies/kids, they're going to play with whatever is fun, and I'm all ok with that. So, he has a pink walker - why? Becuase I got a great deal on it at a garage sale. *lol* He enjoys it, it makes lots of noises, and that makes me hapy.

He actually has quiet a bit of pink stuff - his walker, a flower rattle/crinkle noise toy, bumbo, a flowered baby blanket from w hen I was a baby, and I kno there is something else, but can't remember. I figure if it makes him happy, we'll roll with it!

He laughs all the time - it's so cliche, but it is seriously the best sound ever - and now makes this weird crinkled-up nose face with it. :)

He also babbles all the time, especially with Richard, and this is his babbling old man face.

We've moved out dining table in a corner in our from room we made into a dinig area, moved the rug and put our computer chair in there along with his walker and chase each other. *lol* This is him chasing me as I pushed backwards. We spend so much time doing that during the day, and it's hilarious to see him "running" at you,and then one fo the cats distracts him.

We've also started to sit up by ourselves. Granted I have to sit him up, we're still working on doing it ourselves, but we can actually sit there for awhile before our poofy-diapered-butt makes him fall over.

I will say that Braxton doesn't care about rolling over, he can do it, but not a fan. He also could care less about sitting up, he just wants to stand. All. The. Time. He preferred to stand months ago, but now that he can pull himself up by holding my fingers, it's all he wants to do. So we've started helping him "walk" by either putting his feet on ours, or just holding his hands up and letting his step his way around. I have a feeling he'll be walking before anything else.

He loves the rubber ducky bathtub I found at a garge sale for $2 - they're $15 at Walmart. Rich can put him in it and he'll play for half an hour easy, just splashing and playing with his toys.

I now make all of Brax's food - minues his formula, obviously, his cereal and oatmeal. Melissa had an extra Magic Bullet and it's amazing! We've already had green beans, carrots, spaghetti/acorn/butternut/yellow squash, english peas (the worlds worst poo diapers!), mixed veg, corn, chicken, pears, applesauce, banana, oatmeal, pineapple, strawberries, canteloup, spaghetti noodles..... and I can't think of what else.

I do buy baby food when I have good coupons and put them away in our hurricane box just an emergency, but overall everything is made my be. I thought it'd be hard, but it's so easy to do!

Yuuuummy, mail tastes good!

2011-07-02T21:09:00.000-05:00

Love daddy much?

Sometimes I get jealous because he gets so excited when Rich gets home - hey kid, I birthed you! *lol* I will say that he's pretty equal parts on who he wants normally.

Those yes.... they can melt anyones heart. Try him, he'll prove it.

Getting some mommy-love in there

I've got a water baby

2011-07-02T21:00:00.000-05:00

After we got home from Texas we were at Melissa's and Cam's house, and decided that the weather was perfect, the water was warm, and it was time for Braxton's first dip in the pool! He wasn't too sure what to think at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea!
I was scared to hold him at first, so Rich got the honors! :) He was bouncing him, swirling around and teaching him to splash! I've now got my hands full nearly three months later because he wants to be in the water all the time! *lol* :)

This was his "Dirty Dancing" move :)

He even did great when we dunked his head under the water! Let me tell ya, that scared the life out of me. *lol*

We went to Walmart and got him this little bee with a cover over it, and he loves it. Ok, so he really just loves the bee's antenna's because he can chew on them, but it serves it's purpose.

Brax's first road trip!

2011-07-02T20:26:00.000-05:00

I'm having to backtrack quiet a bit since I've been a horrible blogger, and highlight some stuff that's happened since my last post!

First my parents came down in April for a quick trip, and me and Braxton went back with them for a two week visit! I can't lie, it was tough! For one it was tough for me since I was the caregiver with no breaks the whole time, and we both got sick (well, it was allergies for him and allergies/sinus infection for me), and we were away from Rich. Man'o man was it all just a bit much to take. *lol*

The trip took 11 hours, and Brax did wonderful! Of course he got tired of sitting in his carseat and sleeping, so we made plenty of stops along the way for everyone and finally made it to their house around midnight.
My sister and her two hadn't gotten to meet him before, so they finally did at 3+ months! It was too funny, as soon as we walked in the house that night Brax was swooped up and taken away to visit - the kids had stayed up late just so they could see him. He was special! :)

The trip was much needed - I hadn't been home in well over a year, and besides mom and dad, no one had gotten to meet him! But, we got sick shortly after getting in, so we didn't get to see near as many people as we wanted to - so I'm hoping when we got in for his birthday/Christmas we'll get to see everyone!
I miss Texas.... man do I miss it. Seriously people, if you're from Texas you understand, but you don't know how much you miss a freakin' blacktop road, people waving to each other as you pass each other, the word "y'all, thank you, and please". I'm telling you, it's the little things. *lol* :)

I'm normally a camera-whore, and I took my camera with me to TX, but I hardly took any! We stayed so busy, or we were just soaking it all up, and never got around to it.

So we can officially put it in Brax's baby book that at just over 3 months he trucked his way from Florida to Texas for a wonderful two week vacation with his grandparents!

Aimee loved Brax - she wanted to hold him all the time.

It felt so good! We were able to be in shorts and not be hot, unlike now, and spend some time outside.

Bocephus made the trip in - he's seriously the best traveling dog ever, just sleeps - and always enjoys spending time there. He got to play in the cow pasture (and roll in manure) and just be a dog!

The kids love their dirt pile, it was hours of fun!

*lol* Tucker and his mohawk :)

Tucker and Aimee :)

I'm looking at these pics and just amazed at how different Brax looks now , blows my mind.

Lots of popsicles were had.

My (ex) brother-in-law, Shaun. He brought over his son, who's the same age as Tucker, and visit with them. I also went to his wife and saw his family.

Nanny and Braxton

Poppop and Brax

Tucker was showing you city slickers how us country bumpkins roll.

I'm huge on nicknames, they stick with you forever, and I always wanted his to be cute incase it stuck. Well, it's become Chicken. I don't know how or why, but it is. So, Nanny found a stuffed chicken at Big Lots before Easter, it chirps, and he loved it. It's officially put on his bookshelf until he wont eat it, but we chirp it when I pick out a book.

Richard's parents got to meet Brax for the first time. It's been a few years since we've spoken to them, but it was nice to see them with their first grandbaby :)

Richard's little brother, Karl, who's not so little anymore. *lol*

Nanny and Brax the day before we left.

When we were home me and mom decided that it'd be great to have a photo done of all the grandbabies since it's the first time they're in together, and it'd be the last for a while. It's so hard to come in! So, off we went to Gymboree to hunt for clothes, and photos were booked and done!
I will say that it wasn't easy to get three kids to smile or look in the same direction at the same time, it was frustrating. Aimee was in a funky mood, Tucker was just himself and being hyper, and Brax is 3 months - need I say more?!

We all agree that Brax was just too cute to pass up onthis photo, so it was their group shot.

We did a spur of the moment shot of Brax and me holding him, and I love it. It captures how happy and funny he is all the time. :)

Tiff and me - we haven't done a sister shot since I graduated high school ten years ago!

Tiff and her two :)

Eh, me and Brax. I'm not a fan of it persay - especially the reflection in my glasses - but it's still a great mommy-and-me photo.

Tucker :)

They're just too damn cute.

Ok, we had to go with the odds on this one - me and Brax don't look good at all, but the other three do. *lol* So, they won. :)

I was so sad to leave TX after our visit, but so ready to be back home with Rich and in our house, doing our routine. I can't wait to go back in December for Brax's first birthday, and Christmas! He'll be older and more aware of what's going on, it'll be amazing.

Happy First Father's Day!

2011-06-19T00:35:00.000-05:00

When I married Richard, I knew he was "that guy" - the one that wanted kids, and pretty much rocked as an uncle. So when we decided to have a kiddo of our own, I was terrified! I mean, didn't you see where I said he ROCKED as an uncle, he'd be flippin' AWESOME as a dad.

And, he is. :)

Today is his first actual father's day when Braxton actually here - because last year he found out we were having a boy father's day weekend! Too great.

So dear husband o'mine - thank you for being amazing.

You give B great bear hugs, even at a few weeks old.

He loves to curl up on your shoulder.

He knows you'll protect him.

And love the heck out of him.

And be one hell of a fun dad. :)

Something for our livingroom and a giveaway!

2011-04-02T15:20:00.000-05:00

We're huge TV people - you should seriously take a look at my DVR right now, I hardly get time to watch it down! - and the worst thing happened. Ready for it? Our tv died. Oh the horror!! It was a tragedy to say the least. *lol*
It was actually the big tv we had in our living room, ya know the big bulky big screen ones they had before they came out with flat tvs? That one. Rich bought it right after his second deployment - I opted for a washer, dryer and deep freeze for myself - and it got used like crazy. It's made several big moves with us from MS to TX to FL where it finally crashed.
The worst part was it was the tv in our livingroom, which is where I'd watch tv while Rich played his video games in our room our our flat screen tv we got a few years ago. So when the tv bit it I was pregnant with Braxton and spent a lot of time in our bedroom anyway, so it wasn't an issue to just curl up in bed in there during the day - it was just a problem when Rich wanted to play his video game and I didn't.
So we made the decision when I was about 8 months along to move the flat screen into the living room, and be tv-free in our bedroom, and it's been nice. There are times we miss it, sure, but overall I enjoy having our bedroom to just sleep in - espcially since Braxton is still in his crib in there with us.

The downfall to the tv in the living room is we can't put it on the wall like we did in our bedroom - it's a converted garage, now a den - and we don't want to put another set of holes in the wall. So for now it's on the console that we had our bigger tv on before.
Now we're on the lookout for a LCD TV stand that will hold the tv, and go with our current furniture.

I really like the look of somethig like this, especially since it won't be long before Braxton will be crawling/walking - it'd keep all the consoles inside where he couldn't mess with the buttons. I'm a wood person, and the color matches our coffee/end tables nicely as well.

We'll get a tv stand like that after we get another tv to put back in our bedroom - I mean, if we choose to put one back... yea, I have a feeling we won't go too long before we do it. *lol*

Until then, CSN has been aweome to me, yet again, and sponsoring another giveaway! :) The rules are easy, just comment once and you'll be entered in. You're going for a $35 gift code to use at any of their stores, and it's open to US/Canada residents. I'll close the giveaway on the 10th, so hop to it! :)

Our day at the beach

2011-03-30T13:33:00.000-05:00

Last month we had some friends come down, and they just happen to be Braxton's Godparents as well!

I met April online about six years ago, but we actually met in person until '06 when they moved back to Fort Hood when we were there, and have been "in real life" friends ever since. :) We love them, and we've been lucky that when each of our families moved, we ended up staying close - only 5 hours apart!

So when they decided to make a trip down, we were all for it - we hadn't seen them since I was around 5 months pregnant, and before that it'd been over a year! We went to Destin and ate at McGuire's, and walked aroudn the beach. Even though it was so early in the year, there were tons of people out swimming! It was too cold for me and Brax to go in, but the guys and Madison walked around in it.

We made plans to go back the next day and spent a few hours hanging out. The guys spent most of it looking for shells and sand dollars - which I now have two whole ones to add to Brax's book. :)

Daddy and Braxton

All of us :)

The water was freezing!!

Me and B

April, the Godmother :)

No worries, we didn't put his feet in teh water, just the wet sand to make a print... which didn't work.

He enjoyed the warms sun and breeze.

Most awesome Godparents :)

It was a beautiful day!

He had no problem lounging and enjoying the sound of the waves.

They're like little kids, they had to dig a huge hole! *lol*

He loved April :)

Rich went in first, then Josh.

R+M=B

He had no problem sleeping!

Things I can't live without so far....

2011-03-04T16:17:00.001-06:00

I love when I find a blog that puts the things they couldn't live without when it comes to baby - so I figure I'd do the same! So here's the items I love so far at only 3 months!

Huggies Diapers & Wipes

Now let me say this first off, for newborn diapers we loved Pampers Swaddlers, they were amazing! But, as soon as he was out of newborns, we fell in love with Huggies Swaddlers or Snug&Dry's. They work the best for us at night, or when we're going to be out in town for a while.

We also fell in love with their wipes - and we've tried them all, we were a fan of the Pamper's Sensitive wipes until we tried these. They are super thick - which was a huge factor for us, we wanted them to be able to handle anything B was dishing out. *lol* An added bonus is that they smell amazing.

Wipe Warmer

A lot of people don't really like wipe warmers and say they're a waste, but we love ours. More especially since B was born in December, we didn't like the idea of putting cold wipes on his tush, so this solved the problem.

Bottles

At the hospital they gave B some sugar water, and it had the Nuk nipple on it, and he took to it with no problem. So when we got out, we cound a starter set of Nuk bottles and paci's, so we got them. We still love them, and use them every day. Rich likes the Nuk's more because they're taller, so easier for him to hold.

