The Rays of Sunshine

Well Another month has passed. We now have a 2 month old. Here is a look at the last month with Dylan. Breastfeeding: We are still going strong, and Dylan weights 10lbs. I am feeling pretty good about myself. This is an amazing thing for my baby, and am glad we are doing it. I am providing all he needs. With that being said, it's also tough. A lot of times I am all he wants, and sometimes when he is really sleepy, we can walk him, bounce him for 20-30 minutes, and he will continue to cry, but 3 minutes on the boob, he is sound asleep! It's good that he needs me, but it does make it tough. I can't help but worry about how he is going to be at daycare, when I am not there. I am hoping he will learn to adjust with other sleeping methods.  And on that topic... Sleeping: We have had some really good nights. On average he will sleep between 3-5 hours, wake up, and is usually back asleep within an hour. Just like his daddy, he likes to sleep in the morning., which has been...

The beginning of December, we kicked off the Christmas season with a Winter Wonderland event at the university. I knew Derek would have a blast, and it gave us something fun to do. The weather was cold and raining so making that walk up to the college was cold. Once inside, we got to see Santa, and decorate cookies, which was Derek's favorite part. It got crowded pretty quick so we didn't stay as long as we had planned, but still had a great time. How precious is this:  The next day we attended Derek's best friends birthday party. These two are the best of friends. Sometimes I wonder if their friendship is insides, but as soon as we walked into the party room, Ben lit up! He was so happy to see Derek! Before we got to the party, Derek wasn't too thrilled to go to the party, but once he saw this, his mood changed. Ben and Derek were off to play, and had the best time. I was so thrilled to see the boys happy and playing together. There were together the ...

WOW it has been one month with baby Dylan. Here's whats been going on with us as a family of four. Breastfeeding Success: We are adjusting to the late nights and early mornings. As soon as Dylan was born, he latched and we are successfully breastfeeding. I am so happy to be able to do this for him. I wish I knew this much about breastfeeding with Derek, but it was not in the cards for us. With Dylan, we clicked from the beginning. The first few weeks consisted of us trying to find the new normal. Uncle Vernon, and Aunt Jessica came to visit, and I got to experience my first "cluster feeding". At first, I was not sure what was going on, but after a little research, I learned about it. All I will say is cluster feeding is tough!!! This lasted a few nights, each week, but I learned to go with it, and take naps during the day to balance out the sleep I was missing. I was not able to do that with Derek, so I knew how important it would be to get as much sleep as possibl...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Its a wonderful time of the year and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food, fellowship, family. I didn't get a picture of all us together, but here are some snap shots of the family.  I am so blessed.

Today was a busy day. We started the day with taking Dylan up to the college to show him off to everyone. I used this day as a trial run to see what time I need to get up when I have to start going into work! Surprising it's going to have to be 6am for me! This will give me enough time to shower, eat, get myself ready, and still have enough time to wake Dylan up and feed him before I leave.  I knew having two kids would be tough, but I think I underestimated the toughness. The good news is, we will figure it out. Plus it's only part time so I will be Home around noon and can take a nap.  That afternoon we had to make our first trip to DeQueen. Ricky's uncle passed away and we had to attend the funeral. I have been very nervous about a DeQueen trip since Dylan was born. With the car ride and breastfeeding and all, I was not sure how it would work!  Once we got into the car, Dylan begins to scream, but only for a few minutes as he feel asleep! That was the best p...

As we begin to count down the days to the birth of our child, I have been loosely preparing things around the house. Knowing that the baby would not come early, I planned to spend my weekend getting everything set and ready, as well as our bags completely packed. I went for a check up on Friday, hoping for some good news, but planning for no change.  I was still dilated to a 1, so we decided that we would wait a little longer, meet next Tuesday, my due date, and form a game plan that day. I left the Dr. appointment feeling disappointed, but ok since I wanted labor to happen on its own. The Dr. didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, so  I headed to work, went about my day, and made plans to work the following week. Saturday morning, I woke up, as I am an earlier riser, to my back hurting, but I don't think much of it, as this was the 5th time my back has been hurting, so I wrote it off as false labor. I had to work an event for a few hours, so I rested ar...

Here is a look at our great weekend: On Friday my co-workers surprised us with a baby shower, to help us welcome D.J. Ray, with a music theme. How awesome is this! I have some creative people in my office. They even went as far as providing the thing I have been craving the most: Root Beer Floats. How awesome are these decorations. They were hand made. I wish I had an ounce of this creativity. This toy chest was hand made, and crafted for our sweet Dylan.   We were really blessed with some awesome gifts to help us welcome Dylan. Earlier that week, our department was challenged to compete in a chili cook off, so I volunteered our chili recipe we use at home, not realizing this made me head chef. Bright and early Saturday morning I run around town getting everything needed for the chili cookoff, and since I had never been in a chili cookoff, I was kinda excited. I was pretty sure we would not win, I was looking forward to the experie...

When you first find out you are expecting, your due date seems so far away! There is so much planning to be done, excitement, and sickness. It looks like you have so much time and so many things to do, and you think it will all get done! Now here we are 3 weeks away from our due date, and there are things left to be done, yet, I know it does not matter at the end of it all. I feels so blessed to be able to bringing our second child into this world. I know there are so many people out there who struggle with conception, so I can't but feel a sense of selfness given that we were blessed with a pregnancy within a few months after deciding to have a baby! Our God is good!

Although this does not begin our weekend, I wanted to give an update on baby Dylan. So far through this pregnancy I have gained 20 points, that is half of what I gained with Derek, and I am very proud of that. With that being said, the Dr. was a little concerned about the size of the baby so we had to do an ultrasound. Here is a picture of our sweet baby's face, and this just makes me that more excited to meet him. After all the measurements, the baby is doing fine, and is weighing right where he needs to be, so there is no concern. Friday Afternoon his baby bedding came in, and I was so excited to open it and put in together in his crib. How cute is this: Over the past few months we have been fortunate to spend a lot of time with my brother and sister in-law, which means a lot of cousin time for Derek. These two love spending time together, and it makes me think of all the memories I have with my cousins, when I was little. Saturday night we had a b...