4 Week Weigh In...Giana

3 weeks, 5 days old

My forever moving/busy 2 1/2 year old!

This was my outfit as a baby...I'll try to find a pic of me in it :)

My sleeping sweeties

Today, Giana had her 4 week check up (she's just 2 days shy of 4 weeks...can you believe it?). Just like Gavin, Giana is seeing Dr. Barry (whom I recommend to anyone who doesn't already have a Pediatrician!). Everything looks great...Miss Giana, you are now 20 inches long (growing 1/2 an inch in the last 4 weeks) and you weigh 7.15 1/2 pounds. After reading previous blogs...I found that at 4 weeks Gavin weighed 9lbs...I just wanted to compare a little :).

You have passed your birth weight, but typically at 4 weeks your weight gain should be more. You weighed 7.4lbs at birth and 6.11lbs when you came home from the hospital. Because of this, Dr. Barry suggests that if I want to continue nursing...great...but I should also try supplementing after each feeding, since it also appears that Giana isn't completely satisfied. So, that's the plan. Right now, Giana is sleeping away, content as ever with only nursing. So, it's kinda a hit and miss thing. Sometimes she's happy, sometimes she needs more. In general, at night, it takes nursing and a bottle to really relax her for bedtime.

Daddy, myself, and Gavin went with you to your checkup, then mommy had some Orange Leaf frozen yogurt, and from there Mexican. Yes, mommy had dessert before lunch...and I'm the one trying to lose weight...go figure! Oh well, this dessert was fairly guilt free and a girl must treat herself from time to time!

And at this very moment...daddy is in bed sleeping, yes you heard me right...DADDY. Giana is in her crib sleeping, and Gavin boy has asked to visit Pat and Lowell for 2 days straight, so he, nana, and papaw are at the neighbors :), while mommy tries to blog a little and clean house A LITTLE.

Not much else going on...just wanted to document for Ms. Giana, just as I did with Gavo. :)

And then there were 2!

Here you both are just a few days old...my sweet heartbeats.


(not sure why your pic is small?)
Just wanted to update a little. Your baby sister is here, has been for 3 1/2 weeks and you are an AWESOME big brother! You touch her face and say "Ahh, so preety". And you give kisses. You give the sweetest kisses. You say, "Don't cwy (cry) Giana" and when she does, you run to me screaming "BABY CWYING!!!" You have really impressed us, we were a little concerned with how you might deal with this life change, but what were we thinking??? You ARE the sweetest most precious little boy in the world (after all).

Tonight we sat down and watched The Lion King together. Me in the recliner, you in my lap, and Giana on my shoulder. It was a sweet moment and I'll treasure it. Our first movie together(Daddy is at work).

You are beginning to repeat things, which means daddy must FILTER what he watches on tv and allows you to hear. You talk NONSTOP...in fact, there are times when I have to tell you to stop talking! Only because you repeat yourself and you'll ask the same question over and over until I answer it the way YOU want me to, hah!

I have been a horrible blogger lately, I've got to begin including your sister in this blog, which means I will probably have to change the look of it and the name...you're going to be sharing a lot from here on out sweetness...hope that's okay with you :).

Baby Sister's Nursery :)

Besides buying a lampshade and a few finishing decor items on the wall...we are complete :)!

Long time coming....

"Cheese"

It seems to get harder and harder to blog lately and I really have no excuse. I barely get out the camera lately and it's certainly not because I don't have plenty of opportunities to take your picture! But it may be because mommy is very pregnant now and with that comes a tired, sometimes lazy mama!

You are very clingy to me right now, in fact, you want nothing to do with anyone but your mommy first thing in the morning. While it is very sweet and melts my heart, I worry that you may feel somewhat left out when your baby sister comes. Having a c-section will make it impossible for me to carry or lift you for 6 weeks, but mommy will try my best to give you lots and lots of lovin' regardless!

We have been working on potty training for a good 3 weeks or more now, you continue to have your good days and bad days. I'm not quite sure that you're 100% ready for this transition, but it would be so nice to have only one baby in diapers :). You do well with going pee pee, but for some reason going #2 usually is a struggle, you tend to start in your underwear unless we catch you first! Yes, you like to disappear when it comes #2 time. We usually catch you though, because it get's very quiet!!! But we will continue to try and keep it at your pace, I know you'll succeed when you're ready.

Yes, that's green crayon on that you have shoved up your nose, lol.


We are getting the nursery ready for your baby sister today...daddy is doing some nice paint work :). Yesterday we spent the entire day cleaning out the storage room which is where your sister's nursery will be. I'll try my best to post some pictures fo the finished product.
We've got PINK!

This past week your Aunt Lisa, Uncle Scott, cousins Nicolas, Natalia, and Nadia came and visited! Can you believe I didn't get one single picture?? I'm horrible, I know, but I'm hoping your aunt Lisa will post some and I can steal them! We all had an excellent time together. It was so nice to spend time with family. We visited Cumberland Falls, Laurel Lake (which you LOVED...a whole day on a boat with lots of swimming), Levi Jackson Park, and we ate lots too!

