Gum

Brandt will be 8 weeks tomorrow and is getting so big... he found his hands this week and loves to eat them and coo. He also loves when you bend over him and talk to him. He responds with his sweet sounds that just make me smile and laugh. Last night was a momentous night because he slept from midnight to 6:30. I was so shocked and happy to not feel exhausted getting up to feed him. I know it was the one night miracle because Lucy had it too, but it sure is unexpected and wonderful.

It was Mike's birthday last Thursday and Lucy was very excited about it. I asked her what she wanted to get Daddy for his birthday and she said, I don't know, let's call him and ask him what he wants. So we called him and he told her that he wanted some gum. So we went to the store and she picked him out some watermelon gum. We were also walking by the men's department and she saw a green shirt and said, we should get that for Daddy. The girl has good taste, so we bought it. I helped her wrap the gum in some paper we colored and when Mike walked in the door that night, she ran up to him and said, Daddy, do you want to open your up your watermelon gum and can I have a piece? At least she kept the shirt a surprise. On the way to the restaurant, she said, Daddy this is the best gum I've ever had. It's only the 3rd piece of gum she has ever had, so I do believe her that it was the best.

Christmas Time

I can't believe Brandt is 6 weeks old and Christmas is over... although you wouldn't know in our house because the tree is still up and will remain that way for a little longer because I really didn't get a chance to enjoy it before. I'm thinking I should just add some hearts and leave it up for Valentines Day, that would require too much work :)

We started celebrating Christmas when my Dad took our family on the Christmas Train. It was 20 degrees, but we bundled up and had a great time. Brandt was the warmest one of all and we even found a cozy corner in a building to nurse... he was a real trooper. A few days later we headed to Kansas to spend Christmas with Mike's family. Brandt was a great traveler... he only fussed when he got hungry. That was such a blessing!! There was 22 of us at his parents house for a few days, but it really wasn't that crazy of a household, of course, every 2 hours I headed back to a bedroom to feed Brandt, so maybe the frequent breaks made it seem less chaotic. Lucy had such a great time playing with her cousin, Gracie (they are 3 months apart). I think Gracie needed a break from Lucy sometimes, because Lucy would say, let's go play downstairs, Gracie and she would say no. My sister-in-law, Marilee, told me that once she heard Lucy calling Gracie to come downstairs and Gracie kept saying no, so finally Lucy said, Gracie you come downstairs or else you will get a spanking. Where did she ever hear that? But we had fun taking pictures of the girls in matching pj's, Christmas outfits and their fancy dresses. Michael enjoyed pheasant hunting and we all enjoyed staying up late eating sweets and playing cards. When we got home we celebrated Christmas with my family on New Year's Eve at our house. My brother and parents were here from Wisconsin and my Grandma flew in from Florida, so it was nice being together. The kids put on there annual production of Luke 2 and we even had a baby Jesus... one of these years we will have to make them memorize lines, but for now someone reads it while the kids walk around and look ever so cute in their hodge podge costumes. Sweet memories!!

Brandt Jared

I am finally getting around to posting about our sweet BOY!! I was induced on Monday, November 24th because I was 2 days late already and didn't want to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am and Brandt was born at 12:07pm. So a 6 hour labor was so much better than the 28 hour labor that I had with Lucy. My doctor came in about 8:30 and broke my water, which led to the worst contraction that any woman has ever experienced. It came on so fast and strong that I almost passed out. That is when I sent Michael to tell the nurse that I needed my epidural now!!! She was already on her way back in the room because Brandt's heart rate was dropping fast. They flipped me over, gave me a shot to stop the contractions, hooked a bunch of heart monitors up to me, and than just began starring at the monitor. I couldn't see the monitor, but my sister said that his heart rate dropped into the 40's. First of all, I was unsure of being induced because I kind of felt selfish and thought the baby should come on his own time and than this was happening. Praise the Lord, his heart rate rebounded, I got the beloved epidural and then the waiting began. They came in and checked me and I was at a 7, but then a little while later I felt like the baby was trying to sneak out and actually was crossing my legs and squeezing. I asked Mike to get the nurse and she came back and checked me and I was at a 10, so she went to call the doctor and when she came back she said let's see if we can do one push to get you started and she checked and said, don't push!! So when my doctor got there, they got set up and 6 pushes later I heard "it's a boy." I kept saying, what am I going to do with a boy :) He is just perfect and it is such a joy to look at him and see a healthy and precious child!! Lucy's response when she found out it was a boy was "but I don't want a baby brother, I want a baby sister." She got over that quickly as you can see in the picture above.

Brandt is growing, he weighed 8lbs, 140z at his 2 week appointment after weighing 7lbs, 14oz when we left the hospital. I ended up getting mastitis last week and I am on 2 different antibiotics to try to clear this up. It has been horrible.... I would go from uncontrollable chills to sweating profusely and even had up to a 103.8 degree fever. It was pretty rough, but my Michael was amazing... such compassion, endurance and love!!! I am so blessed. Unfortunately, the antibiotics can cause gas and I have been fine, but Brandt hasn't. So I am so looking forward to being done with this all and finding our new normal. So that's why this post was started Monday and I am finally finishing it today, Saturday. Will this be my new normal :)

Random Pictures

Yesterday, we wanted to do something fun with Lucy, so we took her to the aquarium. She had fun walking through the tunnel with sharks and learning different fishes names. I think she retained more than I did.