But, my favorite bottle is the Tommee Tippee bottles. I love that they're designed to help with going from boob to bottle with no issues, they've got a super soft nipple area, and are easy to hold. I also love that you don't have to worry about that disc that comes in most bottles to help you shake it up, and you have to find a place for it when you're done. These are disc free, just shake it with the lid on, and youre good to go. Perfect for out in town!

Clothes

When B was first born, I wish I had more sleep sacks, they were a life-saver at 2am when you're sleep deprived. But now that he's older, I can't get enough of the zip-up pj's - they're super easy, and perfect for th middle of the night since youdon't have to worry about buttons.

Carter's has the cutest selection of zip-up pj's, and they're well made and last for a long time. We got a huge selection of them in the clothes we were given, and they've gone through three kids now and not a stitch out of place.

You can never have too many onsies, ever. We go through around 3 a day with B on average. When we find them at garage sales, consignment shops, Goodwill, or on clearance, we buy a few. We have nice ones that we keep for outings, and then he has a drawer full of every day ones that we don't care if they get stained or anything since they're just for home/play.

Another must buy is burp rags - and lots of them. We have, probably, around 18 or so. We had a few 6 cloth diaper ones that are decorated, and a few flannel blankets (theyre too small to swaddle a baby in, but perfect for burp rags) before B was born because we didn't know if he was going to be a spit-up baby or not. After a while we saw he was, so we found a package of cloth diapers on clearance and added them to our stash. We go through atleast once a day, if not two.

Boppy

I actually got the Walmart version of the Boppy, I think it's called Cuddle me or something like that, I'd have to look. Either way, they all do the same thing! *lol* I liked that I was able to put B in it when I needed to get up to do something, helped with his reflux, and with breast feeding.

Toys

B just now really started noticing toys and such, but his favorite already is a teether by Bright Starts - it's an elephant with a crinkly belly and his feet have teethers. He loves it, and has started to hug-chew it, which is just too funny to watch.

Here's an example of what it some of them look like since I couldn't find his.

Swing

I am so glad my parents bought us this - its been amazing! His first month he hated it, now he enjoys it. He sleeps like a dream in it, which is great for naps during the day.

Biggest perk? It's electric and battery operated. Shyea! We just keep it plugged in in the living room, and as I type, he's been in it for almost three hours non stop, same as the day before. It has a slight motor noise, but nothing like they used to.

Jumperoo

We picked this exact one up at a garage sale about a month ago for $30, and it was great money spent. At first he was too small for it, so his feet didn't touch the ground, but now his tippy-toes do. Right now the toys and such don't iterest him as much, but he enjoys being bounced, or trying to do it himself.

Added bonus? He zonks out quickly in it! *lol* The bouncing puts him right now.

Mobile

I wasn't all for buying this for B, it was a pretty penny, but I'm glad Rich went for it when we had the extra money. B loves lights,especially the ceiling fan, so figured he'd love this too. At first he didn't seem to notice it, now if we lay him in his crib on his boppy (which is beside our bed), we turn it on and he just stares at it. So good buy hubs!

We like that it projects and slide show, so it keeps B interested. I love that while he's little it projects into the canopy, but when he's older you take it off, and it does it on the ceiling!

Added bonues? It plays differnt stuff, first buttong is Mozart/Beethove, second is a heart beat, and third is a jungle-y sounds - and they play for 15 minutes! Another perk is that it comes with a remote.

Bouncer

This was the first thing we put B in, and it's our go-to item all the time. It's easy enough to sit it on the cabinet while I do dishes, or the deep freeze while I clean, or just in the floor. He doesn't care too much for the vibrating or music it plays, but overall it's a nice thing to have.

B discovered kicking about two weeks ago, and goes crazy kicking at the bar. It keeps his attention for a while, which allows me to do some things. *lol*

Humidifier

It's pretty dry here in FL anyway, but especially in the winter, so we have this set up on our bathroom cabinet across the room from where B's crib is in our room. The few times he's stayed at our friends, or we forget to turn it on, he'll end up congested and maybe a slight blood in his nose. When we put him in his own room, this'll follow him!

Medicine

Like I mentioned before, B isn't a c-word baby, but this isn't just for that. It's helped us out after he got his shots, and this past week for his teething. It helps if he's got an upset tummy, or just plain ol'irritable.

We also use Colic Calm (holy crap is it expensive!), but prefer this so far.

B is a pretty gassy baby, so this is a must-have for us. We take it everywhere!

After we got B home, he got extra fussy about two weeks after he was born. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, the above two meds weren't doing anything for him, and we wer eworried he was turning into the dreaded c-word. So to help him out, we made onion water, and oh my goodness, it worked wonders! Luckily he was just gassy, so this helped get it out, and mellow him out in the process. We've only used it one other time.

Onion water is maybe a southern thing, I haven't heard too many peole up north mention it before. *lol* My parents used it on both me and my sister, Tiff. And Tiff turned around and used it on both her babies. I

Glowing seahorse

I read on another blog that this was a lifesaver for her b aby, so before B was born I snatched it up at Big Lots (it was smidge cheaper than Walmart at the time), and love it! It plays music for 4 or 5 minutes, glows (obviously) and easy to take with you if you need to.

Tush ointment

B got a nasty diaper rash on his tush before he was a mont old, and usually we use Boudreaux's Butt Paste, but this one needed something more. I'd been told Triple Paste rocks, and they weren't lying! Within two diaper changes y ou could tell a huge difference! So on bad rashes we use this, and on slight ones we use the Boudreaux's.

Travel System

I can not say enough great things about the Chicco travel system. We're in love with this set!

For one, we wanted something unisex incase we go for another baby, so we got the red one. We also wanted the kelly green one, but I found an online coupon for the red, so that was the one that my parents bought us since it was the best deal. :)

I'm 5'7", and Rich is 6'1" so we don't have a huge heighth difference, but enough that if we got a stroller that's handle didn't go up or down, it'd be a pain in the back for either of us. Luckily this one has different positions, so we're both happy.

We love how easy it is to manuever - you can literally turn it with your thumb and first finger, and push it with one! Huge selling point.

The car seat is nice, but a little heavy if you carry it around a lot - guess it'll help put some muscle tone in the arms though! *lol*

I like that the stroller seat can be laid flat so it's like a bassinet and B can just take a nap if we're out for a long time.

A lot of people say that they think travel systems are a waste, but we love ours and have used the heck out of it. It's well made, and it'll be great to continue using - totally worth the pretty penny. *lol*

Chips Ahoy

This is my go-to item for baby... why? Becuase when youre up at al hours of the night, momma needs something too. *lol*

2011-03-03T13:05:00.000-06:00

This picture is just too funny - he was blowing spit bubbles that day, and Rich happened to catch it for a pic and on video.

B is such a ham... he's always happy, smiling and laughing. I can't say how lucky I am for him to be this way! I don't even say the C-word outloud in fear he'll turn that way. Curious as to what the C-word is? Colic. Yikes! I prayed all the time for him to not be a c-word baby, and thus far, he's not. Knock on wood, cross my fingers, and send a prayer up! *lol*
I know my parents said I wasn' too bad of a c-word baby, but my sister was awful. They just had pure hell from her for months, they said they broke rocking chairs with her because they'd rock so much and so hard to get to to quiet down. Crazy! So those stories made me scared to have a baby. Add in Tiff's kids being c-wordy, and sickly (she was sickly too as a kid, lol), I was terrified!
I know we're not out of the woods yet, but I hope it doens't happen.

Now that's not to say that he hasn't been fussy or irritable, oh trust me, he has! I remember the day we came home from the hospital how he just screamed off and on that day, and it was because he was "brand new" and by feeding him he'd gotten some gas in his belly and it had to be worked out. Thankfully that's all it turned out to be.
Fast forward to him almost a month old and he was fussy again, and we thought it was gas, so we did the ol'trusted onion water. And low and behold, he was good again. :) We only use the onion water during times he's really fussy, and times when he's irritable and we can't console him with toys, diaper change, bottle and such, he gets Gripe Water or Colic Calm, adn they help.
So far he's a pretty easy baby to calm!

There aren't too many things that piss off ol'B, but a wet diaper can send him over the edge sometimes. *lol* I really need to keep count of how many diapers we go through a day, it's gotta to an insane amount. He just hates to have a wet one on, and almost immediatly starts fussing to be out of it. It can be pretty funny.
On top of that, he doesn't like to go to the bathroom multiple times in a diaper - so we'll change his wet one, and he'll either pee again or poo. So we change it again. It never fails!
We love Huggies diapers (and their Shea Butter wipes), but they get expensive since he goes through a lot in a day. (We've gone through 6-7 in an hour one day!) So we started doing what my parents did with us as kids - put them in cheaper diapers during the day, and good ones at night. It's been a life saver! Sure that means we're buying two different kinds of diapers, but price wise we can come out cheaper in the long run. So far we've tested Pampers, Luvs and the Up&Up Target brand. I prefer the Up&Up's, and Rich likes the Pampers w/dry max for daytime, and Huggies at night.

B also doesn't like to be woken up, and it takes him a few minutes to wake up - he's a lot like me in that respect. So usually in the mornings when he first starts stirring and I get to him before he's fully awake, I put him on the changing mat and talk slow and quietly to him and just let him wake up. I mean, come on, no one likes to be woken up by loud voices!
He's also impatient, and hates for his food to be taken away - I think he gets that from both me and Rich. We love our food, obviously - you've seen us, and he does too.
He's developing his own personality, and it's been pretty fun to watch. We said yesterday we think we have a class clown on our hands since he's so happy all the time. I'll take that any day. :)

2011-03-03T12:12:00.000-06:00

To be honest, I never saw myself with kids. Sure, I was that typical little girl who daydreamed about getting married, having the picket fence (which our house does have, and hate it - can't keep it clean!), having a dog and car... but that was where it ended. I never pictured babies in there for some reason, and I never thought much about it.
And here I am now: married, picket fence, dog, two cats - and a baby. And I'm happy!

You always here women say that you'll never know true love until you have a baby - it's a different kind of love than what you have with your spouse, and I'll be damned if they aren't right. I admit it. There are times that I look at Braxton and just get teary eyed because I love him that much. That I just want to squeeze the heck out of him in a bear hug and never let go - I kiss the boys cheeck all day long! He'll grow tired of me. *lol*
I've turned into that sappy mother I never thought I'd be. I can be a kind of hard ass, but he makes me melt.... and I like it. I like making him smile and laugh. I was over the moon when he held his head up on his own, when he discovered his feet and kicks the Pooh Bear bar over his bouncer, and I can't imagine how happy I'll be once he talks, walks, goes off to pre-k, etc.

I turned into a mom.... and I never knew I'd love it so much.

I know, I know - it's been forever!

2011-02-28T16:42:00.000-06:00

But what do you do when you've got a one-week-shy-of-being-three-months baby at home? Try to sleep. Or eat - which I tend to forget to do. Drink some water - which I need to be doing, but I'm on here instead. Use the bathroom - 'nough said. Acknowledge the dog and cats. Hug my husband - which I need to do more. Watch tv - it takes me all day sometimes to watch one one hour show! Or clean. And last, but not least, blog about what I should be doing. *lol*

Braxton has been doing well - he's a tall lil'man. A few weeks ago he meausred in at 24.5 inches already, and 12+ pounds. He's fitting nicely in 6 month clothes, and some 9 months. We're just about to be out of all the clothes we were given - so we've gotta go shopping for more, and hit up garage sales!

He's always happy. Seriously. It drives me crazy sometimes- mainly at 4 in the morning when we're sleep deprived and just want to tell him to go fix his own bottle, and then he smiles... and we can't really remember (ok, so that's a lie) why we were grumpy to begin with.

He still only sleeps around 3-4 hours at a time, we'll be glad when he bumps that up a bit. *lol*

I can't really say he's a full fledge momma or daddy's boy, he seems to like us pretty equally at the moment. We know that'll change.

The shirt says it all - "MOmmy neds a datenight!" Yep, I do.

I got this put on a small 8x10 canvas, I can't wait to put it up somewhere!

Told ya he was always happy - lil'whipper snapper.

(Rich told me to leave that saying back in the '50s where it belongs, I like it.)

He had his first overnight stay with our friend Melissa - I know, same name! *lol* He slept six straight hours for her, next night with us he was up every 2.5. He's a turd.

It was hard to leave him, and I kept telling Rich I wanted to go back to pick him up, but we didn't. And, lets face it, I enjoyed my 8 straight hours of sleep - and a big thanks to Tylenol PM for helping. I also enjoyed that she kept him until nearly 3pm the next day and I was able to sleep in and clean the house, and watch tv. Holy crap I was spoiled! *lol*

He's stayed at Melissa's another two times since then, and it's gotten tons easier. Matter of fact,w e're missing Melissa right now and can't wait for her to get back into town so we can have a datenight! :)

He can hold his head, and sit up with little problems. Now I just need a Bumbo (or something like it) - he loves to be involved in what's going on! His bouncer does ok, but it leans back too much, and I want something that stands up more.

*Hint*Hint* Parental units!

