best birthday present ever

My little boy gave me the best birthday present ever- he slept for 6 hours and 15 minutes last night. He was in bed by 10:00 and I didn't have to get up again until this morning at 4:15. What a great gift. :)

new baby!

November 22, 2006: Welcome, Julia Sarah!

first day of daycare

Well, I'm back at work now. I was excited to get back to school, but not excited to leave Brecken at daycare. The lady he's with today is awesome, so that's not a problem, but I'm missing him a lot!! There were tears this morning when Josh took Brecken with him on his way to work. Josh and Brecken were fine, it was me with the tears. :) I can't wait until 4:00 this afternoon when I go to pick him up! Hopefully he did OK today so Deborah doesn't change her mind about watching him! :) He might be a bit cranky today- he does not like formula, and that's what he's having to eat during the days when I'm not there now. Hopefully he aquires the taste quickly so he'll eat and not cry all day long from being hungry. I guess if he's hungry, he'll eat, huh?

Josh went to get the dogs from the kennel this morning during his prep time. Dumb Hogan, so exited, he sat in the car seat base all the way home instead of on the seat. That couldn't have been comfortable!! Both Birdie and Hogan were very glad to see Josh, he said.

We had a good time in Gillette last week. We got lots of Christmas shopping done, we only have a few things left. We were hoping to find a couch we like in Rapid City at the Ashley Furniture store, and have it ordered and sent to the Laramie store so we could go pick it up. (Joel and Annie bought our other set- it's too big to fit in our living room and the loveseat was hanging out in Brecken's room.) Apparently, Ashley Furniture doesn't allow that. Each store is "independently owned", so you have to order it from the store you want to pick it up at. Dumb, beings how they all come from the same Ashley warehouse anyway! So instead, we might go to American Furniture Warehouse this weekend and do some looking around. Right now, the living room looks like we just moved in- it sure is empty! We have two recliners in it, that's it. It'll be good to get a couch again!

hip, hip, hooray!

We're going to Grandma and Gramps' today! I'm pretty excited. We haven't been to my mom and dad's house since the end of summer. It'll be Brecken's first really long trip- both in car time and in overnight time. I'm trying to remember to pack everything we might need! Babies have a lot of stuff.

My sister and David and Ryan will be there tomorrow afternoon. Thursday, we'll eat ourselves silly. Friday, we are going to meet my grandma and my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Buffalo. My grandma has only seen Brecken once and my aunt and uncle haven't met him at all yet! Saturday, we're going SHOPPING in Rapid City. We have a ton of Christmas gifts to get- and haven't really started yet! Yikes.

Sunday will be pretty special- we're having Brecken baptized in my church. He gets to wear his dressy outfit and everything. I'll make sure to post pictures!

Today is also a bit sad- it's my last day at home with Brecken. :( I have to go back to work on Monday. I'm looking forward to getting back, I miss the kids, but I'll miss Brecken too. It'll get easier, I'm sure. And it will make the evening time I have with him that much more special.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Brecken says...

GO BRONCOS!!!

owie

Boy, did Brecken have an acid attack last night. He was eating pretty well until I started hearing it come back up his throat and then he'd cry and cry and cry. Then eat and suck like he hadn't eaten in a week (my book said babies will do that to try to wash down the burning), crying while he ate, and then couldn't stand it anymore and cried and cried. It was a painful cry. :( He finally calmed himself down when Josh came to get him from me to give me a break. I felt so bad. So his next meal was a bottle of the special formula. He was able to get down 2 oz. of that (I'm not sure he was STARVING, just needed a snack) and did much better. So maybe we'll have to do a bottle or two a day and see if that helps him. I feel so bad for him. :(

a possible precentile correction

So my sister looked up how much my nephew weighed at 2 months, and he was exactly the same as Brecken. Only she was told that was in the 17th percentile, not the 30th. Hers is probably more accurate- our doctor coaches football with Josh and they got to talking yesterday, so Jake probably wasn't paying that close of attention to the percentile chart. :)

No word on Baby Bailey yet. COME ON, LITTLE BABY! I can't wait to see if you are a girl like they think you might be, because I'm ready to buy some pink!! :)

