oh, BABY!

Chances are, if you read this blog, you'll be receiving a birth announcement for John Reece Fox in the mail soon.  I just finished creating the announcement on Shutterfly.com and was promised a $10 discount on my next order if I embedded my birth announcement on my blog (see previous post).  I'm a sucker for a good deal, so now you can enjoy some cute baby pictures online as well as on a card!

Our sweet John Reece was born at 1:08 on Thursday afternoon, May 17.  He was a big boy at 9 lb., 1 oz. and was 21 inches long...and absolutely perfect!  After a three-night stay at hotel Rex, we have now been home for four days and are in love with our two amazing boys.

Davis has been unbelievably sweet and attentive to his baby brother and wants to hold him every chance he gets.  He loves kissing him and touching his head and giving him a pacifier.  I never would have imagined that he would be so interested in a new baby at his age.  It might wear off, but for now we will just enjoy it.

Stationery card

Joyfully Modern Blue Birth Announcement

Birth announcements & graduation announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Mother's Day!  My awesome mother-in-law put together a nice brunch to celebrate Mother's Day and our newest addition, who should be making his arrival in three short days.  I missed having my own mom there, but she was unable to attend...another story for another day...Fortunately we will have lots of quality family time this week as we welcome John Reece into the world.  I'm so looking forward to meeting our new son, and I'm also cherishing these last few days as a family of three.  It's hard to imagine what life will be like with two little ones and I'm a little nervous about how I'm going to share my time and attention, but I'm sure everything will work out fine.  I'm blessed to have a husband who is very involved and is a tremendous help, and we have a wonderful family who will assist us during those first few weeks as we adjust to our new "normal".

Love this kid!

Numbers

First off, R.I.P. Baby Bird...Poor little guy didn't make it a whole day after we found him.  In an effort to preserve his innocence (until he's 30), I told Davis that the baby bird went home to his nest to be with his mommy.  He seems to be satisfied with that explanation.  I'm not usually one to advocate lying to one's children, but I felt like this was a good time to make an exception.

A few numbers to keep everyone up to date:

36=number of weeks pregnant
130s=Baby Fox's heart rate (Thank God for strong, healthy baby boys!)
115=my weight (in high school)
22=Davis' current age in months
3=number of weeks until our scheduled c-section on May 17
3=number of loads of baby clothes I've washed and folded in the past 2 days
3=hours Davis has been asleep today for his nap (lucky me!)
1,000,000=number of times I say "thank you" everyday for this life I get to live!

Here are some "blast from the past" pictures.  We've been doing a lot of reminiscing about Davis' first days and months as we're getting ready to start another journey through babyhood...

My first attempt at nursing in a public place, the NC Art Museum.  Thank goodness it got easier!

Sweet baby after rocking to sleep with Daddy

First smile caught on camera

This was before we embraced co-sleeping...it happened by accident a lot!  And I promise, his neck is okay.

Baby Bird

As Davis and I were lying in his bed tonight, he was talking to himself.  This is a very normal occurrence and while he is jabbering away, I'm usually doing a number of things (trying to figure out what he's talking about; thinking about what we're going to do tomorrow; considering my television and snack options for after he falls asleep; and deciding whether I really want to get up or if I should just allow myself to crash--at least for a couple hours until I get back up and make a final decision about the television show and snack).

Tonight, after he repeated the same phrase about five or six times, it finally dawned on me what he was saying:  "Touch baby bird?  Nooooo."  Clearly, our afternoon experience had made an impression on him...

As much as I love spring and all the new life that comes with it, I can't stand it when I find a baby bird that has fallen from its nest.  Today in our back yard I found two little birds, one dead and one alive, on the ground.  The live one was "talking" and opening his mouth wide for food and it nearly broke my heart , so I had to do something.  I called my mom and asked her what I should do, and using her advice combined with what I read online, I put the bird into a box with pine straw and leaves and attached the box to the fence near where I found it after giving him a few drops of water.  Hopefully his mama will come back and feed him.  I guess we'll check on him tomorrow to see how he's doing.

Davis was very intrigued by the little birdie and (obviously) was told several times not to touch it.

Editor's Note:

As I wrote my last post and discussed our most recent doctor visit, I neglected to mention the wonderful, fantastic, kind, and handsome babysitter who stayed with Davis while we had our ultrasound.  I don't know how in the world I could have forgotten to thank the man who played outside with my son, digging for worms and shooting basketball, so that we could have a peaceful and pleasant ultrasound experience.

Many thanks to the person who so graciously cared for our little boy last Friday morning.  We hope he knows how much we appreciated it...

Rach,
All that discussion about the doctor's visit, and not a single word about the baby sitter!
Love you,Dad 

Large and In Charge

I'm 35 weeks pregnant as of today.  Last week I had to have an additional ultrasound performed as I was said to be "measuring large".  Deja vu all over again.  I told the doctor, "This is exactly what happened with my first pregnancy."  Yet, he insisted that I have the ultrasound done anyway, "just to be sure everything was ok."  I stopped myself from pressing him further (because I guess I figured it was better to err on the side of caution), but I really didn't see the point in going to another doctor's appointment to see how big the baby was when I already had a c-section scheduled.  I mean, what difference does it make at this point?  I'm not going to have to push the baby out, and since we knew the heartbeat was good and strong, I just really didn't understand why this was necessary.  (My one major gripe about my OB practice is that I feel like everyone gets the same care, tests, procedures, etc. and it's not a very personalized/individualized experience.  IF we decide to have another baby, I think we will find somewhere else to go.  This practice did help me to have a healthy baby boy, though, so that is definitely the most important thing.)  We went and had the ultrasound last Friday and GUESS WHAT...we're having a big baby!  We were told that he is already 6 pounds, 6 ounces and is in the 89th percentile for size.  It looks like we're on track to have another Davis-sized boy come May 17.  Again, thank the Lord for another healthy boy on the way!  Oh, and the ultrasound technician seemed to think this baby has a ton of hair, so we will see in approximately four weeks...

On Sunday, we had a get-together with my oldest girlfriends and their husbands/boyfriends.  They came over to our house (from Charlotte, Thomasville, Greensboro, and Greenville--we have really spread out from Wilson!) and we ate and talked all afternoon.  It was wonderful, and I'm so glad we all still keep in touch and are a part of each other's lives.

I'm the only one who is actually pregnant; Davis' massive collection of balls came in handy for this photo :)