He's my cuddle buddy :)

He doesn't really care too much for tummy time - he's on his back in this pic, I know. He prefers to do his "tummy time" on our actual tummies when we hold him. He enjoys looking around, which is fine... I don't enjoy it when head butts me. *lol*

See, happy baby. I hope I'm not jinxing myself - I'm knockin' on wood, people!

I still, to this day, cry sometimes when he smiles at me. I really didn't know I'd fall this much in love with him, it just makes me ache.

We tried sweet 'taters a few weeks ago - he was iffy. Before that we did rice cereal, which he enjoys - we put an ounce of juice (apple or prune - his formula constipates him) and two ounces of water with the cereal twice a day,he loves it! Anyway, back to sweet 'taters! We tried them too ealry, so we'll give it another go in a month or two.

It looks like he didn't like them, but after the first two bites he enjoyed it... that or he liked swirling it all around in his mouth, both are an option. *lol*

He's already starting to get a personality, which has been fun to watch. He likes to smile, laugh, enjoys bouncing in his jumperoo (his tippy-toes touch, so webounce him), kicking at Pooh oon the bar of his bouncer, and just moving in general. I have a feeling I'll be in trouble once he becomes mobil.

Those deep blue eyes just kill me, they're just too pretty! Between his milk white skin (that turns beet red like mine when he's upset), strawberry hair and blue eyes - he's going to be a lady killer (or guy, whichever he prefers, lol).

7 weeks old and an overnight visit

2011-01-31T13:36:00.000-06:00

I can't believe we're only a week shy of B being two months old... seriously?! I'm already missing him being so tiny. :( He's a big ol'boy now! I need to measure him this week, but he's already fitting into 6 month clothes, mainly because they're longer, but width wise they're a little big. Last week he was 11.9 lbs - so I can't wait to see how much he weights on Valentines Day when he goes in for his next doctors appoinment.

Yesterday we went to our friends house to hang out for a while, and she's been asking for weeks to keep B for a few hours or overnight. The day before when I brought it up to Rich he wasn't sure about it, and kept saying he didn't know if he could do it. Then yesterday when I was packing up a big bag incase we did let him stay, I was backing out! *lol* We just weren't sure if it was the right thign to do yet or not.
Well we spent just about all day over there, and Rich pulled me to the side and asked if we should do it because he wanted to give it a try, so I said sure. Later that evening B woke up and was hungry, so I sat down to give him his last bottle from me that night, and a while later he got a wet diaper. So I handed him off to Rich to change while I went to the bathroom, but I never made it there.
B decided he wanted to sprinkle on their couch, but he stopped before he'd finished. So I pick him up and walk to the bathroom with him and I start feeling him pee on me. I had his tummy facing me, so that meant when he was going, it was soaking through my shirt, bra and jeans. Oh yes. And to top it off, as I was holding him, he decided he wanted to poop. Several times. ON MY HAND. *lol*
All me and Melissa (our friend) could do was laugh as she caught the poop in a baby wipe to throw it away. Funny thing was at that moment, I just didn't want to leave him. Makes no sense.
After cleaning him up and putting him in his pj's, we gave him kisses and obviously with me being covered in urine, it was time to go home. I'm proud to say that I didn't cry until I'd gotten in the car, and fought the urge to tell Rich to turn around and go back to pick him up. *lol* Rich cried a little when we'd gotten home and he opened the car door to pull him out and realzied he wasn't there. :(

Since we were baby free for the evening, we ate some dinner, watched tv, played online and popped a few sleeping pills to catch up on some much needed rest. We were both asleep by 11:30 last night, and slept until the alarmt went off at 6am. After Rich left, I went back to bed and slept until 930! *lol*
I called Melissa to see how B had done, and he was an angel, like always. I have a great baby! :) He slept from 1030pm-415am, ate and then went back out after an hour or so until 9am! He was a tired boy!
And to top it all off, Melissa still has him, she'll be bringing him home around 230pm - so I was able to get some things done around the house and now watching tv.

I didn't think we'd be able to hand him over for an overnight visit, but it was suprisingly harder and easier than I thought. *lol* I know it doesn't make sense, but it does. It was hard to leave him there and wonder if he's fussy because he misses us and such. And it was easier to be ok with it once we'd gotten home and realized he was going to be fine, and to stop worrying.
Now I'm not saying this'll be a regular thing, but it was nice to have a few hours of alone time with Rich, catch some sleep and just recharge.

I'm a month old!!

2011-01-11T16:49:00.000-06:00

I am the proud momma of a one month old lil'man :) 

Big picture post!

2011-01-11T16:20:00.000-06:00

This is how I looked most of the labor - just all drugged up and couldn't function. Nice.

This is how I looked during the actual labor part. Again, nice. I'm a big ole'baby. *lol*

I remember the doctor saying he looked like his daddy - since Rich shaves his head bald - and I told him that after all that indigestion/heart burn he better have a head full of hair, and he did! It was just so blonde you couldn't see it under all that white creamy stuff. *lol*

Mom kept saying how "clean" he came out - he knew his momma didn't want a big ole'mess!

Oh I remember Rich coming back in after taking photos/video of his first bath and he was in tears. He hated hearing Braxton cry.

Doesn't this photo just pull at your heart? He looks like he's being tortured.

His head looks really round here, *lol*. He was a day old.

Since Rich had to work on Brax's first full day of life, he came to the hospital as soon as he showered, he couldn't wait to cuddle with him. Even if the sour lookon his face doesn't show it. *lol*

On Brax's second day he was super gassy and fussy, and only my Mom could calm him down.

Oh how I look like hell - but I was so glad to be home! It sucks knowing that your house/bed is only a mile down the road and you can't go to it until t hey release you. I was so glad to be home, adn didn't care that I look like death warmed over.

Look at that beautiful blonde hair :) He was two days old.

His first sponge bath,w hich he hated. Well, he enjoyed having his head washed, which suprised me, but after that he just got angry. And still is to be honest, but he's slowly stopped yelling so loud and much as the baths have gone on.

He's such a proud daddy :)

His eyes are a beautiful blue!

He was so skinny and long, he's now chunked up a lot.

Dad drove in from Texas when he was less than a week old, this is him meeting him for the first time.

Proud grandparents - now t hey've got three total!

Braxton's actually got my dad's blue eyes.

Big grin!

My parents had to head back to TX on Christmas Day - talk about emotions running high. I don't thinnk there was a dry eye in the house for a long while.

Mom broke my heart, she just kept touching him. These pictures still make me cry at a month out.

It's ok Gam'maw, we've got Skype to tide us all over until we get to visit!!

My parents brought me and my sister home in this outfit, and thenmy sister brought her two kids home in it. We had plans on briging Brax home in it, but we got released the day he was super gassy/fussy so we didn't want to disturb him when he actually fell asleep, so he didn't get to. :( We put it on him at around two weeks, ad he was already to tall for it!

Again, proud daddy. He's so smitten with him.

And I am too, I can't lie. Don't pay attention to how rough I look, I'm a mother to a newborn!

Lovin' the faux hawk he's got going on.

This is what I'm going to start calling the "newborn momma look" *lol*

We went to bed before the ball dropped (we set an alarm to atleast wake up and kiss, t hen went back to sleep), but on one of B's early morning feedings Rich set up the camera and took a pic of us in our sleepy glory. Starting the new year off as a family!

He looks a little gangsta' :)

Oh his pudgy cheeks! He was 3 weeks here.

One of my good friends, Kendra, made B this beanie. I looove the colors.

And she made this one :) We wanted to get professional photos done, but never got around to booking it since it was the holidays.

He's a hungry boy!

I love this one :) We'd bought him some swaddle blankets that have the velcro on them, and he lliked them for about two days, but after that he wanted to spread out! He likes to snuggle up in a ball on your chest, but otherwise he's stretched to the max.

We did tummy time last week, and he wasn't a fan. He didn't lift his head much - but he was doing that on day one - but he started kicking off with his feet making himself rock.

Birth story finale

2011-01-07T23:56:00.002-06:00

So the epi-doc comes back in and says that he’ll do it al over again, which I’m fine with. So Rich gets back in front of me, and the too-happy-nurse is behind with the doctor and I just tell her I’ll put that annoying finger thing back on as soon as I sit up – and she didn’t argue this time. I think she just knew it was a losing battle. So I get situated in my drugged up stupor, and I don’t remember much of him re-doing it, just the warm feeling after it started working.

We quickly – or as quick as I could go – got me situated back in the bed before I went completely numb. This time I went beyond the numb feeling I had before and couldn’t move my legs – and my left side this time went extra numb. Strange.

I know they came back in to check me, but I was asleep a lot of it. Ok, so I was asleep for just about everything – I don’t remember much. I do know I’d wake up to talk to Rich, mom and the nurse, but I’d quickly be back out. I remember trying to type on my phone to update people on Facebook and it took me forever!

I don’t remember when the feeling started coming back, I just know that this time my right side was waking up slowly. It got more and more intense, so I told the nurse. Now let me say that I know that epidurals aren’t 100% pain-free, but mine were fading too quick. I know some of it dealt with me getting it so early on, but I figured the second one would last a while, but it was just as quick as the first.

I remember the contractions taking my breath away, I’d grunt, gripe the bed rails, and just all around was in pain. I know the nurse came in at some point and said that the epi-doctor I had originally had gone home, and the on-call one was on his way up to do an epidural for another person and she’d get him to stop by and see what was going on. (On the whole L&D floor there was me and one other lady in labor, so the nurses were pretty easy going and attentive.)

I know around maybe 4:30pm the nurse came in and said that Dr. B had asked her to check me because he was about to get off work and head home if all was well and he’d see me that evening for the birth.

She checks me and I’m 9.5 cm, full dilated and ready to start pushing. Holy crap!

She calls Dr. B back and tells him he’s not going home, but coming across the street when the office closed at 5pm to deliver a baby. Go me, my girly parts are awesome!

After getting that news we were all shocked – we were told it wouldn’t happen until way later that evening, not that soon! So the room started buzzing with the nurses getting the layette ready for Braxton, changing up the hospital bed so I was in the pushing position, getting all the equipment for the doctor ready – and that doesn’t count Rich and mom on the phones letting people know, and getting the laptop set up so dad could see via Skype!

All that’s going on while I’m contracting, and now in a lot of pain that my grunts have gotten louder, I’ve griped Rich’s hand so hard I thought he was going to scream – the nurse told him to not let me get ahold of his thumb and pinky when I squeezed incase I break them. Haha! The epi-doctor wouldn’t make it in time for the birth, so I had no choice but to suck it up and deal with the pain. I remember not crying, I didn’t want to come off like I couldn’t handle it, but I finally just cried, it hurt too bad.

We set up the laptop at the foot of the bed so dad could see since he couldn’t make it in. I know it had to annoy the nurses since we were all talking/yelling (depending on where we were in the room he couldn’t hear us, haha) to the computer, and dad was doing the same back. The secretary, Sandy, was there too – she really wanted to be able to see it all happen. So while we were talking to them, I was doing small pushes in hopes that I could have him crowing or something by the doctor came in.

Funniest part having the computer set up was since dad was at work at the office, all the guys kept walking in and out of the room and could hear stuff going on and wondered what it was. So dad and Sandy told ‘em I was about to give birth, and hey, why not sit and watch. Haha! All I kept thinking was I was going to give birth via webcam to a room full of guys back in Tyler, Texas and I honestly didn’t care in that moment! Modesty-shmodesty.

Dr. B comes in a few minutes after 5pm joking that he had to call his wife and tell her he’d be late for lunch and how I’d ruined his plans. Haha! I told him I was going to do all I could to have him home in time to eat with the family, so he had me do a few practice pushes to see where I was at, and then went to change clothes.

By this time Sandy had ot leave work, so it was just dad via Skype, Rich was on the left leg, mom on the right and we were about ready to get the show on the road!

Dr. B comes back and is telling me when to push – and I’ll be honest, I was afraid to push, it hurt that much without the baby coming out, I was terrified of how bad it was going to be when he did start to come out! Haha! So the first few pushes sucked, but I was making progress.

I remember him asking for a needle of numbing medicine, I promply asked if I was tearing, which I had a little bit, but he said I was going to more when the baby started coming out so he was going to cut me. I was terrified I was going to feel it since, by this time, I was 75% awake, atleast. But when the next contraction hit, he told me to push and come to find out he was stabbing my girly area with the needle numbing it. When I opened my eyes I saw that Rich had blood on his shirt, they all kind of giggled, and I asked what the heck was going on. Haha! On the contaction as I pushing, Dr. B cut me – which if you ask Rich, is the nastiest sound ever, reminded him of cutting through gristle.

Did some more pushing, the head coming out was pretty darn painful, and then they all just kept telling me to keep on since we only had to get the shoulders out and we were home free. I pushed with all I had, and then it was immediate relief, and he was out! I looked down and he had Braxton with his head angled down quiet a bit, and he was pretty blue, he whimpered and then was put on me. I got to touch him, Rich cut the cord, and the nurse whisked him away – where Rich and mom followed with lots of tears, and some from dad. (I was told dad was doing paperwork when he was able to see my lady bits, and would look up when he couldn’t. Haha!)

