California!

My apologies for the serious lack of posting for the last several months. When November rolled around, craziness ensued. Good crazy, though!! My 9 1/2 month preggo bestie Brooke called and told me that her doc wanted to schedule a c-section for mid-November and she didn't know what she was going to do with her first daughter, Clara (my Goddaughter), while she was in the hospital.

Sooooo, Godmomma to the rescue!!! I had not seen Brooke (or sweet Clara) since May 2010, when this happened:



Clara was just a month old, and I wasn't even pregnant with Brewer yet. Little did we know how life would change so drastically while we were apart...

In early July 2010, we found out I was pregnant. In August 2010, Clara was diagnosed with cancer. In January 2011, Clara's life was saved by an 18-yr-old boy's bone marrow with a bone marrow transplant. In March 2011, I had Brewer. And in November 2011, we finally got to see each other again, with Brooke meeting Brewer for the first time.

There are no words for how I felt when Clara and Brewer met. Clara has been immuno-suppressed for so long, and has NEVER been allowed to be in close contact with another child. After not seeing her for so long, and then getting to see how vibrant and big she's getting- it was incredible. She was delighted with Brewer. I love her so much!





Brewer got to go on his first plane ride. (This included a hysterical flat-out run through the airport with me screaming "EXCUSE ME!" and "WATCH OUT!" at the top of my lungs. And my pants were falling down because I didn't have time to pull them up.) Brewer enjoyed the sprint, and was pretty great on the plane, too. ;-)

We went to the Computer History Museum, my husband's nerdy mecca.



And we went on a day trip to Half Moon Bay, where I finally got some pumpkin pictures of Brewer,



saw my first banana slug (eww.),



had an unbelievable crab sandwich, stalked a saltwater taffy shop and visited a winery.

And then I got to take care of sweet Clara (stop it! I can't handle the cuteness!)



while Brooke and Alan met Rosalyn for the first time!! Rosalyn Elise Boyle has the most precious cheeks you've ever seen and the funniest little cry.



And Alan ate sushi with me! (Neither Brian or Brooke like sushi so Alan and I gorged on it one night while Brooke was in the hospital.)

I even managed to fly back with Brewer on my own, since Brian had to return earlier than us for work. I sort of felt like super woman! I know other moms do this all the time, but it was a serious struggle with all of his gear. Again, he did great on the flight!



We miss you, California! We'll be back soon!

No Judgement Here

I used to judge moms who let this happen...



Now I don't. Who turned this faucet on!?!?!?

(Sorry for the gross-out. I just needed you guys to suffer with me, as I'm a little yucked out myself.) ;-)

AFRICA!

While I would love to say that Brian and I both had been visiting Africa recently, sadly, that is not the case. My sweet hubby got to visit Sierra Leone, Africa, several weeks ago for work. Here are some pictures of his adventures there!



Look at that sexy mining man!! (I made fun of him for this serious look, but apparently he was just trying to get one shot of himself at the mine. The gal he was traveling with really didn't like taking pictures of people, and I had threatened him within an inch of his life if he didn't come back with lots of pictures.)



On a hill overlooking the mine. They are mining for iron ore here at this operation.



Taken out of the window as he was heading from the mine site to the resort for a weekend of play for the mine workers. This is a little market.



The mine workers (seen out the front window here) had apparently already started drinking on the way to the resort and had to stop for a pee break. The people driving past were honking like crazy according to Brian. His travel partner, Sarah, was mortified. From what I can tell, Brian was just extremely entertained the entire time. ;-)



This was the beach at the resort. The terrain looks very different to me than any other beach I've ever been to. It's pretty rocky in places, and there's a sandbar a little off shore.



This was at the resort. This was a little river that came through the resort and flowed into the ocean. This will play an integral role in an upcoming story. The little hut you see there is one of the guest accommodation huts.



Some of the nightly entertainment.



So when Brian was going over his itinerary with me, he told me they were going on a "booze cruise" over the weekend. Brian showed up on the beach when it was time to go, looking for the "cruise". It took him about 20 minutes to figure out that this rickety canoe you're seeing here was in fact the "booze cruise". There was no booze, as you might have guessed. He's still yet to figure out if someone was joking about that, or if whoever scheduled the trip thought that this was supposed to be something different.



The boat had a two man crew. A driver, and a bucket man. You've got it right, folks. A man specifically designated to bail out the water leaking in the sides of the boat. Brian said it was like a cartoon with the water spurting in at different spots. Here you're seeing the inside of the boat, with the weird gum substance coating the inside of the boat and water streaming down the side.



So these rivers. On the way back from the boat trip to Banana Island (where Brian got lost in the jungle, BTW) a cluster of circumstances led to the boat tipping over in the ocean about 100 yards from shore. As the waterlogged boaters swam in, they noticed that they were swimming through an area where two rivers emptied into the ocean. Rivers that had flowed through little villages. Where villagers washed. And did other things. Now Brian is swimming through it. So you can imagine how he smelled when he got out of the water. Yeah, folks, he brought that smell home with him. G. R. O. S. S.



