Micah is 3 months old!

Where has the time gone?  I can hardly believe that my baby boy is already 3 months old.

I weighed him a couple of days ago, and he was up to 16.5 pounds!  He's also really long, though I am not skilled enough to measure his length at home.  The little outfit he is in above is size 6 months, and he fills it out!  He is also filling up his size 2 diapers...I think we'll be in 3's soon.  As you can see, Micah is starting to smile!  He especially likes to smile early in the mornings.  He also gives us a giggle now and then.  Micah is much happier on his play mat and in his bouncer than he used to be.  He is grabbing the rings hanging from his bouncer, so his hand/eye coordination seems to be developing.  He also is "talking" more and more.  His big sister has been teaching him by example.  :)  It's all baby talk, but it has sounded like he has said "hey" and "momma" more than once.  Micah is sleeping a little better these days.  For about the past week, we have only been up once during the night rather than twice.  I'm still hoping he might start sleeping through the night soon.  Micah is still our "high maintenance" baby as his daddy likes to say.  :)  Despite that, we love this cute little guy like crazy!!

Even though Micah is in the title of this blog entry, I think an update on Cora Leigh is also in order.  She is beginning to warm up to her baby brother.  Now, when Micah starts to cry, she will occasionally tell him not to be upset, "it's okay"; however, most often she either covers her ears or joins in the crying!  When we are in the car, Cora likes to give me the play-by-play and let me know if Micah is trying to get upset or if he has spit up.  She will still help me burp him on occasion and really likes to help give Micah a bath.  They were in the tub together the other day, and Micah was kicking and splashing the water.  Cora thought it was hilarious!  Good to see them having fun together already.  Cora still continues to amaze me in how smart she is - she does not forget anything!  We are trying to help her learn the days of the week.  I think she's starting to understand that Sunday is church and Monday is Moe's.  Friday seems to be her favorite day to talk about.  She told me after church one Sunday that she, Hayden, and Peyton were going to the beach on Friday!  If I ever tell her that we're not doing something today, she'll tell me we're going to on Friday.  :)  We have also made some progress on potty training.  Cora is showing more interest and usually pees in the potty at least once every day.  Usually she tries several times a day.  If she isn't able to go in the potty, she'll tell me, "it's not working" or that she doesn't have any pee.  I have been trying to work on getting her to poop in the potty - she could if she wanted to.  Instead, she always tells me she is going to poop and goes to either Micah's room or my closet.  Whenever she goes in Micah's room to poop, she stands at the window and looks outside.  We have been enjoying the warm weather, playing with Cora's new sand and water table and her new swimming pool.

In other news, Cora has a new baby cousin!  My brother, sister-in-law, and niece welcomed Harrison Cole Bramlett on May 24th.  Amye was induced the night before, and things seemed to be progressing very quickly.  Unfortunately, after hitting 7 cm, things slowed down a bit.  Once Amye was ready to push, she started getting very sick to her stomach - she couldn't push without vomiting.  Those of you who have birthed a child know that pushing is work enough without having to battle nausea!  They let her take a little nap and rest to see if the nausea would subside.  After one more sick spell, she felt some better, and Harrison was finally born at 3:10.  He was 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 21.5 inches long.  Big boy!  Of course, he still looks tiny.  :)  He had a hard time getting here and has some battle wounds to prove it.  He is just precious, and I look forward to getting to see him grow and know he and Micah will be good buddies like Cora and Hayden are.  Here are some pics of the cousins, the girls and the boys!

Micah looks like a giant next to his baby cousin!

Cute boys

Harrison isn't sure what to think about this giant next to him

The whole crew!

Life

How our lives have changed in the past two months!  Our addition to the family has brought so much joy to us as well as a lot more work and sleep deprivation.  It is amazing to me how Micah and Cora are polar opposites.  Our baby girl was always petite and a really good baby.  Now, I won't say that Micah is a bad baby, but he is more demanding.  There's also nothing petite about him.  :)

When Micah was a newborn, he was hungry all the time.  For a while, he was nursing every 1.5 to 2 hours throughout the day and throughout the night.  I was so relieved when he started spacing out his feeding to 2.5 to 3 hours.  It would seem that the reason that he was eating so often was the boy was growing like crazy!  At Micah's doctor's appointment when he was 3 days old, he weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20 inches long.  By the time we took him for his 1 month appointment, he was up to 11 pounds, 11 ounces and was 22.5 inches long.  At 2-months old, he was 14 pounds, 12 ounces and 24.25 inches.  I absolutely cannot believe how big he is!!  No one expects me to tell them that he is only 2 months old when they ask.  The doctor says that he is growing beautifully and is perfectly proportionate.  He was also impressed with his head control and his social skills (smiling, cooing).

