Babies Babies Everywhere!

These past few weeks have been very busy for many of my friends and family members! 

On Feb 2nd, Memphis Nard was born at 12:36 AM. 5lbs 13oz and 18 1/2 in long! We are so excited for our good friends Steph and Gary!! He's such a doll! 

On Feb 10th, Sophia Fayth Sousa was born, weighing 7lbs 3oz and 18 1/2 in long. We are so happy for Kassie and Tony, and love that Crew will have friends so close in age!

I got to hold this precious little girl! 

Not to take away from either of my friend's babies being born, but I have to take a moment and brag on my unbelievably precious new nephew, Lincoln Ray Fischer!!! He was born on February 18th, weighing 6lbs 12oz. He is just perfect! Jess and Ray had a long day of labor, and Jess did an amazing job making it through it all!

We couldn't be happier for Ray and Jess, and wish we would've been there to meet him. But we were so happy that Nana and Papa were able to fly out the morning Jess went into labor, and make it in time before Lincoln was born! We will miss them when Crew is here, but they will have plenty of time to snuggle him later!

Love him so much! 

Look at that face!!

Congrats to all 3 families!

38 Weeks - 3 Days & Counting

Ok seriously folks...it's time to have this baby! He has been trying to make his debut now for over 2 weeks! The meds I take daily are keeping him at bay, but he's not happy about it! Today is Sunday, which means we only have 3 more days of our little family of 3. I think Eric and I are very prepared mentally for Crew's arrival, because almost every night I tell him it could be TONIGHT! 

This weekend we've taken it extremely easy in order to make it to Monday. I want my Dr to be the one to deliver, and he wasn't on-call, so we didn't want anything to happen. :) We've been spending some quality time with Gavin, lots of playtime and reading, and Eric has been quite the chef. Saturday morning he made me his  french toast (ITS FAMOUS), and last night he grilled steaks! He's been doing EVERYTHING around the house in order to keep me on the couch! I have to say I have he's "Super-Dad/Husband"! 

My last PG pic - I hope

15 Months - Gavvy Bear

Last week we went to the Dr for Gavin's 15 Month Checkup: 

Stats:

Weight 27.4 blx 96%

Height: 33in 97%

Gavin is growing like a weed! I can't keep any sort of wardrobe put together for this kid because he moves up a size a month! Hopefully this slows down now that we are in 2T clothes and size 6 shoes! He has no idea how much our lives are about to change, but we tell him every day that he's about to be a big brother. I have no doubts that he will be a great brother! Here are some of his new tricks! 

Talking: Gavin says TONS of words, and this all has happened within the past month. Ball, Cat, Car, Book, Eat, More, Please, Thank you, Diaper, Bath, Night Night, Mickey, Elmo, Apple, Milk, Bye Bye, Hi, and probably a few more. He also says every family member's name in his own little way. His favorite name to say is still "Mommy" or "Daddy", but I have to say that "Papa" comes in as a close second! He tells us when he needs a diaper, and he says "Bath" non-stop in the evenings until Eric caves and runs his bath! He's obsessed! 

At school they are singing lots of songs, and at night we practice all of them several times. Gavin sits on my lap and motions which one to do and then I sing! It's pretty comical watching me try to figure out which song he wants me to sing bc if I get it wrong he growls at me! We sing Bumblebee, If you're happy and you know it, This little light of mine, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, Jesus loves me, and a few more. I literally rack my brain each night trying to make sure Ive covered them all! 

Mealtimes are always interesting because Gavin is a very picky eater. He loves cheese, yogurt, applesauce, chicken, pancakes, pasta, and a few more things. It's definitely a struggle to get him to eat any veggies, and he still thinks every fruit is way too sour. I still offer them almost every meal and Eric laughs at me while he throws them on the floor for Lexi! 

We still read lots of books, and he's also moved onto to trying to confiscate our phones and watch "Hot Dog", or in his words "Ca Cog", which is the Mickey Mouse Hot Dog Song. We play it so often that sometimes we are tired of hearing it...but if you watch how excited he is to hear this song, you almost CAN'T say no! 

At his 15 month checkup - climbing EVERYWHERE! 

How we start our most our mornings! Snuggling and playing

Watching "Hot Dog" on Daddy's phone

Bundling up with his rosy cheeks!

Crew's Nursery...FINALLY!

Crew's nursery has probably been the most stressful, indecisive, and now almost my favorite part of preparing for his arrival! This used to be our office / storage / coat closet / Xmas decoration storage / "OH HELL" (according to Aunt Sharon) room. So it was so hard to get rid of everything in here! Weeks went by where just walking past the open room gave me anxiety. Then we started tackling the "clean-out", which caused a few major breakdowns on my part. In order to consolidate that room, I wanted to clean out like 3 other areas to make room for all the stuff. So I was constantly putting off the entire process. But once we got it cleaned out, and also decided that we were leaving the room red, I started getting excited about the theme.

