Catching Up

So there's just no way I'm going to find the time to catch up so I'm just going to download pictures and give a brief update of the past 3 weeks :)

-Had a great Christmas! Brody and I both had colds and then I started running fever Christmas day. Had strep throat, was pretty sure I was going to die! 3 days later, a penacillin shot and strong antibiotic later I was better. Thank goodness no one else got it

-Brody LOVED opening presents at Christmas and was beyond blessed

-Jaxson is doing great! He is doing SO much better on his reflux/choking. I think he's growing out of it. Praise the Lord

-Brody will be TWO next month!! I honestly don't know where this year has gone. I feel like it was just yesterday we were having his 1st bday party and announcing we were pregnant.

-I started back at work. It's really hard. Mainly because my babies are in two different locations. We don't get home til 6 pm and after dinner, bath, bed, dishes and getting ready for the next day it's already 9-10pm. I hate the fact that someone else is with my kids longer during the day than I am. It's really, really bothering me and I pray every night for either peace or a way for me to stay home next year. I'm putting it in God's hands.

- Brody has had a hard time adjusting to daycare. The first week was AWFUL. He screamed bloody murder every day going in. He would either grab my neck, car seat or anything he could to try and stay in the car. The 2nd week went a little better. He would only cry when I left and then would stop shortly after. I'm hoping this week will be even better.

-I forgot how much I love teaching. I have a great group of kids this year and my day is so busy that it flies by.

-Brandon and I started our diet to get ready for our trips this summer (beach & Vegas). We are doing a low carb diet. So far I've lost 5 pounds since Jan. 1st and I'm not to sure how much B has lost but I think it's around 5-6 lbs.

-My thyroid levels are stable which I'm thrilled about. They were so out of whack after I had Brody.

-Jaxson is still nursing like a champ. He is eating every 2-3 hours, 4 ounces and then sleeps during the night. He's been going to bed around 10-11pm and sleeps til 5-5:30.

We are beyond blessed.

Time, stand still!

I sure wish I could just freeze time right now! I only have TWO weeks before I have to return to work. I'm trying to be as positive as I can seeing how I've been off for the past 7 months and I cherished every second of it with my boys. Being on bedrest was such a special time for Brody and I! And then once Jaxson came home we spent our time adjusting to being a family with two children. I must say we are so unbelieveably blessed.

Brody is finally warming up to his brother. I knew he would, if we didn't push and in his own time, come around to having a brother. It's not that Brody didn't love his brother from the moment he joined us, it's just that Brody is always on the go and well brother is not! Brody also had my undivided attention 24/7 while on bedrest and then all of a sudden brother needed mommy's attention 24/7. But now he is loving on his brother, checking on him, trying to share his tools with him and my favorite, kissing and rubbing his head. It melts my heart to see and it's probably the one thing I'm going to miss the most when returning to work, I hate the fact that they will be seperated all day long :( But such is life and I must remind myself that we will get spring break and the whole summer to ourselves. It's only 5 months til summer!

We attempted to get some pictures together but its almost impossible with an almost two year old!

Jaxson~2 months~~Brody~21 months

Wow, where to begin? I'll start with the present and possible work my way back :)

Jaxson was 2 months on the first and we had his check up with Dr. J today. He weighed exactly 9 pounds and was 21 1/2 inches long, he's in the 5th percentile but if we go by his adjusted age for being a month early he's more in the 25th percentile. I know eventually he will catch up so not worried about the percentiles. He looked perfect and I asked Dr. J after he looked at Jaxson's eyes what color they were going to be because at times they look brown to me and he said there isn't any brown in his eyes that they will either be green or blue. He said most babies eyes change or stay the color they are going to be by 6 months of age. They are a very dark/deep blue right now and depending on the light look green/hazel so I guess we shall see.

