He puts ketchup on his ketchup

 

Have you ever seen this shirt?

It totally describes Ben.  The boy LOVES ketchup and would eat with anything and everything.  Luckily, it’s helped us get him to eat certain proteins like steak or chicken (the non nugget form).

Kind of a random title for a post, but I wanted to put something other than “I’m going to rip my hair out” or “HELP!”  This blog serves not only to let our family and friends know what’s going on in our lives, but also to document the big and little details of our boys including the good and the bad.  We wouldn’t trade our sweet Briggs for anything in the world, but I would be lying if I said it was all peachy these days.  He seriously does nothing but sleep ALL day.  We still can’t keep him up.  He’s starting to wake for longer periods and stare around, but for the most part he’s out.  Now night time is another story.  Not the evenings, but starting around 11.  You can hear and feel the gas bubbles in his tummy and you know he’s in pain.  We tried gas drops which didn’t help.  Gripe water has helped a little, but it’s still rough.  Last night he screamed from 11 til 3.  It wouldn’t be so awful if his big brother wasn’t up and at ‘em at 7:30.  That child is an energizer bunny.  He DOES NOT STOP!  Last Thursday night it was so bad I had to cancel on an Easter playdate for Ben because I was still up at 4 am.  I was so bummed for Ben and had even tried to be ‘creative’ and make a cute Easter themed snack (not to worry-I failed).  I do want to thank my amazing friend Michelle for the sweetest card and brownies that just showed up on my porch encouraging me to stay positive through this rough patch.  I’m so blessed to have good friends.

This was my attempt to make egg shaped rice krispy treats just like the commercial.  They were supposed to stick together and on the inside have M&M’s, but that part didn’t work out so I tried to just make them egg shaped.  When I gave Ben one on Friday he took a bite, spit it out and gave the treat back and said “no mommy, ick”.  Domestic Diva I am not!

We also let Easter slip by this year.  No church, no egg hunts, no Easter outfits.  Ben did get a basket with some non candy treats, but that was about it.  We had planned on doing it all, but we were flat out exhausted!

Today was also the last day of B’s paternity leave.  We are beyond blessed that he’s had the past 4 weeks off.  I’m not sure who will miss him more, me or Ben.  Ben is going to be lost without his best buddy tomorrow.  This also means that starting tonight I’m on my own with Briggs.  Luckily my mom flies back in tomorrow night for the rest of the week.  Yes I know that most moms don’t have the luxury of paternity leave for a month or a mom (and aunt) who will fly out to help so I shouldn’t complain…ya, ya, ya!  This is my real test of if I want to stay home with the boys or go back to work.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be staying home, but there might be a reason I was told to wait to turn in my resignation.

Briggs goes for his 1 month check up on Friday.  I can’t wait to see how big he’s gotten.  There’s also so much I want to document about Ben.  He makes us laugh all the time and talks in sentences these days.  He calls M&M’s “circles” and loves to tickle.  I’ll have to write a Ben post one day soon.  He’s so amazing, we are so blessed!

Just chillin’ (but with his eyes OPEN)

Let me introduce you to my little brother.  I like him part of the time   Tonight I even tried to feed him chicken and rice.

“Oh mom, no more pictures” (check out his chicken legs)

love this little man!

let’s just say it’s a good thing we have a boy and not a girl or I’d be playing lots of dress up!

yes, he’s giving his baby brother a head-butt…nice

Briggs hates tummy time so he decided to just lay down and go to sleep.  Such a serious little man.

just a picture of what was constantly jabbing my side for so many months

 

~And what do you know-it’s 11:00 pm.  Guess who’s waking up right now for his screaming stretch!  Woohoo!!!

Kiss-tin and T-Money

This weekend Aunt Kristin and Uncle Tommy came in to visit and meet Briggs.  Ben LOVED Kristin (or Kiss-tin) and he kept calling her.  He was pretty shy at first, especially around Uncle Tommy.  We’re trying to get him to call Tommy T-Money, but it sounds more  like Timmy.  I think Tommy’s incredible height scares him.  They got in very late Friday night and Briggs insisted on staying up to welcome them.  Saturday was beautiful out so we spent most of the day outside.  I took a little nap while they went to the store and then T and K made us a DELICIOUS dinner.  Kristin let Ben help her snap the ends off of green beans and he LOVED it.  We had such a nice, relaxing time with them.  We’re looking forward to visiting them next month at their house. 

I think it’s time for them to have kids!!!

enjoying dinner on the patio with T & K

 

On Friday, before they came, our friends Jonathan and Ashlee came out with Wyatt and sweet baby Caroline.  Ben and Wyatt played while Briggs played hard to get with Caroline by sleeping the whole time.  The older boys are exactly 2 months apart and Caroline and Briggs are about 2 1/2 months apart.  So fun!

silly boys

who are the little babies again?

