One Week Old!

Brennan was 1 week old yesterday, it is amazing how completely in love you can fall so quickly. He has been just about perfect. He likes to nurse all day long, but he has been so good at night that I can't really complain. The boys are still very much in love with him. My mother in law has been here this week, and has been a tremendous help. She has just about caught us up on laundry and has driven the boys to and from all week allowing me to rest some.

Brennan went to the pediatrician on Monday and was 6 pounds 5 ounces (what he was when we were discharged from the hospital). He said since my milk didn't come in until Saturday he had probably gotten as low as 6 pounds even to 6 pounds 2 ounces. He didn't look jaundice at all, so we didn't have to test him. He said he should have no trouble regaining his birth weight by his 2 week check up on Tuesday. We have been having to wake him up at night to feed, but last night he woke himelf up each time just before the alarm was to go off. Of course, starting tonight we can let him sleep as long as he wants at night, but he will probably be waking himself up again. lol

Brennan very rarely cries, and if he does it is only when he is hungry. As soon as he is eating he is done crying. He loves holding fingers and to snuggle. He would lay on your chest for hours if you let him. He is also very alert. When he was born he was wide awake and didn't shut his eyes until he was over 1 1/2 hours old. He still is very alert and always looking around and taking everything in. We are truly blessed!

After his 1st bath. I wanted a crying picture, but he is so mellow it took a while to get it. lol

Brennan's Pictures, finally!

Brennan just a few minutes old, I hadn't even held him yet.

The 1st time Brandt saw him, he was only a few hours old.

The 1st time Brayden held him, he is just a few hours old. Brayden is so super excited about his brother, he actually cried when he had to leave the hospital at night and Brennan wasn't coming with him.

Bryson holding him the 1st time. I wasn't sure how Bryson would do with Brennan. he never really acted like he understood we were having a baby. However, he has done wonderful with him. He loves him and is very gentle, and has not been jealous at all.

Brennan at 1 day old

Brennan getting his hearing test. They just started doing this test in the room with the parents, so we have never been present before. It looks so cute, like he is jamming to music.

Leaving the hospital. The blanket he has is the one that someone made for my grandmother over 60 years ago. My aunt and dad both used it when they came home from the hospital, plus all of my siblings, my nephews, and all 4 boys. It is pink on 1 side and blue on the other, and is really great shape. The outfit he came home in is the same one Dustin came home in and all 3 of the other boys.

Bluebonnets

We had every intention of doing Bluebonnet pictures early this year so we weren't running around trying to find one of the last patches around, like we do every year. Well we still ended up waiting until April 16th, and finally found a nice patch off of Hwy 47. Maybe next year we'll do it earlier?

It was almost impossible to get all 3 boys to look and smile at the same time. This was the best picture of them we took. Bryson flat out refused pictures when we tried to take some of just him.

I did not do very well on taking maternity pictures this time, so I thought I would take one since I was out there. Brennan was born 6 days later, I can't believe how small I carried him...way smaller than the other boys.

Hospital picture

I am not sure if this will work or not, but here is a link to his hospital picture from today:
http://www.our365.com/newbornportraits/babydetail.aspx?birthid=82f9eeb6-f23f-42e0-a335-d32560c5e07b&babyid=b44c00b6-3659-49ee-9437-6f7bc1ae91f7

We are at the Med until tomorrow morning, and then I'll try to post pictures.

HE IS HERE!

Brennan Joseph is here. He was born at 10:58 this morning with the cord wrapped 4 times around his neck. Priase God my doctor had the wisdom to send us over and take it very slow. He is 6 pounds 11 ounces, and doing well. We were sent to L&D around 3 pm yesterday and they started a very slow pitocin yesterday around 3:45 pm. He was very high and had almost no fluid, so there was concern my water would break and he would still be high and we would end up with a cord accident. Everything went great, and he is perfect. We are at the Med and I'll try to post pictures later.