We are still having issues with Jaxson's breathing/reflux. He spits up, chokes or will turn blue around the lips after almost every feeding. It really doesn't matter if it's 30 minutes or 2 hours after he eats. You CANNOT lay him down flat, period. If you do he chokes and has trouble breathing. I have to prop him up for everything, including diaper changes and sleeping. It's quite normal for him to turn blue around the lips on a daily basis and has become my normal but Dr. J explained to me today that it's easy to get use to things when it happens on a daily basis but that it is by far not normal for him to be doing this. So we increased his pravicid to twice daily and I am to make an appointment with a GI doctor on Monday. If the pravicid works then we won't have to go but he defintely wants to get to the bottom of this. We are still on the monitors whenever I am away from him, can't see/get to him and always when he's sleeping. He's been really good at night with his breathing but does have nights where I just don't feel safe putting him down because he's choking a lot. I was hoping to have this issue resolved by now and hoping it will be when I return to work in 4 weeks so that I don't have to worry as much. Luckily he will be in good hands with his Nana who will be watching him next semester for us so that he doesn't have to go to daycare. I can also teach her how to use his monitor so that he is on it when he's sleeping or when she needs to do things around the house. It's a great piece of mind for sure.

He got his first set of shots today, 4 and an oral and he did pretty good. He cried for a bit but it's because we didn't have our regular nurse and this nurse did it the long/hard way. He's been quite fussy today during diaper changes so I think his little legs are sore. Other than that he's doing great. Still eating every 2 hours during the day and 3-4 at night on good nights, not so good nights he eats every 2 hours.

2 months pictures:







~2 Months~
-Loves to smile and coo
-laughed for the first time
-size 1 diapers
-still in newborns and some 0-3 month clothes

On the 20th Brody was 21 months! Cannot believe he is almost 2. It feels like yesterday that we were celebrating his 1st birthday and announcing that we were expecting Jaxson. Crazy how time flies!

Just this past month Brody started talking up a storm. He will attempt to say anything we ask him to, when he's in the mood and will say words almost daily that we didn't even know he could say. He's also stringing 2-3 words together to form sentences. I'm really excited about this because for the longest time I thought he would be a mute. Although he does communicate very well using sign language. So I guess to each their own. My favorite is recently he is saying love you when I tell you I love him :) It melts my heart.

He hates the camera and will either run from it, tell me no and to put it back or just turn his head away from it, little stinker! I have to bribe him with something to get him to sit still and take a decent picture(see lighter/pumpkin pic and Christmas tree/cup of water pic below(don't judge!:) ))

His favortie words right now are back, stuck and meme(paci), walk and door. How he comes up with some of these words is beyond me.





Christmas is going to be AMAZING this year! I never knew Santa had so much fun and having kids puts a whole new perspective on the season. We are so blessed this year with the health of our two beautiful sons. Having a hard, complicated pregnancy sure can make a person thankful each and every day for the health and life of their child/children.

I have several more post/pictures I need to catch up on including our trip to the Gaylord Ice! Hopefully I can get to it before this year ends :)

So behind ~ Halloween 2010

I've had pink eye and then our family was hit with the stomach flu. I'm so behind on my blogging but will catch up soon!

Brody was "suppose" to be a BEAR for Halloween this year...needless to say he was NOT a bear :)


Brandon ended up going to the World Series so I just hung out at my parents that night. We had a pretty busy weekend so we enjoyed some down time. My parents only had 2-3 trick-or-treaters but Brody loved looking at them and couldn't figure out why we were giving away the candy!

Next year we will definitely be trick or treating ourselves!

Brody ~ 20 Months

On the 20th of October Brody was 20 Months! I know I'm a little late but wanted to get this up.

At 20 months Brody is:
~in 24M or 2T clothes
~size 5-6 shoe
~we are working on Brody saying his shapes, colors and various other words.
~he LOVES trains, cars/trucks and construction equipment
~Obsessed with Mickey Mouse and we actually made a house rule this week that he only gets to watch an episode in the morning and evening because he was becoming so obsessive over Mickey Mouse!
~favorite food is pasta
~loves bubble baths

Brody has had a tough time adjusting to his baby brother. He has thrown more tantrum's, has had problems sleeping and is very clingy this month. He loves his brother and wants to know where he is and makes sure he's ok when he's crying but that's about all. He doesn't really want to have anything to do with him anyother time and for the first time last night he asked me to put the baby down because he wanted my full attention and tried to pull Jaxson off me while he was nursing. He's gotten alot better from the first day Jaxson was here and I'm assuming each day will get better.

