Thanksgiving 2011

This year was quite different for me, not only was it the first one that I have had off in four years but I was spending it with my family and our precious new baby boy. It seems crazy that Bryar will be two months old soon, and he still seems so itty bitty and brand new. Time flies whenever life is so wonderful.

We spent Thanksgiving with both of our families and it wonderful being able to cherish time with both sides in one day. I absolutely loved getting to see everyone, not to mention all of the delicious food we had!

B obviously isn't a fan of having his photo taken in his first Thanksgiving outfit!

Bryar's Baby Shower 9/24/11

On September 24, our families held us a shower for Bryar's upcoming arrival. We had decided earlier in the month to hold the shower outside of my MIL's home since September is typically a warm and beautiful month, although the weather gave us a damper and told off chilly and cloudy the day before the shower was to be held! I had major wardobe problems that day since the adorable maxxi dress I had picked out couldn't be wore on such a cold day! You just have to love Kentucky weather; you never know what it is going to throw at you next.

We decided to have our family showers together since Bryar's arrival could have happened at any moment. I was actually even surprised that he decided to hold off from the day of the baby shower, being that I was having lower back pain and was having to waddle everywhere. It was a sight! You will see in the photos that I look completely miserable but I promise it was not that bad. I actually enjoyed my day with our families, being out of the house for the first time in what seemed like forever, as well as just enjoying being pregnant with our precious baby!

Our parents did such a wonderful job with the food and decor as always. Curtis and I are blessed with such crafty Mommas!

My Mother in law and sister in law =)

Kaylen, Charli Beth and Lillee

Jessica, Me and Krystina

Jessica gave birth to Miss Layla the day that Bryar came home from the NICU on October 20 and Krystina is due with Miss Piper in December. Jessica is the sweetest girl ever and I was overjoyed to have both of these girls to go through my pregnancy with again. Kaylen, Krystina's daughter is a week younger than Charli Beth and they have always been the best of friends.

We were so blessed to have so each of these people to attend our shower and give gifts for Bryar. We are so thankful that people think of our little family!

Thank you to everyone who came as well as helped out at the shower!

11/15/11

As my sister said, "When someone has the most perfect gift for you, they sometimes let you have it a little early" which is exactly the case with her baby Trace and baby Bryar as well. Today is the day that Bryar was suppose to make his grand arrival into this crazy world. It is amazing to think all that he has already overcame as well as accomplished in these six weeks.

These past few weeks have flown by, just as I knew that they would but I am thankful that the Lord has blessed us with a healthy baby even though he was anxious and made his early arrival!

You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry

Yes, it is already that time of year again!

It is so hard to believe how very fast this year has flown by, but I am very ecstatic to be able to send out Christmas cards of my new beautiful family to all of our family and friends!

Over the past year, I have used Shutterfly for many occassions; Christmas cards, Valentines photo book and our wedding shower thank you cards! Each time they have just been marvelous to work with.

I absolutely adore all of their card designs for this Holiday season as well as their photo books! Which reminds me that I cannot wait to purchase the books that I made from our wedding as well as the birth of Bryar!

This year to help get the word out on just how amazing this company is I have three codes for 25 FREE cards for three of my readers! How wonderful is that?!

How can you become one of the lucky readers to get a code?

It's simple. Leave me a comment of ideas of what I can change my blog name to because as we all know this isn't just Mommy & Charli anymore! =) I have several ideas but would love some new input as well.

I will pick winners on Wednesday, November 16th!

p.s.
You do not have to be a blogger to win but please leave your email address while commenting. Sorry it has taken me so long to get this post out, it has been quite hectic around our home lately!

Bryar's Coming Home Day & 1 month!

Bryar's Coming Home Stats:

October 25, 2011
20 days in the NICU
5 lbs 4 oz (1 pound up from birth weight)
18 in

The day that we were able to bring B home for the first time, I felt like a new Mommy all over again. I was excited, scared, nervous and just way to anxious for my own good. The entire day was very rushed from trying to make sure Charli was picked up from school on time, doing our NICU checklist to be able to leave, packing up from the hospitality house and much more.

Curtis was able to pick Charli up from school and surprise her with the news that they were coming to pick Bryar and I up from the hospital. She was so excited whenever they arrived and as Curtis carried B out to our car.

I was able to somehow fit in the backseat with Charli and Bryar to make sure he did fine on the ride home.

Charli's very first time holding Bryar.

If you cannot tell, she has tears in her eyes once again.
This girl is so sweet y'all. It's just precious!

After wiping her eyes to try for photo number two.
The little guy's coming home gown
Simply amazed by him

Kisses!

