Three Months Old

Cora Leigh turned 3 months last Wednesday on December 16th. Life has been so crazy getting ready for Christmas, I just had no time to get her pictures up until now. She is doing great - growing like crazy! I measured her at 23 inches long and she weighed in at 12 pounds. She is talking more and more these days and has the cutest smile! She was just smiling at me before I took her pictures, but as soon as the camera came out, she just wanted to stare at it. :) I still managed to get some cute pictures.

Welcome Hayden Olivia Bramlett!

One of the fun things about my pregnancy was that my sister-in-law, Amye, was pregnant at the same time. Our due dates were exactly 8 weeks apart. Amye's due date was actually Thanksgiving Day. We had hoped that her baby girl would come before Thanksgiving, but each week she would call me after her doctor's visit and tell me that she hadn't made any progress. At her last visit, her OB scheduled her to be induced the Sunday night after Thanksgiving. Apparently her baby was very comfortable in the womb - we didn't have any holiday excitement rushing to the hospital or anything. So Sunday night, she and Bryan went to the hospital to begin the induction. We joined them Monday afternoon. When we arrived, Amye was 3 cm dilated. After a long afternoon of anxious waiting, Hayden Olivia Bramlett was finally born at 9:20 PM on Monday, November 30th after her momma heroically pushed for 2 hours! She was 8 lbs, 4 oz and 21 inches long. Here are some pictures from the afternoon/evening and the next day.

The future parents anxiously awaiting their daughter's arrival


Aunt Mandy with Amye


Me and a hungry Cora Leigh with Amye


Mom and Dad looking forward to meeting their granddaughter!

Excitement in the hallway - we heard the baby cry!

Amye's sister and aunt waiting to meet Hayden

Aunt Mandy and Kirby

Cora Leigh was excited that her cousin was here

What a proud father - glowing after the birth of his daughter despite being exhausted

Welcome Hayden Olivia - she looks just like her mom!

Happy family

The next day after a shower, Amye was feeling much better

Sweet baby

Me and Bryan with each other's daughters

What a lovely family

Thanksgiving Holiday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! It was our first trip home to Tennessee and Cora Leigh's first time getting to meet a lot of her family. We were off to a rocky start as Cora did not want to go to sleep Thanksgiving Eve. Unfortunately, I was up with her until 12:30 that night, knowing that the plan was to leave after her first feeding Thanksgiving morning. Well, she decided that she wanted that first feeding to be at 3:30 AM, which left me with very little sleep. Nonetheless, we were excited about getting home, so we left after that feeding.

Much to my surprise, Cora Leigh slept all the way to Chattanooga! She did start to wake up a few times but never woke up enough to realize that she might be hungry. Our first stop in Tennessee was to see my cousin, Amy, and her husband, John. I did have to feed Cora there. Afterwards, she got to spend time with her Auntie Amy (not to be confused with Aunt Amy) and Uncle John. They of course thought she was just adorable and so sweet! Cora also got to meet her great-grandmother this trip. Unfortunately, my grandmother was under the weather, so she didn't get to hold her, but at least they got to meet. My aunt and uncle were also sick, so they missed her this trip. Hopefully everyone will be well by Christmas! My sleep deprived mind forgot to take pictures at this stop....hopefully I'll be able to get some from Amy.

Our next stop was Jasper, TN to visit with my family. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mandy, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Amye were all glad to see Cora Leigh again! It was the first time Uncle Bryan and Aunt Amye had seen her since she was a week old. Cora Leigh's great-grandfather also got to meet her for the first time. She just loved Papaw B! I've never seen her smile like that when she met someone new. It was a really special time. That day, we just spent time with our immediate family. Pictures below:

Meeting Papaw B for the first time


Cora smiling at her great-grandfather


Papaw holding his great-granddaughter for the first time


A very pregnant Aunt Amye holding Cora

Cora Leigh hanging out with Grandma

Thanksgiving sleeper

Playing with her toy

Thanksgiving bath

Crazy after bath hair!

Snuggling with Aunt Mandy

The day after Thanksgiving, we had dinner with my dad's family. Afterwards, we went to the nursing home where my grandmother lives to have dessert with her and to let her meet Cora Leigh. She loved her! She can't remember much anymore, but they said that on her way back to the room she kept talking about how Cora Leigh was the prettiest baby she had ever seen. I'm not sure she ever figured out that it was her great-granddaughter, but it was still very special. More pictures!

Cora hanging out with me, Tiffany, Amye, and Bryan


Meeting Mamaw B for the first time

Mamaw held her like she hold her baby doll

Cora Leigh with her parents and great-grandparents

Chris and Tiffany with Cora

Aunt Jo and Cora - they matched!

Saturday, we headed to Birchwood to spend some time with Jeremy's family. Again, Cora got to meet some great aunts and uncles that she had never met before.

