speaking of Mrs. Morey....

I WON!  I will hopefully post some pictures from the new/old camera before 2009...it IS film you know! Although, I've been told there are these things called CD's...

Also, Beau smiles now.  Alot.  He has been for the past week and a half and I will be sure to take some pics of that soon.  And today he chooses not to sleep for some reason.  Possibly he is wanting to stay up to perfect that smile!

Black and white...

to prevent you from turning green with envy at how cute my kiddos are! That may be a little inflammatory, but it is my blog! :)

Seriously though, I was sitting on the floor with these special humans when Bradie said, "pictures mommy." What a smart girl! She's was right too, with all that bright, cloudy day light coming through in the afternoon. Perfect for snapping a few.

Marcus reminded me of the touch up feature too to, uh, erase some baby zits. But myself and our dinner guest, Jeremy, reminded him that would be cheating.

Speaking of, Marcus not only brings home the bacon, tonight he fried some up and did a terrific job. He even carefully 409'd all the grease up too. What a guy!

rub a dub first time in the tub

Beau a l'eau!

Sister Bradie only dozens of months ago...
These photos make me want Beau to grow up a bit just because I am so anxious to see what he'll look like.

Are Mark and Lori back from China?  If you want to blow your hair back read their blog at the left for the story of bringing Max home.  Its SO cool!

But are you guys back?  This peasant is waiting to rejoice.  :)  

2 week visit

Beau's Stats at two weeks are:

10 pounds 4 ounces!! Hooray for surpassing our birth weight! --88%

still 21.5 inches long --77%

the melon measures 37 cm--46%

He's measuring very similar to Bradie at this time...looks like our peanut-headed kids continue!

More pictures to follow soon.  We've discovered that Camino works better than Safari for picture posting.

:)

You will upload these pictures blogger

grr

I've been trying to post pictures but blogger has bit it's thumb at me both times...any tips?

Marcus says switch to Wordpress, but I am not ready for change.

Anyone know how to get a baby to switch his days and nights up?  I have to strip Beau down practically all day long to wake him up to eat and then through the night...well you know what happens! :)

hmm...so much to blog, but quite literally, so little time.  Days and nights are running together, going by slowly, yet quickly.  I am officially in the new mom vortex again, but I have a two year old with me this time making things very interesting at times.

Bradie is doing pretty well, but I think holding some emotions back judging by the ferocious tantrum she had before bed last night.  But over all she is doing splendidly.

Beau is a pretty content little baby and appreciates a hiatus in his bouncy seat after a time of cuddles.  He's on a three hour schedule that he pretty much set himself.  His alert time the past couple of nights has been lessening which *hopefully* will begin his sorting out of day and night- little turkey thinks a three hour nap is a good thing first thing in the morning but not the last thing at night! :)  But all to be expected I suppose.  

Now I am REALLY unsure of what I did with my time before!  Grandma Mary always asks me "so do you remember what you did with your time before Bradie?"  I always answer definitely not and that answer has only become more emphatic.  But God has allowed me the cutest, most lovable (and quite possibly, the biggest) kids ever!  And I know that my time with them will never be in vain.  And that is the peace and blessing of motherhood.

Beau weighed 9 pounds 10.5 ounces on Sunday.  That's 8 ounces gained in less than a week! (his low was 9#2 for those who like baby stats) I bravely stepped on the scale myself that Sunday and found I was 20 pounds lighter in one week!

*cue dramatic music* 

So...that makes you, Sara, this week's biggest loser 

*cut to commercial break*

the story of beau

I should probably type the Beau story before I forget, right? :)

It started when I got a curious sort of phone call from my doctor Friday night.  She wanted to discuss a risk in our plan to have our son naturally.  Because of my new diagnosis of gestational diabetes, it put the baby at risk for shoulder dystosia (sp?).  Because of how plump babies can get when the mom has GD, especially throughout the upper body and shoulders, they sometimes get stuck.  Ouch.  So she called to let me know that and basically told me I could have a caesarean section if I wanted.  As in an option.

So fastforward to the hospital, the pitocin dripping, the doctor working that weekend proceeds to tell me about all the most horrible complications that can arise from stuck shoulders.  I bawled. A C-section was still an "option" but was a natural deliver a selfish thing to choose?(keep in mind Bradie's birthweight was 9#14.6 oz so I have proved my pelvic prowess) SO glad this wasn't my first baby.

The doc left the room and my LD nurse and Marcus both just looked at me and said "you can do this!"  I love my husband.  He was such a champ!

I told the doc with a quiver in my lip I would like to proceed...so he broke my water and off we were!  Because of the risk I decided straightaway (we watched Harry Potter during early labor...there's nothing good on Saturday nights!) to get an epidural for sure because of the acrobatics needed to unstick big shoulders as per the doctor.

I gave it my best for quite awhile and then finally had the nurse fetch the anesthesiologist.  After all the oral fine print from him, we started the process....it didn't take!  He didn't go far enough into my spine.  Now the women readers know this but you still keep having those contractions during all this process, but with the mindset the pain will end soon.  FINALLY the second attempt took...sort of.  The nurse checked my progress just then and I was at 8 cm!!!!

So I laid there, glad that that feeling that my body was trying to burn a hole from the inside out through my lower back was gone, but still feeling TONS of pressure.  I couldn't take it after awhile and nurse checked and looked at me very seriously and said "Do not push!"*

So the doc and a bunch of other people came in at this point and it was time to push!  Four or five contractions, maybe 8 pushes and at 4:15 am on March 2nd out came baby Beau (although this was STILL not his name at this point!)  He was kind of a beast but his head's only the 63rd percentile!  Praise the Lord I didn't get that c-section that would have been completely unnecessary.  Hindsight is perfect, I know, but I am glad I trusted my gut.

*I later found out that some hospital honcho wasn't crazy about the idea of me trying to deliver naturally, but my doctor said it would be my decision as I had delivered a big baby previously...that's why my nurse was saying "do not push", she had just found that information out.  For those who don't know, you can usually push a few times with just your nurse.

Merrifield...Beau Merrifield

I am dangerous, 10 lbs, 21 1/2 inches, and dressed in bunny blankets. Check out a couple of pictures at Marcus' Weblog(tm)