I pushed for ten minutes, and was born at 5:19pm.

I remember laying my head back, looking to the side and seeing them all around the layette, where he only whimpered, and I was fighting closing my eyes and taking a nap. It didn’t take long before the placenta was out, then Dr. B started stitching me up and was changing clothes again. I talked to him and the nurse, about what I have no idea, while Braxton was getting cleaned up. I was told that he still had a lot of amniotic fluid in his lungs, they’d suctioned out as much as they could, but he was going to be spitting it up for a while and not to worry about it – so that’s why he was pretty blue.

They handed him to me, I remember looking at him, but for the life of me I don’t remember much else. I know the nurse needed me to get up not long after that so we could change the bedding/pads under me, and get some undies/ice pack/meds on me. I talked some to dad on the computer, Rich went tog et us all dinner, mom made phone calls, nurses had shift change, Dr. B left, I started breast feeding, and we got ready to change rooms.

It breaks my heart because I can’t remember details, hell there are hours of time that I don’t know what happened. I wish I could remember more, but that’s what I have Rich and mom for, they can fill in the blanks for me.

We changed rooms I think around 8pm-ish, Rich got to go with the baby to get cleaned up (he video taped and took pictures), mom went ahead and went to the house, and they had me massaging my belly to stop the bleeding since I hadn’t yet. Nothing overly exciting. Haha!

We got Braxton back, got us both set up to go to bed soon, talked to dad on the phone, and by then it was midnight and we needed to go to bed – Rich had to be up for work at 330am to get ready for work! So, off to bed we went. I know Braxton woke up close to time for Rich to get up, so we did our first diaper change, he took a shower and left.

I remember that feeding before Rich left, I looked down at Braxton and really saw him for the first time since I was out of that drugged up stupor, and just kept looking at him. I told Rich that I liked him. Haha!

Mom came up around 730-8am and we didn’t do much. They took the baby out for tests, I took a much needed shower, ate, watched tv, played online, and that was about it.

That afternoon our friend Melissa and her step-daughter Rose came up to see him for a little while. Rich got off work and came up, then Braxton’s godfather and his wife came up – hes the one we got his middle name from actually. (And Braxton’s got another set of awesome god parents in MS, April and Josh! J They haven’t gotten to meet him in person yet, so we’ll have to change that.) Rich had to work, so he went home to sleep and mom stayed the night with me.

That night was rough, Braxton was super fussy and didn’t want to sleep alone so I put him in bed with me and slept as much as we could. He was up and down, crying and grumpy, I was having a hard time breast feeding and staying awake. Mom said later it took all her willpower not to get up to help,s he rolled over and pretended to be asleep because I needed to learn how to do it on my own since we live so far from everyone, we’ll be alone anyway. It was tough. I was in tears by 4am, when thankfully a nurse came in to do some tests and asked if I’d like for her to keep him an hour – I couldn’t verbally say yest because I knew I’d cry, so I nodded. I think they heard him screaming that whole morning, so she helped, she kept him for nearly two hours where I was able to get some sleep.

The whole day was just filled with a grumpy, fussy, gassy baby. We were just told that since he’s “brand new”, he’s got air in his belly and it’s having work it’s way out, so he wasn’t happy. We sat around that morning waiting for the doctor to release us, Rich was at work, and finally around noon-ish we were able to leave! Woohoo! So off we went, I couldn’t wait to get home in my own enviroment. Rich came home and started his four days off and we got to see how it was going to be with a baby.

Now I can admit this, and some may think it’s horrible, but I didn’t fall in love with Braxton for a few days. I’m honest when I say that I don’t really like kids… ok, I don’t like those annoying kids who scream at Walmart, or who do ninja kicks in the middle of the aisle, or wear those studid wheeled shoes (seriously, those things piss me off more than anything) – I don’t like bad kids. So the joke was that I’d rather have a house full of animals than have a kid… which may have ended up being true if I hadn’t married Richard.

But something happened after we got home and I got to look at him, interact, snuggle, all of it! Something clicked in a while I didn’t think was possible and I feel head over heels for him. I’ll be honest and say that I never thought it’d happen in the way it has, even Rich says it. I never want to put him down, I never want to stop smelling or kissing him – like now, I’m laying in bed and he’s beside me sleeping in his boppy with his little hand grazing my arm. I’m in love with him.

There is obviously more, and you can tell that I skimmed those days in the hospital – there wasn’t anything interesting that happened. But I can say it’s been one hell of a roller coaster since he’s been home – but more on that later.

Birth story - part one.

2011-01-03T00:15:00.000-06:00

I'd wish I could have gotten on here three weeks ago to write this - where did the past three weeks go?! - but it's been tough. I honestly didn't know how hard it'd be to get anything done, especially when I'm alone and Rich is at work, with a newborn - they sleep a heck of a lot, but wow... It's hard. *lol* More especially since I'm breast feeding, so that takes up a huge chunk of my day, and when he does take a nap I need to try to do stuff in the house. Oh the house... it's horrible. I'm hoping to have it cleaned this week, but we shall see.

Onto the birth story! Let me say this in advance - I don't remember a lot of it. Honest. I had to two shots of a pain med and it knocked me out and made me so fuzzy headed that I have to ask Rich questions about the whole first day, so this may be a bit sketchy. *lol*

We got to the hospital monday morning at 12am like they said, but weren't ready for us so we sat in the lobby waiting for about thirty minutes or more. (Let me backtrack to the car before going in, my sister called so my niece and nephew could talk to me and say they were excited about the baby coming, which made me bawl, I so wished they could have been there to see him afterwards.) Finally we were sent upstairs to start the ball rolling. I got changed into the beautiful hospital gown and jumped into bed - which, by the way, was beyond uncomfortabe since the bottom half of it came off. It needed a lot more padding. The nurse started off by asking a bunch of questions, put in the IV (first one in my left forearm blew - she should hav elistened when I said the right hand is easier to get), and then came a painful part - the Cytotec.
Since my cervix decided it wanted to be like Fort Knox and not open, they had to shove this pill, Cyctotec, up in my who-ha, which had me in tears. My OB is a man, and he didn't hurt me that bad, but since thenurses had smaller hands it hurt more. Yikes.
Anyway, so they put that Cytotec up in there and then decide to tell me I'm stuck in bed for two hours - hello, I had to pee, but couldn't now. Since it was 2am by then, we all hunkered down to sleep until they came in to check me in two hours. The room was freezing and I couldn't sleep well because of it, that and I started having contractions. They started off just at that annoying feeling and quickly went to painful, but bearable. Between 4-5am I couldn't take it anymore and buzzed to go to the bathroom, get them to turn the rooms heat up, and get checked.
I don't remember what I checked out at, but I told the nurse I wasn't comfortable so she offered me a shot of Stadol, which I gladly took. She said it'd take the edge off and make me drowsy - which I was fine with, I wanted some sleep. So she shot me up, and at first I didn't feel anything, but she'd been injecting it really, really slowly... and then my hand burned. I got fuzzy headed. And a little warm. And maybe nauseaus. It was nice. *lol* After that we all decided to go back to sleep until my OB came in around 7am to break my water and check me. Rich and Mom said that I kept asking if they were ok, and asked the nurse when the breakfast would be served becaus eI wanted them to go eat - just not in the room with me since I couldn't eat. *lol* Hey, I was concerned for their comfort!

There is some more fuzzy memories here for a while... I know I slept, but kept waking up to check on everyone else. I remember waking up and seeing my hands gripped on the bed railing when I was having a contraction - which were getting more strong and frequent.
My OB came in around 7am to check me and said that I'd softened and was dialated to 1cm. Woohoo! He said B'ed be there late that night, but before midnight. Ok... sure. Then he broke out the "crochet needle" and broke my water. Talk about the most interesting feeling! And creepy. I'm laying in bed and water just gushes out of me and doesn't stop. Ever. Rich got it on his shoes, I kept apologizing to everyone because it made a mess, and asked when the hell they were going to change my blankets and bedding because it was just gross to be sitting in that. *lol*
After the OB left I was still hurting, the contractions picked up since my water was broke, and the nurse offered another shot of Stadol, and said I could have my epidural whenever I wanted. I opted for both. Yes, both. While she called for the epi-man to come do his thing, she shot me up with another thing of Stadol, and wow.... I don't remember much for nearly 12+ hours after that. *lol* I remember it kicked in quickly, t ook the eduge off the pain, and I fell asleep waiting for the doctor.

My epi-doctor was an older guy, probably around 60, and you could just tell he was one of those doctors who didn't care about what my opinion was, just his own. Yes, I noticed that through my drugged up stupor. I also noticed my new daytime nurse, who just so happened to be too damn happy for my liking at that time. *lol* (Sex and the City fans thing of when Miranda goes in to have baby Brady and she has that happy nurse that Carrie has to tell to shut up - that was like mine.) She put on that stupid finger thing that monitors your heart rate, upped the blood pressure cuff to go off every 5 minutes (I had bruises on my upper arm for over a week becuase I had to wear that awful thing all damn day), I'm leaking fluid all over the place, I have an asshole epi-doctor, I'm drugged up and she wants me to sit up and lean over on Rich.
Ok, so it would have been fine to do so if I didn' thave all that crap on me, Icouldn't move! I took off the finger thing, and she kept telling me I needed it on so they could monitor me during the epidural. Ok... I couldn't articulate to her in my stupor that I was going to leave the stupid thing on, I just needed it off so I could use my hand to get up, but she didn't get it. Rich did. And he got how pissed I was at the happy nurse, more so when I took at him and said something I'm sure was along the lines of "She's too damn happy, make her shut up."
Anyway, so I get in the sitting/leaning over position adn I start shaking - I know there is a needle coming my way and I don't like it. He cleans me up, numbs me (which is honestly the worst part), and then puts the meds in to test it's in the right spot which burn, see I'm ok and then puts the catheter in to deliever the meds. I start getting the warm fuzzy feeling in my legs and am able to somehow move back onto my back.

After I'm good and numb the too-happy-nurse says it's time for my catheter to be put in, so she does that whole do. I could feel this weird sensation after it was set, but figured it went more numb soon after that. I remember going to sleep, Rich andMom watched tv and updated people via phone. Rich took pictures and some video of me trying to talk to him, but don't remember much. The nurse checks me, but, again, Id on't remember what I was at or anything.
I do remember that my right leg was pretty numb, but my left started to get that tingly feeling like it was waking up, and I could feel the catheter more now and even "squeeze" it on the inside. I thought this was odd and mentioned it. I think I was dismissed, but I kept on everyone about it. More especially when I started feeling pain on my left side only. It started as a small twinge, and progressed to full on having to breathe a big harder through them. Finally the nurse believed me when I said I was feeling everything on one whole side of my body and not the other. So the jerk of an epi-doctor was called back in....

And now that it's after midnight, and I have a sleeping Braxton inbetween me and Rich, I'm going to curl up and go to sleep myself. I'll try to get on tomorrow at some poit and type up some more...

Welcome to the World

2010-12-14T21:59:00.000-06:00

Braxton Andrew

12-13-10

5:19 pm

7 lbs 13.5 oz

21.5 in

Oh holy yikes...

2010-12-12T22:42:00.000-06:00

It's 10:30 PM - I've got an hour and a half before we make the mile drive up to the hospital to be admitted for the induction. Oh wow... I think I need to throw up.

I've done pretty damn good today and not let the nerves get to me, but around 7-8pm we packed the hospital bags and such, put them by the door and it just slapped me full force. We're. going. to. have. a. baby. When the hell did this happen?!

Rich is getting anxious, the animals - espcially Bocephus - know something is up, Mom's hanging out like it's a nomral day, and the wind is kicking like a banshee outside and it's almost freezing. Me? I've got the nerves so bad that I'm scratching - and praying it doesn't turn into hives - and have the feeling of wanting to throw up, and needing to poop. Yep. That's me.

So, now off to shower, after the formentioned nervous potty break, and then head up there....

How does monday sound to have a baby?!

2010-12-09T23:17:00.000-06:00

Today was our 40 week appointment with the OB (ok, so the doctor counts me as 39.5, and won't say 40 until monday - me and Rich say 40 weeks tomorrow since we count from my last period), and guess what?
Nothings changed. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.
He checked me - which, by the way, is so painful for me - and said that I have no dialation, no softening and he's still floating around -3 like last week. Uuuuugh. We were hoping that there would be something, anything!, at this point - especially since we had sex the night before in hopes of it softening me up. But, no. The baby is being a lil'turd already. *lol*
So, he said I'm to go to the ER sunday night at midnight, they'll send me up to L&D and we'll get started on an induction. They're going to put some pill, I think the name is Cytotec, in me and it's supposed to help soften me up and start contractions. Then my OB will come in and pop my water - which broke my heart, I really wanted to keep it whole as long as I possibly could. BUT, I know that that would help start the labor, so I'm folding. Now I will fight tooth and nail for him not to touch me with Pitocin - especially since I heard that pill they're putting in me is pretty hard core on making it's own contractions anyway.
So, yes... I'm folding on the induction.
One problem he mentioned though - as of right now I have a 50-50 shot at having a c-section done. He said that if, after inserting that pill, if my cervix doesn't change that a c-section is the next option. I've told my OB from the get-go that I wsn't ruling out a c-section in any way, that if it needed to happen, and I agreed, fine,w e'll do it. I know that birthing a baby isn't going to be easy and go to plan, so you have to willing to change yours around , and we are.