Life at home is much more busy.  We were lucky to have my mom stay with us for about a week after Micah was born to help with the cooking, cleaning, and baby consoling.  It was also wonderful that Jeremy had a full 2 weeks off from work to stay home and help with the adjustment.  He was only off for a week with Cora, and because we ended up back in the hospital, we were only home for a day before he went back to work.  Having two babies to take care of on very little sleep, I don't know if I would have made it without him!  After Jeremy went back to work, my sister, Mandy, came and stayed with us a few days.  We were also blessed to have friends from church, Jeremy's co-workers, Jeremy's mom, and my sister-in-law to bring us food in the early days.  Here we are two months into this thing, and cooking is still a challenge!

We think that Micah probably has colic to some degree.  Every evening, we can count on him to be cranky.  The good news is that he is usually consolable, but it is exhausting trying to keep him happy.  Most of the time, we have to eat dinner in shifts.  Cora's bedtime routine (Bible story and prayer) is much more chaotic now that we are trying to keep Micah happy.  Sometimes it is just not possible and either Jeremy or myself will do bedtime with Cora alone.

Even with all the craziness and difficulties, we love our little guy.  He may be demanding, but he is so cuddly!  He grunted like crazy when he was a little baby (as did his sister), but now the grunts have been replaced with adorable coos.  He especially loves to "talk" when he is laying on his changing table or activity mat.  He's also smiling now when he is awake.  It doesn't get much better than seeing a big, open-mouthed, gummy grin!  He really seems to love his sister.  It amazes me how closely he watches her.

Cora has done amazingly well adjusting to having a baby brother!  She didn't seem to know what to think about him at first.  She just kept her distance.  She seemed to instantly learn how to play on her own (she was used to Mommy always playing with her), and did not complain about the amount of time I was spending taking care of the baby.  She did discover that she could do whatever she wanted while I was nursing Micah since I could not get up and stop her...luckily, she's not taking advantage of that quite so much these days.  Cora has helped me with burping Micah, she likes to try and give him his pacifier, and she likes to do "this little piggy" with his toes.  She is getting to be more and more comfortable with him.  I can't wait until Micah starts laughing; I think Cora will love trying to get him to laugh!

We feel so blessed to have two beautiful, healthy children.  Life is crazy right now, but we wouldn't change a thing!

Micah Brandon's Birthday!

So, Micah is now almost 6 weeks old, and I am just now getting around to writing about his birth.  Life is quite crazy with a newborn and a toddler.  More on that later.  Here's the story of Micah's arrival!

Despite everyone's kind words saying that there was no way I would make it to Micah's due date (based on my very large belly), I almost made it!  Since Micah was due on February 29th, we decided to go ahead and induce on February 28th.  I so hoped he would come on his own before then, but apparently he was really comfortable in my belly.  Jeremy and I got up super early (after a not very restful night's sleep) on Tuesday, February 28th, to get ready for our induction.  We arrived at Erlanger hospital in downtown Chattanooga at 4am to get things started.  After I got checked in, they took me to my labor and delivery room.  I noticed there was a sign on the door that said "It's a boy!" and it had a monkey on it that looked a lot like the monkey from Micah's nursery decor.  When I went in, the room was decorated with streamers and stars and a sign with Micah's name on it.  There was also a stuffed monkey, flowers, and card waiting on the table next to the hospital bed.  As soon as I saw everything, I knew who was responsible - my best friend Brooke!  Brooke works as a nurse in labor and delivery.  She was supposed to be working that night, but she was called off.  She decided to come in, without pay, in the middle of the night just to decorate my room!  It was such a surprise and instantly made me feel a little less anxious about the whole childbirth thing.  :)  Brooke had hung out after she finished decorating to welcome us and tell us about the people that would be taking care of me.  She was awesome - nice to get the VIP treatment!!

After Brooke left, we got things started.  Around 5am, they started the pitocin.  Contractions immediately got to be more regular and a little stronger, but not too uncomfortable.  When Dr. Barker came in to see me that morning, I had only dilated to 3 cm, so he went ahead and broke my water.  Just minutes after he broke my water, I was calling the nurse asking for pain meds.  By the time she made it to my room with the pain medicine, I was asking for my epidural.  I felt stupid asking for it only being 3 cm dilated (I was 5 with Cora), but I was in some pain.  They had to give me fluids before getting the epidural to prevent my blood pressure from bottoming out.  By the time my epidural finally arrived, my pain was off the charts.  (The anesthesiologist came to my room the next day to see how I was doing, and I had no idea who she was if that tells you anything.)  It was very challenging to try and breathe through the contractions and hold still while they did my epidural.  It didn't help that my spine is apparently curved, so they had a little bit of a hard time getting it in the right place.  It was not fun.  BUT, I am SO thankful for that epidural.  By the time it was in, I started feeling pressure.  The nurse checked me and was shocked to find that I was 9.5 cm dilated.  She called in a second opinion, and sure enough, I was.  They let me continue to labor so Micah could drop a little lower.

