Presenting....

I assume everyone has received Brayden's birth announcement by now so I can finally share it on my blog. Isn't it so cute?! Nicole made this card for me and I love it! She's so talented. :)

Happy Birthday Mom/ Grandma!!!

Dad was working last weekend when it was Mom's birthday so we had to wait to do her birthday dinner til this weekend! Kylie was spending the night with her Grammie [Jacob's mom] so she wasn't there. We had a nice dinner at Waterman's. We went there last year for Mom's 50th birthday where Nana and Papa came to surprise her!

Brayden slept the whole time- good boy! :)

Haylee helped Grandma open her present from the grandkids!

After dinner, we went to Skinny Dip for dessert!

I love his outfit!

Chick Magnet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM/ GRANDMA!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

my little monkey!

my monkey! :)






his little booty!






his socks that look like shoes! :)



my babies!

ENT

I finally took Brayden to the ENT specialist to have his tongue-tie/ short frenulum checked out. The doctor checked his ears, looked in his mouth and then checked under his tongue. He said he does have a short frenulum and asked why I was concerned about it. I told him I was having some pain while nursing and the lactation consultant thought it should be looked at. But within the last couple of weeks, I haven't had hardly any pain. Not sure if I've just gotten used to it or he has improved his eating techniques but I still wanted to go ahead and get it checked out, just to be safe. I told him I wasn't really having pain anymore and since he felt it wasn't really bad and he was gaining weight then he didn't want to mess with it. But he said if I start to feel pain again, he wants me to go to a different lactation consultant that he works with and have her watch him eat and see if it is effecting breastfeeding and then go from there. So we'll see how things go! And he got weighed today and he's 9lbs!! So he must be eating well! :)

Teacher Conference

I had a teacher conference with Kylie's teacher last Wednesday. And I got her "report card" on Friday so here are the things her teacher wrote....

Social Emotional

Sense of Self; Responsiblity for Self and Others; Prosocial Behavior

*chooses and becomes involved in one activity out of several options

*takes responsibility for own well being- uses self help skills with occational reminders [tissue, wash hands, toilet, jacket]

*shows confidence in parents' and teachers' abilities to keep her safe and healthy

*demonstrates appropriate trust in familiar adults

Physical

Gross Motor; Fine Motor

*demonstrates basic locomotor skills [running, jumping, hopping]

*coordinates hand- eye movement [fine]

*uses tools for writing and drawing [fine]

*attempts to walk in a line, stepping off occationally [gross]

*performs simple manipilations with increasing control [fine]

Cognitive

Learning & Problem Solving; Logical Thinking; Representation & Symbolic Thinking

*applies knowledge or experience to new context

*counts to 10 or so connecting number words and symbols to the objects counted and knows that the last number describes the total

*observes attentively and seeks relevant information

*sustains attention and persists even when encountering difficulties [ex. puzzles]

Language

Listening & Speaking; Reading & Writing

*actively participates in conversations. Responds to comments and questions of others

*uses longer sentences [5-6 words] to communicate

*recognizes and names many letters of the alphabet

*knows print carries a message

*participates in story time interactively

*chooses to "read" on own

"I can grow...."

*Social/Emotional- work/play cooperatively with another student/ center group [aka SHARE!]

*Social/ Emotional- understand & follow classroom procedures without prompting [changing centers, coming to carpet, outside time over]

*Physical- Gross motor- pedal and steer a tricycle [I knew we need to work on this], balance while moving on balance beam

Happy St Patrick's Day!

:)



he's so cute in his jeans!



such a ham!



pedaling her tricycle



cutie!



scooter time



She planted seeds and now they're flowers!



video of Brayden...

1 month!

I can't believe Brayden is already a month old and exactly 4 weeks old! This past month has flown by and I know it won't slow down. :(

Here's what Brayden has been up to...

-Still wearing Newborn diapers but on the last pack then I'm getting size 1 because they are getting tight around his legs.