38 Weeks!

2010-11-29T15:24:00.000-06:00

How Far Along: 38 weeks in the above pictures.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I may find out tomorrow, but for sure on thursday when I go to the OB. I'm still thinking it's around 3 lbs. I seriously don't know people don't believe me, I'm a fat kid to begin with, I just didn't gain anything but baby these 9 months!
Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: Putting B's crib in our room, and finally getting all his stuff ready in his room.

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.Movement: All.The.Time

Food Craving: I'm not craving anything, but I'm hungry all the time!!

What I miss: Not eating all the time.
Sleep: This past weekend was awful, I just couldn't get comfortable for very long and was up using the bathroom all night.

What I am looking forward to: Going to both doctors this week, and getting checked tos ee if there has been any progress in the last two weeks since I saw my OB last.

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-25T15:38:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving became a holiday for me and Rich somehow... I'm not sure how it happened. Well, that may not be true - we live away, and aren't usually able to make it in for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
To be honest, we actually enjoy it being "our" holiday. For one we don't have to make a big fuss about making food, just enough for us for a day or two and we're good. Inturn we don't have to worry about being up at the butt-crack of dawn to start cooking, and we can lounge in our pj's all day and do whatever we want. *lol*

This year was no different than last, except we didn't cook and I'm kinda of 9 months of knocked up. Ok, so it is a bit different - but it's still just me, Rich and the furbabies. This is our last one of it just being a solo-couple one for us, so it's a bit bittersweet.
We ordered our dinner from Cracker Barrel instead of us cooking this timme around, I had no want to stand in the kitchen cooking with this big ol'belly, so we opted out. And I will say this, it was awesome. We haven't had Cracker Barrel but once each, and that was six years ago, so we tried it out last weekend for lunch to make sure we did the right hting by ordering out meal with them, and they didn't disappoint! We got enough food to feed 6-8 people: turkey breasts, ham, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce (which is out of this world), biscuits, mac'n'cheese, green beans and cheese hassbrowns, and Rich got himself a pumpkin pie -- all fo rless than $60. We're happy with it, and there is a huge chance we may do it again at Christmas if they offer it. I can't imagine my parents wanting to cook, I know I won't with a brand new baby at home!

Rich has until monday off, so we're taking advantage of it and being lazy. What? - you expect a lot from us? *lol* He'll get to play his video game a bit, I'll play online, we'll do cleaning saturday, and tomorrow we'll finish what we have to in B's room. It'll be an easy long weekend!
I did start throwing some stuff in my hospital bag today, and realized how small it'll be, I figured I'd have a huge bag. *lol* But that is aperk of living within a mile of the hospital too. I just want to be as prepared as we an be if/when we go to the hospital to have him, I just want it stress free. I mean, I know people who gete all dolled up to bring their baby home and both wear cute outfits - not me, I'll probably be in sweats and houseshoes - again, we live a mile away - and he'll come home in the outfit me, my sister and her two kids came home in, and their footie pj's. *lol* We're making it as easy as we can, people.

I haven't felt anything too strong going on down there, or I don't think I have - I have no idea what I'm looking out for! *lol* It feels like he's trying to head-butt his way out of my lady parts, punching my hips, and some lower back pain, but other than that.... I guess it's it. It may be locked up tighter than Fort Knox for all I know.
I go tuesday to the high risk OB since I had another attack a week ago, they want to make sure things are ok or whatever. Then two days later I see my regular OB inhopes they have my results from the high risk OB, and we'll go from there. The only thing that's bugging us is that we'll be 39 weeks that next day, so we feel like he's pushing it.
I feel responsible for the heart issues since I hadn't brought them back up to the doctor for a while, but every time I did he just kept saying they were normal parts of being pregnant, so I went along with what he said. Maybe I should have pushed harder to make him listen, I dunno... doesn't matter now though, we're at the end of this pregnancy and B can come at any time! *lol*

Holy crap... B can come at any time. Yikes.

I am thankful...

2010-11-24T14:44:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for an amazing husband who puts me before anyone else - even when I don't think I deserve it, he is my rock.

I am thankful for the baby in my belly who really only has days before he graces us with his presense. (We'll see if I say he's "gracing" us when I'm sleep deprived, lol)

I am thankful for amazing parents.

I am thankful for my sister and my beautiful niece and nephew.

I am thankful for all the people that have gifted us stuff for B.

I am thankful for the roof over my head, and amazing landlords that own it.

I am thankful for the food that I put in my belly every day - seriously, this baby boy makes me eat!

I am thankful my husband has a job that he loves to go to every day.

I am thankful for medical insurance.

I am thankful for the nice weather we've been having.

I am thankful for Cracker Barrel for making our Thanksgiving meal.

I am thankful for my furbabies, they bring me so much happiness and joy.

I am thankful for the amazing friends I have who've been there for me through thick and thin.

I am thankful for Skype, and allowing us to keep in touch with family back home.

I am thankful for pj's since they're the most comfortable thing to wear at 38 weeks.

I am thankful for my Lord and Saviour.

37 weeks and 3 days

2010-11-22T13:10:00.000-06:00

How Far Along: 37 weeks and 3 days to be exact.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: The doc didn't say when I was there last week, but I think I'm at 3 lbs gained.

Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: Getting B's Christmas ornament.

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: All.The.Time.

Food Craving: Again, I'm back to nothing sounding good. :(

What I miss: Sleep and beig able to sit in a chair without one of those "donut" things under my tush - it's been one of those potty weeks. *lol*

Sleep: Saturday night I had one of the best nights of sleep I've had since getting pregnant, it was so nice. I took 1.5 Tylenol PM's and crashed for almost 10 hours.Obviously not straight through, but wow was it nice.
What I am looking forward to: Lasst touches to everything since he's about to be here. N o more putting it off!

Random pictures from my phone

2010-11-19T15:10:00.000-06:00

Can't you just tell the cats are loving that?

That face is pricless on Jesse James.

Bocephus like to be under blankets most of the time, he's a cold dog.

At any given time I've got atleast one of them laying or sitting with me. This was one day when I was watching tv in bed and had 'em all.

Almost all the books on the first two shelves are from when I was a baby/kid, and now for B. They'll be th eones we read to him, but he's not allowed to play with. *lol*

We've had these put away for years, along with a ton of UT onsies/outfits. Rich can't wait to see 'em on B.

This was the washing I had to do of B's clothes and blankets.

I think this was around 35-36ish weeks.

The loot from when we went shopping about two weeks ago. We hit up the Beals Outlet, Big Lots and Walmart.

I swore I wouldn't have anything Winnie the Pooh in my house, but we found this vibrating/musical bouncer on clearance for $36 and decided to get it. At this point I don't care if it all matches, he'll outgrow it so fast. *lol*

We put B's carseat base in last weekend, and wanted to make sure there was enough room for the carseat itself, which there is more than enough. But it was a total slap in the face to have it in the car, but obviously Rich loved it.

Of Rich's hands - I love the freckles.

Rich's first tree he did to irk me. See the green balls going all down one side and the mass amount of pink? Silly husband.

And then one of the cats got revenge for it - muhahaha!

I just like his smile in this one.

One of me.

And of us around 14ish weeks, we were out shopping with Mom in Destin and had just found out the day before we were having a boy.

Oh B...

2010-11-15T13:18:00.000-06:00

B's room is still a bit of a mess, I know, I know.... we need to hurry up and get it orgnaized. We will. Promise. *lol*
His closet is washed and folded and ready to go. I did it all weeks ago, so it's just been sitting there waiting. *lol* I'll be packing our hospital bags in the next week or two and having them ready to go as well.
We're on the hung for a smaller dresser, or a chester of drawers to go in his room, until then we have it in that Rubbermaid 3 drawer thing, which works since it fits in the bottom of his closet. The room is smaller (all of them are actually), and the stuff we have in there already takes up a lot of space, so we'll be hunting down the perfect clothing container as we go. *lol*

A few weekends ago we went and got some of the bigger stuff we needed for him - minues the swing, playpen, bumpers and breast pump - and made me feel a lot better since it's not long before he's here. We walked away with the bathtub, bouncer we found on clearance for $36 (and it's Winnie the Pooh, which I swore would never come in the house, but hey, it was cheap!), a boppy knock-off from Walmart, his shampoos, lotions, butt paste, 4 sheets for his bed and I can't remember what all else. So he'll be ready to come home atleast! *lol*
We'll get the playpen after he's home, honestly we've got mixed reviews on if we need on or not. But we'll prolly get one for those moment sI need to use the restroom, and I can put him in there and be safe. The swing is a must, so it'll be gotten after he's here as well. The breast pump I'd like, but I need to see if I'll even be able to produce milk, so it makes mroe sense to wait - and I'm not getting an expensive one, I think the one I like is $53.

We'll be moving B's crib into our room on a big free wall we have, and setting up the blow up bed fo rmy parents in his room. It makes more sense for him to be in our room so I don't have to getup and down all night and go far. Plus I'm hoping it'll be an easier transition for him to sleep in his own room if we start him off in his crib to begin with. We'll see though!

This past weekend we deep cleaned the car - and by deep cleaned, I mean I went out there with Q-tips. Yes... I may not be nesting in my house, but I nested in the car. *lol* I swear it didn't look that good when we bought it, I'm damn proud. :) After we'd done that, Rich put the carseat base in, so that's ready to go as well, we'll just grab the carseat when we go to come home from the hosptial when B's born. He works with a firefighter, so he's going to check out the carseat base and make sure it's in there good and such to make us both feel ok.
Seeing the whole thing in our car made me want to puke a little, I mean... he's seriously almost here! Rich on the other hand couldn't wipe the smile off his face. *lol* He even grinned more when I was carrying the carseat in the house because "it won't be long and you'll be toting B like that! Aww!" I'm telling you, he's a big cheese.

So when I finally get off my big lazy pregnant butt, I'll go into B's room and take pictures, until then you have to wait. Muhahaha!

My tree's are officially up!

2010-11-15T13:05:00.000-06:00

Everyone who knows me knows that I get excited the closer it gets to Chrismas, I love having a tree up! Ok, ok... I love it, minus the fact that my cats like it too much - the bottom half of my tree always gets all crazy looking becuase they're pulling at the tinsel or batting at the balls - thanks goodness we have plastic ones, we learned our lesson the first Christmas when we had glass! *lol*

This year my tree went up just as early as last years - granted, last year we were heading to Texas for the holidays and I wasn't going to be able to enjoy my tree, so Rich conceeded to it being put up early. *lol* This time it went up early because my belly is getting bigger by the freakin' day, I'm tired all the time, and I didn't want to have to worry about trying to get it up with a week or two before the baby arrives. So, ta-da!

The green one is in the front room of the house, and it's huuuuge, it has to have the biggest amount of space! Thank's Mom and Dad for giving us this one when you bought your new one, I love how massive it is - it's 8 feet tall, and atleast 5-6 feet at the base, it's huge.

As an added bous for both trees - they're my night lights since I"m scared of the dark. *lol* And this one I put 1,000 lights on, so it looks beautiful at night. Next year I'd like to squeeze an extra 200 on there.

Me and Rich buy personal ornaments every year, and I've never put them on our main tree until last year, and now I love them on it. We haven't gotten this years yet - Rich gets one, I do, then usually we find one that reminds us of us together, and if we find a cat/dog related one we get it for the furbabies, and now B will be in on it too! Hopefully we'll be able to get the ornaments for this year soon so we won't have to worry about 'em later.

Mom bought B his first ornament a few months ago from Hobby Lobby, and I love it! I'd like to start the tradition with them, if they want to, that they buy him one every year from them, it'll be special.

See that rocker? That was one that my Mom got when she found out she was pregnant with me, and now I have it. :) We moved it from B's room into the living room since we have a glider/ottomon in there, and it'll be nice to have arocker on both sides of the house.

Rich's tree!

I'll be honest, my OCD kicks in overtime when it comes to putting up our trees, and usually Rich refuses to help out because of it. But this year he made some remark, which I can't remember thanks to pregnancy brain, and it made me realize that he needed to do his own tree in his own way.

I wish I had the picture of how he did the tree hte first time, he later told me when re-doing it above that he did it all messed up to bother me to see if I'd go back and fix it. I never touched it, and honestly every time I looked at it it made me smile!

Buuut, the cats decided to knock his tree over while I was napping last week, so he had to redo it, and it turned out cute. We got the balls on clearance las tyera at Target, and we only used half of them, and I love all the different colors and textures. He reused the garland from our UT tree two years ago, but n ext year we'll buy new stuff, along with a tree topper - he liked his UT santa hat the best. *lol* He did a great job!

