A Summer Full of Learning and Fun!

We are officially in week 20 of candy cane's pregnancy!! He is getting big and finally moving around where I can feel it. I have what is called an anterior placenta ... just meaning the placenta implanted on the front side of my uterus between the outside and him ... so it takes awhile longer to feel them move since they have to kick hard enough to be felt beyond the padding! I have been super sick with this pregnancy and was on a reglan pump for 5 weeks and then a zofran pump for 5 weeks. Neither of which I would recommend to anyone but finally at 19 weeks and 6 days it is finally gone! Now that I am finally eating (and keeping it down) maybe I will gain some weight. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of weight gain but you know cute little baby bumps don't come without some cost! So anyways if you don't follow me on facebook ... we found out on Aug 11th that candy cane is another boy! We are still name looking and yes it will probably be awhile. Jeremy and I can't agree on anything. Last time we both had names we liked ... didn't agree and then Jerms mentioned Bronner and we both love it. Hopefully something similar will happen this time. I LOVE the name Aeden/Aiden but Jeremy hates it. He can't come up with anything though so I just keep calling him Aiden/Aeden and maybe he will change his mind! We are hoping little candy cane will come out on his own but if not are thinking he will be evicted shortly after Christmas or right before the New Year. Yes I complain about the week between the two are work being so super busy but I will be evicting this child for my tax credit!! (And he will be 39 weeks and ready to come out!) On work stories I have done two water births lately and have really really enjoyed both experiences. Not that I am saying I will be birthing this child in a tub but I have been considering it. My doctor doesn't "do" them but said I could if I wanted to. I mean I am a water birth educator and all! Who knows. Only time will tell and if I induce this labor that won't be an option anyways. Next up is my sugar ... which means I am almost viable! 3 weeks and counting!

In Bronner news ... he is getting so BIG! Last week was our 9 month well baby visit. He is officially 20lbs and 1 oz and 28.5 inches long. He is going to be tall. I guess he really didn't have much of an option in this department though! He is sitting and pulling up and taking steps when holding on to things. He will be "cruising" in the next week or two I'm sure as he is already starting to try. He has definitely skipped the whole crawling process. I was worried about it at first but the ped said some just do that. He is otherwise right on target. He is eating solids and trying to learn to use a sippy! We are hoping to have him off the bottle by his bday since candy cane will need them! No teeth yet but are looking to get some anytime. He has been "teething" for what seems like forever. Running temps off and on and chewing and drooling on anything in sight. We have take lots of trips this summer to Jeremy's mom and dad's to swim and he LOVES it. (Well many of the trips were without me due to puking but you know!) We have been to the beach and my mom has come to visit. All in all we have had a great summer and are enjoying our ever growing family!

Pumpkin Pies and Candy Canes!

I am so sorry to have stayed away from this for so long. But, here comes the excuse, we have been super busy around here. Well and I haven't been quite up to par. If you notice the title of this post you might be able to figure out why! If not follow along. Bronner was born November 10th 2008 as you all know so consequently his little nickname has been pumpkin pie or kumquat while in utero. Pumpkin pie stuck around though and I frequently find myself calling him that! Well now onto Candy cane! Yep you guessed it ... we are expecting in December! Well the official due date is Jan 5th, 2010 but we will be delivered by the New Year. When I found out, oh 5 weeks or so ago, I thought I was due in early December but I was a little off on my calculations!

So to answer the onslaught of questions right off the bat:

A: no this was not planned

B: yes we are super excited

C: yes I know many of you will think we are crazy for having babies 13 months apart

D: no we were not preventing this ... unless you count exclusively breastfeeding which obviously didn't work for us ... many times it does just not for me!

E: a little TMI but for those that are dying to know ... no I didn't have a period between Bronner and Candy Cane so that is why I thought I was farther along than I thought

F: yes I found out at approx 3 weeks and 4 days ... how I don't know ... I just had a flashback one day while puking and figured I might as well rule that out and go with the flu ... that is until the 2 pink lines popped up on that plastic stick

G: and finally yes we will be staying at out OWN house for Christmas and Candy Cane's bday in the years to come!!

So I hope yall now know why this blog hasn't been updated and are as excited as we are! If you think we are crazy feel free to have your opinions but please don't tell me! I already know how much work, stress and joy this is going to entail! We are hoping and praying for a smooth and health pregnancy. Hopefully avoiding cholestatsis but knowing that there is a real possibility it could happen again. Praying for a happy and healthy baby and thinking blue!!