Interesting afternoon...

Around 11 am this morning it dawned on me that I had not felt Brennan move all day. Now he is not a big mover, plus I have an anterior placenta, which makes it even harder to feel. We called our doctor's office and we were informed we needed to go into Labor & Delivery to be monitored. Now when we had the non-stress test on Monday he barely moved, even zapping him with this sound machine, but his heart rate was good so they deemed that he had passed. So today I figured we would go in and they would see the heartbeat and send us home. Well as soon as the monitor hit my stomach we heard the heartbeat, that was a huge sigh of relief. They monitored me for a while, and came in and told me that while his heartrate is good it is not fluctuating and reacting like they want to see. She said there was a decent chance they would be delivering me today...ummm wow, totally not expecting that. She had me lay on my left side and finally his heart rate started reacting, although he still wasn't moving where I could feel him. My OB has written on my chart that he'll deliver, whether he is on call or not. So after some tracking down we find out he is in Houston. They ordered a very detailed biprofile ultrasound and they checked him over(kidneys, bladder, breathing movement, etc), and with a lot of poking and proding he finally moved 3 times (which is what is required to pass). Only 1 of those was a big enough movement for me to feel though. So they kind of left it up to us what we did, and we decided to go home and wait for my appointment on Monday since he passed all of the test even though I couldn't feel him. The nurse feels confident that after my appointment on Monday at 1, I'll be sent over to L&D and have a baby and that gives him a few more days to bake. She made me promise that if I felt uncomfortable with his lack of movement again I had to come back in. So until it happens nothing is set in stone, but it looks like Monday is D day. They sent me home on bed rest until Monday and want me on my left side until then. So this will be very interesting with the 3 boys home, Brandt should be fine, but if I am here the other 2 want to be on me and hanging on me. Please pray this goes well, and Brennan gets here safely on Monday if that is what is best.

Great game...

Brandt has been playing T-Ball 2 nights a week for a couple of weeks now. He LOVES it, and gets so excited on game nights. His team gives out a game ball every game to the player that did the best job during that game. Brandt has desperately wanted the game ball, but as a first time player he is still on a major learning curve and there are some really good players on his team that are a year or so older than he is. Well tonight he made an awesome play. He was playing second base, and the ball was hit hard towards him. He fielded it by getting his glove down and his body in front of it. Then he grabbed the ball and he ran to 2nd base and beat the runner, that boy is FAST! He was so excited, as outs are not very common in T-Ball. lol When he got the game ball, he was so happy he was jumping and grinning from ear to ear. We are going to get it a case and set it up on his dresser for him to see. Way to go Brandt, we are proud of you!

Brandt wanted to pretend he was throwing the ball.

Almost there...

When I went to the doctor on Tuesday he commented on how big the baby was. I asked him how big did he think he was, and he didn't say, but did finally agree with me on the due date. He now thinks instead of being 36 weeks today, we are 37 weeks. While this is exciting, this is also completely scary, because Brandt was born just shy of 36 weeks and the other 2 during the 37th week. He feels strongly the baby will be here next week, or possibly the following week. So we are in major overdrive mode trying to get ready for him. I have another appointment on Monday, and he will do an ultrasound and non-stress test on him. I can't believe by this time next week there is a really good chance he could be here! Wow! Please pray that the last week goes smoothly, and we have a safe labor and delivery. Thanks so much for your prayers!

