Happy 4th!

Deacon is 6 weeks old today. Time flies! It seems like he's always been here. I had my six week checkup today, as well. All is good! (After recovering from multiple problems, such as mastitis, etc.) I'm finally feeling on the mend. I'm ready to start working out now, and getting my body back.

Fish update: one of our fish died. I think it was Seymour. The other one is thriving though. I think they didn't get along, and Heinie killed him. Now Briley keeps telling people that the fish died. She says it so mournfully, it cracks me up.

Tonight we are taking the kids swimming at my parents, and then we are going to do some fireworks. Last year Briley was too little to enjoy, so this will be her first year to see them. She is pretty excited, so we are going to let her stay up late and watch.
Ronnie has to work tomorrow (oh the joys of retail.) I have a wedding to go to in the morning, and some family friends are coming in from out of town and want to see the kids. After that, I have no clue what we are going to do! I guess we will play it by ear. Sunday is Ronnie's birthday, and we will probably go out for dinner. He's thinking Red Lobster...yum!

Well that's about it, I will post some pictures from the weekend later. Have a great holiday everyone!!!

Fish.

I got Ronnie an aquarium for Christmas, and we are just now getting around to filling it. We had to buy a table for it, and then all of the accessories, and we were kind of broke for a while. So we have had an empty aquarium sitting in our living room for 6 months. Well, we finally bought some fish last night. We got two green spotted puffers. They look exactly like the big puffer fish you find in the ocean, except they don't have spikes and they are green with spots. Hence, the name. Here's a pic of what they look like:



They are pretty cute little guys. One of them looks pregnant; we shall see. We named them Seymour and Heinie. Clever, huh? *grins*
Briley loves them; she has been begging for a fish forever. Every time we go to Wal-Mart, she begs to look at the "fishies". When she says it, it sounds like "feces". It's funny to look at people's faces when they overhear her yell "I see feces!!!!"

Fun pictures!

Here's an update in photos.....


Funny faces!!


Proud big sister holding bubby. She loves to hold him!


He gets pretty relaxed while sleeping!!


We are working on the sharing concept with Briley....so she shared all of her my little ponies with her brother! At least she seems to be getting it.


We were playing with his hair one night during bath time. This is his Jack Nicholson look.


More fun hair....


Deacon's first Sunday going to church.


Same Sunday, with mommy.


My Princess.


My little man.


For Father's Day we took Ronnie out for dinner; we went to Famous Dave's.

Quick what's up.

I'm slowly adjusting to life with a toddler a newborn. Deacon is starting to develop somewhat his own schedule, and night times are getting easier. He stays awake quite a bit during the day so he's pretty sleepy by bed time. (Except for last night, I let him fall asleep too early. He woke up at 1:30 am wanting to play.)
Briley is slowly getting better, she is wanting to play with him now. She doesn't understand why he can't play with her. I guess it's a good sign that she is trying!
My mom has still been helping me quite a bit; don't know what I would do without her.
We are also trying to get ready to have a yard sale and get rid of a bunch of crap. Having two children and all the paraphernalia that go with them doesn't allow for much else, so we are downsizing what we have by quite a bit.
We made it to church on Sunday; our first time back since the birth. It was nice to see everyone and attempt to try and get back into some sort of routine.
I can drive now, which is weird because it has been seven weeks since I've been behind the wheel of a car. Four because of my wreck and being car-less, two from recovering from delivery, and one from just not wanting to get out with two little ones. Ronnie is off tomorrow, so I might try and brave it with him along for the ride!!
Well that's about it for now....I'll try to get on here tomorrow and post some more pictures. It's hard to find time for blogging! (For example, right now I'm typing with one hand as I'm holding a baby.) More later!

Long overdue update.

So I thought I would take some time and sit down, write an update, and try to regain some sense of normalcy. Hi friends! Long time, no write. I guess I'll start with the birthing story I know you are all so anxious to hear. (haha!)

Thursday morning I went in at 6:00 a.m. to be induced. I wasn't too nervous because I knew what to expect this time, but there is always a certain amount of anxiety! My doctor came in to check on me about 7:00 and he said I was at four centimeters. I had done that all on my own! So that was good news. And then he broke my water. And THEN he told me they would be in to do my epidural at LEAST by 9:00. What?!?! I shouted. Well I didn't actually shout it, but I felt like it. So my water was broke, the pitocin was running, and I had at least two hours until I got my epi. That's when I started to get a little nervous. (I can hear all of you mothers out there who have had natural childbirth laughing.)

Anyway, my contractions started pretty quickly, and by the time the anesthesiologist got there, they were about 5 minutes apart, and my back was in knots. Then she tried to put the epi in. That was a horrible experience. When I had Briley it went so easy. Not so much this time. She stuck me about 3 times, and then I got sick and almost passed out so I laid down on my side. But that made it much harder to get in, so she stuck me about 3 more times. Finally I tried sitting up again, and that last time it finally worked.

That was about 8:00 or so, and by 10:30 I was at an 8. At 11:00, I was a 9 1/2. I started pushing at 11:40 and he was out at 11:58. It was some HARD pushing. Little did I know that it was because he was a 9 pound baby! I couldn't believe it when they told me that. I thought they were joking at first! Anyway, it was a bit harder than my first labor experience, but overall not too bad. We only had to stay one night, which was good because Briley was REALLY missing her mommy and daddy.

So she has been doing ok, but she has some rough times. She likes to kiss him, and hold him, and touch him, but only on her terms. If you ask her if she likes her little brother, she will either say "no" or just completely ignore you. Anyone who has any great tips on how to adjust your firstborn to a new baby, any advice would be appreciated.

He is a really good baby, he sleeps pretty good, and is very laid back. He only cries when he really needs something, and when he is awake he just sits there and looks around. He's awesome! He's eating great too. At his follow up appointment, he had already gained back the 4 ounces he lost in the hospital, plus a bit more.

Ronnie was able to take a week off to be with us, which was so fun. To have a whole week to help us get adjusted and to give Briley some extra special attention was a God-send. Now my mom is coming during the day until I decide I'm brave enough to try it on my own. She's the greatest.

Well, that's all I can think of right now, so I will leave you with some fun pictures. My friend Brandy, who is an amazing photographer, came by yesterday and took some pics of him. You can go here to see them. They are super cute, if I do say so myself. She had a great subject to photograph! I'll post some more of my own later....

My beautiful son.

Welcome, Deacon James!















I'll post some more later, and maybe write a little bit about the labor and delivery. Thanks for all your prayers! He is absolutely perfect.

Deacon is here!

Deacon James arrived yesterday, May 22nd, at 11:58 am. He weighed 9 lbs, and was 22 inches long. Yes, I said 9 lbs. I couldn't believe it either. Briley was only 7 lbs 1oz so I was expecting something similar to her, but....God wanted to throw me for a loop I guess. Anyway, we just got home a little bit ago, and I'm trying to get some rest, so I will get on here tomorrow and post some pictures, and probably a lot more on Facebook. Until tomorrow!!!