One month

On thursday, the 12th, our little guy was a month old. I have no idea how that first month went by so fast. He has truly been an angel baby that has made my life with a newborn fairly easy. Now if only Lexie would decide to jump on that easy bandwagon!

Here's our little guy at one month. I decided to use the basketball so we can use it for his month pictures throughout the first year to see how much he's grown.

For two weeks we had my mom here in town to help out. She was great at entertaining the girls, she made the most awesome carseat carrier for me (which I still need to take pictures of), and we loved having her here, especially me. It's always nice to have another adult around to chit chat with, especially when it's mom.:)

The girls were sad to see her go, but luckily her and my dad will be back in a couple weeks for Jaden's blessing. YAY!

Because we have the three girls running around, we did more than sit and enjoy staring at JJ for the past month. We've been trying to keep busy and give the girls something to do so they don't kill each other. I think once school starts and they get a little break from each other during the day, that it will be a good thing for everyone!

Halli has been a wonderful "mother"/boss most of the time. Sometimes she gets too carried away, but most of the time they'll follow her around and do what she says.

They went in the back yard to play soccer the other day. Halli had a whistle, and was fully in her element telling the other two what to do.

She would blow the whistle and point, and they would run to obey her command. It's okay as long as she's nice about it, right? She'd even get in there and play with them too.

We spent a little time at the pool too. It is august in houston after all.

Halli found a frog. She's in love with those things, and every time she'd let it go in the pool, the poor thing would swim away as fast as it could, but just wasn't fast enough.

At first Peyton and Lexie were terrified of it, but Lexie got over it fairly quick.

The little guy pretty much slept through the whole thing.

I got the baby announcement's done. I've addressed some of them, but just need to finish and get them in the mail. I'm such a procrastinator.

Me and the girls made some delish "flip flop" cookies. Well, we frosted cookies to look like flip flops.

My mom put the girls to work helping clean. They love to do this sometimes, I wish I had the patience to do it more often.

We spent lots of time outside, at least we did when it wasn't unbearably hot!

Lexie was a little terrified of the thunderstorms that came through at the end of July.

She even went and found a mask cause she didn't want to see the lightning.

My sister had her 29th birthday while my mom was here. So they came over for dinner, and my mom made an amazing cake!

The girls all wanted to blow out the candles.

ALL 29 of them.

So Brittany gathered them all around,

and let them help her out.

Yeah, mom went all out doing a neopolitan cake to go with some yummy neopolitan ice cream. Now y'all know where I get it from!:)

How cool does that look?

Then we played outside some more.

How cute is this little girl? LaNea, my niece m loving the swing.

And this little guy, still slept through it all, making things a little easier for this tired mom!

Smitten

I think I'm in love! He's bald, kinda chunky, can't keep his food in his mouth, and he cries and poops his pants way too often. How in the world has he stolen my heart?


Alright, I guess it isn't really that hard to see just how he did it, he's adorable, and he smells amazing!

I think he may have stolen the hearts of a few other girls too...the little player.

Yep, I think it's safe to say, they're all smitten too.

Fall Sessions

I'm scheduling fall sessions now, if you're interested check out my photography blog here for more information, or email me to set up a time!

Two weeks

Little JJ is two weeks old today, man, time flies! On one hand, because of all the doctors visits, the NICU, and everything else going on it feels like it's been a long two weeks. But looking back, I can't believe how fast it's going.

He has been a WONDERFUL baby so far, thank goodness! I don't think I could have handled a hard baby on top of everything else.

It's just amazing to me how quickly we can forget those first few months, and how quickly those memories come flooding back once you're in the middle of it all again. So for now, I'm just going to try to soak him up in all his newborn glory, and hope that he gets his days and nights figured out soon!

When it rains, it pours!

So, just when we thought things couldn't get worse, Kevin had to make a trip to the ER last night with Peyton. We're going to see how many of these little hospital bracelets we can collect by the end of the month.:)

He had taken the girls to his basketball game, (he wasn't playing, just went to support the team), and the girls were off playing with a bunch of other kids. I guess there was a little ball with a handle on it, the kind kids can bounce on, and Peyton was playing on it and "went out of control" according to Halli, going head first into the door.

From what I hear, there was blood everywhere, her face was pretty much covered in it, and she had it all over her clothes too. Kevin said that once they got to the ER she was a tough cookie and did great when they put the stitches in. luckily, today she's been great and hasn't complained at all , except when we have to change the bandaid that's covering the stitches, and that's just because when we take the bandaid off, it pulls the little hairs on her forehead.

Here are a few pictures of our little girl in the ER

Our tough little girl sporting her 5 stitches this morning.

So right when we thought were about done with doctor visits, we'll be going back next week for Jaden, and now for Peyton as well...if only they were on the same day.

