Brother's Birthday

Here are some more pictures from the day James, or 'Baby James' as Millie likes to call him, was born. I called him 'brother' the other day, and Millie got on to me saying, "no, that's baby James, not brother." Hopefully she will eventually catch on that he is in fact her brother. 

Last picture as a family of three. Of course Millie didn't want to cooperate. I wanted the picture anyways. 

I went in last Thursday at 9:00 to get ready for a c-section at 11:00. I scheduled it later in the morning to give family time to get here. The morning went by pretty fast. I was able to take a shower at home and make sure I had everything I needed to take to the hospital. I was a little thirsty and hungry because I wasn't able to eat or drink anything since midnight. I was starving by that evening because I wasn't able to eat anything after the surgery until the next day. 

Waiting on James. 

 Delivery time! 

I'm just warning you, there are a lot of pictures below. 

My first time to hold this sweet baby.

A second c-section was much easier than the first, and it was much less stressful. My doctors, nurses, and the anesthesiologist were wonderful! As I was waiting on the actual procedure to start (and the lower half of my body was numb), I was the most relaxed I'd been in weeks. I wasn't even nervous about getting the anesthesia. When Millie was born, Nick watched the epidural and almost passed out, and I cried for a little while. It was more dramatic than the c-section. This go around was much smoother, and I didn't start to feel any pain until later in the evening.

We are so in love with our baby boy. Every report on him was wonderful. His APGAR score was a 9/10 (not sure if I wrote that right). The nurse said babies hardly get scores of 10, which is the best he could get. We thank God for such a healthy baby!

I have many more hospital pictures that I plan to post soon. 

Brother is Here!

James Nicholas Freeman 

8lb 15oz

21 inches 

Born at 11:57 a.m.

Praise the Lord for a healthy baby!

Missing School

This summer Millie went to preschool two days a week at our church. She loved school! Some mornings she would run to her classroom. Millie never even cried when I left her (something she usually does when leaving her in that same room for church). She learned so much, and she came home with some cute crafts.

On the last day I wanted to take a picture of her with her teachers. She loved her teacher. I was told that she would always hug and kiss her teacher when they were on the playground. There were some days that Millie would hug her and want her teacher to hold her as she was leaving for the day. However, the day I wanted to take the picture, Millie did not want to cooperate. They had a party that day with bouncy houses and pizza. She may have been tired.

End of summer happy for teachers. 

 Millie and Laurie and their sweet teachers. Again, this picture does not reflect how much Mil loved school and her teachers. 

She cried to go back and take a picture. So we tried again. But she still wouldn't cooperate. She cried the whole way home because she wanted to 'take picture school.' 

We have been out of school for about two weeks, and it doesn't start back for another two weeks. Every time we get dressed or in the car Millie thinks we are going back to school. I think we are both ready and excited to start back. 

Tuesday Swimming

This summer I had a standing swim day every Tuesday. I emailed a lot of friends at the beginning of the summer and said that every Tuesday between 10 and 2 we would be swimming, and they are welcome to come. Since we didn't go anywhere all summer, I wouldn't have to cancel expect for weather or illness. Thankfully, I never had to cancel.

We had guest come every Tuesday. I didn't make people RSVP, so every week was a surprise to see who was coming. One of the most fun parts was that a different crowd came every week. We never had the exact same group of people come. Friends would bring their lunch. Sometimes we would pull out the popsicles. We mostly swam, but sometimes kids would play on the other side of the fence too. It was a great Tuesday activity. It also led to some pretty good naps for Mil and myself. 

This past Tuesday was the last of our 'Swimming Tuesdays.' All of these pictures were taken two weeks ago. I wish I would have pulled out my camera other weeks as well. I hate that there were a lot of other 'regulars' that missed this week of picture taking.

 Sweet friends. 

Thanks to everyone that came all summer. We loved having you! 

July Happenings

The month of July went by really fast for me. That was a good thing since I've been counting down the days til brother's birthday. 

Earlier in July some of my sweet friends had a little 'sprinkle' for me. We don't do big baby showers for second babies. We like to go out to eat somewhere fun and just enjoy each others company. I got some much needed diapers, and cute baby boy clothes. I'm thankful for these sweet friends and their love, prayer, and support as we all take care of our growing babies. 

On July 26, our weatherman said it had rained 20 out of 26 days, and the month wasn't even over. It seemed like the rain never stopped. However, the rain kept the temperatures outside cooler, which was great for someone that was 8 months pregnant. It also kept the pool temperatures down. This is a picture of me drinking coffee by the pool about noon one July day. It would normally be way too hot to drink anything besides ice water. This just shows how cool it was that day, thanks to the rain and clouds. And by cool, I mean the temperature was probably in the mid 80's.

Lovie and the babies swimming.

I organized some boy clothes.

We got a piano! This was at Nick's grandmother's house. She will soon be moving out of her house and in with one of Nick's uncles. Nick and his sister have gone back and forth about who would get this piano. In the end, his sister said Nick could have it, and he went and picked it up from his grandmother's. With the help of some friends, we got the 1000 pound piano in the house. It is about 100 years old.

About the second week of July, Millie officially moved to a big girl bed. She was climbing out of her crib daily.

 She sleeps great (most of the time). It is a really comfortable bed.

This was me about a month ago on July 22nd, one month away from birth date. It was also the birth day of the future king, Prince George.

 Nick made some honey rosemary fried chicken. He found this recipe online.

We served it with sauteed green beans and yellow rice. We also drizzled some of the honey sauce over the green beans. It was delicious.

We were glad that our church continued Wednesday nights throughout the summer. I love Wednesday night church. We eat dinner and visit with friends before the lesson begins. Fellowship over a meal is so enjoyable. These sweet friends were too cute holding hands.

The pictures are a little blurry because they wouldn't stop running around.

 One morning during breakfast Millie asked me to take a picture of her food.

 We went to a cute princess birthday party. She wouldn't stay still long enough to take a decent picture.

 And Millie has still enjoyed playing outside in the rain or a bowl of water. And yes, she is naked again.

Even though we are about half way through August, I didn't want to forget these little moments from last month.