Almost 4 months already?

Time sure does get away from me. I can't believe my sweet Eliana is almost 4 months old already.  It sure has been a crazy ride, these last few months. But we're surviving and still feeling oh so blessed.
Thankfully, Eliana is getting over her fussiness. She sure has been a much fussier baby than Braden was. I didn't realize what an easy baby he was until now. The majority of the fussiness comes from difficulty calming herself to sleep without swaddling, shushing, holding, rocking etc. . . . But, she is doing much better. Even at times able to go down for a nap without a fuss! Shocking! She won't take a binky very often which has it's challenges. But, she is beginning to find her thumb. We'll see if she actually becomes a thumb sucker, but part of me hopes she does so she can have a way to soothe herself easier. Eliana is often full of smiles and beginning to giggle. Many of her giggles so far have been from watching her silly brother or Daddy.
And, another thing that has made life easier these days is that the breastfeeding is going much better. No more shield.....yay! She still looses suction often and will bite down on me (ouch!), but she's doing better. Praise the Lord! Thank God we live in the 21st century. If she was born in the 1800's she would have been dead! I'm sure a lot of babies didn't make it back then when the breastfeeding had complications. But, then again, she never would have come to be in the 1800's either. We would have been childless.
But, anyway....
Braden is seriously in the terrible 2's right now! NO is much too common out of his mouth these days. It's a daily challenge for us. Mealtimes and bedtimes makes us want to pull our hair out! It just seems that disobedience and disrespect runs rampant at times which means the spanking spoon comes out far more often than I would like. But, I keep hoping it's a phase that will pass. And bedtimes are a nightmare the past few months. It often takes us 3-5 times of putting him back to bed after we say goodnight and then often he's up 3-5 times during the night coming into our room with unimportant excuses. It's enough to make a person crazy! We are spanking for the initial times out of bed, but then during the night just keep putting him back. And, taking away cartoon privileges for getting out of bed. Some night are better than others, but he by far, is keeping us up more at night than Eliana. Again, hoping this is a phase. And....soon will be taking away the nap time binky. Pray for sanity during that time. I'm sure it will be crazy!
But, despite all the craziness, I daily am thankful for the miracle blessing of my kids. They make me smile and laugh more than I thought possible. :)

Eliana trying out the Bumbo seat.

Curtis and Braden at the Orchard to pick pumpkins

My punkins in the pumpkins :)

Superman Braden

Happy 3 month old cutie!

Eliana's Newborn Pictures

SHE'S HERE!!!

Mommy at 38 weeks in the nursery.

Our sweet baby Eliana

Braden meeting his baby sister

Our first picture as a family of four!

It's been way too long since I've posted on here and much has happened since then.....

On July 11th I went in for my scheduled C-section.  This was planned due to Braden having been born C-section and my Dr. and I thinking I probably would not do well with a VBAC considering I didn't progress well with Braden. From a planning standpoint, it certainly made it easier! Curtis' Mom and Dad come the evening before and stayed with Braden at our house that next day.  Curtis and I were at the hospital by 7am. I was shown to my room and proceeded with getting my IV in, monitors on, and asked a million questions. Then Curtis was given scrubs and we all walked to the OR. Curtis was asked to wait outside while I was taken in and sat on the operating table for the anesthesiologist to do my spinal block. It went surprisingly well and hardly hurt at all. I was quickly laid down and the numbness quickly took it's effect. Curtis video taped the surgery while Dr. Fenoughty and Dr. Huffman proceeded with cutting and pushing our little girl out.  Eliana Grace Burkholder was born at 9:30am.  She didn't cry right away, but once she was taken over to the incubator table and they started rubbing her down, she cried and her purple tint quickly turned to pink. We knew right away she was a beautiful, perfect baby girl!  Praise God! They continued to work on her getting her cleaned up, weighed, measured and dressed while I was being stitched up.  Finally, she was given to me to hold! :) We all went back to the room to recover. I continued to remain numb for several hours and it wasn't until about 2pm that I could feel and move my legs again. I was able to nurse Eliana while laying on my side with the nurse assisting me to roll. It's such a weird feeling to be so helpless. Finally, I we were taken to our post-partum room and approximately 4pm Ed and Carol (Curtis' Mom and Dad) came with Braden. It was so good to see him and he was excited to meet his baby sister. Later that evening my sister, Cara and her family came to visit. Braden then went home with them for next couple days and Ed and Carol left for home. I spent 3 days in the hospital and we finally came home on the 14th. The biggest challenge in those first few days/weeks was breastfeeding. Initially it seemed Eliana was doing great with nursing, but after a few days it became evident that something was wrong with the way she was latching on. She made me so raw to the point of scabbing/bleeding. By the time we came home, I could barely stand to have her nurse at all. I tried using a nipple shield as I had used with Braden, but she wouldn't take it with multiple attempts. I was so frustrated!!! I ended up trying to give her a bottle and she finally took the 2nd type I tried. Thank God! I know you're not supposed to give a baby a bottle until they are at least a month old to establish the breastfeeding.....but my child needed to eat!!! SO, for about a week and a half, she was bottle fed while I pumped. It was exhausting. And, Curtis had to get up in the night with me to give her a bottle while I pumped. He was able to appreciate along with me the sleep deprivation that comes with a new baby. Gradually I've been able to work with Eliana on nursing with the shield, once I healed. We are now back to strictly breastfeeding. One thing I've learned about breastfeeding with both my kids- it's not easy and takes a lot of perseverance to make it work. But I know it's the best start I can give them so I keep at it.

