Good lord, I forgot to mention the most important progress of all. Braden has now decided to sleep eight hours a night in his crib, from nine to five, and I am delighted!

I think I have officially stolen this blog from Marvin. I guess its time for the monthly, a few days before a holiday update (five days till st. Patricks day)
Braden has made many new advances in the past month. His list of current foods includes: carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, pears, apples and rice cereal. He can sit up mostly by himself, unless he decides to reach for something off to the side, then once he starts leaning momentum takes over and he's down. He yells at us on a daily basis, for a variety of reasons, anything from exhaustion to boredom to having a coveted object taken away. Anything and everything is for his grabbing and his grip surprisingly strong for someone who weighs seventeen pounds. After a few painful and almost bloody experiences I am about to resign myself to wearing my hair back and putting the dangling earrings aside for a few months. He also learned how to grab himself in the tub, much to his father's amusement.
Last week Braden and I went to Boone to see my parents, who have been snowed in since Christmas or so. Grandpa Joe enjoyed having B take off his glasses and put them back on, and Grandma was so taken with him that she came back with us to babysit while I went to work on Friday! Next week we will head to Laurel Hill to see the rest of the Smith clan, who will undoubtedly be surprised at B's accomplishments as they haven't seen him since Christmas either. Then its back up to Boone on Sunday to meet with my cousin Noel, his wife Synnoeve and most importantly, meet their new baby girl, Liv. So with all that traveling ahead it is critical that our cars be on their best behavior, they have both been awful this week, mine is in the shop for a new computer (luckily under warranty) and Marvin's needs brakes/brake work (supposedly getting fixed tomorrow...) So right now we have a rental and are getting a first hand look at being a one car family. I don't think its for us. Tomorrow night we are watching our favorite 15 month old, baby Z. she is exactly nine months older than Braden so whenever she and B are together her mom, Shannon, and I can imagine what it would be like have one baby right after another. Then we look at eachother and shudder, and I think about becoming abstinant. Actually Z and B are both super adorable babies and when in the wrong hands can give one the strong urge to procreate. Well that's all for now, till the week before easter I guess...

november thru febuary

Well now it's two days before Valentines day and time for the quarterly update of B. Of course so much has happened since the last entry, I'll just touch on some of the highlights. In November there was Braden's first Thanksgiving with the Smith side of the family, then the Cougars' last football game of the season the next night. B and mommy opted to spend the evening at Starbucks and some shops because of the nippy weather, but picked daddy up after the game for the late night trip back home. It was great to see the Laurel Hill gang, but we left kind of disappointed we didn't have more time to visit with them, and got us to thinking how it would be nicer to live closer.
A week before Christmas B saw his first snow, and indeed what a snow. We got a full foot at our house, complete with a power outage and being snowed in for the weekend. Then as we spent Christmas in Boone we had more winter weather, an ice storm resulting in a four day power outage. Braden's first Christmas dinner was Chinese takeout, although he had what he always has, mama's milk. The day after Christmas after a visit to the grandparents in West Jefferson, Braden and Daddy headed to Laurel Hill and I was left in Boone to brave my first night away from the baby. We were re-united the next night, after I made a day trip back to Asheville to work for the day and pick up the dogs. Luckily we had a little more time to visit in Laurel Hill this time, and Braden stayed with grandma Brenda for the first time, while we got to go to fayetville with marvin's brother. New years was passed at our friend tommy and shannon's and before we knew it the holidays were over.
January flew by entirely too quickly. We went to our first NBA game in Charlotte and had a great time, Braden weighed 13 and a half pounds at his four month check up, tried rice cereal and mashed bananas for the first time, and we got together with two other families and their little girls that were in our birth class; one is two weeks older than Braden, one is a week younger. It was great to see them and compare all the baby milestones. We learned that Braden is the strongest stander and the worst sleeper!
This week we have begun moving B into his own room, which means getting a storage place for the guest bed and some other things that having been crowding the house, and soon the crib will be set up! I am nervous about him being in another room but he is becoming a very restless sleeper and its costing me! Luckily most nights now he will do a 4-6 hour stint in his bassinet, so maybe the crib switch won't be too traumatic. Right now he is in there snoozing in the pajamas that were the very first thing I ever bought for him, at about 4 months pregnant. It was hard to imagine then that he would ever be here and big enough to wear them, but he is, and as always, he looks adorable :)