In a little Bronner news he is giving kisses, eating and loving it, and continues to work on sitting for a long period of time. He would much rather be standing up that sitting down. He is not interested in being on his belly so we haven't figured out the crawling thing yet but we will get there! He is getting so big and we can't wait for summer for trips to the pool and the beach!

Easter and such

The last few weeks have been really busy around our house. Bronner is now eating apples and cereal, rolling over, laughing more, and growing like a weed! I can't believe how fast it is going. On Monday April 6th I delivered little Brewer and Katie did awesome. She went natural and really did amazing. It has so inspired my desire to do it again and go natural next time. I do have to admit I am a little disappointed that I got my epidural last time. Next time, when God decides that will be, it will be a different story. Jeremy is already prepared so don't try to scare him!! On Thursday Caitlin and I took B to the botanical gardens and got some great pics. Check out my facebook for them. There were way to many to pick to post on here! We had so much fun but would definitely wear different shoes next time! I didn't realize how big that place was. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and we all enjoyed it. We ate some Davenports afterward which I haven't had since the good ole SU days and I forgot how good it was! On Thurs night little Brewer was readmitted to the hospital for reflux but is now home and doing well! Hopefully he will continue to feel better. Saturday we travelled to MS to see family and for Kyndals wedding. It was all fun! We did some egg hunting, visiting, birthday celebrating for little Carter .. who by the way is now 5 (can you believe it!), and lots of kid chasing! The kiddos had so much fun together. Little B didn't sleep so well though. We were up a lot during the night and are super tired and counting down till bed time!

Easter is an important day to us and we hope to teach Bronner the true meaning of easter. Not the bunnies and eggs version but the Jesus died on the cross on Friday for all of our sins and rose from the grave on Sunday. We pray daily that we will be good parents and raise our children to be Godly men and women. Jeremy and I have discussed the fact that it is common not to "do" the easter bunny/santa and know that these aren't the real reasons for the holidays. We also love imagination and remember our own childhood and recall these memories alot. We haven't fully decided what we are going to do about those issues but are pretty sure that we will participate in the imagination part but stress the true meaning of the holiday. Any ideas? What do yall do?

Anyways hope yall are having a wonderful easter weekend and hope you know the real reason we celebrate today!

This and That

March is flying bye and April is almost here! Can you believe that it is almost summer! I can't wait to enjoy the summer sun and be outside! We are working on the yard/flower beds and I can't wait for everything to start blooming. Bronner is growing like a little weed himself! Starting pull into a sitting position with help but only staying there for seconds at a time before crashing. I can't believe that he is going to be 5 months old soon. We have been trying to introduce rice cereal but he is not loving it. He seems to be doing just fine on bmilk alone so I guess we will stick to that for now. Hopefully by 6 months or so he will be at least taking rice cereal and we can start on a few solids like squash and bananas! Oh the joy!! (and the mess!) He is doing really well and starting to get the hang of sleeping through the night. He did it for the first time last night when I was home but has done it 3 times this week! Hopefully we are in the home stretch and it is getting better! Last night we went out to celebrate Em's bday at Benkei. It was fun except for the fact that B got a little fussy on the way home. I mean he was 35 mins late to eat. You would have thought the poor kid was starving to death! But we had fun and a little fussing on the way home doesn't hurt anybody ... except for a mommas heart. I almost made Jerms pull over but he was still in his bday outfit and stuff so I didn't want him to fall asleep for the night and then have to be woken up. So we dealt with it and made it home to feed and then we were blessed with a restful nights sleep!

In New Years resolution news: We got the TITLE to OUR yes it is now officially OUR car!!! YAY! I couldn't be happier! It is such a relief to know that it is finally done! Now on to the lawn mower and then we can move on to Dave's baby step 3!

One of the blogs that I follow is linked on my site! Please pray for little Stellan. You can go to Mckmamas blog to read all about him but he is suffering from SVT (a really fast and abnormal heartrate). Something he suffered from in the womb and was not expected to survive. He is 2 weeks older than Bronner so it really hits home. Please lift this family up in your prayers as the continue to try to find the right combo of med to treat Stellan with until he is a little bit older and can tolerate surgery to block the extra pathway in his heart that is causing the abnormal HR!

Abby delivered and Julia is cute as a button! They are doing great so thanks for thinking and praying for them! Katie is still preggo and 36 weeks tomorrow!!! She is on bedrest for BP issues so keep her in your thoughts and prayers ... only 2 weeks to go till her goal of 38 weeks and hopefully we can work out my work schedule to take care of her!

Thats about all from here! Hope yall have a good week!

March 09 - Snow and Turning 4 months old!

In Feb when my Mimi and Poppy came to visit! I love my cow outfit!