So, yea... my trees are up. That's about as festive as I'll probably get - on wait, I have a wreath on B's door - I don't want to have to deal with putting it all up after B's here, and honestly I just have a lot of tree decorations, not a lot of regular. Over time we'll change that. :)

36 weeks

2010-11-15T12:39:00.000-06:00

How Far Along: 36 weeks and 3 days to be exact.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I think there was a 2 lb gain, I'll find out for sure tomorrow when I go in fo rmy next appointment.

Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: Well teh week just started, so we'll see!

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: A lot. All the time. Never stops. Rich finally got to see some of the big moves he does, and just kept asking "does it hurt?!" *lol* I wanted to tell him it felt nice, but lets be real, some can bring tears to your eyes.

Food Craving: Eh, nothing I guess. I could go for a hot chococlate though or a milkshake.

What I miss: Sleep. :(

Sleep: It hasn't been that great, even with Rich having a long weekend, I couldn't sleep. And my Tylenol PM didn't help either.

What I am looking forward to: Getting what's left, and putting stuff in his room.

The doctor made some changes...

2010-11-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

Come to find out, we're going to be 36 weeks this friday - so we were ahead about a week and a half. So it threw a little kink in our couting down, but it's all worked out now. Since I missed last week, we'll make sure to take photos this week - I feel like my belly is so much bigger than two weeks ago!

At the doctors visit last week I think I actually gained two pounds - but he didn't confirm it with me. I'll check when I go in this tuesday to see.

While I was at the doctor, I told him that I was still having heart issues where it'd spike up to 120-130 without me even doing anything, and it was taking a toll on me. So he prescribed me Tenormin to take once a day, and said it should help.

Weeeell it kind of did. I was on day four of taking it when it bottomed out my blood pressure to 79/40 - but my heart rate was fine. *lol* I got hot out of nowhere, cold sweats, my hands and feet were cold, I could barely move my arms (luckily I'd been reclining in teh chair so I had both phones in my lap), I was having a hard time breathing, felt faint and beyond lethargic - it just all around was not good.
I was able to pull enough strength to call my OB's office where they immediatly patched me through to the nurse who told me to either call 911 or just go straight to the hospital to get checked out - talk about making me panick more! I tried to get ahold of Rich, and luckily I wan't able to - he would have walked right out of work and raced home, and I don't need him getting in trouble! I did get ahold of Mom who told me to just go in to the hospital and get looked at.
My friend, Melissa - which it jsut happened to be her birthday, came and picked me up and took me to the hospital where I spent two hours up in L&D. By the time we got there, my BP and everything was back to normal! So the whole episode lasted about half an hour, but damn was it scary.
They strapped me into the monitors and kept and eye on B, and took my BP every now and then. Basically I just laid in bed and talked to Melissa until they discharged me with instructions to cut my does of meds in half and see how I tolerate them.
Nowwhen they were hooking me up to the monitors the nurse had a hard time finding B - I wasn't worried, I'd felt him kick on the ride to the hospital, so I knew he was fine. She asked where we normally find him, and I told him it changes from visit to visit, he moves like crazy, and she'd just have to hunt for his heartbeat. She looked in my lower belly since I'm almost 36 weeks and he should have been head down.... but she found the beat up near my chest - he was breech. *lol* He has a mind of his own! But I will say that the next day, he was back head down (I can tell whne he gets the hiccups), and then today he was head up again. I swear he's going to keep us guessing all the way to the end.

So far I'm tolertaing the meds being in half, they still make me feel funny - still get tha thot feeling, even if it's not nearly as bad, and get really sleepy, which is a normal. I think from now on I'll take them about an hour or more before I normally take a nap, that way they don't get affect me like they do, and I can just sleep right through it.

Rich has a four day weekend, and we're going to take full advantage of it by doing nothing! We have some maintence cleaning to do in the house, and we'll finish up what needs to be done in B's room, and laundry, but that'll probably be it for us. Rich hasn't had this many days off since last december when we went home for Christmas, so he's a happy camper right now. He'll be even happier the week of Thanksgiving when he gets a nother four day - so November is looking up.

35 Weeks

2010-10-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

How Far Along: 35 flippin' weeks - it's gone by way too fast!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Still nothing, but will make sure tuesday

Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: The pics tonight were pretty darn cute

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: A lot. All the time. Never stops.

Food Craving: Right now I'd love a chocolate shake from Sonic.

What I miss: Being able to get up with out the sciatic pain in my right hip.

Sleep: This past week hasn't been good, I'm exhuasted.

What I am looking forward to: Getting what's left, and putting stuff in his room.

Belly Button: In.

How awful

2010-10-28T16:28:00.000-05:00

I was watching "The Talk" and they were talking about this online article Marie Claire did, and I had to check it out for myself - it's just horrible. MC magazine how pushed so hard to have "normal" sized women in their shoots for a year now, and to me, this just defeats the purpose. I'm seriously thinking of cancelling my subscribtion, which sucks since it's my favorite magazine.

http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/dating-blog/overweight-couples-on-television

After I read it, I posted a reply to the girl who wrote it, and copied it below. I seriously could have just kept going and going about how horrible she is, but why bother?

"Yes, you're being a jerk - I'd like to call you a slew of other harsh names actually. It's people like you who bullied me in school growing up - it's people like you who wrote "fatty!" across my locker in 7th grade - it's people like you who gave me so much hell that I popped diet pills for two years to drop the weight, and still get made fun of. And it's people like you who made me feel so damn bad about myself that I went and had the lap band surgery two years ago in hopes that society would accept me - only to have frozen glasses of water thrown at me while walking through a parking lot while shopping with my husband with the people screaming "Fat ass!" So, yes, you're being a jerk.

I grew up in a loving home where my mother taught me to love who I was - and guess what? she was a "fattie" too - but even she fell to the social norm and went under the knife because even adults can be jerks. I went on to lose the weight with diet pills, and ended up not liking who I was anymore, I put some weight on and guess what? I was happy. I was dating like crazy, and fell in love with my now husband - all while being overweight - "fatties" can love too.

And speaking of my husband, he's overweight as well - so I guess our love would repulse you. He's an Army EOD war vet who's PTSD medication made him gain over 100 lbs, and he can't lose it, even with your helpful dieting tips, we've fought it for over five years. And, again, it's people like you who give him hell - you should be ashamed.

I'm 30 days away from having our first baby,and I read this garbage and am wondering how I am going to be able to raise him to be an understanding human being, teach him that people are all different and we should love them as human beings, when people like you write these things. You're a huge reason why society continues down this horrible path it's on, and I pray that when my son is old enough he'll try to right as many wrongs as he can to end the cycle."

34 Weeks

2010-10-27T16:04:00.000-05:00

How Far Along: 34 weeks in this picture

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Still nothing, but will make sure tuesday
Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: Rich "playing" with the baby getting him to kick.

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: A lot. All the time. Never stops.

Food Craving: Nothing, I guess.... maybe fried chicken?

What I miss: Being able to get up with out the sciatic pain in my right hip.

Sleep: This past week hasn't been good, I'm exhuasted.

What I am looking forward to: Getting what's left, and putting stuff in his room.

Belly Button: In.

33 weeks

2010-10-15T19:16:00.000-05:00

How Far Along: 33 weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: As of two weeks ago I'd lost the pound I had put on, so back to sitting even.

Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: Taking this photo - I actually look pregnant!

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: A lot. All the time. Never stops.

Food Craving: Nothing, but I'm always hungry. Tonight I wanted an ice cream cone with peanuts on top, so Rich got one at the gas station for me. *lol*

What I miss: Bending over with squatting.

Sleep: This past week hasn't been good, I'm exhuasted.

What I am looking forward to: Getting what's left, and putting stuff in his room.

Belly Button: In.

Some random pictures from yesterday

2010-10-14T14:29:00.000-05:00

See, I told ya B's room is a disaster area. Ugh. (I should be in there cleaning right now instead I'm on here.) But I will say I know where everything is going and whatnot, so it'll be an easy fix this weekend.

Both of these tubs are what I washed this past weekend. The gray one alone is all clothes - you can see the UT blaket and the burp clothes on top, but everything else is clothes. I could hardly get the lid on! He's totally set on clothes for the first six months atlest.

The little green tub is his blankets - which at first I didn't think I had enough, but I was wrong. I have three blanket I had as a baby, and two of them have been washed and put in there for B to use - the other one is all pink, lol. Ok, and one that I washed is actually really girly with faint roses on it, but it's still one of my favorites. *lol* Rich said it'll be one we use only at home, and it'll actually be a great tummy time blanket since it's so large.

I have 4 Aiden+Anis (sp?) swaddling blankets in there - I love how thin they are since they're muslin. It'll be great this winter so B doesn't get too hot being bundled. And added bonus is those things are huge! I'll have no problem swaddling him up, that's for sure.

(We thought it was awesome you can close both canopies and he's completely shielded from the elements - which'll be nice this winter!)

Here's the lovely travel system from Chicco my parents bought us! :) I'm smitten with this system, I can't lie. It's the Cortina one, and just wheeling it around the house, it drives like a dream. We can't thank my parents enough for it!

We flipped back and forth on to get a travel system, talked to several friends and everyone had their own opinion. So we decided to go with our gut. Granted the stroller is larger (and I love that it opens with one hand!) but B'll be able to use it for years to come, and Chicco's products are amazing so we'll be able to carry it over to another baby. I'd rather have a great carseat/stroller that will last for years to come versus buying a cheaper one and having to upgrade it later on, but it's just my personal opinion.

As soon as Rich got home he started playing with the system - and Bocephus wanted to join in. :) I had to convince Rich to wait putting it in the car already - we've got a few weeks to go. *lol* And besides, if he came early for some reason, we literally live a mile from the hospital, it's not like we'd have far to go to get it.

Rich was afraid the animals - ok, the cats - would play in the system, so while he was at work I left them both sitting out to see. They sniffed and walked around them, but didn't care about it all. It may had to do with that fresh-out-of-the-box smell they didn't like, or the actual large box was way more exciting than the stroller. *lol* Either way, they did good.

This is what I'm talking about on Rich being awesome this pregnancy! :) My belly is really starting to get in the way, and the idea of leaning over last night to take off my toenail polish didn't make me happy - so he did it for me. Doesn' the rock?!

Oh, and FYI, polish remover will eat the varnish (or whatever it's called) off of your coffee table. Normally I would have freaked out about it, but didn't. We both dropped two little drops on the table on accident and when he wiped them up, it was pulling the varnish off! I told him we have a baby on the way, those two little drops aren't freaking me out at the moment. *lol*

2010-10-13T15:54:00.000-05:00

I realized I'm 8 months now... 8 weeks left.... 3 paydays.... 60 days. WHAT?! Seriously, where'd the time go? I always thought people were basically full of it when they'd talk about how it'll just fly by - I mean it's 9 months, almost a year, how does that fly by? But, trust me... it does. And it'll be a fast kick in the crotch when you realize it. *lol*
I wish I could say that we're all set and ready for B to be here, but that'd be a big fat lie. I'll have to take a pic of his room later, it's such a disaster. We've lived here two years this month, and both extra room have been basically for an office and storage, so we have stuff to go through. His closet was no exception - the whole bottom half of it was full of random stuff I'd packed away in there - sewing machine, box of extra table clothes and curtains, picture frames, you get the idea. The computer closet was even worse! We went through both this past weekend and have stuff pulled out to give away, and it's not looking nice. We also sold the elliptical we'd gotten earlier this year at a garage sale since it took up a bit of room, and honestly, it scares the hell out of me - it hurts! *lol*
So now we're in some semi-nesting kind of mood (when it hits, normally I'm just beyond tired and would rather curl up on the couch and watch tv), and we'll finish both rooms up this weekend. The compute room will double as a guest room (don't worry mom and dad, the liter box will be taken out of here by the time you arrive) for when my Mom comes down to stay a while. We just have a blow up bed, so it'll be easy to put it up when needed, and then put it in the closet when no ones here. We'll eventually get a regular bed in here in hopes of actually having guests.