I started the pushing process right around noon.  I had dreamed that it only took 2 pushes and Micah was there, but that proved to be only a dream (I also had dreamed that my brother and sister-in-law had their baby the same day and name HER Mohammad).  Everything was going well with pushing until Micah got to my pelvis.  I always assumed that having wide hips meant that I would also have a wide pelvis.  Apparently this is not the case.  I pushed, and I pushed, and I pushed...  At some point, Micah's heart rate began dropping with every contraction.  The nurse called Dr. Barker, and he quickly came in to assess the situation.  He decided that we needed to get Micah out as quickly as possible.  Because I was struggling getting him past my pelvis, he suggested using the forcepts or vacuum.  He wasn't comfortable with the hold he was getting with the forcepts, so we used the vacuum.  During this time, Micah's heart rate kept dropping, but he would always recover.  Then I felt a gush that was apparently blood, and Dr. Barker said something about an abruption.  He had the nurse call the OR and tell them to begin prepping the for an emergency C-section.  It certainly wasn't my first choice of delivery methods, especially after all my hard work, but I was okay with whatever was best for Micah.  I just wanted him to be okay.  I am thankful that in the next few pushes while they were prepping the OR, Micah was born at 1:49 after 2 hours of pushing, weighing 7 lbs, 8 oz, 20 inches long.  He didn't cry immediately, and I was just waiting to hear that first cry.  Soon, he was crying, but he was still having some problems and was "grunting." Apparently he was trying to force open his lungs.  The NICU team was working with him while I was laying clueless to what was going on, praying my baby boy was okay.  Thanks goodness, he was!  I also missed the scary fact that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck when he came out.  I am thankful I could not see that - poor Jeremy on the other hand had too much knowledge of everything that was going on.  I was an absolute wreck by the time I finally got to hold him - scared to death, relieved, and so thankful to have a healthy baby boy.  Jeremy was so beside himself that he was basically speechless (If you can imagine that) when he got to the waiting room to tell our families Micah had arrived and then he broke down.

Since his rocky entrance into the world, he has done wonderfully!  We left the hospital the day after he was born.  When we went to the pediatrician 3 days after he was born, he had only dropped 2 oz from his birth weight!  He's been quite a healthy little boy since then - more details on that in future posts.  :)

For pictures, please view my facebook album: Micah's Arrival

 

Waiting for baby

This pregnancy has been completely different from my pregnancy with Cora.  I was much sicker in the first trimester this time around, and having Cora to keep up with has definitely made things more challenging!  I am so grateful that the end of the pregnancy has also been different.  With Cora, I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia just shy of 38 weeks, was sent to the hospital, and was induced that night.  I am so thankful that it has not been an issue this time around.  However, this is the longest that I have ever been pregnant, and I've never had to wait and wonder when I might go into labor.  My doctor had told me that he would be willing to induce as early as 39 weeks.  I really wanted to try and let things happen on their own, but this last week has been very uncomfortable.  We went ahead and scheduled an induction for the morning of the 28th if Micah doesn't decide to come before then.  In the meantime, we've been enjoying our final days as a family of 3.  Here are some fun pics of play dates with cousin Hayden and our friends Miss Brooke and Jillian.

Our girls showing no fear

Feeling Micah move

Pigtails!  Wish she would wear them for longer than 5 minutes...

Cora and Jillian reading together :)

Sliding with Jillian

Baby Cora  :)

Preparing for Baby Part 2

As mentioned at the end of the last blog entry, we have really been blessed by the generosity of our friends and family in preparing for the arrival of our little boy.  Two of our church orchestra friends, Jaime Lacey and Megan Taylor, had a baby shower for us.  Cora went with me and was such a good helper in opening all the gifts for Micah!  I thought she may be jealous of all the stuff for her baby brother, but she would usually say, "Ooohhh, how cute!" or "It's for Micah!"  I think she's going to be a great big sister.  We had a wonderful time visiting with friends and eating some good food.  Megan is very talented when it comes to crafty stuff, and one of the neatest things that she did was had everyone write a message for Micah on a fabric square.  I was also able to take squares with me for our family to write messages.  She's going to use the squares to make a quilt for Micah.  I thought that was such a neat idea and I know it will be something that he always cherishes! 

Yummy food!

Adorable cupcakes - Cora was obsessed!

She wouldn't rest until she ate a cupcake

Think she enjoyed it?!?

We got together with all of our local family to celebrate Micah's near arrival!  It was great to get everyone together - guys and gals alike.  Again, we enjoyed some delicious food.  Jeremy's mom also did a great job making a diaper cake and a diaper wreath for us!

Ring around the rosies

Hayden was testing out Micah's monkey rocker  :)

Jeremy and I have been teaching in the youth department at church this year.  I am an assistant teacher for the 8th grade girls.  Every so often we schedule a time to eat lunch together after church.  Two weeks ago, we were supposed to have pizza at church.  Little did I know that the girls in our class had asked the other teachers, Lana Leonard and Hope Poe, if they could have a surprise baby shower for me!  I went with Lana to pick up the pizza, and when we got back, they had hung up a banner which they all signed and had balloons and blue velvet cupcakes made by Hope.  We got more wonderful gifts, and it was so sweet of them to think to do that for us.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, and I had even forgotten my ipod that morning, so I don't have any pictures!

We are so blessed to have so many people in our lives who are just as excited as we are for Micah to arrive!  We cannot wait to meet him very soon.  :)