4 YEARS OLD!!!!

Today my big guy turned 4!!! I can't believe it, where has the time gone? He was so excited for his birthday, and he woke up asking everyone to wish him a happy birthday, and then he would giggle and say thank you. He picked out chocolate pudding for breakfast, and made sure to tell his wonderful preschool teacher what mommy gave him. lol After preschool, we went to his brother's T-Ball game and he was so excited to get a snowcone. He asked for McDonalds for dinner, so we drove over there and let him play and eat. The manager gave the boys ice cream (well Brandt got a cookie instead), and Brayden was so happy. He told us today was his real birthday, and tomorrow would no longer be his birthday. I am glad he got that concept, my guess is he realizes his party is Saturday, so they fall on 2 different days, but this is the day that made him 4. When the grandparents called he made sure to tell each one that today was his birthday, like they didn't know. lol This might work to our advantage though, because we struggle with him getting himself ready, he would rather us do it. However, with 3 kids and soon to be 4, the more they can do for themselves the easier it is on me. Well as we were leaving McDonalds he brought me his shoes and asked me to put them on him, now keep in mind that we specifically bought velcro so he could do it. Dustin told him, 4 year olds put their own shoes on and he said "oh silly me, I forgot". Then he did it by himself, I am praying this continues. lol

I am stealing this idea from Brickmama, but here are 4 of his favorite things.

Food:

1. Watermelon

2. Strawberries

3. Oranges

4. Apples

As you can tell, he is my fruit eating machine!

Favorite things to watch:

1. Diego

2. Tom & Jerry

3. Snow Buddies, or anything Air Buddies

4. Ice Age

Favorite things to do:

1. Ride Champ (his cousin's horse)

2. Play with Brick 1 & 2 on Mondays and Fridays

3. Play with his brothers

4. Sneak into our bed at night

Favorite places to go:

1. To the grandparents

2. To Chuck E Cheese or Gattiland

3. To Awanas

4. To Brandt's baseball games

We are very lucky to call you our son Brayden! We are very proud of you and all you have accomplished. You have worked so hard on your speech and are making such strong headways. You love your brothers very much, and are getting very good with sharing. You know so much about Jesus and have a real love for Him. We are amazed at all the little details you remember that you have learned. We are so proud of your true understanding of holidays: that Christmas is really about Jesus being born and not just Santa and presents, and Easter is about Him being risen from the dead, not just baskets, bunnies, and candy. We are so excited for what God is going to do in your life the older you get.

We finally have a name!!!

We finally decided on a name for our baby coming in 2-3 weeks. We have never waited so long to pick a name, and I am glad to finally have that behind us. We had decided on this name, but then changed our minds, and now have changed our minds back. lol We liked both names and it was very hard to decide....

Brennan Joseph

will soon be joining our family. It feels so odd to call him a name instead of just the baby. lol Now we just need to get going on getting everything ready for him.

Stressed beyond belief

UPDATE: I did finally get Brayden to agree to have his party at McDonalds and we went this morning before work and scheduled it. That is at least 1 major thing I can mark off my mile long list.


The baby is coming in 2, maybe 3 weeks. I have been feeling terrible, and it doesn't appear to be getting any better. Brandt is in T-ball 2 to 3 times a week and on those nights we do not get home until 7:30, then have to eat dinner, and kids are not getting in bed until after 9 or 9:30. They have also decided that this would be a great time for all 3 of them to be awful. They aren't listening well and fighting with each other. My house looks like a bomb went off. The whole livingroom is filled with junk from the garage that we need to go through. The kitchen has bags of groceries that I haven't put up. Brayden's birthday is Monday and I have NO idea what to do for his party. Between his 2 classes there are 22 kids besides himself, then our family, & our friends' families. What do you do with that many kids when you do not have a lot of money to spend and forget it being here, my house is a disaster. He wants to do it at the Bounce, but that is $175 to $225...um no way! We have bounce houses that we could use that belong to us, but we have no where to use them (our yard is very sloped). Then the house is not ready, we still have to texture and paint the walls downstairs, the playroom and baby's room. I have nothing washed for the baby, no where to put it yet. The list just goes on. In the next 2 to 3 weeks we only have like 4 free days/nights...how in the world are we suppose to get done a fraction of what we need. Not to mention there is no one to watch the kids, no parents coming to help, and I am at a point that I need help watching all the boys, but then Dustin can't get anything done. Ugh, please pray for me I am so on the verge of tears.