we made it to midnight!

happy 2010 friends! tonight we were not quite sure if we would be awake to ring in the new year...but we made it. tonight as we held sweet 10 day old braxton, i was reminded of what a long way our little family has come. when bryce was 10 days old he was miserable with reflux. crying in pain...losing weight...he was an adorable and precious blessing...but surely high maintenance. i had no clue what i was doing, neither of us did. we learned each day how to take care of a baby, we learned how to love unconditionally, we learned patience and we learned the directness of God's miracles. when brody was 10 days old we were stuck in houston still dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane. on his 10th day his surgery was cancelled and once again we saw God's miracles as the doctors found a way to get him home and get treatment for him in San Antonio. we were not able to hold him and love on him. he was covered in tubes and wires and billi blankets...locked in the warmer where we could not even touch him without gloves on. and now on braxtons 10th day we are blessed with this chubby little man that is perfect in every way. he is mild tempered, he eats well, sleeps well and poops well. he is truly the perfect addition to our family and has naturally completed us. now bryce is 4 and continues to teach us patience and love. he is brilliant and passionate and the best big brother in the world. brody is 15 months and is a daily reminder of miracles. he is the happiest man that ever lived, so filled with love and more smiles than you could ever imagine. i am so anxious to see our family at this time next year. our marriage has grown better and better with each day and with each obstacle and with every moment that passes. 2009 was such a special year...our family dynamic continues to change with each season and i pray to be this blessed through 2010.

Braxton Lee

Braxton Lee is doing great! He had his 1 week old photo session today with Mustard Seed Photography and as you can see...he is totally precious! I just love that little old man look that newborns have :) He had his first doctors visit yesterday and everything is perfect. He is already at 8lbs, which exceeds his birth weight, so we are all good! Looks like we may have another chubber bubber on our hands! The boys are all adjusting well. Bryce is way way way into this little guy. He has already fed him several times and loves it when it is his turn to hold him. Brody still has no interest at all and it still playing with his gazillion new toys he got for Christmas and could care less about the new blob that has moved in. Maybe he is just in denial haha.

Christmas Blessings

Wow. The past 11 days have been absolutely filled with excitement, love, friends, family, emotions and events! The boys Christmas program at school was amazing and fun. My ultrasound that afternoon showed that Braxton was weighing in at approximately 8lbs10oz and my Doctor wanted me to come back on Monday morning. My dad got here Friday, which was so exciting for everyone. Him and I were able to get his last minute shopping done and he was able to get some good quality time in with the soon to be big brothers :)Monday morning I had my appointment where my doctor informed that Braxton would be on his way out the "door" any minute....
So that night around midnight I really started feeling crazy. The contractions were picking up and I just had this weirdo anxious feeling going on. So Justin and I packed up and headed to the hospital. When we got there my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and things were starting to move along. At about 5am everything slowed down a little bit so they give me a dose of pitocin and precious baby brother showed up at 1:46pm. Birth coaches Justin, Kelly and Dena helped me welcome 7lb14oz 20in long Braxton Lee McElhannon into this world. It was such a beautiful and fun (literally) time. We spent the time before I began to push laughing and joking and giving each other a hard time. It was such a perfect birthing experience and I am so glad 3 of my favorite people were able to be a part of it. My dad held down the fort with the big kids...they spent 90% of the 2 days I was in the hospital over at Bass Pro Shop "camping, fishing and having man time"! It was different to do this without my mom, she always really took control of those types of situations and made me feel extra comfortable while making sure each doctor and nurse was getting her paychecks worth of work :) I missed her terribly, but definitely felt her presence and for sure felt her warmth as we dedicated his middle name to her. The next few hours after his delivery were pretty excruciating...this was the time that we waited for the doctor to come in and tell us everything that was wrong with him. He was making some weird noises and not crying like they wanted him to so they whisked him over to the NICU. I nearly lost my mind just hearing that word. Just seeing the nurse come to transfer him literally made me lose my lunch. I was trying to be strong and trust in the Lords plan for him...but I just did not think I could handle another ounce of scary news regarding one of our childrens health. Thankfully TWELVE HOURS LATER (now let me tell how quickly that time went by...yeah RIGHT!) we were informed that Brax Man was all good and that the tests showed it was sinply reflux that we would be dealing with. Our family was blessed to come home Christmas Eve morning and spend the most precious day of the year with all of our 3 handsome babies. I was able to make Christmas dinner for us and my dad and we even spent Sunday at the River House with my entire family. Braxton is now 6 days old and doing great. He is perfect and very loved! We will have his first visit to see Dr. Holcomb this afternoon...so look for more updates soon! Thank you all for your support and love during this pregnancy. I cannot even tell you all how thankful and happy I am to not be pregnant anymore...I can totally see my feet now...my belly button is beginning to reform itself and I can actually sleep. I know it sounds crazy since I have a newborn, but he has been such a dream and I am sleeping double the amount as I was when he lived in me! I promise to take and post more and more pics ASAP.....here are a few.