After leaving the resort, the team returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Brian got some great shots of women throughout the city carrying their kiddos around. This is how they carry their children who aren't swift walkers yet. I can't figure out if her other shoulder is holding him up, or if all that weight is on her boobs...?!?! I am in awe of these women either way!



Also seen throughout Freetown were women carrying tons of stuff on their heads with no hands!! Brian said that this one was one of the shorter stacks he saw. The tallest he saw was 7 stacks of baskets high, with no hands!

I'm super jealous that he got to go on this amazing adventure without me, but how cool is it that he got to do this!!?

6 months. Are you kidding me!??!

So we've made it to the infamous 6 month mark. We've kept the kiddo alive for HALF OF A YEAR!!! Kind of weird that we've been parents for this long...

This past week, we spent time at my parents house for 5 days while Brian was in Africa (post on that later!) Brewer thrilled Honey and PawPaw with his cuteness.



Are you kidding me?!?! How precious is this baby??

He has been sitting up well for about a week now, gaining more balance every day with the help of this cool toy that helps him focus and play.



I love his expression. "Mom, seriously? Stop taking pictures. It's not cool." Hehehe. We are going to seriously embarrass this kid with our un-coolness.

Brewer Achievements @ 6 months:

- Eating 1/4 cup rice cereal twice a day
- Tried sweet potatoes for the first time yesterday; he did not bat an eye and ate like a champ (kind of underwhelming, actually)
- Sleep through the night for at least 10 hours
- Take one big nap a day pretty consistently and a couple of other cat naps
- LOVES bathtime (usually our go-to fix-it if he's fussy at night) but two nights ago, decided he didn't like just sitting in the bath and started crawling all around



- This weekend, he got in the bear crawl position for the first time, up on his hands and toes
- Still loves his exersaucer, playing well in it for 20 minutes at a time
- Moves around with intention now. He actually will scooch around to head towards something he wants.
- On that note- he's scooching around!! Kind of a modified army crawl where he pushes off with his toes and drags himself with his arms.

We're amazed at how much he's growing and changing every day. This is a pretty cool stage!

S'more Rice Krispie Treats

So last night our friend Heath brought us dinner. It was so good, and we love seeing him. We were missing one critical component though... dessert. After I bathed Brewer and ran my shin into a TV on the bathroom floor (don't ask. Apparently baseball is required during bath time.) and Brian accidentally smeared vaseline into Brewer's newly-clean hair, I decided dessert was essential.

So I made these s'more rice krispie treats! Can I just say YUMM-OOOOOO!?!?!?



So mine don't LOOK quite as fabulous as the photo on the recipe site, but they taste awesome. And, they are made even more fabulous with this special addition...!



Bonus: They do not require an oven, and they probably took all of seven minutes to put together (some might have let them cool, but I feel that's for suckers.)

Also, please note that while I do read Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen blog where this recipe originated, I actually was made aware of this great recipe by the food site PunchFork. Awesomeness.

Rice Cereal, Day TWO

In case you couldn't tell, day two of feeding went fabulously!

We thickened up the cereal for the second day, and this seemed to do the trick- he was a huge fan! He was definitely wanting more, but I wasn't sure how this would be for his digestion (my bestie Brooke admonished me- rightly so- that if the kid wants more, feed him! Duh...) ;-)

A second development (it seems that they're coming almost daily right now!) on Monday was that Brewer learned to sip through a straw. He was grabbing for my cup with a wide mouth, wanting to drink! So, without a good baby sippy cup, I grabbed a toddler sippy cup that we had received as a gift. It has a gummy straw instead of a sippy opening. After fumbling with it for a few minutes, he bit the straw and played with it. Then, he started sucking, and because he's stubborn, he kept sucking!! And so, we're drinking through a straw now!

SUCH a fun stage right now!

FIRST FOOD!

Brewer is five months old today, and per our pediatrician's suggestion, we are starting cereal today! We've been instructed to feed him a combination of brown rice, oatmeal and barley over the next month before we start in on fruits, veggies and meats.



HELP! In order to save money, we're wanting to make our own baby food. We have purchased the Baby Brezza to make food, but I haven't figured out to make cereal with it yet. So, I put some non-cooked brown rice in our chopper (cheaper version of a food processor), and then mixed that chopped rice with breast milk to make the cereal. Well. It of course was just a nasty grainy mess. So, I purchased some regular brown rice cereal until we get this figured out. Any advice on making your own cereals would be GREATLY appreciated.