One night while I was gone to get my hair done, Mike and Lucy made this robot hat. I guess she came up with it all by herself because there was a robot on Dora, so she wanted to be a robot too. I think they did a great job making it and she was so excited to show me when I got home.

We took Lucy to a pumpkin patch in October and I think this is just the sweetest little picture of her. They were fairytale pumpkins for our little princess. She had a great time running around, climbing hay bales and looking at animals.

Here I am at 40 weeks... can't believe it's time for this little one to be born!!

Big Girl Bed

Big news... Lucy is spending night #2 in her pink room. Whenever I would get up to go the bathroom, which is quite often, I would look at the clock and think, hmmm, haven't heard Lucy cry from falling out of bed. I was really expecting at least a few times of falling to the floor, but she didn't. So, Mike just needs to put one more coat of finish on the headboard, hang her Lucy letters and we will be done. I do have to admit, I cried and it wasn't the first time about this big girl room! On Saturday, we were moving her clothes into the other closet and I just started crying. Lucy said, mommy why you crying... I said because you are getting to be such a big girl. She got a sad look on her face and gave me a hug, so I told her it was okay, because that is the way Jesus made us to keep growing and learning. It's just hard on mommy's. It was very comforting to see her excited about her new room and wanting to sleep in her big girl bed, so that was an answer to prayer. Although, she thinks she has a pink room and a green room right now.

An update for my 4 faithful readers... I am dilated to a 3 (never got this far without being in labor with Lucy), my doctor is back (please keep praying for him and his family), and my doctor thinks that although I look like I have a small baby, I will probably have a 7.5 to 8.5 lb baby. That makes much more sense, especially since I look the same as with Lucy, just a few pounds heavier. We'll let you know when this baby comes!

Sweet Girl

Usually Lucy is a Mommy's girl, but the past few days she has been telling Michael that he is her sweet girl. Just what every man wants to hear. Well, for Michael it is, because this morning he asked Lucy if he was still her sweet girl today and she said yes. She sent a big man off to work very happy!! We all know though that she is still a mommy's girl.

I know this blog is about Lucy, but I need to vent. So I had a really bad appointment yesterday. When I got to the doctor's office, they told me that I would be seeing a different doctor because my doctor's 19 year old son died last week. Isn't that just horrible!! So, I knew that this new doctor wasn't married and young, so I said can I see someone else and they said next week we can make an appointment with one of the other doctors. So anyhow, he comes in the room to check me and than do the ultrasound. He was trying to get a good heartbeat and actually told me that the baby is making it very difficult to get the heartbeat because it's moving all over the place. So I said to him, well you did just poke the baby in the head. So, we move on... I tell him that we don't want to know the sex and I ask him if we can do an estimate on the baby's weight because that's what my doctor had planned for this week. Well, he goes on to tell me that you can't get the actual weight of the baby through an ultrasound that it could be a pound more or a pound less. I said, I know, but it's just for fun. So, he starts and he is moving up my tummy a little high, so I say, remember we don't want to know the sex of the baby. He tells me that I better look away then because if I want him to do this than he has to measure the leg. So I told him that I'd rather not know the weight if there is a possibility of seeing something, but he ignored me and continued. Well, let me tell you, he took FOREVER and pushed so hard on my tummy, and I had to pee. Then he finally gets the weight and I had to point it out to him on the screen where it was at... come on, are you kidding me. It was 5lbs, 4oz. I am pretty sure he did it WRONG because come on Lucy was 8.5lbs and do Mike and I really look like we can have a small baby. So, I said to him, the baby usually gains about 1/2 lb or so a week, right. He said, no, the baby might not gain anymore weight. Now am I wrong or does a baby continue to gain until the end? I really felt a bit smarter than him at this point. Plus, when he first started the ultrasound he didn't turn the screen so I could see and I kept asking him to turn it and he ignored me, so finally I grabbed the screen and turned it. So just to put the icing on the cake, he asked me if I had any questions and then walked out the door without even turning the light on for us. He's a real gem!!

Words of Affirmation

I haven't posted anything in a few weeks, but Lucy continues to crack us up daily. The most recent was this afternoon in a public restroom. We were in a store and Lucy said, I have to go poopie, so we hurry to a restroom. As we walk, I continue to ask if she still needs to go, and the answer was always yes. So we walk across the store to the restroom, load the toilet paper on the seat, securely tuck the dress in her neck so it doesn't fall in the toilet, pull down the tights and the pull-up and get on the seat. So as I am squatting there (which isn't easy at 9 months pregnant) waiting for her, she says I don't have to go anymore. After waiting a few more minutes, just to be sure, we finally give up. Well, since we have gone through the effort of getting to a bathroom, someone is going to go, so of course I can always come through on that. So I finish going and Lucy wants to flush, so I am standing up to pull up my pants and Lucy yells "that's a big butt" which by the way she usually says bottom so I obviously took her by surprise. Then she says "I have a little butt and that is a BIGGGG butt." I started laughing so hard because I knew there were other people in the restroom as well, and it's obvious she is talking about me. This isn't shocking news to me, but it's not really what I want to hear, I mean really, who ever wants to hear that. When we were washing our hands the lady from the other stall didn't even smile or say anything... I was laughing and still do when I think about it.