It SNOWED in Birminham and Bronner got to play! We had so much fun catching snow flakes and building snowmen! Jeremy played with the neighbour kids and had a snowball fight and trying to walk up the hill I slid down! It was all quite entertaining. Bronner didn't enjoy being all bundled up but we stayed out for a little while! As Alabama weather goes the next weekend (it snowed March 1st, Sunday) we were wearing shorts. Bronner turned 4 months old on the 10th and we had our ped check up. He now weighs in at 15lbs 12 oz and is 25 3/4 inches long. He has slimmed up and dropped from the 90th to the 80th percent in weight but has gone up from the 95th to the 98th percent in length. He is starting to look more and more like me and less like Jeremy. It is really funny to walk up to someone that hasn't seen him in awhile and they always say "wow he definitely is your kid!" We spent some time with my grandparents and aunts as they came to visit last weekend and got to play with cousin Karsyn.

Bronner loved her and I can't believe how much she has grown. She is definitely becoming a little lady. We also got to see Neese and Grandpa Junkin that weekend and Aunt Dyana and Uncle Jason and Aunt Emily. They all couldn't believe how much I had changed in a few short weeks. Bronner is starting to enjoy tummy time a little more now and loves to watch tv. So I have started to combine them ... ie he gets to watch the news with me in the morning but only on his tummy! We also love praise baby and try to watch it once a week or so. He is learning to sit up in his exersaucer and has learned to push the buttons or pull the toys to make the music play. His face lights up when he actually does it! He is so stinkin cute! Other than that we have been enjoying time at home!

Update on our New Years Resolutions (they may not be in the same order!)

1. I now only have 5 lbs to go to get to my prepreggo weight!! That wii fit sure is working ... if only I could get up the motivation to change my diet these last lbs would probably drop off a little faster but I just can't do it!

2. We paid off the car last week and are waiting on the title in the mail from the bank!! Now only to make it last at least 2 years before we buy another one. We are using Dave Ramseys debt snowball and hopefully will be paying off the lawn mower by the end of the summer to be completely debt free ... except our house ofcourse and that really doesn't count right?

3. We have been to church but are still struggling with sunday school. It falls right during feeding time and is so early for me. I know these are excuses but we are getting there. Planning on going this week!

4. We are working towards our savings goal and hopefully will be going to AK next summer!!

5. We love Bronner and couldn't be happier!

I hope yall are keeping and making goals! It is so much fun to check something off the list for me at least. I am really type A if you can't tell! Anyways I promise to try to get on more often and keep yall updated on little B's life!

Playing Wii with Daddy is hard work for a little fellow!

Keep my friends Abby and Katie in your prayers as they are both expecting ... Abby is overdue and waiting for delivery and Katie is getting close to our goal of 38 weeks! I can't wait to see pics of little Julia and hopefully help deliver Brewer soon!

Catching Up

It has been awhile! Feb has gone by fast. Bronner is now 3.5 months old and I can't believe how fast he is changing. Valentines was great. Jerms and I played Wii with Bronner. He still loves to play Wii and ride in his "backpack"! He is now cooing, sticking out his tounge, and Jerms says he has heard him laugh twice but I haven't yet. Mom was here for a week and it was great visiting with Mimi but we all got sick. Mom had the stomach bug and Bronner and I both have colds / upper resp things going on. I just started a Z Pack so pray we don't get thrush. So far so good but we are only on day 2! Other than that nothing much has been going on. Lots of working and trying to figure out our schedule. It is getting much better and hopefully we will be in the grove soon!

My Bday

I turned 26 yesterday and am actually dealing with it better than I did 25. Maybe because of my little man! I really wanted to be preggo by 25 and when I wasn't it was hard for me to deal with. Little did we know we would be in just 4 short weeks! So for my bday this year I cancelled my gym membership. Yep thats right! Don't forget that one of my goals this year is to lose the baby weight so we bought a wii and wii fit! It is so awesome! I love it!!! It is easy to do and I can do it while B naps or is in the swing. Jeremy actually is playing tennis right now while B is napping in the baby bjorn. Anyways I finally uploaded pics from the last few weeks so I will get you up to date. I am also back to work and it is going wonderfully. Jeremy says that the nights are better than expected so thanks for praying! Little B is still not sleeping through the night but is only getting up once so that isnt to bad! Pumping and all is going great at work. I have wonderful coworkers and they always help me get pumping time in. Hopefully that will continue. We are off to a work/friends party for Kelley's house warming and my bday! I can't wait. Needless to say I will be pumping and dumping tonight and tomorrow! Thankfully I make way to much milk! Thanks to auntie cait for coming to stay with little B!