Our shot at a family photo =)

Once again, we are all so very blessed to have Bryar home and are able to finally be a family together. B is such a laid back baby and is doing well with his weight and eating still. Since we have been home, he has turned into a little piggy. Yesterday at a check up he weighed 5 lbs and 15 oz, so he is moving right a long and will be bigger than we know it no time!

He has started to hit a little growth spurt or is getting his days and nights mixed up with being a tiny bit fussy or exteremly hungry from around midnight to 4:30 am! Breast feeding is hard work and as I keep telling everyone it is not for the weak, I think as soon as him and I get a little better at this, he will be the most perfect little baby!

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Bryar is also one month old today! Which is so hard to believe but then again it has been a very long month with all that endured at first!

Weight: 5 lbs 15 oz

Eating: Every two to three hours, no matter if it is night or day. Mostly at night I am letting him wake up on his own, which seems to be constantly at the moment. But we must still remember that B's gestational age is only 38 weeks still! It's so hard to believe that my due date was not until November 15! He is taking about 60 ml's a feeding which is practically 2 oz. We are stuck by reading our feedings by MLs because of the NICU from where he was only at 30 for a while then went from a range to 30-50 a feeding.

Sleeping: Like I mention above his nights and days are mixed up or possibly he is hitting a growth spurt. During the day he sleeps some and then is wide eyed for a while as well. He cannot stand to be swaddled and if he is his hands must be out so that they can be close to his face.

Pretty much all B still does is eat, sleeps and well...poops! ;) So maybe here in the next few weeks we will start to see some more activity out of our boy!

NICU Days

For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.

-Matthew 6:21

I want to thank everyone that has left comments, tweets and messages for our new family of four! Bryar is doing wonderful and we were able to come home to join his big sister on October 25, after 20 days in the NICU! It was an amazing feeling to bring our little guy home, and seeing Charli Beth with tears in her eyes while holding him for the first time, melted my heart into a billion pieces. I am reminded daily once again with just how precious life is and how blessed each of us are.

Right before the first bath that I was able to give himCharli Beth seeing Bryar for the first time through the nursery window. She was so very nervous and excited love her heart. She was hyper one minute, and then shaking the next. This girl has a heart the size of Texas, she told me after we left that she couldn't look at him to much because she kept getting tears and didn't want us to see her cry looking at him. Ah, precious!

Bryar was able to keep his warmth up himself but what kept him in the NICU for so long was his eating habbits. He had some reflux issues at first as well as not being able to take very many MLs by himself at a time. They placed a feeding tube through his nose around the third day that he was there, to not only give him a break but to help him to continue to hold his weight. The hard thing about premature babies and the NICU is how they will do so wonderful one day and then take three steps back, as well as hearing different things from each nurse on his progress. It was such a challenge but we were blessed with wonderful nurses for Bryar. I was able to attend most feedings since the local hospital has a "hospitality house" where family members of intensive care patients can stay. This was yet another huge blessing for our family. B was/is feeding every three hours so I would of spent most of my time driving back and forth to the hospital with no rest at all. Being able to stay at the HH, I was able to pump as well as get in a nap between feedings.

Soon I will post all about the day that he came home to join our little family =)

Bryar Wayne - October 5, 2011 2:03 a.m.

Bryar Wayne
October 5, 2011
2:03 a.m.
4 lbs 4 1/4 oz
17 1/2 in

Our precious little boy has arrived and we are over joyed with how perfect he is. The Lord has blessed my family with a tiny blond hair boy!

Bryar's L&D Story:

On Oct. 4th my Husband and I had a doctors appointment as we had been having every week. They all were still very happy, as well as amazed that I had made it another week and was back in there office once again. I was 3 cm, 90 % effaced and a little more than station +1. Dr. G practically told me to expect him to come at any moment, and to watch for my contractions to get stronger. He told me to call him as soon as they hit, and to head to the hospital because this baby was going to come extremely quick. He was not kidding.

That night after Charli Beth went to bed, Curtis and I were watching Bull Riding (yes, a nightly tradition in our home for us) and I asked him if he planned to go to work the next day. He told me that he did unless something changed, right after that he also received a call from another officer asking for assistance in which he told them that he felt more comfortable staying close by in case I was to go into labor. I was actually silly enough to tell him to go ahead and go because I did not think Bryar was going to come and I was not having any pains. About 30 minutes later, I started having strange pains within my hip bones and lower back, they were not consistent and were not that painful so I honestly did not think they were anything to be concerned with. After timing them just to be on the safe side, we both called our parents and told them what was going on, but also warned them that I did not think they were contractions we just wanted to "put them on stand by."

