Halloween

Jake went trick or treating for the first time this year and we joined our very good friends, Jo Jo, Adrien, and Christophe for a fun night. My mom was in town and we took out the whole family and joined Joanne and her family in her neighborhood. Jake was a lion and loved to roar! He dressed up for school too. Brady was snug and cozy in my Ergo. Jake had a blast with his friend and did a great job knocking on the door and saying, "tick or teat", "tank you" and then "bye bye mommy" to everyone. He's so polite. :) Luckily, he has forgotten about the bag of candy he got...

Scary week 2

Well, this all happened Monday, Oct 25. I had a fever the night before and major muscle achiness. The next morning, my fever had gone down but Brady had slept much longer during the night than normal. In the morning, he was so lethargic and did not have any interest in eating. It was very concerning and not like him since he normally eats well and eats every couple hours or so. I took him into the doc immediately and he did not have a fever. Since he had gained 11oz in about a week, the doc thought that we just tired from all the rapid growing he had been doing. Well, that day I went to the doc too since my fever came back up to 101. He checked for infections related to child birth and breastfeeding and everything turned out fine. I was feeling horrible though and very "off". That night once Phil got home my fever was up to 103. The nurse recommended that I go to the emergency room b/c I might have a kidney infection. So, a friend came over and watched Jake and Phil, me, and Brady headed off to the emergency room. Brady came b/c I needed to keep trying to feed him. Once we got to the emergency room we were reminded not to bring Brady in since he was so young. So, Phil and Brady sat in the car. Phil tried to feed him with pumped milk and checked his temp and it was up to 101. So, now we had to take Brady to Cook Chilren's emergency room in Fort Worth. Trisha came to be with me and also gave me a ride home. They didn't find any infections with me either, so just concluded it was viral. Poor Brady....he had to get a spinal tap, catheder, IV for fluids and antibiotics and blood taken. At only 2 weeks old it was just heart breaking. We ended up having to stay in the hospital, (Brady and I) from Monday night to Thursday morning so that they could monitor him and check bacterial cultures. Thank God, nothing showed up for him either! So, they just determined that he had the same virus that I did. It was just so sad to have to see him get poked and prodded for 4 days..he was clearly uncomfortable. Now, at 3 weeks, we are all doing well and thankful to be home!!! Here are some pics of his "Terminator arm" as Daddy called it...its how they kept the IV in...so sad.

Brady Ryan Dean is here!!

I know, I know....this is 3 weeks overdue...but I can't figure out how to get anything done anymore! I'm lucky if I get to shower these days...life is officially crazy, but I love it. Well, I thought I would tell the birth story to anyone interested out there... Just a little background....when I went to the doc on Tuesday, Oct 12, I was already dilated to a 4. That weekend my mom was coming to town..just in case Brady decided to come. Saturday, I had a wonderful pregnancy massage and she hit some pressure points that are supposed to help encourage labor. I wasn't feeling much going on and didn't really think he was coming anytime soon. And I was scheduled for an induction on Friday, Oct 22, if he didn't come on his own. I really wanted him to come on his own since Jake was induced and I didn't get to experience real labor. Well, Sunday morning at 5am, I woke up to pretty intense contractions. I always wondered if I would know the difference btwn the Braxton Hicks and the real ones and now I did! I woke Phil up and let him know that it was time to head to the hospital. He asked if we should wait and time it out more and I said no b/c it was time to go! When we got to the hospital, I was already dilated to a 8! I was in a lot of pain from the contractions and wanted the epidural. Maybe I can't handle pain well, but there was no way I was going to make it without some pain relief!! I felt like I was dying. Once the epidural kicked in I was a happy camper and waiting patiently for our boy to arrive. I thought he would be born pretty quickly since I was already at an 8, but the epidural probably slowed things down. At around 11:30am, I was dilated to a 10 and it was time to start pushing! Finally, at 12:37 baby Brady made his way into the world. We were surprised to see that he was bigger than Jake! He weighed 6.13 and was 19.5 inches tall. He was beautiful and healthy and we couldn't be happier to finally meet him. We got to leave the hospital the very next day. Jake and Grandma Truitt came up to the hospital the first night to meet him. Jake did pretty good but mainly wanted to hug mama. I was so happy to see him and get hugs from him too. Brady is eating great and putting on weight very nicely. At his 2 week check in appt, he weighed 7.4 oz and was 20 inches tall! He seems to be really mellow and a laid back little fellow. Poor guy has so much to absorb with all the chaos in the house from his big brother, Jake and dog, Sammy thrashing around. Jake is handling the transition pretty well...considering. He is doing better now but we had a really hard time for the first couple of weeks with jealousy issues. Jake would actually try to scratch his brother and lay on him while I was nursing..not good. Now we are finding better ways to divert and include him in some way, such as reading books while I am nursing. Brady is now 3 weeks old and we are doing good!