The next two pictures are pretty cool.  The first is of Briggs and Caroline.  The next one is of Ben and Wyatt when Jonathan and Ashlee came to meet Ben almost two years ago.  We had to ‘recreate’ the picture.  It’s crazy how similar both babies look to their old brothers. 

Sunday after Tommy and Kristin left I took Ben to Austin’s bday party for quick visit.  Poor baby has had to miss his other parties this month because of Briggs.  Austin lives behind us (until he moves in next door this summer) so we were able to walk.  Ben really didn’t care about the party.  Austin has every toy imaginable and that’s all Ben wanted to play with (until cake of course).  He threw a huge fit when it was time to leave.  He did so well just playing and being comfortable though that we think we can drop him off there for playdates now without Mommy or Daddy, yay!

playing the ‘little kid’ bounce house

busy working and playing

 

Here’s a little pic of our sweet baby. 

He’s not such a fan of tummy time.  Briggs is making us crazy with his sleep.  No matter how much we try to keep him up during the day and do some sort of sleep/eat/play schedule, he just won’t sleep at night and has to eat every 2 hours at the latest….arggghhh! we’re also pretty sure he’s not eating enough when I nurse him so we’ve been trying to give him bottles a little more often so we can see how much he’s eating.  It might helping??? Last night he screamed until 2 no matter how many things we tried.  Sweet Briggs, I do love you more than you’ll ever know, but mommy is no good to anyone without sleep.  What will I do when B goes back to work next week?  Tomorrow the little man will be 3 weeks.  It took Ben 14 weeks to sleep through the night, so that’s like 11 more weeks of no sleep, woohoo!  Come on Briggs, you can do better than your brother, we know you can!

Two weeks…two CRAZY weeks!

Oh Little Briggs!  Today you are 2 weeks old!  Part of me is in shock you’re already 2 weeks and the other part thinks only two weeks???  Today you had your 2 week check up. 

Your stats (Ben’s are in parenthesis for comparison)

height: 20” – 25% (21”)

weight: 7.15- 27%…over a lb since we brought you home  (7.12)

head: 14.25- 31%…maybe the only time you won’t be off the charts (14.3)

The doctor said you’re doing well.  Your stinkin’ belly button won’t fall off so he put a little something on it that should hopefully get it off in the next couple of days. 

 

You’ve decided that you MUST eat every hour or two, especially during the night.  You can go over two hours during the day if Mommy’s running behind or things get crazy, but heaven forbid you go over 2 hours at night.  Mommy is beyond exhausted.  I won’t lie-between my lack of sleep and out of whack hormones, Mommy’s a bit of a mess these days.  Luckily you have an amazing daddy who has gladly taken over around 5 each morning and let mommy sleep til 9 or 10. 

how you spend your days sweet Briggs

Your nasty little rash you’ve had since birth has gotten better, but you gave us a scare last week.  You spiked a little fever, refused to eat and started screaming for no reason and your rash flared up everywhere on your face.  A little trip to Children’s told us that you’re fine, although Daddy wasn’t thrilled about being there until 2 in the morning.  I can’t wait for it to be gone for good. 

icky face!

We think you look exactly like Ben did as a newborn.  Today I was looking at Ben’s pictures from his first few weeks and I thought I was staring at you.  Even Ben looks at them and says your name.

Ben is having a love/hate relationship with you.  He loves to kiss and hug you, but wants to hold you on his own.  He gets sad when you cry sometimes and is quite jealous of the attention you get from Mommy and Daddy.  Our sweet boy has spent quite a few minutes in time out lately.  I’m not sure what he’ll do when Daddy goes back to work in 2 weeks.  Ben has enjoyed helping B in the yard and playing all day at home.  He’s made the ‘workout’ room his own car room and drives his cars over the treadmill. 

boys and their rocks…helping pick out stone for the planters

at least someone’s using it

Grams came for the week and it was SOOOOO much fun!  You LOVED bossing her around and playing with her.  Briggs was permanently cuddled on her chest.  We called her the baby whisperer because she always calmed Briggs down in a second.  I’m not sure who misses her more, me or the boys.  Thank you Grams for coming and not getting any sleep!  You’re the best!  She better get her tush back at the end of the month like she promised!

this picture made me laugh.  Ben is happily playing under the gym while Briggs is beyond upset!  You can also see just how big Ben is compared to Briggs.  I thought Ben was still such a baby until Briggs came along, now he’s a GIANT!

 

My sweet friend Michelle made these next two shirts for the boys.  We had professional pictures of Briggs taken on Sunday and I was hoping for one with both of them, but it was just not in the cards.

we tried ourselves to take one of them together.  We showed Ben how to ‘hold’ Briggs and had him practice, but when it came time for the picture he was a mess!  Poor Briggs!