The brand new McElhannon family all cozy in the hospital bed!

Little Brax Man on his way home Christmas Eve!!

Waiting for Santa

Santa Came!! Notice my beautiful decorated tree...Three very special ladies made that possible. Since our ornaments we had are not going to be returned, my dear friends wanted me to have a beautiful tree and made it happen. I will let you know when Dena's decorating business is open :)

Justin, Pop Pop and Bryce made Santa a special gingerbread house on Christmas Eve...but poor Santa never got to take a bite! Bryce went ahead and finished it off :)

Cookies and Milk and other treats from the boys!

Brody had so much fun opening presents!

Just look at their little faces!
Sweet brothers. I love them so much.
Big brother Bryce went to visit Brody at his school Christmas party.
Bryce was just the star of the show at his special Christmas program!

Tuesday Appt. Info

I went to the Dr. yesterday for my hopeful induction...but was sent home. I am now dilated to 5cm and 80% effaced (yes this is pretty much considered active labor) however, she really wants me to go in on my own. She prefers not to induce her patients when possible. I am pretty ready...but its up to him now. She says it will go very FAST when it does happen...so I hope I make it to the hospital. I go in again tomorrow to check his size...because she thinks he is just going to be big (another reason I feel she should induce me...but again that is not up for me to decide!).

Tomorrow is the big Christmas program at school. The kids have been practicing their songs all year! Santa will even come and visit! Lots of pics should be posted tomorrow night :)

Here is a fun pic from Justin's work party on Sunday!

december things

So I am still pregnant. All these contractions are just fakers and although I have progressed in dilation/effacement, my doctor has not yet found it necessary to induce. I have my next appointment tomorrow morning at 9:30 to "discuss my progression and inducing" but she is pretty hardcore so we will just see....She initially thought she would not let me go past the 15th of this month because she felt he was a biggie...so my heart was really set on this date. However, God has this all planned out and it has nothing to do with what she or I think. I just need to learn to accept that :) I almost lost my mind on Friday night...I was aching and hurting...I was having contractions like crazy (but of course not consistent, just totally annoying and PAINFUL)! I was emotional, erratic, borderline psychotic. SO I got out the trusty Bible and began to look for scripture that was focused on patience. But what I ended up thinking was much better than that. I know it sounds a little over the top BUT what really calmed me down and kinda put me in check is the reminder that Mary carried Jesus (HELLO our Lord and SAVIOR) on a DONKEY!!! She had him in a strangers BARN on a bale of flippin HAY!!! She was carrying the son of GOD...um kinda a big deal. Probably scary...not even to mention I really doubt she got an epidural!!So, that is what helped me mellow myself and get over myself. I am 38 weeks pregnant (the length of a leek...whatEVER) and some women carry babies up to 42 weeks. What makes me think I am entitled to have mine early just because my other two checked out of hotel misty 3and 4 weeks ahead of time? These contractions hurt like H, but its not the end of the world. A little pain now is nothing compared to the beautiful gift that I am about to receive and that I can treasure and love the rest of my life! Okay enough crazy pregnant lady talk...
Last Thursday I took Bryce into the ENT. I was concerned about his hearing and I was right on. He has major hearing loss in his right ear and minimal in his left. We have him on some meds right now that we are praying will clear the issues before the dr. has to consider re-inserting tubes or other surgery. We will not go back for a couple of months...so in the mean time please pray that these meds clear things up.
We had a busy weekend full of Christmas cheer. A fun family party with great friends and yummy food on Saturday night and Justin's work party on Sunday. Both were a blast. Here are some pics from Sunday...