Eliana is definitely a more fussy baby than Braden was. I think part of her fussiness has been due to a dairy sensitivity. So, I've cut out dairy completely for the past 9 days which has definitely helped. And, she likes to be held all the time and has a hard time putting herself to sleep. I've read the book, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" which has helped give some strategies to deal with her fussiness. She's been a champ at nighttime sleep, though. She will go usually at least 4.5 hrs and up to 7 hrs between feedings. Generally, I'm only up with her once in the night. Don't get me wrong, I'm still crazy tired, but this is a manageable kind of tired. I've attempted outings with both kids twice now which can be quite the circus, but I'm learning how to manage them both.

Braden has been great with Eliana.  I was very fearful of how he would do since he's been very much a Mommy's boy and always wants me to hold him etc. But, he's done great. He certainly has had his moments and occasional meltdowns over my not being able to hold him due to nursing/holding Eliana, but overall he is adjusting well. He's allowed Curtis to take over a lot of the care taking of him (when Curtis is home) including diaper changes, bath time, bed time etc. Part of me misses not being able to do all those things for him, but I'm not super woman after all!  Braden loves to give Eliana kisses all the time and wants to share his toys with her.  He has said some funny things like, "Put her down so she can walk". And we have to explain that it will be a while before she'll be able to walk and play with toys like he does.  It's neat to see him try to process all of this.

One of my goals of being on maternity leave is to get Braden potty trained. So, my plan is we'll start with that the beginning of September once we're all in a good routine. Hopefully it will go well. Any and all advice would be appreciated!

Maternity photos

We had maternity pictures taken at 34 weeks pregnant a couple weeks ago. While not as professionally nice as the pictures we had done with Braden, they still turned out pretty well. Not bad for Target.  With all the financial craziness this year, Target was as good as we could do.  When I was pregnant with Braden we were also Duel Income No Kids (DINK) so things are different now.  I'm just happy we were able to get some taken at all.



32 weeks and 3D/4D ultrasound!!

I'm 32 weeks today!! I had another OB appt and today was the day for the 32 week ultrasound. The purpose of this one is to put the baby on a growth curve to estimate size at delivery. She was very active during the ultrasound kicking all around so much so the US tech could feel it as she was doing the scan. Everything looked perfect---as Dr. Fenoughty said, "this baby couldn't be more perfect". She's measuring right on target, actually 3 days ahead and estimated weight today is 4 lbs, 4oz. and predicted to be about 7 lb,8oz at birth. We also got some really good 3D pictures and video and she was very cooperative. It's hard to tell who she'll look like, but seems to be a little more pudgy than Braden was at 32 weeks. Braden was excited to see the pictures of his baby sister and seems to be very aware of what's gong on---just not the fact that this one will take a lot of Mommy's attention and cry a lot. We'll figure that out as we go. :) We also talked about scheduling my C-section today and as long as everything progresses well without problems or early labor, it's planned for Monday, July 11th at 9am. Getting closer and closer. . . . I'm excited, but also a little nervous about the change from 1 to 2 kids. Eeek. How will I manage both? Will Braden be obnoxiously jealous? And also the recovery from a C-section, while managing both kids. Oh boy. Any and all help would be appreciated, I'm sure!  We don't have her room together yet. We still have much to do! We're hoping to get it painted next weekend, get a new dresser and finally start putting things together. As long as it's ready before she gets here, right? :)

Overall I'm continuing to feel good. Just getting bigger by the day. And managing Braden is becoming more challenging. I totally fell on my behind the other day as I was squatting to help Braden get undressed- if that tells you anything. :)

This summer will be an adventure!!!