Giana is expected to be here on August 22nd. Mommy has been scheduled for a c-section that morning. We are very excited to welcome baby sister in to the world and are praying for a healthy baby girl and healthy delivery!

Love you sweet boy and I'll try to post updates with more pictures again...very soon!

One Proud Mama!

This may be the shortest post in the history of posts...but this is very important info that I want to keep.

2 awesome things:

1. Gavin is officially Paci FREE!!! Yes'um, no pacifier for around 4 days! And it wasn't even a difficult process, we just simply put them away. He mentioned it a couple of times at nap and bedtime, but we just said that he was a big boy and didn't need a paci...and to our surprise that was the end of it :) . It's a little sad to me though, because he just adored that paci and looked so darn cute sucking it. But it was time.

2. My 2 year old knows the letter sounds to all of the alphabet. Yes, you heard me correctly. Not trying to brag, but as a teacher for 3 years, I know what a difficult thing letter sounds can be to grasp. I also know that learning letter sounds is very crucial in Kindergarten (5-6 year olds) because that's when children learn to read and make words. Preschool children (3-4) are taught letter sounds, but are not required to know them, just identify letters. So, tonight when Gav, Nels, and I were singing a letter sound song and he was able to tell us CORRECTLY all the sounds-by HIMSELF, I must say I was an OVERLY PROUD, IMPRESSED mother! He's 2 years old. Wow.

And that's all. We had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day Weekend...I'll try to post more on that soon. Happy Mommy's Day ALL!

Short and Sweet Wrap Up...

Of the last few weeks I have disregarded :)



So, I just published a post that I had written on April 3rd (about finding out the baby's gender). I'm waaay behind. I got up a little early this morning and decided I have neglected the blog long enough :).


Easter. First and foremost, Praise God for HE is RISEN! And Praise God for what a wonderful Easter weekend we enjoyed :). First, we colored eggs together. Gavin, well he more or less just watched as dada and mimi did the work. Already looking forward to his helping hands next Easter. Gavin had his first Easter Egg Hunt (just here at home) and he LOVED it! He walked from egg to egg with a huge smile and gently placed them in his basket before moving on to the next. The kid was a PRO. Serious. After finding the eggs Gav was very content to hang out in the yard and play with them some more.


Easter morning, Gavin woke up to a visit from the Easter Bunny. The EB was very generous this year and left Gavin lot's of summer treats to enjoy.
Then, we headed out to Church.
Which is something Nelson and I both agree we must make a priority...Sunday morning church. We took Gav to the toddler daycare, but he didn't stay long. I was surprised that the buzzer they gave us went off...only 5 minutes after leaving him. Gavin is usually so happy to be with other kids, but he wasn't having it that day. So we brought him back to the service, where he was a complete ANGEL the entire time.

After church we headed off to an Aunt's house for a late lunch, relaxed, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Enjoying his new sprinkler...check out the tongue :)



Fast forward to April 28th...we had another Dr.'s Appointment. At a couple days shy of 23 weeks, baby girl is doing great! Heartrate 150. This month I gained 7lbs.! However, Dr. B reassured me that it was all water weight and this is the time the gaining should be expected to begin. So to date at 23 weeks...I have gained 15lbs. And guess what??? I'm loving every second of it! I'm also loving those sweet movements I feel, it's amazing.

Sorry this blog was all over the place. But honestly, who knows when I'll blog again, lol.

Big Brother to a Little......

SISTER!!!! Yes, now we have our sweet boy and our precious little gal! We are very excited and already trying to teach Gavin his little sister's name (which he has trouble saying). He doesn't quite understand that there is a baby in mommy's belly or that a baby is on the way YET. But soon enough he will and hopefully he will treat her nicely :).

We had our appointment on Friday, April 1st. She is very healthy, measurements look great and I found out that I am 3 days further along than I realized. Not a big deal, I know, but to an excited mommy every day counts, hah! So on Saturday we were 19 weeks and I've gained 8lbs. to date. The nurse was pretty quick to tell us that we were having a girl. We all had a feeling that she was a SHE, but the confirmation was wonderful and exciting. When Dr. B came in and checked baby girl out, she started clapping her hands, then held her hands above her head like she was praying...it was so sweet (and the Dr. said he had never seen this before!). They switched the ultrasound back and forth between 2D and 3D. We got some nice pictures and a DVD for keepsakes. All in all, Friday was an awesome day, PRAISE GOD!!!! And we are very happy to welcome a girl to our family.

Unfortunately, the scanner is not cooperating, so I have no pictures to add just yet. Maybe soon? PS all....this post is about a month behind (this was typed out in the beginning of April) I'll bring you up to date soon :).