Preggo update

I am officially at 38 weeks and glad that baby has stayed put! But now I'm ready! It is getting so hard to sleep at night. Laying down is painful and makes everything hurt for some reason. Luckily, I am able to nap during the day when Jake naps...otherwise, I don't know how I would make it through each day! We had a doc appt this morning and had a sonogram to check position and estimated weight. The estimated weight as of now is 6lbs, 8oz; however, there is a 2lb “room for error”, which is huge. So, there really is no telling what this little guy weighs. He is head down though and ready to go, so that’s good. We were able to see some good face shots of his cute little mouth opening and closing and his eyes blinking at us. I am still dilated to 3.5 cm, so no progress since last week. I was convinced that baby was going to come by now, but now I’m thinking he might hang out a little bit. I am very anxious though for the day when we finally get to hold this little boy!!

Random shots

We got a new camera and are enjoying being able to take pics of Jake in action again. Here are some random shots of Jake...

Jake's 1st haircut

Jake man had his 1st haircut over the weekend and did great! We went to Cool Cuts and he got to sit in a fire truck, watch Toy Story, and enjoy a lollipop. His hair looks much better now and I'm wishing we would have done this sooner...oh well. He looks very handsome and a little bit older now. Here are some "Before, During, and After" shots....

The anticipation.....

I have been so bad about posting stuff on here...I will really be surprised if anyone even checks this anymore!! Our camera is broken so we haven't been able to take pics like we normally would; thus, the lack of cute pictures from the rest of the summer. But....baby is coming soon!!!! I am currently almost 37 weeks pregnant, which means I have about 3 weeks until my "official" due date of October 19th. WARNING: I'm about to get a tad personal here with preggo stuff so be preapred. I am already dilated to 3cm and having tons of Braxton Hicks contractions so doc thinks that I will probably deliever earlier than my due date! So, the waiting game is on. I'm hoping to make it at least past 38 weeks so that baby boy can fatten up a bit. Jake was only 6lbs, 6oz so we expect junior needs all the "cooking" time that he can get in order to gain some more weight. We are pretty sure on a name, but Phil is not ready to announce it yet, so I'm not going to post it yet on here. I'm hoping that I won't need to be induced this time, since I'm already dilated, and will get to experience the whole "water breaking" and real contractions naturally this time. Jake definitley senses that something is going on. He has been super clingy and really needing "mommy" attention more than ever. (Even though he gets it every day!) He often pats my belly, kisses it, and will say, "Hi brudder!"...of course, after I tell him to do so. I think he will eventually be a great big brother and be very gentle with his baby brother as he is really good with kids younger than him. I worry that there is going to be some major jealousy issues at first as Jake gets used to sharing his mommy with a baby. But, we will get through it! I don't have any maternity pictures to post since our camera has been broken. But, I did get some done professionally and am just waiting to get those back. I will post once I can. We have not been nearly as diligent at taking pics this time of my growing belly! I am officially on break from teaching Stroller Strides right now and will resume teaching once baby boy is 6 weeks old. Phil is getting the baby room painted this weekend and I'm so excited to see how it will turn out. We'll post pics once its done!! Here are some random pics of my boy...