 

 

Briggs Carson

If you had told me last week that I’d have a baby who is a week old as opposed to two days old I would have laughed.  We’ve called Briggs a little jokester from the beginning and he continues to ‘reveal’ himself on his time-not ours.  First was when he chose to let us know he was in fact a boy and then again with his birth.  Last Monday I went to work and felt really nauseous.  I ended up leaving by 10 and went home and got sick to my stomach.  I went to the doctor and he said that Briggs was probably laying on my stomach so that food couldn’t make its way down and would continue unless someone moved…great!  He also said that work for Amy was done starting right then (oh, darn).  So off I go back to work to say goodbye to my kids and try to get things ready for the week for the sub who was taking over for just that week before my long term came.  As I’m trying to get things ready I start to feel awful again and then I got sick.  I didn’t get much done at all for the sweet sub (luckily I have the BEST team who helped her out).  I went home and laid down and felt a little better.  Fast forward a few hours and I started feeling pressure on my pelvis that came and went.  I finally talked to the on call doctor and she said that if it were contractions i wouldn’t be able to sleep.  B called me a baby and went to bed and then that pressure turned into contractions.  I knew something was going on.  I took a shower and tried to pack a few bags (we were NOT ready at all).  I got B up and we called my sweet friend Ashley around 11 who kindly came and slept over in case Ben woke up he’d have a familiar face.  We checked into the hospital around 11:45 and they were wheeling me into the OR around 1! 

Sweet baby Briggs came on his own at 1:34 weighing 7lbs 3 oz (Ben was 7.4).  I have to add that I did get sick again during the operation, keeping in tradition with Ben (and my mom got sick as I was being born).  I asked them not to give me the sedative they gave me with Ben so that I would be alert and awake right after his birth and I’m so glad I was.  They kept Briggs in the room while they finished everything up and we got to just stare and love on him from the first minute. 

Sadly as the sun started to come up, B started to feel really sick.  He went home to let Ashley go home and get ready for work and took a long nap before coming back.  Once he was back I sent him away around lunch time because he was so sick.  Gramma Cathy and Aunt Tina arrived after 3 and came straight to see Briggs before heading home to see Ben.  Everyone came back for dinner and Ben got to meet Briggs for the first time.  I had lots of tears seeing my boys together.  Ben gave him a sweet kiss and then being the angel that he is, slapped his head and walked away.  He didn’t understand why he couldn’t play with Mommy.  Gramma ended up staying over that night since B was so sick.  The crazy lady even slept in the waiting room because she thought that would make me more comfortable.  B gets his stubbornness from her so there was no talking her out of this.  My recovery in the hospital went really well after the first night and I begged them to let me leave a day early so I could get home with Ben.  I HATED not being with him and only seeing him for dinner.  Briggs was losing a little more weight than they hoped, but they let us as long as we went to the doctor first thing in the morning for a weight check.  No problem! 

Sweet Briggs just sleeps all the time.  Unlike his brother, when it’s time to eat he does for 5*10 minutes and then goes back to bed.  We have tried everything to keep him awake and he just won’t give us more than 10 minutes.  He does however, insist on sleeping next to us.  We tried the pack n play the first night and he woke up every hour.  After 4 hours of this we finally just put him in our bed (I know-it’s SO bad, but we’re in survival mode) and he slept for 3-4 hours.  So you can guess where he’s sleeping right now!  He was an ounce away from his birth weight when we took him for a weight check on Tuesday.  The doctor was amazed at how much he gained in a short time.  Go Briggs!

My mom flew in on Saturday and has been here helping out.  It is SO wonderful!!!  Briggs loves his Grams and just curls up and sleeps on her chest all day.  Ben LOVES having Mommy, Daddy and Grams here to entertain him.  He did ask for his friends the other day and it made me sad (he no longer goes to school).  I’m very glad Austin is moving next door this summer.  Tonight was the first night I could tuck Ben into bed and I loved it!  He’s pretty good with Briggs.  He’ll give him kisses and hugs, but gets really jealous sometimes and has to give him a tiny pop.  Lots of timeouts these days!

B and I feel SO blessed to have two gorgeous boys.  They are both perfect in everyway!

this was actually after he arrived (I think)

 

a first picture

 

 

love this little baby

 

my sweet boys

 

trying not to cry as I get to hold BOTH of my boys together

my loves

 

Daddy was smart enough to get Ben to play ‘push’ when he started to get fussy in the room

first sponge bath at home-not a fan

 

snuggling with Gramma

 

 

Ashley had my class make this for my door.  EVERY single doctor or nurse came in and the first thing they said was, “Are you a teacher?” or “You must be a teacher.”

 

I was very dehydrated when we checked into the hosptial and it took them 4 times to get an IV in me.  This was from one of the attempts. 

 

Spikey hair after his bath

 

Seriously this is what he does ALL day!