-Still wearing Newborn clothes but the sleeves are starting to get short. He's worn a couple 0-3 month outfits.

-Nurses about every 3 hours during the day. During the evening, it sometimes is every 2 hours as he's a little more fussy/ hungry.

-He spits up after just about every feeding. So I do a lot of laundry! I just started putting a bib on him after he's done eating so I'm not changing his outfit 20 times a day.

-At night, he's been going to bed around 10-11pm then wakes up again anywhere between 3-5am for a feeding then goes back to sleep til about 6-7am [depending on when he got up last]. He usually goes back to sleep after the feeding.

-He's still sleeping in our room at night. He sleeps in his pack n' play til he wakes up then I usually nurse him in bed and we cuddle til it's time to get up for the day [or he stays in bed til he wakes up, but Mommy can't do that!].

-I swaddle him at night and sometimes during the day when he naps. So far, he seems to like it. If he's not swaddled during the day and he's asleep, his hands are usually by his face.

-During the day, he usually sleeps in his bouncy seat or ocassionally his pack n' play. The days I take Kylie to school, he usually falls asleep in the car seat so I keep him in there and just put him in my room.

-He likes hanging out in his bouncy seat, awake or asleep, ususally. He will ocassionally hang out in his swing but not for very long.

HAHA!

-He loves to be put to sleep while laying on your shoulder/chest while patting his back or butt. It's about the only way we can get him to sleep.

-I bought new pacifiers called Gumdrops and he seems to like these better than the other ones I got him before he was born. He doesn't always want it or keep it in his mouth but usually takes it after he's done eating or while trying to get him to sleep.

-He's starting to like bath time. He usually doesn't cry while I bathe him and only starts crying when it's time to get out!

-He broke out with baby acne within the last week. It's mostly on cheeks. Hopefully it goes away soon. :(

Brayden is such a sweet baby! Kylie is very sweet with him, asking me if she can touch him. Also she calls him 'chunky baby', which I don't know where she got that from because we don't call him that [because obviously he's not] but it's cute to hear her say that to him.

Kylie & Brayden at 1 month old! WOW!!!

my sweet bear

Taken by Nicole :)

look at those muscles! :)

weigh in!

Last Wednesday I took Brayden to the doctor to meet with a Lactation Consultant. We weighed him and he was 7lbs 6oz, which means he had gained 3oz since we took him to the doctor the day before! I had her look at his tongue to see what she thought of it. She said it's kinda hard to tell because it's not really bad since he can touch his gums and lips with his tongue. But when he cries it doesn't go very high, usually it should reach the top of their mouth. She helped me with latching and positions so that I'm not in pain, which helped somewhat. She suggested I pump 4-5 times a day for 10 minutes each, which is easier said than done! She told me that if the pain didn't get better, she would talk to the doctor about referring me to an ENT specialist to further check out his tongue.

I went back yesterday [Monday] to check his weight again and he was 7lbs 12oz! Which is really good and he passed his birth weight- finally! Since I'm still having some pain here and there, she suggested we go ahead and schedule an appointment with the ENT, just to have them check it out. She said they could look at it and find it doesn't need to be clipped afterall. I just want to make sure though. She said his weight gain was really good so that's a good sign he's getting what he needs!

Kylie's new roll!

I wanted to update on how Kylie is doing since Brayden has been born. So far, she really seems to like him. She even told me a couple days ago that she wanted to keep him so that's a good sign! Usually when she wakes up in the morning, she'll ask where he is. She always asked me if she can touch him, which is sweet she asks! She likes to help me get wipes, unsnap his diaper, help me bathe him, turn on his bouncy seat, push his swing, rock his car seat when he's crying and we are trying to get out of the house. It's so cute hearing her talk to him, she tells him: "it's OK, it's OK" if he's crying and rubs his face or hands, or she'll tell him "I'm your big sister!". And she tells me she loves him.