There are a few updates as well,. Kevin went to the doctor, and it's just a REALLY bad high ankle sprain. It's the worst you can do without breaking it or tearing a ligament and it'll probably take a month or two to heal, so that'll be fun!

As for Jaden, on wednesday his biliruben level was 10.9 and this morning it was 11.4 , so it's gone up, but not alot. Enough that we have to go back into the pediatrician AGAIN monday morning to have them checked. Poor boy and his bruised heels. :( But I'm feeling pretty good that by monday the numbers will be down and we'll be able to stop getting them checked.

I'm still hurting, but it'll probably take a few weeks before I'm feeling better, so thankfully my mom is coming into town tomorrow to help out. YEAH! I'm kinda excited!

I'm just REALLY hoping that this is the end, and from here on out it's getting healthy and getting used to having four little kidlets to watch over.

What a sorry bunch we are

This has been quite an interesting week and a half for us since Jaden came home. We've got three very rambunctious girls, who are so happy when grandma comes to take them to play. Especially because mom and dad are pretty pathetic right now.

Four days before Jaden was born, Kevin came home from a basketball game with a severely sprained ankle. We thought he'd still have a couple weeks to recover before Jaden arrived, but apparently we were wrong.

He's had some time, here and there, to get his foot up and ice it, but not as much as he needs. So now, he's going to see the doctor, finally. Hopefully we'll see if it's worse than just a sprained ankle since it's taking so long to heal.

Then theres me. My back was hurting while I was pregnant, but that's normal when you're pregnant. unfortunately, the delivery must have done something, beause now it's MUCH worse than it was. I can barely walk, which isn't making anything easier.

Add in to that the fact that Jaden just can't seem to keep his biliruben level down, so we have to keep going back to the doctor to get it checked, and you'll see that we are just a sorry bunch of crippled people here.

Yeah, we were supposed to get to relax this week but, I've had a couple appts with the chiropractor, and Jaden's been to the doctor twice and is going back again on friday. Not the most relaxing week, but someday, things will slow down, right?

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of what the girls have been doing to keep busy. They are way rowdy and cooped up, so they have to get their energy out somehow!



I am not saying this to look for sympathy in any way, but man-oh-man, am I ready for life to slow down and get back to some semblance of normal! Luckily for us, Jaden has been an amazing baby so far, and besides having his days and nights a little mixed up, he couldn't be an easier baby, thank heavens for that!

NICU

I don't know if it's cause I'm tall or what, but all of our babies have been on the big side. Peyton was our smallest at 8lbs 7oz. Because of this, jaundice has always been a minor concern. I guess bigger babies have a harder time taking in enough fluid to flush out all the biliruben in their systems.

We've always had to watch it, but it's never really been an issue. But Jaden just had a little bit of a harder time than the girls have had. The day after we got home from the hospital we took him to the pediatrician to have his levels checked. They had gone from an 8 in the hospital to an 18 in less than 24 hours. When they get up to 25 is when it can cross the blood/brain barrier and cause damage.

We were given a phototherapy blanket to use at home and were told to bring him back the next morning. Unfortunately, his levels had gone up again, and were now at 20. The doctor called us with the bad news that he would need to go to the NICU to get under the lights. The one in the NICU would cover his whole body, whereas the blanket just covered his abdomen.

Just what every new mom needs, I was already hormonal, and now my baby was going to be in a hospital for two days and two nights. It was the worst news I could have heard at that time. No, it's not a really serious issue, and we're thankful for that, but no mom wants to be seperated from their newborn baby.



Luckily, he's a great sleeper. Seeing that he wasn't uncomfortable, and that he was still happy and content there made it much easier to leave him. I spent the next two days going back and forth to the hospital to feed him. Sometimes I would stay up there, and sometimes I would come home to be with the girls. Thankfully, we're not too far from the hospital so I was able to do that at least.

Our little boy under the lights. The more skin he had exposed to the light, the better. I guess this particular light helps the body break down biliruben. It works the same as sunlight, except it doesn't cause sunburn. I actually think he really liked it under there with his blinders on, and a nice warm light overhead.

they had told us that after they took him off the lights, they would keep him for 8-12 hours to observe him, so I was thinking we would get to bring him home sunday afternoon. Then the NICU pediatrician gave me the best news ever at 9am sunday morning...we could take him home without needing to be observed!

I am grateful to all the nurses there, I don't think I could do what they do at all. They reassured me that he was in good hands, and would be well taken care of when I wasn't there. While I know this wasn't even close to the worst thing that could go wrong with a newborn, I am beyond grateful that it's over and that he's finally here with us. Now, after a whole week of having him in our family, and not being able to just hang out at home for a single day, I'm really looking forward to relaxing in my pajamas and soaking him up this week!