So. He did pretty good, but I really didn't have any clue about what to expect him to do. He seemed to not be a fan of the taste or whatever at first, but then was anticipating the spoon for quite a few spoonfuls before getting really ticked off that he was strapped in a chair that he couldn't escape. What texture is the cereal supposed to be?? Thicker breast milk (really, really liquidy), or more like liquidy mush? Because mine turned out really, really liquidy, and I don't know if I should be making it thicker...?



Anyhow! He's a pretty cute kiddo!



Last week, he seemed to be struggling to get past some drainage and spitting up more, so we took him to the pediatrician. The dr. was not very concerned about the cold he seemed to have, but about a couple of ingrown toenails! (Yes, our kid has ingrown toenails.) Brian and I haven't really worried about these too much because we both have ingrown toenails (the dr. was beside himself that we live with this issue and haven't had a podiatrist cut them out. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!) Anyhow, the dr. gave us a prescription that would kick the cold and the toe infection. Who knew one med could do both?? After Brian and I discussed it at home later that evening, we decided to wait a few more days to see if Brewer could get rid of these on his own. Three days later, he seems to have lost the green boogers and one toe is looking much better. The other is still questionable...



We weighed him while we were at the pediatrician, and he's at 15.35 lbs., a full pound heavier than 3 1/2 weeks earlier. That puts him in the 33% for weight.

Discontent and Loving It

Brewer is growing like I can't believe. More than physically, his developmental milestones are coming quicker than I can record. (Obviously, as I haven't blogged for over a month...)

His 4 month doctor appointment went well. He weighs 14.3 lbs., and is 24 inches tall. He dropped from the 60% in weight to the 30%, which I was surprised to hear, but the doctor didn't seem concerned at all, saying that a lot of kiddos will flux up and down on the growth chart.

On July 14, he started rolling over from his back to his tummy, and he's been a wiggle worm ever since. Before, his playmat would entertain him for a good amount of time (20-25 minutes), but now that he can roll over, this is no longer the case. Even though he learned to roll from his tummy to his back over a month ago, he seems to have forgotten how to do this. So, he gets stuck on his tummy and fusses quite a bit. It's like he wants to move so badly but just can't figure out how to!

This past Wednesday, we purchased an exersaucer and since then, he's become more engaged and excited about moving around.



Tonight we went to grab some dinner, and he was so unhappy about not being able to move around! He was twisting in his carrier, trying to turn over in his carrier (we'd unbuckled him while we were eating dinner.)

Next week, Brewer will start cereal. I am blown away at how fast he's growing up! (This sounds very cliche, but I never knew how true this would be!)

We love our sweet little guy, and he really is an awesome baby. We are incredibly blessed with his cheerful personality (his daddy can make him laugh hysterically.... I cannot), his health and his presence.

Can't wait to blog about how feeding goes- I'm going to attempt to make my own baby food. (Not because I'm a granola mom- my mother accused me of this- but because it should be significantly cheaper than purchasing food.) Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Cutest Little Ring Bearer

Brewer had the distinct honor of being a ring bearer at his Auntie Anne's wedding a few weekends ago. We had to drive to Lubbock for the wedding, and traveling has gotten a little easier with Brewer. We'll try to leave shortly after feeding him, and then will feed him bottles along the way, stopping only to burp and change diapers. Definitely not as easy to travel with a baby as it was without, but we're figuring out some tricks.

The weekend was pretty action-packed, and we had just a wonderful time with everyone. We forgot our camera, so I didn't really get a lot of pictures of the weekend, but check out this precious one that the maid-of-honor Sarah got of Brewer and my mom. (Great picture, but I pulled this off facebook so the quality isn't fantastic.)



Here's Mom and Daddy dancing with Brewer.



So precious, but my cell phone doesn't have that great of a camera.

We were so thrilled to be able to be a part of Andrea and her hubby Brian's (yes, she married a "Brian") big day. They are so obviously in love, and we just love them so much!



Here's my Brian and his beautiful sister, the bride!!!



Brian was so proud of his little man, and was so happy to be able to show him off to all the family that had gathered for Andrea's wedding.



Gammy Linda (proud mother of the bride!) dancing with her sweet little Brew Boy.

Thank you, Andrea and Murry, for letting us be a part of your big day!

Little Man is 2 Months Old!

Well, I missed the 1 month old post, so we'll start up with the 2 month post!

Brewer was 2 months old on May 1, and is the delight of our hearts.

- He is coo-ing a lot, and "talking" to us. We've started trying to talk back to him after he coos in an effort to start the beginnings of "conversation"...

- He has started smiling regularly, usually when we're changing his diaper. Almost as if to say "Be careful! I might pee on you!" (Which he does. Not quite as often as in the beginning, but still enough to be annoying.)

- He has started to enjoy baths a lot, and will sit still in the bath, letting his arms float and then will start kicking and splashing all of a sudden and get very excited.