Brody and Santa :)

Brody liked Santa...but all he really wanted to do was pull his beard off!

The big man asked for some pretty cool stuff...number one on the list Golf Clubs...number two on the list a Blue Fish!

It took almost 30 minutes for him to decide what he wanted painted on his face. I think he made a great choice :)

Turkey Day Hunt

Here are some pictures from Bryce's special 3 day hunting trip with my dad! They spent some quality "man time" at the river house and had a blast....guys just dont get much more handsome than this do they?

SNOW!

Yes it DID snow today! I thought we may all die of the anticipation this morning...but the snow finally came around noon. Bryce didn't even have his pants all the way pulled up before he was out the door! It didn't last long of course, but we enjoyed it either way. We came in and had some hot chocolate and I put on The Grinch to make it feel more Christmasy :)
Update on Brody: He had his big ECI evaluation on Wednesday morning and...drumrolll please...developmentally he is at the stage of 11-12 months which is AMAZING!!!!! Super incredibly awesomely too exciting for words amazing! Statistically he should be at around 6 months. He will turn 15 months on the 11th of December and we are just so proud of our little go-getter!
Baby Braxton news....he is getting ready. Contractions are happening more frequently, just not too consistent yet. In the past I "just know" when its time...and I know its not time today...but it will be very soon! We will see if I make it too my next appointment on Wednesday.
A little bit of sad news...our box of Christmas ornaments was accidentally left at the house in Valentine Ranch and the people there now are not being very friendly about letting us get it. I am very sad to say that I may have lost every ornament I have ever had. All the special ones Bryce has made for me, our personalized ones for our first home and from our wedding, and worst of all...everything my mom passed down to me last year. As of now our tree is bare...somehow the star ended up in a different box, so we have white lights on it and a star on top. I know we will make new memories and will eventually fill our tree with love again, but at this time it is pretty depressing to know that so many precious things are gone. I am really just not thinking about it because it makes me lose my mind. Its also a reminder that this season is not about ornaments or trees or Santa (which speaking of that we DID take the kids to see Santa yesterday at Bass Pro and it was SOOO fun) or presents or any of that. This is the time to celebrate Jesus and I don't think he cares if I have ornaments on my tree. He loves us so so so much and knowing that is enough to make any sad mood better!

things

Baby Brax is now the size of a crenshaw melon....whatever the heck that is. All I know is that he is huge and my back hurts and my body is aching in lots of places and I am really ready for him to GET OUT! Last time the Dr. checked I was beginning to dilate (2cm) and hopefully things are progressing because I am over it.

My dads visit was amazing as always. We had so much fun while he was here...my favorite part of his visits are when him and Justin just hang out and "man talk"...its so sweet to see how well they bond! Bryce was of course over the moon the whole time. His Pop Pop is his hero and he needs nothing to do with me when Pop Pop is here. Literally nothing. They went on a 3 day hunting trip and I have not stopped hearing about it yet. Sunday when they got home, I put Bryce in the tub and the water instantly turned black. Yucky smelly boys!

Brody has a big therapy evaluation tomorrow so we are are looking forward to that AND staying in our pajamas the remainder of the day because it is SOOOO cold and SOOOO rainy!!

Christmas is going on here...tree is up...outside lights are up (thanks to pop pop)...nutcrackers are out...and the nightly Christmas shows are on! I love it!!