I Love to READ Green Eggs and Ham!

The other day Brad picked Blake up from school and he was in the library with his class. Usually as soon as Blake sees his dada he lights up with a grin from ear to ear and runs up to him. This particular day Blake was sitting on the floor engrossed in a book and barely flashed a smile at Brad and continued reading. The teacher told Brad he had been reading Green Eggs and Ham the entire time they were in there. Brad finally coaxed Blake away from the book with the promise we had it at home and he could read it there! Once Blake put down the book, one of his friends grabbed it for her turn, but as soon as Blake saw someone else taking his new favorite, he quickly ran back and grabbed it for himself. Who knew Dr. Seuss could have such power over an almost 18 month old?! So last night Brad took down our copy of Green Eggs and Ham for Blake and did not want to stop reading...even for one of his other favorite activities...bath time. I just had to snap a few photos...



Next post, Halloween photos!! I can't wait. As a teaser, lets just say we have the cutest pirate I've ever seen!

Tummy Time Blues

I totally jinxed myself with my last blog entry. I went from the world's least fussiest baby to the very next day a baby exhibiting all the symptoms of acid reflux. After googling "infant reflux" Brady is experiencing every single symptom it listed...poor guy! I gave it a week to see if his tummy issues would work out on their own, paying attention to what I was eating as well, but after his throw up session this morning and his colic fit last night, I decided to call the doctor to see if there is some reflux medicine we can try. I am waiting a call back and fingers crossed they can do something for the little munchkin!

Two Week Check-in

I can not believe two whole weeks have passed since Brady Austin was born! Each day passes ridiculously fast and sometimes I just want things to slow down a bit. Brad returned to work yesterday which was really sad for me because I've LOVED having his company and sharing in this wonderful time with him, but reality has to return at some point I suppose. Brady has continued to be such an amazing baby, sleeping when he should (for the most part) and only fussing when dirty or hungry (for the most part). The longest crying fit where I didn't know what was wrong with him lasted for about four minutes. See? Amazing baby! My personal recovery has been a night and day difference this time around as well. I have felt so great which has made me do a lot more than I should at times which then is followed by my body reminding me, "Umm, hellooo, you just gave birth, take it easy!" Brad's mom has been staying with us since a few days after we came home from the hospital and together her and Brad have been sentencing me to the couch or to bed instead of doing the load of laundry that I was trying to do. She's been a great help and I'm grateful to have her here.
One of my biggest fears of bringing in another baby into our family was Blake's reaction. Thoughts of this actually consumed much of my day close to Brady's arrival. I have been absolutely loving the stage Blake is at right now and he is the world's happiest little boy, full of such joy and smiles. I was terrified I was going to ruin all of that ray of sunshine that spews out of him and I felt horrible about it. But thankfully my fears have been completely unwarranted. Blake absolutely LOVES his brother. The first thing he wants to do when he gets home from school is find his baby brother and give him kisses. He gives him kisses and hugs all the time and constantly wants to know where he is and if he's okay. Last night he even found Brady's pacifier and brought it to Brady and tried to put it in his mouth (even though Brady was sound asleep!). Blake is the same ray of sunshine he's always been and my heart has never been fuller. To answer one of my friends who asked how life is with two boys...Life is GREAT!
Because Blake is constantly on the run, even inside our house, its been next to impossible to get a picture of Blake and Brady together. But last night as Brad was holding Brady, Blake wanted to join in the snuggles so I grabbed the camera before he ran off!



And here is a pic of Brady where it looks like he's smiling...

Welcome to the World! (Brady's Birth Story...long!)

Brady Austin Jones is here! Brad and I could not be any happier or feel any more blessed. As I keep saying, life is good.

There were many predictions going around on when this baby would make his appearance. I had two friends that guessed exactly right. I woke up at 2am Monday and thought perhaps my water broke but it was such a minuscule amount I was not about to wake up our house in panic and went back to sleep. I woke up an hour later with an extremely strong contraction wondering, is this really it? But again, went back to sleep. Then the alarm went off to start the work week, oh joy, and I was about to step out of bed...water broke. I woke Brad up and started our panic of trying to pack our hospital bags (had talked about needing to do this just the day before) and an overnight for Mr. Blake. We could barely focus on anything but we managed to pack our bags successfully, wake up Blake and get him dressed and get ourselves out the door to drop Blake off at school for the day. I have to admit the timing couldn't have been any better. We arrived at the hospital around 8 and evidently my water had not fully broken and my contractions were not close together, so they started me on potocin and finished breaking my water. The induction meds and water breaking did not occur until around 11am. At the beginning of the morning I was close to 5cm dilated. Several hours later I was only a 6 so thought we might have a long day ahead of us. The nurse came to recheck me at 2:35pm and said I was ready to start pushing. What?! So she left the room for a few minutes to get a few things for delivery and about 5 minutes later I did my first set of 3 pushes and she told me to stop as she did not trust me and paged the doctor for delivery. Everything was moving so much faster this time around than with Blake. I just kept praying and praying I would not have to push for hours like I did last time. The doctor arrived to deliver Brady, who is maybe 5 feet tall and the world's most petite woman. Meanwhile I was laying on a bed that had been risen way up to accommodate my tall hubby and tall nurse. My nurse went to lower the bed, only for it to not budge. Awesome. So she said sometimes you have to raise up the bed to lower it. She raised it to the highest setting, I felt like I could have touched the ceiling. She then went to lower it...nothing. Great. They unplug the bed, move the bed away from the wall trying to reset it or manually adjust it. Nothing. Meanwhile, I am ready to push this baby out! So after their efforts were unsuccessful, they brought in 2 step stools and stacked them on top of each other. Seriously. The doctor that delivered my baby had to stand on top of stacking step stools. Sounds safe, doesn't it? I pushed I think maybe 2 or 3 more sets of 3 and out came baby at 3pm, only 25 minutes after the nurse had told me it was time to push. I could not believe he was out. Such a different experience this time around. As he came out I heard one of the nurses say the cord was wrapped around his neck once which caused me a moment of panic, however a second later he screamed and didn't stop exercising his pipes for about 15 minutes! They laid him on my chest and I was in awe. My sweet baby boy. The whole experience was so incredible and amazing and now I have two perfect beautiful baby boys and the most supportive wonderful husband by my side. I am in a state of euphoria. Being a mom the second time around, even though it is only day 4, is so much calmer, more relaxing and I'm able to enjoy each moment so much more it seems. Now once I can recover from the pain of delivery, I'll feel like a million bucks! Brady is eating well and sleeping great (knock on wood). We go to the pediatrician this morning to recheck his weight and make sure he's progressing as he should! Here is a picture my friend Heather took with her amazing photography skills. Next post...Blake's reaction to meeting his little brother for the first time!