B's room will take a while. I hate to say it, but I just haven't gotten as excited as I thought I would when it comes to decorating it. I know it's because all the stuff I want to do will cost way too much, so I'm just holding back. *lol* Well, that and we only have anothe ryea rin this house and what if we decide to move? I don't want to do so much to his room and then leave it.
There aren't too many neccessities that we need to get - basically sheets for the bed (we'll buy a 'bedding set' at some point maybe), waterproof pad to put under them (I looked for one for our bed, but it's so deep! I'll be putting those "puppy pad" things under the sheets on my side of the bed in the next few weeks just incase my water breaks. *lol*), medicine (Mylicon, tylenol, etc), a Boppy, maybe a manuel breast pump (if I'm able to BF I'll get an electric one later), maybe the Dr. Brown bottle set (but will keep the plastic on them just incase I take them back) and some formula to have on hand. I think that's it.... I'll have to look at my list.
Dad had said that the first 30 days babies don't require a lot - diapers, food and a place to sleep - so don't fret over the stuff you don' thave yet. And I've taken that to heart, I needed to hear it. I'm feeling so overwhelmed by the stuff we haven't gotten yet that I was getting down about it. So the first 30 days I'm not worried, we'll be able to get the rest of the stuff right after he's born. :)

Rich has been a wonderful help, I seriously can't praise him enough for all he's been helping with since we got pregnant. I told him he'll need a push present by the end of this instead of me! *lol* :)
He's so excited, he tells me all the time he just can't stand waiting the last two months, that B needs to hurry up already - and my reply is always "hush ya mouth!" since I"m no where near ready. He just gets this big ol'grin on his face everytime he walks into the baby's room, or see's me have a bout of nesting.
Last weekend I washed all of B's clothes, blankets, and burp rags and I swear the smile never wore off of him. He'd helpe me hang clothes out on the line and just say "Look how little!" and just melt. *lol* He's a goof. But atleast everything is washed except B's washrags, two onsies, a beanie, and the sheets when we get them!

Today the Chicco carseat, base and stroller came in that my parents bought us. I'm so excited to get it all together! It just makes it that much more real that we're almost to the end and eventually there'll be a baby in there. Kinda scares the hell out of me! *lol* I'll be taking pictures of it as soon as Rich finishes putting it together today.
He works with several police and firemen, and on of them is going to check out the carseat and how it's sitting when we do put it in the car. Rich thought it was funny that people actually do that, but I've never put one in the car, so I could always screw it up. So that'll be one more thing off our list of to-do's.

We were scheduled to go to a breast feeding and lamaze classes last week, but backed out. *lol* I have the Sheri Bayles (I think that's how you spell her name) DVD collection and book, and it's the same thing I'd be sitting in on. This way I can do it from the comfort of my couch, in my pj's, get comfortable and eat while watching instead of sitting at a table in an uncomfortable chair for nearly 8 hours.
So we'll be watching those DVD's in the next few weeks to prepare ourselves.

My last doctor's appointment went well, nothing exciting. I'd actually gained one pound, but lost it by the next two week appointment. *lol* He said he wasn't worried still since the baby is measuring fine, but for me to try to put some weight on. So I'm still sitting at negative or even on weight as of now - but I've gotten a belly for sure! Theres no hiding it.
I've been eating ice cream every night in hopes of upping my calories, and let's face it - it tastes good to. :) I figure I'm not going to let myself get all up in a fit about the weight issue unless the doctor says to - I refuse to stress out about something I can't control. I've been keeping an eye on the lap band boards, and I'm not the only person who's stayed even or didn't gain, so no worries.

I'm sure there's more, but my brain is just a huge fog right now.... But I shall be back with pictures! :)

And the belly has popped!

2010-10-05T13:34:00.002-05:00

31 weeks

30 weeks

2010-09-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

How Far Along: 30 weeks and 4 days.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I finally gained a pound - yep, one single pound. *lol* The doctor asked me to gain atleast another pound before my next visit.

Maternity Clothes: Just pants so far, all my shirts fit.

Best Moment this week: Rich just watching my belly move.

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: A lot! I joke around that he jumps like frog legs in a hot skillet. *lol*

Food Craving: Still nothing - I just want food in my belly, but nothing sounds good.

What I miss: Being able to bend over when I sweep the floors.

Sleep: Eh, it's off and on. I'm having more aches and pains, so I'm not sleeping as well.

What I am looking forward to: Trying to finish getting stuff he neends- which is still a lot. Ugh.

Belly Button: In.

Reflections of Motherhood

2010-09-16T15:15:00.000-05:00

Doctor update

2010-09-14T18:15:00.000-05:00

5.5 wks 28 wks.

How Far Along: 28 weeks and 4 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Still no weight gain

Maternity Clothes: I finally went out and got me two pair of pants from the Bealls Outlet ($20 for both!), and wow... if I'd known they felt that good I wouldn' thave waited until month 7 to get into them! *lol*

Best Moment this week: It just happened an hour ago - we were playing Nelly to my belly to see if he'd kick at the beat, and he did - he really likes the song "Grillz". *lol*

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: Yea he's been a busy body.

Food Craving: Nothing really - which normally I 'd be happy about, but right now I'm aggrivated because I'm just all arond hungry, but nothing sounds good! Boo.

What I miss: Not getting up four times in less than an hour to go pee.

Sleep: Hasn' t been great this week, my back has been hurting and keeping me up.

What I am looking forward to: Finish the baby room, and start picking up everything else - I'm starting to get stressed.

Belly Button: In.

   Last thursday we had our doctors appointment, and my one hour glucose test - which I wasn't looking forward too, I hate being stuck in the finger!
   Luckily I'd been told I didn't have to fast before the glucose test, so I had a sausage egg biscuit in hopes I wouldn't get too nauseus. The drink wasn't overly bad, I had the lemon/lime and downed it in two big gulps and then we jsut waited to be taken back for the ultra sound.
   About ten minutes later I started feeling the sugar in my system, but they called us back for the U/S - and I was super excited because Rich hasn't been to one since the very first one way back at, like, 6-8 weeks or so, and he missed the one where we found out what we were having.

We both thought that the baby would be moving all over the place becuase of the sugary drink, but he did the opposite - he got, like, lethargic and stayed still for hours!
   The U/S tech - who is also my OB's wife - couldn't get the baby to move for us - he decided to stay head down and facing my back the entire time. It was a bummer.
   Luckily she didn't say anything was physically wrong with him, and he was measuring right on target for his "age", and weighing in at 2 lbs 1 oz.
   She even went as far as using that wand thing and jabbing at my belly a few times to see if he'd move, but he just didn't want to - so I'm glad we didn't cough up all that money for a 4D U/S!
   One thing we did ask is that she confirmm he was still a boy - and even that was hard to do, he kept his legs closed tight! *lol* One of the belly jabs she did he spread them for a few seconds and you could see he's still a boy - phew! We have way too much boy stuff!

   AFter that I was off to see the doc, but I had to do my blood pressure - which was considered "normal" for everyone else, but for me it's a litle high, *lol*. She then did my finger stick and it came back with 151, so I had to do the 3 hour test later.
Doc came in and we talked about how things were going, and any concerns - and I didn't get in troubel this time for no weight gain since the baby is growing just fine. After that he said he'd see me in two weeks from now on!

   This week we also got an awesome homemade gift from a friend - and I"m in love! The blanket is so super thick and soft, it'll be great this winter when he's born! The beanie is just too cute and I can't wait to ge tpics taken of him in it.

   Since I "failed" the one hour glucose test, I made an appointment for this mornig to do the 3 hour one - ad didn't finish it.
   I had a hard time dealing withe the affects of the one hour, and the three hour one I had to drink a lot more of that stuff! Within an hour I was hving hot flashes, getting faint and when I got up to get a magazine to fan myself I hurled - in the trashcan! - a lot. Over half of the stuff I drank came up, so the test was shot.
   I'm waiting on the doctor to cal this week to let meknow if I have to do it anothe rway, or if my fasting blood draw was down enough that he's not worried about it. We'll see!!

   So now I'll leave off with the three good photos we did get of Brax last week!

Baby B's room is slowly coming together.... and it scares the life out of me!

2010-09-14T17:51:00.000-05:00

Thanks to our awesome friends April and Josh - they gave us the stuff below!
We're blessed with amazing friends! 

When we got home from their place in MS, we couldn't wait to set stuff up and see how it worked in the room - we were a little worried since the room is on the smaller side, and has an odd angle, but things really seem to fit nicely!

Furniture wise all we need is a dresser and bookshelf and we're good to go! I have an old nightstand I'm putting eside the glider, and I'll buy a lamp to put ontop so it'll be a nice reading corner.

I will admit it... this totally terrifies me! We keep the door shut so the cats won't go in there (Rich doesn't like it, lol) and I do it because it allows me to keep thinking I have a it longer to go before he's here. *lol* It was a total slap in the face when I was sitting in the glider while Rich put stuff together and I realized that there will be something in that crib ina few months. Whoa.

April picked up these oh-so-cute onsies, I can't wait to see them on! He's going to be one stylish baby.

No sooner had Rich left the room when Diego came in to inspect the goings-on, and found a spot he really enjoyed. *lol* I quickly ran him out incase Rich saw, but I thought it was cute.

Bocephus came in and camped out under the crib for a while as well, so maybe he found his spot too. Jesse doesn't like babies/kids/people in general, so he didn't come in. *lol*

Labor Day weekend

2010-09-14T17:43:00.000-05:00

We'd been planning for months to go see our friends April and Josh in Mississippi, and Labor Day weekend was the perfect fit for all of us - Rich got an extra day off, and Josh got two! So on friday we threw everythingin the car and started our five hour trek up to see 'em.

The trip itself wasn't too bad, but I was worried about Rich - friday's are his long days (up at 330am to 430-5pm), and I was worried he was going to be too tired to drive it. I was right, but he didn't admit it until we'd gotten back from the holiday weekend! Luckily we talked about random stuff, not too much music, and got there a little after midnight.

I know that April and Josh's daughter, Madison, is up around 715am, so I didn't want ot over sleep, so I was up at 8am to take Bocephus out to potty - and I didn't finda nyone else up! I'd even woke Rich up! *lol* But comem to find out they were in the den, and our morning started. Josh cooked breakfast, Madi showed us her room and dress up clothes, got a tour of the town, lunch at an awesome BBQ place, then off for some bowling!

Well, we first had to make a pitstop at Walmart to get socks since non of us remembered to bring any with us, then onto the base for a game of bowling. Let me just say that I suck at bowling... and got made fun of. A lot. AND they put the bumpers up for me since I kept getting gutter balls - so I was officially competeing with the four year old. *lol*

After that we went back to their place to get t hings ready for the shrimp boil they had planned - yum! Me and April had a great time just talking - it'd been almost two years since we've seen each other face-to-face! The guys played baseball with Madi while the food cooked. It didn't take long and we were all around the table chowing down on some good shrimp, sausuage and veggies.

After dinner we went back outside - and let me just say that we loved being able to walk in grass since our yard here is nothing but sand, ants and weeds - and got the fire going for smores! Ohhh how yummy they were - and even better since the last time I really had them was with the same friends before our moves.

After Madi was in bed, the drinks came out - no worries, I was barely allowed to help bring glasses outside - and lots and lots of chit-chat. :) Both guys really needed to unwind and relax, and they both did! *lol* It wasn't too long though and I was tired - ok, so I was tired around 1030pm, I hadn't had a nap that day, but stuck it out for a few more hours.

Next day we were all a little late to rise, vegged at their place - we love that they can be homebodies like us - and didn't venture into town until that evening for dinner. Then back to the house for movies and then bed - we had to leave early at 5am the next morning!

5am came too quick the next morning, and we hit the road running.... but I will confess I was whiney and was falling asleep as I was talking to Rich. *lol* He's the type who can run off of 5-6 hours of sleep, I on the other hand need lots more to properly function. *lol* We finally made it home around 1130am I think where we promply unloaded the car, I took a Benadryl from the 'skeeter bites, and curled up in bed for the next three hours.

One thing about April and Josh is that they gave us Madi's crib, mattress, changing table, rocking glider w/ottoman, and three adorable onsies they'd picked up. :) They are truely a set of lifesavers!

Needless to say, we had one heck of a weekend.... we've deeply missed April, Josh and Madi,and it was great to spend a weekend with them. :)

Rich just looks serious in this pic, it was all in good fun.

Madi, April and me. Dont mind the lazy eye look I have going on.

I couldn't get a good serious pic of the two of 'em, but this one totoally fits their personalities the best.

And of course Bocephus went!
Ohhh yum!
Rich made himself a mojitio.

The bonfire where lots of fun was had.

Obviously after a few drinks :)

Martha Steward, June Cleaver and who ever else wears a cardigan

2010-08-25T15:02:00.001-05:00

   A few weekends ago we were at a friends house hanging out when we'd some how got onto the subject of being a good wife/husband.
   Now let me just say that the guy who's house we were at is very anit-marriage, he's 54, been divorced twice (if I remember right), and got married to his long term girlfriend in July because of medical insurance reasons. Oh, and he does love her. *lol*

Anyway, so Rich was talking about how my Mom always makes Dad's plate at dinner, and us girls were taught to do the same for him if she was busy or not home. And even to this day, when I go home and I'm in the kitchen I'll make Dad's plate.
   Mom gets up earlier than Dad (ok, so she's a night owl!) and makes his coffee pot. In winter she goes out and cranks his truck so the windows can thaw and it's warm when he gets inside.

