9 Months & A Surprise

Brooklyn bear turned 9 months old yesterday! I can't believe that in a few short months, we will actually be celebrating her 1st birthday! She went for her well-check and here are her stats along with a few other pieces of info about our growing girl:

-weighs 17lbs. 6oz. (30th %) and only 26 inches long. Dr. Smith says you are a petite girl and you are smaller than your sister was at this age.
-wearing 6/9 month clothing and size 3 diapers
-eating 3 good meals a day. You can easily eat stage 2 1/2 foods (which is something new since having Maddie) and can even slowly handle some stage 3 foods. You can self feed yourself a snack but only if it's something large, i.e. a cracker or cheetoh puff. You rely on my help if it's a smaller baby snack. You also still nurse but we are trying to wean you onto a sippy cup. This has not been a fun process!
-Your good sleeping habits have been interrupted as of late. We are blaming the weaning process and teething. You use to sleep through the night and take two great naps. Now, for about 2 weeks, you have been waking up every night atleast once and taking only semi good naps. Im a little worn out and ready for you to adjust back to sleeping well!
-You have 2 teeth coming through on the bottom and will probably have 2 on the top before we know it.
-You can officially crawl and pull up. We've lowered your bed all the way down now.
-learning to sign the word "more"
-will say "dada", "ma" and will sometimes imitate us if we clap our hands

You have, so far, been a very healthy girl. Other than the sniffles from time to time, you haven't been sick. Praise the Lord! Now knock on wood, that that lucky streak only continues!

It's become increasingly more difficult to get a good picture of you these days because you will not stay still. But here are a few:



A few days before Christmas, I began to have a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. That weird feeling progressed into me taking a home pregnancy test and much to my surprise, this is what I saw:



I almost fainted! We were very much not trying to get pregnant, but low and behold, pregnant we are! I remained in a state of shock for several days. My risk of miscarriages and hard pregnancies always puts such fear in me. Now what was I going to do?!?!? Could my body even handle another pregnancy right now?!?!?! I was really nervous. But after talking with Jaime, my parents, and a few close friends...the consensus was finally this: that this 100% has to be in the Lord's plan because it certainly wasn't in ours! Once again, He is reminding me that I am not the one in control and He can handle anything. We've since been to an early sonogram with my doctor to check for viability. We weren't able to see much because it's so early, but inside the gestational sac was a faint little flicker. We saw a heartbeat! That's always a good sign and I am praying that I can continue to make it through the first trimester, especially, with no signs of miscarriage. For now, we think that this baby is due sometime around the end of August. Between now and then, we are just taking it one day at a time at praying a lot! We would welcome any and all prayers that we can get for a smooth pregnancy and healthy baby!

A Year in Review-2011

January was pretty un-eventful. We began working on Brooklyn's nursery and preparing for her arrival. We also got to see some snow!

By the first week in February, I was 28 weeks along and placed on bed rest at home because I was showing signs of pre-term labor. I spent a lot of time cross stitching and making bows! By the end of the month, I was admitted to ETMC for a possible kidney stone only to later go into "official pre-term labor". I was transported by ambulance to Mother Francis in case we needed the NICU. I spent two miserable weeks in the hospital fighting to keep Brooklyn inside. After 2 weeks, a thousand painful contractions, and being dilated to a three-I was finally released to go home and continue bedrest there. I got home two days before Maddie's 3rd birthday!

I was still pregnant at 37 weeks and considered full-term. I was able to finally get up and start moving around!

On April 11, I was induced back at ETMC and after only 4 hours of labor, our sweet Brooklyn Hope was born. She was beautiful and healthy! All of the pain and hard work was worth it. Praise God for our newest little girl!

In May, Maddie had her first accident ever and had to get stitches on her ear. This happened the day after I had my gall bladder removed and was still in the hospital. Brooklyn was only 6 weeks old. By the end of May, Maddie was playing soccer through the YMCA. It was so much fun to watch her!

During the summer, we did lots of activities! We went to San Antonio and visited Uncle Josh wwhile he was stanioned there for the Navy. We went to Sea World and the Riverwalk. Maddie also enjoyed her first VBS!

In September, went to the Hallsville vs. Chapel Hill game, celebrated daddy's birthday and had Brooklyn's baby dedication!

In October, we got ready for Fall! It was filled with pumpkins and all things Halloween. We hosted the 2nd annual Light the Night event at our home. Our family dressed up as Goldilocks and the Three Bears! We also went to Medievil Times and had a ball!



In November for Thanksgiving, we flew to Washington state to visit Jaime's family. It was fun to have everyone together. We had a great holiday and even managed the hectic adventure of flying with two little ones! 

And of course, we just finished up Christmas and all it's fun activities! Jaime and I also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Currently, we are beginning a new bible study called B90 (reading the whole Bible in 90 days), Jaime is starting a new soccer season, Brooklyn is crawling and pulling up, etc, etc.... Life just flys by and keeps getting better and better! 2012 is going to be full of great things!