I decided to go lay down and relax for a little while, but once we got comfortable a contraction hit at 11:19 that we both knew was "the one." Curtis then called Dr G for me as I woke up Charli Beth and asked her to get on shoes that baby Bryar was on his way. I have never saw this girl jump up so quick with such a smile on her face.

The two times that I have been pregnant I have not been able to take lamaze classes due to bed rest, but somewhere deep down in side of me I pulled out the best breathing techniques of my life. As we headed to the hospital (thank goodness we made it, because the hubs was driving like a mad man) my contractions were two minutes apart and lasting around 30 seconds. We arrived at the hospital a few minutes before 12 and walked into L&D were a nurse asked if the Dr was going to stop my labor, in which all we could do was laugh and tell her this baby was coming for sure.

Whenever the nurse checked me I was a 4-5 cm, and she asked if I would like an epidural. I did tell her that I would like to have one but did not want to get it to soon. She then looked at me like I had 4 heads and said, "honey I was being very conservative with that 4-5 cm, this baby is coming very soon." She kept telling me that I would have to wait on my blood work to come back from the labs before the anesthesiologist could come in to do it, which was not a huge deal to me because the breathing,my wonderful Husbands and our Mother's support was working wonders.

You could tell by the look on my nurses face that she was completely stressing out and was running around like crazy to get things prepared. She decided to check me again before the epidural, and I was 7-8 cm then. So thankfully the anesthesiologist came in and got to work as well. I am pretty sure that we were stressing him out the entire time, because he kept saying "I just am not sure if I have time to get it in" but he was a trooper and did it anyways!

Sadly, after trying to roll to my sides to get it to flow down better it did not work fully. My legs were a little tingly as well as some of my abdominal area but I could still feel every contraction in my tail bone and more. Not to long after the anesthesiologist walked out of the door my Dr was walking back in and said that as soon as he broke the rest of my water to start pushing. After 4 sets of contractions with pushing 3 times each during them and one extremely loud "war cry" later, a tiny little boy arrived at 2:03! His Daddy was able to cut his umbilical cord and we heard one of the most amazing sounds ever, which was his very loud cry! It melted my heart to hear him.

There were three nicu nurses in L&D with us, and they let us take one family picture before they took him off into the nicu. Whenever I was out of recovery I was able to actually meet and touch my little guy for the first time. He is such a beautiful baby and looks more like his Daddy than I could have ever imagined.

My love for my family and especially my husband has grew to an all time high with all of the love and support that they have given me. Curtis was the best thing ever to me during labor, holding my hand and talking me through each contraction. I could not ask for anything better than him.

We are still currently in the nicu and have some time to go here, so please continue to remember him in your prayers. He is doing wonderful for such an early baby and we are more than grateful that the Lord has blessed us with him.

Pondering

It seems lately that all I do is sit around and ponder. I ponder about being a Mommy of two, if I will be "good" at it, what Bryar is going to look like, his hair color, his weight, what picture to put up on the last wall in his nursery, when I will actually go into labor, what it feels like to be outside, how Charli is going to react, whose temper he will have (Hopefully neither of ours. Bless his little heart if he does have it.) Pondering is something that I seem to have always been good at. People have asked me on numerous occassions what I am thinking about, just because I constantly have the "look of a thinker" on my face. A lot of people take my "look" as a bad one, but it sincerely just one of nothing while I think about the past, present and future.

Speaking of the past, present and future isn't it completely amazing how we can go from the lowest points in our lives to the almighty highs in such a short amount of time? It completely baffles me, but then again I know that we are all very loved by someone whom is greater than anyone of us and can turn our lives around in an instance.

This time last year, I would have never imagine that I would be completely blessed with a new Husband and a baby that is probably days away from arriving. I was single and praying that I would find the right person for not only myself but for my daughter as well. Even though I took a wrong path, God lead me to someone that I am more thankful for than I could ever explain. I never really thought after all of my ups and downs that I would be right here in this moment and be simply happy in all that I have.

Even though we do not want to see it sometimes, we must. We must make ourselves better, not for only ourselves but our children as well. If you are in a situation where you feel that life is throwing you up and down, (where you know that you should not be) remember that the days get better, the struggles they may not always go away but they do get easier, I promise. One day you will look back and laugh at the situation that are you in now. Just like one day soon I am going to look back and laugh at how much I hate bed rest but will be missing my nap times.

"Only if you have been in the deepest valley,

can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."

To be honest, I have no idea where the post came from. I was going with a whole other topic and my fingers lead to something else?! Sorry if it does not make sense to most of my readers but I am pretty sure that it may hit home to one person in general.
Loves.