3D/4D video

 Sweet baby girl face :)

And of course, Mommy at 32 weeks prego.

28 weeks and counting

 28 Weeks!

 Chloe at 2 weeks post-op

Easter 2011



This pregnancy seem to go faster and faster with each passing week/month.  We've had so much going on in our lives the past 6-8 weeks which has helped to increase the passing of time for me.

On March 1st we found out our Chloe girl had cancer- a soft tissue sarcoma on her left wrist.  The past 6-8 weeks has been a whirlwind with caring for her.  We've taken her up to Purdue numerous times for testing, consultations etc. We then elected to have her front leg amputated, although very sad about the decision. It was either do nothing and expect that the cancer would likely spread within the next year or so causing us to have to put her down. Or we could amputate, or we could do a local removal with radiation to a tune of ~$10k by the time it was all said and done. So, unfortunately the only logical decision was to amputate. She's now 2 weeks post-op and doing great. She's learned to do the stairs again, both up and down, and even today learned to "shake hands" with her one front paw by leaning back on her hind feet. She's quite the trooper through all this. So, needless to say, we've been consumed with worry over her and our financial situation in the midst of it. And, our thoughts of this next baby have been kinda put on the back burner. But, now that we feel that Chloe is on the healing path....we can now turn our attention back to baby girl.

We've been talking more about what to name this little girl....I had posted a voting pole online for our friends and family to give us their opinion on names.  Our ideas thus far have been: Eliana, Isabella, Ashley, Alyssa, Mya, Madelyn.  Our top pick is Eliana.  We think the name is beautiful, a little different and it means, "God has answered". So considering our journey in this pregnancy...we feel that God has answered our prayers with giving her to us. We'll see if we change our minds on the name along the way. :)

I'm continuing to feel good, just starting to get to the big and uncomfortable stage, but overall doing well. It is hard to chase after a 2 year old, hold him etc. when I wear out easy and don't have much lap to hold him on. So, that is certainly a different challenge this time around.

Braden is continuing to be a busy a 2 year old. We've transitioned him to his big boy bed a little over a week ago.  Overall he is doing well. Bedtimes and sometimes naps take a little longer to get him to lay down and go to sleep.  He is definitely in the "Terrible Twos" with obedience being a major issue and spankings and time-outs being a regular occurrence at our house. We are taking a class at church on the book Shepherding a Child's Heart- which we've already read, but now hope to glean more useful info/tools with parenting. Parenting certainly is a full time job!
Lately he's said some really funny things....the other day he gave me his binky, shoving it in my mouth and then very seriously looks at me and says, "need a sleeve"? He's comfort measure when he has his binky is to pull his right sleeve over his hand, grab hold of it and pull at the edges with his other hand. It's been his habit since he was probably 8 months old. Cracks me up!  I know he's said some other things.....I need to sit and write them all out sometime.

Looking to the next month.....on May 20th, I have my 32 week appt with our 3D/4D ultrasound. We are very much looking forward to it to see what this little girl looks like. :) And, hopefully in the next month we'll get the rest of the baby "stuff" that we need and start putting her room together.

20 Week Ultrasound!

 20 Week belly pictures

 Baby Belly

 Braden hugging the baby. :)

Today was a great day to see our baby and learn we're having a GIRL! Braden has somehow always seemed to know he was having a baby sister. :)  The ultrasound tech said that often times it seems that kids younger than 5 have an uncanny intuition about this sort of thing and usually their guesses are right. 

Everything measured perfectly and we're still on track for a July 15th due date. She's been moving more and more and Curtis has even been able to feel her movements a couple times. And of course my belly is getting bigger and bigger and I'm starting to get that uncomfortable just-being-big feeling which includes not sleeping as well. But we've got a long way to go yet......:) It's exciting to now be able to seriously talk about names and think about getting her room ready and buy girly clothes. :) What an exciting journey we have ahead of us. :)