We had the bedding made by Leah Ashley, and I love it. My Mom made the curtains, and I have to say she did such a great job! She has a knack for these DIY projects, and I would be lost without her help. 

Eric and Gavin went to work on putting together his shelving unit, and I have to say it was nice to have another set of eyes keeping Daddy in line with putting things together. Gav checked and rechecked his work throughout the assembly! 

These could line up a LITTLE straighter Daddy

And here's the finished product! 

 10 days til my Crew Bear is here!

36 Weeks - Oh the Adventures of Pregnancy

This past week has been ANYTHING but uneventful for us. Ive finally reached 36 weeks of this pregnancy and all of a sudden, Ive started realizing that this is almost IT for me being pregnant. Eric and I are pretty sure that we'll be more than blessed with 2 little boys, and so I may not ever experience being pregnant again. Although there are so many parts of pregnancy that are "hard" and it's easy to lose sight of the amazingness that is going on in your tummy, it's also one of the coolest and most awesome experiences EVER. I still can't get over the fact that in just a few short weeks, Crew will be here, as a living, breathing, PERSON. Now, don't think Im all weird for saying that. Obviously he's not coming out as a dolphin or anything. But its crazy to think about the fact that not that long ago, he couldn't survive on his own. And now he can be born and be a healthy little boy, ANY DAY!

Speaking of any day...I think he's a little bit excited about that possibility of joining the "real world" because Ive had major contractions over the last several days. Sunday and Monday night I had some pretty steady, but not painful contractions. They kept me from sleeping very well that night. Tuesday night the contractions kept me from sleeping at all, as I timed them at 7 minutes apart for almost 3 hours!! So Wednesday morning, I called my Dr, and they told me that more than 4 contractions in an hour if Im less than 36 weeks is too many. Since I passed that number about 10x over, I thought that I should probably pay attention all day Wednesday and see how often they were coming back. By Wednesday afternoon, the contractions were back in full force, about every 10 minutes. Eric and I decided that we needed to go to Labor & Delivery and have them stopped. We were at Baptist for about 3 hours, and I was given a shot of Brethine (sp?) to slow down the contractions. If anyone remembers, I had to do this same thing with Gavin, about 5 days shy of 36 weeks. The problem was, the contractions came back as soon as we left the hospital. We got home, and I spent another sleepless night trying to breathe through ridiculous contractions. Thursday I headed BACK to the dr to figure out the next plan of action to keep Crew calm. Dr K prescribed me Nifedical to stop the contractions again. This time I take it every day and see how it goes. Im not on bed rest or anything, but Im ordered by several family members to rest and drink lots of water. If someone could please explain this to Gavin, that would be great! In the mean time, Im realizing how lucky I am to have such wonderful family and friends who have been checking on me and offering to do just about anything and everything they can to help me make it a few more weeks.

At my regular Drs appt this week, we scheduled Crew's birthday for February 22nd! Im so excited and ready to meet this sweet boy. He said im measuring great, baby is head down, and weight gain is holding at 18 pounds. So all around I couldn't be more ready!

Holes in our Ears

I never thought that we would be putting holes in Gavin's ears so early. I mean, if he wants to rebel and wear some crazy earrings or something, he could at least wait til he's a teenager and do it without me there. Then he would come home and show me and I would ground him and DEMAND he take them out!! But I guess the holes he had to have put in serve a bigger purpose, so I can live with them! 

After several months of ear infections, and constant fluid in both ears, our ENT Dr decided that the best thing for Gavin would be to put in tubes and let the fluid drain easier. So Monday morning, we got up and put Gavin in the car to head to his surgery. Since he was going to be under general anesthesia, we couldn't give him anything to eat or drink. My child is a creature of habit, and we were so worried about how he would deal with "no milk" for over 2 hours after he woke up. We tried to throw him off as best as possible, and when we arrived at the surgery center, we played our little hearts out to keep him occupied. Several times he walked over to my bag and tried to get in there because he just KNEW that I had something in there for him. I had to say 'No' and surprisingly we didn't have any breakdowns. 

Playing 

Waiting to be taken back for surgery...at this point I think he wanted to make a break for it!

Our matching braceletes. Eric was jealous he didn't get one

The anesthesiologist took him back, and he was gone for less than 15 minutes before they came to get us and take us to recovery. Talk about pulling at a parent's heart strings. He was crying so hard and so confused from the anesthesia. Eric and I both did everything we could to calm him down, and just when we thought we had it under control, someone would walk by, or he would look around, and freak out all over again! It was a roller coaster of emotions for about 30 minutes until we could finally leave.  

Finally eating and drinking in recovery

Im so glad that this day is behind us and everything turned out great. Gavin has been in a great mood, and I really believe he will be able to hear much better. The Dr said he had to suction quite of bit of thick fluid so it was definitely a "needed" surgery.