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. 

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. 

4th of July

We had a very laid back 4th of July. It rained all day. We didn't have plans to go any where or invite any one over. Nick even went into work this morning for a few hours so that he could be off tomorrow.

Mil and I played inside all morning. She also got her first mani-pedi. She looks like such a big girl with painted nails. 

I tried so hard to get a good picture of Mil in her only red, white, and blue outfit. I know the picture below is  black and white, but the lighting inside wasn't very good this morning.

 We finally went outside about 5 o'clock.

We did go outside one other time. The three of us went to Lowe's mid day to get things like light bulbs, stain for a dresser, and outlet covers. Exciting stuff. 

 We also took naps and watched movies this afternoon. 

It felt great outside tonight. We sat outside for a while and talked about how much we have enjoyed our day of doing nothing. We actually enjoyed a rainy 4th. We also couldn't believe that today is only Thursday. Nick will be off tomorrow, so we still have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to relax and do fun chores like finish getting brother's room ready. It is also supposed to be a 60%-90% chance of rain all weekend. 

 Nick grilled some BBQ chicken and corn. It was delicious.

In true 4th of July fashion, we had dinner on paper plates.  We didn't want to ruin our lazy day by doing a bunch of dishes. 

Then we enjoyed some apple pie. This is Nick's favorite dessert, and I haven't made it since last 4th of July.Click here for recipe.

I told him I would try to make it more often. I also said that if I made it more often, then I would probably end up eating more of it than him. He agreed. My sweet tooth is out of control. Thankfully I passed my three hour glucose test.

 Today I am 32 weeks.

 Brother will be delivered at 39 weeks exactly, so only 7 weeks to go!

Thank you to all who have fought for this country and my freedom. Thank you Lord for my precious family and a wonderful relaxing holiday.