   These are things I saw growing up, and was programmed in my head that that's what I'm supposed to do with my spouse. And I do. I try.
   In winter I go out and crank the car so the windows thaw and it's warm. I make sure his jacket, beanie, face cover and gloves are either by the door when he leaves or are in the car. I make his coffee. Pack his lunch on days that he actually takes something more than a heat-up meal.
   I try to make his plate, but a lot of the time he likes to tweak it in his own way and makes it himself. We always try to eat together, and sometimes will hold off eating until the other is ready - not so much now considering I'm hungry all the time. *lol*
   (I remember one time when we'd gone home to visit and I made Dad's plate and Mom got onto be because I didn't make Rich's. I think that's honestly one of Rich's favorite stories to tell for some reason.)

   One of my biggest thing that just somehow got made into a ritual is the door wave. When he leaves in the morning we give three kisses, he leaves and I stand at the door until he pulls out of the driveway, where he blinks his lights twice, I blow a kiss and wave. As he drives by he waves, I wave and that's that.
    When he's almost home me and Bocephus are either standing on the porch waiting for him, or just inside the door. Now this is Bo's favorite time of day, and he knows when Rich should be home, and waits by the door until I say "Daddy's home!" where he promptly runs out the door, ears standing and jumps all around. It's cute.
   We've both commented about how it's odd that I'm not at the door ready to kiss him goodbye or greet him after a long day - and it is. It's become this "thing" that we do because we want to, we like doing it.

   After we told our guy friend that, he said it's stupid- that Rich is a big boy and can crank his own car in the mornings or just get in the thing and wait for it to get warm. He's big enough to make sure he has all his stuff together, lunch and coffee made and can do it all without me. Sure, we knows this, he can - but he doesn't have to.
   Lord knows he'd give us hell if he knew the things Rich did for me when he doesn't have to. *lol*

   We both know that after the baby gets here it'll be harder to do those things at first, but we really hope to keep it up. It really is the little things that make us happy, and waving goodbye from the door is one of those things.

Bright Starts :)

2010-08-24T17:29:00.000-05:00

We've been trying to decide on what play pen/swing/etc to go with - it's overwhelming all the stuff that's out there! I'd get offline from looking and want to do anything that didn't require me to think of baby related items.

   We didn't want to spend a lot of money on all of, but we wanted it to be good quality and have a lot of reviews we could read to help narrow our choices.
   I'd heard a lot of great things about Bright Starts from other bloggers, so I thought I'd start there and see what the reviews said online. They're all great! Not only have they all gotten great reviews, but they're priced right were we wanted, and they're gender neutral incase we decide to have another later down the line.
   I'm sold. :) It's just too adorable of a print - and funnily enough I call my husband Bug, which this set has all over it, and makes me love it that much more.

   So now we've got to save up before lil'man arrives, and that'll be one big then marked off the list!

It's about time!

2010-08-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

Rich finally got to feel the baby kick - it took long enough! *lol* I knew being bigger it'd be a bit longer before I showed a belly and for him to feel the baby, but wow.... I was getting irritated.
On sunday we were watching something on tv in bed and I got him to touch my belly since the baby was moving like crazy - Rich then decided to lay his hear on it instead to hear him move around. Not long after that the baby decided to kick him in the head four times. *lol* We got a kick out of it, even if they weren't big kicks.
   Then last night as we were wataching the cartoon "Avatar" - Rich is enjoying it, and last night I didn't give a darn what we watched - and the baby was up and at it at his normal time. I'd already had a few really big kicks above my belly button and figured we'd give it a try again to see if he could feel it with his hand.
Low and behold no sooner than he put his hand there, the baby kicked really hard, and all I saw was a huge smile on Rich's face. He got to feel a few more kicks, and next I looked over to see Rich crying - he just kept saying how happy he was.
   Awwww! And that is why I love him so much. :)


   I got panicked again this weekend when I looked in the baby room and realized it's a storage area for now. *lol* We've got random stuff in tubs - purses (which is always out where I can change them when I get bored), fall/winter clothes I'll be taking out soon to wash, blow up bed/extra bedding/pillows in a big tub, and who knows whta all else. That doesn't even count what's on the bottom of the closet where the baby clothes are! Geez.
   That's our biggest problem with his house, it doesn't have enough storage space. Granted Rich has his "man land" shed outside -which is really large - but it's got stuff already in there taking up room. (Sure I've got 5 or 6 Christmas totes, but whatever!) It's not like we haven't downsized our belongings - we do it every move, and since we've lived here two years we've done it atleast 3-4 times again, usually when Rich gets upset his "man land" is being taken over. *lol*
   I'm hoping I can get both of us motivated in the next few weeks to tackle the inside storage issues and figure something out. We've got several big photos, frames, mirrors and such that need to go on the wall (we'd been waiting until we paint, but out of two years we haven't yet) and who knows what all else. I'd like to get that kind of stuff done before my belly gets too big.

After that we're going to tackle shampooing the carpets, yikes. We could pay someone to do it, but they're not goingn to move everything to do so, so we'd rather just do it oursevles. Besides, our king size mattress weighs a freakin' ton - it took four men to bring it in our house when e first bought it, and since we've moved me and Rich were the ones to do it. Not fun for our backs.
So we'll go rent a shampooer for a day on the weekend and just spend the whoel time tackling the 3 bedrooms and living room. I want it smelling pretty - the dog and two cats don't help in that department.

I also want to turn our computer/elliptical room into a guest room at some point. I don't know how we're going to pull that one off since Rich really wants to keep the elliptical in the house, adn the computer desk is a big large, and the room isn't. Plus the liter box is in here. Ugh. There is just so much on my mind that needs to get done, and to be honest.... I just wish someone would come do it fo rme so I don't have to worry about it, and it'd just be nice and pretty.
   Oh, and a maid to come deep clean the house before the baby's born. Is there a way to swing that?!

25 weeks down...

2010-08-22T17:43:00.000-05:00

How Far Along: 25 weeks and 2 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Sitting even - no loss or gain.
Maternity Clothes: I need to go get some pants, my shirts still fit. I can still get into my regular jeans, but it's getting a little uncomfortable.

Best Moment this week: Rich finally got to feel the baby move today - he laid on my belly and then got kicked in the head a few times. *lol*

Gender: All boy - Braxton Andrew.

Movement: Oh yes, lots of it! He's active in the mornings around 7-9, then again around 11'ish-3pm, and again around 8pm.

Food Craving: Actually nothing - shocker!

What I miss: Not having to worry if I've leaked any in my undies. Yuck.

Sleep: This past week it's sucked, but last night I took a Tylenol PM and slept 9 hours, it was lovely.

What I am looking forward to: Getting stuff in the baby's room, right now it's just a storage area. *lol* Even half of his closet is beign used for storage item. Geez.

Belly Button: In.

This is the most amazing company!

2010-08-18T15:12:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I contacted a company called Aminals to see if they'd like to do a review. I'd seen they're toys on other blog sites and just had to see what was up with them.

Now first let me say that I'm not the most earth friendly person, I admit that. BUT, since finding out we were pregnant I've started looking at things differently. I don't like the idea of using disposable diapers if I don't have to (that's another post all together), cleaners that can harm us, the baby or pets, recycling when I need to, etc. It just opened my eyes to things, and this company had a lot to do with it.

When I recieved the liun (lion), I fell in love right off the bat - mainly since me and Rich are both Leo's, it's silly, I know. It was soft, and you just wanted to hug on it. See, even the cats like it!

I really enjoyed reading this exert from the pamplet that came with Liun:

"Our children live and play in imaginary worlds and secret spaces - the invite their dolls to sit for tea parties, eat mud pies, or carry them upside down to bed with them to keep scary night mosters at bay. They do this in their artworkd too!"

I remember having the My Buddy doll growing up, and how much I loved him! I can totally see these products being the exact same way - and teaching everyone a lesson at the same time.

Now all the dolls are 100% organic - no worries about any synthetic poisons getting into our bloodstreams through skin contact.

This not only benefits our children, but the small-scale farmers who do everything in their power to make their fields a greener place.

One of my favorite parts of this company is that your Aminal is a bio-nutrient!

After he/she's been loved on, you're able to follow their instructions on their website and help him/her turn into compost to help make your gardne grow! It's the wonderful cycle that doesn't end! I could see this being a wonderful adventure for any little one that doesn't want to fully "let go" of their ogranic lovey, and instead help it continue it's life in a different way.

These are for you Sandy!

2010-08-17T20:45:00.000-05:00

Here ya go Sandy :)

Me at 5.5 weeks

And today at 24 weeks / 4 days

As for what we still need for the baby clothes wise is a few plain footed pj's/onsies, few pants, socks, package of mittens, package of beanies, package of cloth diapers (to be use for burp cloths), blankets - I saw all of 'em at Walmart in packages. *lol*

Other than that, we're pretty set for clothes, now just to get all the big stuff!

ABC's

2010-08-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on 72, and has been all summer, and it feels nice.

B- My BEDROOM theme is: not really a theme. We just put sheets and comforters on the bed and call it a day. *lol* We'll eventually get us a bedroom set.

C- The CAR in the driveway is: A gray Dodge Magnum.

D- My DESK looks: like a tornado hit it. I really need to clean it off this weekend.

E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is: About 615am with Rich.

F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: my hair.

G- My GARAGE is filled with: We don't have one. The previous owners converted it into a den.

H- My HOUSE is: nice for us for now, but we'll eventually move to a bigger one.

I- If you peeked INSIDE my bedroom you'd see: the animals lounging on the bed.

J- My favorite JUICE is: eh... maybe lemonade or Sunny D.

K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: Tile I guess.

L- The LAST person who visited my home was: Mom, Kelly and Zadin.

M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: a magazine.

N- My NEIGHBORS think I'm: who knows. We've lived here two years and have only met the lady next door. *lol*

O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: that it needs to be cleaned, but it's the one job I hate the most.

P- My last house PARTY was: uhm.... years!

Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: a frozen pizza/lasagna/etc you can pick up and put in the oven.

R- My favorite ROOM of the house is: don’t really have a fave. When Christmas rolls around I'll enjoy the dining room because that's where the most decorations will be. *lol*

S- The SHAMPOO brand I use: I have Head&Shoulders and Suave in there right now.

T- My largest TELEVISION is: They're both the same size, so either th eliving room or bedroom.

U- UNDER my bed you will find: dust bunnies.

V- The last time I VACUUMED was: I did some in the baby's room today when I was putting some stuff in storage tubs.

W -Looking out my WINDOW I see: Either the front yard/road, or backyard/privacy fence.

X- I wish I had X-TRA: money.

Y- My YARD is: looks a lot better since Rich was able to mow the front when he got home today.

Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: well I try to go to bed around 1030-11pm.

CSN Review

2010-08-10T13:16:00.000-05:00

I was contacted a few weeks ago to do a review with CSN, and coudln't wait to pick what I'd do it on! Since we have a baby on the way, it only made sense to go that route, and I thought I'd get a diaper bag that I'd love.

I'd heard great things about Skip Hop bags, so I figured I'd start there. I'm not too big on massive diaper bags that just scream "baby!", so this company was right up my alley. I decided to go with the Duo Deluxe Edition bag, but in brown. (For some reason I can't find the link to it on the site now.)

I had few requirements when it came to picking a bag:

- I didn't want it too girly, afterall I am having a boy.

- I also wanted Rich to be able to carry it around if he'd forgotten his at home.

- I wanted to read reviews on it.

- Needed to be sturdy, I didn't wan't to have to turn aroud in six months and buy another one.

See, I'm pretty easy to please! *lol*

What I really loved about this bag is it's shuttle clips that allow you to go from a shoulder bag, to clipping it on the stroller (or shopping cart!) easily. Since we don't have a stroller yet, you can see how it's done below.

I also like having pockets that will help keep me organized - trust me, you should see how frazzled I get if my purse gets out of order, lol. This bag has 11 pockets! Can you imagine how much stuff you can put in there, and still know where everything is? One thing I really like is one big zippered compartment is basically going to be used for my stuff - wallet, keys, phone, etc. That way I don' thave to dig for what I'm looking for, it's right there infront.

The bag is a poly canvas, and feels amazingly sturdy. You can really tell how well made this bag is when you touch it.

And since I got it in brown, I'm going to go get the baby's name embroidered across the front in a bright color, and it'll be that much more special!

It has magnetic closures for the big main compartment. I know everyone has their own opinion on zippers vs. magnets vs it just being open - I didn't mind either way as long as it closed in some way.

You can really feel the pull of the magnets, which also gives me the peace of mind if I'm out shopping.

On either side of the bag is side pokets, perfect for a bottle of water for me or a baby bottle. I really like that. There is also a perfect place for your cell phone, but in my head I see it as the best place to put pacifers that way you know whtere they're at! *lol*

Since I honestly have no idea what all I will need in my diaper bag besides the few essentials, I guess at what could be put in there. So there is my wallet, cell, a book for me, crab rattle, four diapers, wipe case, small blanket, two onsies, burp cloth, and two bottles. And I had lots of room to spare!!

Since both of us have a diaper bag apiece now, theyll mainly get used for day-to-day activities if we leave the house, and it'd e the perfect size and we wouldn't be worried if we'd forgotten anything. It's stylish for me or Rich, and I have a feeling it'll be around for the long haul.

Thanks again to CSN Stores for allowing me to do a review!