Piglet

It's two days before Thanksgiving, and about two months since we last updated this blog. Braden will be eleven weeks old tomorrow! He now weighs close to 12 pounds, has two chins, no neck, a pot belly and little christmas hams for thighs. He was born in below the 5th percentile for weight and at his 2 month checkup he had jumped to the 20th. Its no wonder for the first six weeks of his life he nursed constantly, I mean he would literally nurse for an hour and take five minute break before crying again. I thought I would die. Luckily now has eased up to about every hour or two when he is awake , and it gets better all the time. He is currently lying on my chest, snoring. This is his favorite way to sleep, and some times the only way he will sleep. We can have the tv on, music up loud, the dogs can bark and he doesn't budge. Put him down by himself and his eyes pop open instantly. Oh well. we kind of went back and forth about having him sleep in the bed vs on his own, and ended up being so tired we just went with what allowed us the most sleep, which is him next to me in the bed of course. But its kind of nice because in the middle of the night as soon as he wiggles I wake up and feed him, so he just goes right back to sleep, half the time he never even opens his eyes. He has also started smiling and chattering little bird noises, which is beyond cute. He even makes angry yelling noises when he is displeased with me. Thursday we are headed to Marvins family for Thanksgiving the Friday we will be in Charlotte for a playoff game. Someone is awake and wants his diaper changed, so I'd better go...

baby Braden will be a week old tomorrow! he is just wonderful we have already forgotten life without him! born at 5:18 on 9/9/09. 5 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long! hes all legs!

37 weeks down, one day to go!

Could it be possible that I am a little sad I won't be pregnant anymore after tomorrow? On the one hand its like being nostalgic about getting over the stomach flu, but at the same time I can't stop thinking that I have been carrying this little person in me all year, and now I won't be anymore. I remember our first ultra sound where they estimated he was three inches long, and now he's five pounds! This must be what it feels like to have your kids grow up too fast, and he's not even born yet! So yeah, right now I am waiting to go to my pre-op appointment, where I will find out what time tomorrow we are having the c-section. Braden is still breech, and since the cord blood and fluid have been a little questionable the past few visits they weren't going to turn him, or wait any longer for him to turn. The best news is though, that last Friday he was guesstimated to be five pounds two ounces!! I was thrilled, I kept saying I would be happy if he could just make it to five pounds, and he did! Yay baby! The thought of abdominal surgery is a little nerve wracking, but then again so was the thought of natural birth. I've never had anything more major than a tooth pulled, but at least I have thoughts of the baby to distract me with this! His room/ the guest room is pretty much all set up, even though he'll be sleeping in the room with us. Theoretically he'll be in a bassinet, but we don't have one yet, semi intentionally on my part, since I figured the longer I put that off the better my chances of just sneaking him in the bed with me :) Over the weekend Marvin surprised me with a mini baby-moon, including maternity massage, Olive Garden, and a night away in a super nice hotel room, complete with jacuzzi and giant king size bed, which I completely hogged as usual. :P It was wonderful and sweet, Marvin has been so great through this whole thing, Braden and I are very lucky!Yesterday I scrubbed the house down and washed everything in sight. The car seats are both installed, Marvin's car finally got new tires, all family is on stand-by, pretty much all thats left is to pack the bags!

Tonight is the Cougars first game of the season, which Braden (yes as much as I tried to resist it we have officially picked a name) will be attending (still in utero) with me, obviously, and his step-grandpa. This will likely be Marvin's last game for a while, since they are off next week and the next week we are pretty sure that the baby will be here, possibly by induction, or more likely at this point by c-section, since the little turkey is breech. Sometimes they will turn babies manually, but everything I have read suggests they aren't likely to if the baby is small or the fluid is low, both of which apply in our case! Also it is known that this turning of the baby is very uncomfortable and can stress the baby out, two good reasons in my mind why I might well refuse it even if they did want to try it. If it meant that I could have a natural birth then possibly, yes, but I would still have to be induced at 37 weeks, which means a long labor more likely to end in c-section anyway.... so at this point I figure I'll just prepare myself for the c-section, be glad I won't have labor pains and just focus on the time after he gets here, which is obviously the most important anyway! Like my supervisor said to me the other day, hopefully this kid will be less trouble outside the womb...