Cora with her Papaw and Great Aunt Dora

Modeling her Thanksgiving outfit

Meeting Great Aunt Reba and Uncle Billy

Cora Leigh with Papaw and Nana, ready for the ballgame

Sunday we went to church with Jeremy's parents. Afterwards, we had lunch and decorated the Christmas tree. Jeremy headed back to Lexington around 4:00 or so. He was nice enough to let me stay behind and be there for the birth of my niece. Amye's labor was being induced that night (posting coming soon!).

Here's Cora Leigh in her Sunday outfit

And a family photo - Cora Leigh and I were still in our church clothes, Daddy had gotten comfortable

Here are some more pictures from the following week:

Aunt Mandy snuggling with Cora

Grandma was very popular this morning - she had Cora Leigh and Fluffy in her lap and Selena was waiting for her turn!

Cora Leigh in her new outfit that Auntie Amy and Uncle John bought her!

Cora Leigh in her sea creature sleeper - hanging out with Grandma

Cora Leigh's 2-month checkup

Cora had to go to the doctor last Thursday for her 2-month checkup and shots. The doctor said that she looked perfect! Her measurements were a little out of proportion - she measured 21.75 inches (26th percentile), 10 lbs 12 oz (47th percentile), and her head circumference was in the 60th percentile! We've decided that she must have a very large brain. :)

She most definitely did not enjoy her shots. She was screaming when the nurse was holding her legs down before the shots even took place. So, you can imagine she was none too happy when she was holding her legs down sticking her with a needle. I didn't enjoy much myself either. I'm really glad that Jeremy was there with me. I had to nurse her to get her to calm down afterwards. Eating always makes me feel better too!

We went over to visit with Sharon and Jonah Willmarth afterwards. I fed Cora, and then we went to feed ourselves. We ate at Ramsey's - our first sit down restaurant visit since Cora Leigh's arrival! It was delicious as always and Cora slept the whole time. On the way home, she started to wake up and was pretty cranky. By the time I got to Leestown Road, she was crying. In the next 5 minutes it took to get home, she went from crying to screaming! It was time for her to eat, so I fed her as soon as we got home. She would eat for a couple of minutes and then start screaming again...it was just awful! Jeremy gave her some Tylenol and then she spit up about 2 minutes later. We eventually got her to calm down with some rocking and singing. Apparently she's a fan of Christmas Carols. :) By 12:30 that night, she was acting a bit more normal and actually smiled at us before we put her to bed. The next day she was acting much happier which made me happy! Thankfully, Jeremy is going with me to the 4-month appointment too. From what I hear, they usually get more upset at the 4-month shots than the 2-month shots, so I'm not looking forward to that.

She had a big weekend! We went shopping Saturday morning. It was her first trip to the mall...and her last until after Christmas! She did really well. She only got upset once, and it was because she was hungry. I fed her in a fitting room at Dillards. While she was eating, she took a big nasty dump in her diaper! In such a small space, it smelled quite gross. So, if you were trying on clothes at Dillards on Saturday and thought your fitting room smelled, it could have been because of us. It was also the first trip where we had to change her diaper in public.

Saturday night, Jeremy had a ballgame in Knoxville, so just the two of us gals went to our Sunday school Thanksgiving social. It was a lot of fun! It was unreal the number of babies in attendance. :) It was really good to get to catch up with people we hadn't seen in ages and meet some babies we hadn't met before!

Sunday morning, Cora Leigh went to morning church for the first time! We got there a little early to feed her. We got to go to Sunday School, and Cora was pretty well behaved. She was wide awake the first time and not too noisy. She was just looking around taking everything in. She was really enjoying standing up in my lap. At the end of Sunday School class, she took an audible dump and then continued passing gas. Everyone got a kick out of that. During worship, she slept through the entire song service. She woke up during the sermon and was ready to eat shortly thereafter, so we left to go feed. We finished up just as church was letting out. Everything worked out really well.

We're looking forward to our first trip to Tennessee this weekend for the holiday. We're going to head down on Thursday morning. We'll be sure and take plenty of pictures of Cora Leigh's first Thanksgiving! This will also be the first time she's gotten to meet several family members. Hopefully she'll get to meet her cousin Hayden. She due to arrive on Thanksgiving Day, but she seems to be very comfortable in her mommy's tummy. Hopefully she'll come in time for us to meet her. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Videos

I tried to upload these videos onto Blogger, but it didn't work, so I put them on YouTube instead. The first one is of Cora Leigh playing on her activity mat and the second one is of her smiling.

Cora Leigh is 2-months old!

I can hardly believe that Cora Leigh is 2-months old today! She was giving me some big smiles this morning after having a rather sizeable bowel movement. :) I think she was also excited about her 2-month birthday. I also tried to take her picture with a sign telling how old she is, and she wasn't really cooperating. She started not looking at the camera, then she wouldn't stop sucking on her hand, and she finally started crying. SO, the 2 pictures below were the best I could get....and of course they're still cute even if she wasn't striking the pose I wanted her to. Happy 2-month birthday!