- He nurses regularly every 2.5 to 2.75 hours, in an effort to try to reduce nightly feedings.

- We had 3 glorious nights in a row last Thu., Fri. and Sat. where he slept 8, 7 and 7 hours respectively! Then, he reverted back to waking up after 4 to 5 hours to eat again.

- He's sleeping pretty well at night in his "Swaddle Me" blanket.

- He's starting to focus more on things with his eyes, rather than staring off into space. He likes our faces, the TV and his playmat toy that plays fun music. (He gets excited when the music pays, and starts kicking along with the music.)

-He's discovered his tongue, and will stick his tongue in and out of his mouth, almost like he's tasting something, or wants to lick the air. Very funny!

- Brian wants me to include that Brewer's starting to get a "Friar Tuck" hairline.

We love you, sweet boy!

Mommy is doing well, too! It took a little longer for me to heal than I expected it would, and the recovery continues. With a little more sleep (and I think the adjustment to less sleep) I'm handling day-to-day mini crises better (hello, projectile poo!!! Who knew babies had that kind of trajectory?!?) I'm feeling incredibly blessed to be able to stay at home right now- I'm working from home, but finding it difficult to get everything done that I need to.

Overall: Love, love, love. I fall in love all over again every time I look at this face!

Brewer's Birth Story

I've been struggling with writing this post, partially because it takes time, (which I have very little of except when nursing and you can't really type then), and partially because there's no way to put the past 8 weeks into words.

So, I thought I'd start with Brewer's birth story.

We went in to be induced on Monday, February 28, 2011, at 3pm.



I anticipated things would be pretty low-key for most of the evening, but my family had different ideas. My grandparents, parents and Brian's parents showed up about 2 hrs. after we got to the hospital, and the madness ensued. (Truly, we were happy to have people there- sitting alone would have been really boring and allowed me to concentrate on what was happening way too much.)



At 7pm, a new nurse came on duty who would end up being a huge blessing. Around 9pm, she came in to put me on some oxygen. This took us by surprise, and all she said was "This is just to make sure that I don't worry." Okay.... This led into a night of craziness.



Basically, Brewer's heartrate would drop with contractions. I had been on a very low dose of pitocin, but when the contractions were hurting his heart rate, they would turn it off for an hour or so, and then turn it back on after awhile. Then they would have to turn it off again, and so on...

At 6am, my midwife came in and broke my water. I progressed for a few hours but Brewer continued to do pretty poorly. My midwife came back in around 11am or so (I was at about 9 cm), and was concerned about letting me continue much longer. She said we had no idea how long it would take me to progress since I've never labored before, so she wasn't comfortable letting me continue, so she would give me 5 contractions to see if Brewer's heartrate would stabilize. As she was saying this, I had a contraction and she said I failed....

The second contraction went fine, and the third contraction was so bad that we didn't get a 4th or 5th. To determine how Brewer would handle pushing (to see if there was any reason to not move forward with a c-section immediately) she had me push with the next contraction.

I made some good progress with the contraction, but Brewer's heartrate was not improving. My midwife decided that she would let me continue to push for a little longer, but that we needed to move to the OR immediately so that if we needed to get Brewer out fast, we would be ready.

Within 2 minutes of her telling me this, a team was wheeling me into the OR and a nurse was throwing scrubs at Brian. (I later found out that some of you received a text at this time saying "OR now- pray!" from Brian. In fact, one of our great friends, Eric Stout, got this text in a meeting and actually ran out of the meeting so he could pray for us. Let me tell you, God heard EVERY prayer!)

In the OR, I was moved to a skinny table with no place for my arms or stirrups. There were at least 20 people in the OR with all of the docs, anesthesiologists, nurses, nursery docs and NICU docs, just in case Brewer needed extra help. Since I was having to wait for my own contractions without pitocin for help, the contractions were only every 5 minutes or so. Typically, you lose some progress between pushing with contractions and waiting for the next contraction. Somehow, I didn't lose any ground during these really long waits. I could see the other OB standing at my feet with a scalpel, ready to cut Brewer out of me. And I pushed. And somehow, out he came!



The cord was wrapped around his neck twice, and Brian got to see the whole thing up close and personal since everything happened so fast.

Brewer was perfectly fine, and no NICU assistance was needed. I tore a little and required a tiny episiotomy since I was only at a 9 when I started pushing.

When I saw him for the first time, I told him that his lips were huge and he had zits... Loving first words from a mother to her son... ;-)

He was/ is precious and wonderful, and I couldn't love him more. I can't believe 2 months have gone by!

Falling in Love

Brewer Clinton Davis was born on March 1, 2011, at 12:39pm. He weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz., and was 20 1/4 inches tall.

My life changed in this moment, forever.



Their lives changed too...



So did this guy's...



Can't wait to share all the details with everyone, but for now, just know that we're in love!