Here's this month in pictures:

1 Month

On Monday Jaxson was 1 month! It's hard to believe he's been apart of our lives for a whole month! And boy what a month it has been! We've changed so much as a family and although it's a lot of work and at times rough I wouldn't change it for the world!

Jaxson went into the doctor for his month check up and weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces!! That's 1 1/2 pounds in 2 weeks! I was shocked. He also grew to 19 3/4 inches. We have to go to a lung doctor to see if Jaxson needs the RSV shots since he's had so many episodes of not breathing our doctor REALLY doesn't want him to get this nasty virus and wants a second opinion on whether or not he should get the shots. He also doesn't want Jaxson to go to public places or be around school age kids to try and avoid RSV :( So we are pretty housebound during this RSV season.

RSV is just a cold for most children and adults so many people don't think twice about such a common illness but for babies, especially preemies or those with breathing problems it can be severe and even deadly. Brody got RSV last year when he was about 9 months old and it kicked his butt. He stayed out of daycare for 3 weeks and we had to do around the clock breathing treatments for 2 weeks, I cannot imagine if younger babies get this.

There's also a whooping cough outbreak and I had to get that vaccine and Brandon will too. The doctor recommends anyone who lives or is in daily contact with babies get them. I've never had whooping cough so I don't know much about it but know that it can be dangerous for babies.

Definitely not fun stuff.

I've been having issues with my eyes/contacts ever since Jaxson went into the hospital and I thought it was from wearing my contacts for too long but on Monday I woke up with my left eye killing me and in extreme pain. I knew it was more than that so I went to the doctor and I have had and still have pinkeye! It started in my right eye 2 weeks ago and that went away on it's own but I then got it in my left eye. This was the first time I've had pinkeye and boy does it hurt!

We changed Jaxson's reflux medicine to Prevacid because Zantac was giving him tummy issues. So far so good with the Pravcid. We were off the Zantac for 2-3 days and he had one breathing episode. So it's definitely the reflux that is causing him to stop breathing. It actually chokes him because it doesn't come all the way up, just sits in his airway/esophogus. We cannot put him horizontal at all or he will choke/spit up. So he's at an angle or vertical 24/7 unless changing his diaper and he spits up almost every time. Poor guy!

Here's what Jax is doing at 1 month:
~in newborn clothes
~NB diapers
~raises head
~smiles when gassy
~eats every 2 hours during the day and 3-4 hours during the night
~pees and poos ALOT
~loves his swing
~sleeps good in his carseat
~on apnea montior at night, in car or anytime I'm not in the room with him

Having two kids is challenging, rewarding, tiring, exciting and the most wonderful gift I've ever received. I love you Jaxson more than words can describe!

Jaxson~2 weeks

Jaxson was 2 weeks yesterday! He weighed in at 5 pounds 11 ounces at the doctor's. We are very happy with his weight gain considering everything he's been through. We are still breastfeeding only and he's a pro at it. I'm so happy that my boys are so easy with breastfeeding because it's so good for them and their little systems. It's also such a cherished time I have with them.

He is still having episodes of apnea so the doctor put him on reflux medicine. He thinks that maybe he is having reflux or over eating and this might be causing a blockage of his airway. We started it last night and he gets it twice a day. So far so good, I think it might be helping. If it doesn't and he still has episodes then we will have to see a pulmonologist.

He is now into newborn diapers and although newborn clothes still swallow him he can wear a few. The preemie outfits are fitting him perfectly now. He's eating every 2 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night. He doesn't ever cry unless he's extremely hungry
This is Brody at 2 weeks:

Here is Jaxson at 2 weeks:

I cannot tell if Jaxson is gonna look like his brother or not. I see a lot of Brody in Jaxson but I also can tell that they are different in a lot of ways.