2 month check-up

Brecken had his 2 month check-up today! The past few days, I've wondered if he had Acid Reflux. He's been crying while eating, I can hear fluid come up his throat and he chokes, swallows it, and then cries, and he's been throwing up a bit more. I mentioned it to Dr. Jake this morning and I was right- Brecken has a bit of reflux. Jake said the crying while eating is a good sign of it. He said we could give Brecken a little bit of water between feedings to soothe the burning and to kind of weight the milk down so it doesn't come back up. He also said when we switch to formula feeding (which he'll be fed formula during the day when at the babysitter's when I go back to work) to have him on Enfamil AR, which is NOT the kind we just bought at Sam's. Figures. :) The grocery store here has it so I bought a can because Jake said to try it out before I go back to work to make sure it'll agree with Brecken's stomach. It's a little heavier of a formula so it won't come back up so easily.

However, that's the only thing "wrong" with Brecken- he's healthy as a horse otherwise! He grew a TON from a month ago. He's not up to 10 lbs, 2 oz!! He grew almost 3 pounds in a month!! He's in the 30th percentile for that now. He's just under 23 inches long, which is almost 3 inches of growth from a month ago, and is in the 50th percentile for that. His noggin grew a bunch too- it's now in the 75th percentile when it was only in the 25th percentile a month ago. :)

He did NOT like his shots, but didn't cry too long. Josh was able to meet us at the doctor because it was during his prep time, so he held Brecken during the shots. I'm glad I didn't have to. :( Brecken fell asleep in the car afterward though, so that's good. It figures, however, because Brecken was in the happiest mood this morning and then we had to go ruin it with shots. This morning, he was just grinning all over the place at that mobile my mom got him. He was having a great time with it.

hmmm...

Not too much new to post. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Josh's cousin's baby, due any day now! We thought the baby would be born by now, but no news as of yet. Come on, baby Bailey!! We're waiting to see what you look like finally!

I finally caught him!

So far, only Josh and I have had the wonderful opportunity to see Brecken smile. Well, here's for the rest of you- I finally caught a smile with my camera! The picture is a tad bit blurry, but you get the idea.

that seals the deal.

Josh is the official bath person. Tonight he gave Brecken a bath and he just laid in the water looking around, not even wimpering. He had a great time. I'm happy being the gal that puts lotion on and puts him in his jammies afterwards if it means I won't have to hear him scream so bad like he did that one time. :)

Adventures in Babysitting Part II

We have a babysitter for all days of the week now. Phew. The pharmicist gave Josh the number of the lady she uses, in Encampment. She's just starting a daycare. Turns out, it's the mom of 3 of my students and her husband is our Ag teacher at school. Her 2 youngest kids are pretty wild, (actually, her 2 middle kids- she has a 2 year old also.) but she's a nice lady and comes to conferences and IEPs and stuff like that. The pharmacist said she really likes Dana and her baby is happy when she goes to pick him up and everything. So I'll be bringing Brecken out to Encampment with me 3 days a week and he'll stay here in town with Deborah 2 days a week. Big relief to finally have someone to watch him!!

feeling refreshed

Brecken slept for 6 hours straight last night! I was amazed. He ate about 10:20 last night and was in bed by 10:45, and didn't wake up to eat again until a little after 4:30 this morning. Hooray! A good 6 hours of sleep for me- I haven't had that since probably my 2nd trimester of being pregnant! I had forgotten what it felt like.

beautiful...

Didn't I tell you Stacey takes beautiful pictures? Here's just a few of my favorite...

WOW!

Josh and I went to Denver yesterday to see the Broadway show, The Lion King. WOW. If you've never seen it and ever get the chance to, you need to go! It was absolutely amazing. We lucked out too, because the only tickets available when I bought them way back in July (!) were in row 7 of the lower level. Talk about great seats!!!

We dropped Brecken off at my sister and her husband's house on our way to Denver. Kristen and David babysat for us for the day and when we left last night, Kristen said she really doesn't want twins. Two babies was a little harder than one. :) It was hard on me, too- that was the first real time I've left him! :(

The bad mommy award of the day goes to...