Estes, Colorado trip

We had an awesome vacation in Estes Park, Colorado with family. We stayed in a cabin right across from the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National State Park. We shared a cabin with Grandma and Grandpa Truitt. My cousin and her family, "The O'Leary's" stayed in the cabin right next to us so we were able to have good talks over coffee while admiring our view of the mountains. My brother and his girls also met up with us and we enjoyed hiking with them. We were there for the Bennett family reunion. We did lots of hiking, enjoyed seeing the beautiful dear and elk, and loved the weather and wonderful company. Jake seemed to enjoy every minute of it and really enjoyed being the leader on our hikes. It was an aweosome trip and we look forward to doing it every year!!

Estes, Colorado trip

Its been so long.....

It has been 6 months since I have posted anything on this blog! I hope I'll be able to keep up with it when I have 2 munchkins! Wow...so much to say...so much has happened in the last 6 months. In March, I lost my sweet Bailey Boo, my 12yr old yellow lab. He passed away outside in the back yard one day. He hadn't been feeling well and wasn't acting himself for a couple of weeks. I miss his sweet face dearly but know that he's happy in heaven. We still have our 5 yr old lab mix, Sammy. He's doing well but probably hating this heat. We don't get to play as much! We found out that were having another boy! And only 3 months to go! Still no name yet, but were working on it. We are excited to see what how similar or different this little boy is going to be from Jake. We still have so much to do in terms of getting the house ready for our new addition. We have to convert a messy, cluttered, office/guest room into a cute baby room and somehow find room for all the stuff that was in that room! Oh boy...I don't think that Jake really knows whats happening yet, but he does notice and play with my expanding belly. He likes to rub it, tap it, and blow rasberries on it. Pretty funny. Jake's vocabulary has really taken off in the last 6 months. I feel horrible b/c I should have been writing down the words as it started saying them...and now I forget. For a while, he was really into saying "hi" to everyone and over and over again. Then it changed to saying, "mommy and daddy" as much as possible, which was adorable. Now, its almost anything you ask him to say...he will try to say it! We are really communicating now. He can tell me better what he wants to eat and drink, where he wants to go and who he wants to see. His favorite tv show is "Little Bear" and we have a DVD of it, and now he brings us the DVD remote to turn it on and says, "Little Bear?" Or, in the morning, he likes to watch "Blue's Clues" and he will say, "A Clue? A clue?", whcih means "turn on the tv so I can watch my show!". So funny. He can basically count from 1-10 now! I owe that all to Stroller Strides. During class, he will count down and up with me and shout out the numbers. He can also point to things on his face and name them (nose, mouth, ears, hair,etc.) His favortie songs to sing are "Twinkle Little Star" and the "ABC's". He's doing pretty good at saying some of the letters of the alphabet too. We think he's pretty smart but of course were biased. Lets see...what else...we started swim lessons about a month ago, and they haven't been going so well. He doesn't like to be held and doesn't seem to like the structure. He does awesome though when he's in the water and he can touch the bottom on his own or at a "splash" park environment. He'll go up and down the slide and into the water over and over again. That reminds me...the other day at a splash park he slapped the bottom of another little girl there....I told Phil he needs to watch what hes doing around Jake! I'm still teaching Stroller Strides and enjoying it. Its just been so hot that classes have been moved inside and so attendance drops. Plus, lots of moms go on vacations during the summer. Phil went to Tennessee for a week of fun with old friends. He had a blast! He is doing well and is still really busy with work. Jake has been calling him, "Phil" lately...it cracks me up. I think that's it for now!! If anyone actually reads this, I hope it wasn't too boring!!!

July '10

July '10 cont...

First, here are some random pics of Jake when he was sick. He was very cuddly with his big puppy dog and then built an awesome tower! He's a pretty good architect. Jake and mom flew to Florida for a week to visit both sets of grandparents in Cape Coral and Sarasota. We had lots of fun! The plane ride was not fun and probably not the best idea, but we survived!