I feel like a horrible mommy. Brecken needed a bath today, so I gave him one while Josh was at work. Brecken doesn't normally like baths, but today was terrible. Josh usually gives him the bath, and he will continue to, after today! I got Brecken all ready and put him in our baby tub. I know the water wasn't too hot, or too cold, but Brecken screamed like I've never heard him scream before. He arched his back like the water was scalding. I about died. I took him out right away and wrapped him tight in a towel, and we had a sponge bath instead. I put him back in to wash his hair and rinse off the soap and he screamed and cried until he was hoarse, even though he was only in there a total of maybe 30 seconds. I took him back out and wrapped him up again and took him to his room and rocked him in the glider. He calmed down but I felt absolutely horrible. I think Josh will be the primary bath giver from now on. :(

Brecken went to his first Halloween party last night. Encampment School puts on a carnival each year (the kindergarten teacher told me it's been going on for at least 34 years...) for all the kids. It's a fundraiser for each class, 7-12, along with student council. All the kids come in costumes, so Brecken went as a skeleton. They don't make tiny little costumes for babies, so this 0-3 month one had to work. It was just a little big. :)

Adventures in Babysitting

So I'm starting to panic a little about finding a babysitter for Brecken when I go back to work. We have a lady that is going to watch him 2 days a week but she doesn't want to do any more than that since she still has an 18 month old at home and a 3 year old at home also, that only goes to preschool 2 days a week. So we're still looking for someone to watch Brecken the other 3 days. Josh had talked to a lady he knows this summer that said she might do it, and to call her this fall. Well, we found out last week that she dropped her youngest child off at the home of a family we know, and then never came back to get him. Her husband had to come pick him up, and told the family that his wife left him again, for another guy. Then a few days later, the lady called her husband and begged her way back home.

Needless to say, we won't be calling her.

Last night, our neighbor's grown daughter told Josh she'd babysit. Josh did NOT say "great!" because this is the lady who always brings her own kids to our neighbor's house and screams cuss words at them all day long.

Won't be using her, either.

Ugh. Who knew it would be so hard to find a babysitter! There aren't any daycare centers here in Saratoga, so that's not an option. We have one month until I go back, hopefully something will turn up!!

Lions and tigers and bears, oh MICE!!!!

A couple weeks ago while my parents were here, I was sitting in one of our chairs in the living room and a mouse ran across the ottoman right in front of me. I HATE mice. And we couldn't catch the darn thing. My cat, who is extremely lazy, caught smell of it that evening, but couldn't catch it either. The cheeky little mouse ran up the curtains right beside my cat and walked across the curtain rod. By the time we got up to get rid of it, it vanished. We've caught sight of it a few times in the past couple weeks, but haven't been able to catch it with the mouse poison or the mouse traps yet. It's a tricky little thing, and Charlie has no interest in coming out of my bedroom during the day unless it's to eat. :) HOWEVER, last night I heard a noise and I looked over, and that darn thing was taking a candy corn out of the bowl of candy corns sitting next to the chair. I was in the leather chair with Brecken. It ran back down the table. Josh pulled the couch out, and saw it go underneath the fireplace. (There's about a 6 inch gap under the fireplace and cracks that go somewhere, out to the garage, I'm assuming.) So I watched the fireplace while he ran to his friend Jared's up the street to get some plywood and he drilled the plywood into the bricks and then caulked around it. Hopefully that took care of the problem. We knew it was back there somewhere and set mouse traps and poison, and when Josh checked the trap a few nights ago, it had shut, but no mouse inside, so he had to re-set it. Stupid mouse. Hopefully it is GONE!!! It gives me the heebie jeebies.

Houston, we have a smile!

I could tell that Brecken has been trying to smile for the past few days, so I've been watching carefully. Last night, Josh got the first smile! Then the second, third and fourth! How many smiles have I gotten? NONE. We must have a daddy's boy on our hands. Either that or Josh is funny looking. :) Brecken is 6 weeks old today, and I wondered how far "behind" he'd be in milestones like smiling, since he was a preemie. My nephew Ryan smiled a week and a half earlier than Brecken did, so Brecken's not doing too bad!! Way to go, Buddy!

We had another extremely busy week last week. Josh's mom and dad came for a couple days and as soon as they left, Josh's brother, sister-in-law and their two kids came to visit. They'd actually been here all week hunting, but staying with Annie's cousin. They spent the later part of the week at our house. Now, with no company, it's time to get back into our routine.