This past month...

This has been a crazy month. I don't know where its gone actually. So here's my attempt to catch up on everything that has gone on before things really start to get hectic.

My Grandma Meikle and My Aunt Diane and cousin Melissa and her baby came down to visit for a couple hours. It was so nice to be able to catch up and go out to eat with all of them. Its been too long :)

Cambree did a day cheerleading camp. I didn't know how she'd do since it was 9-2 but seems like she did ok. They performed 2 cheers/dances and amazingly Cambree did well and actually performed like she does at home :) She got to do it with her cousin Ava and friend Charly Jae. I think she had a lot of fun.

Despite having a new born, I've still tried to keep the kids entertained. My mother-in-law has offered on several occasions to watch Brielle so we could go. The kids love the pool. In Brecklynn's words 'the bafff' (bath). Its been fun to enjoy this with the kids.

Cambree is very excited to start Kindergarden. Everything lately is about the fact that she's old enough now because she's 5. Cracks me up. She brought up at one point that now that she is 5 she can hold Brielle standing up. Then she says when she's 6 she can hold her with one hand. We'll see :). She loves to work on reading and homework. She loves to help me with chores. I cannot believe she is going to school. Going to be very weird without her. Her favorite movie right now is Twilight which is funny to a lot of people. Her Aunt Jarica taught her how to play a Twilight song on the piano and she loves that she can.

Ridge hasn't really done a lot lately. He's getting smarter as we do our little 'preschool' every day at home. He has had a hard time not being whiney still. We are really working on it but it still is a daily problem. Its been a joke lately (not to Ridge) but Curtis will call him Ragina when he starts to whine. He hates it and will get all serious and yell "stop calling me that".

We had fun when LeMae and her kids joined us at the pool one day. Little Carden didn't care too much for the water but Ecksen was fearless.

Cambree has been able to reconnect with her old best friend Kierstin at the pool. Its amazing to me that despite any time lapse, they pick up like they never were separated.

Brecklynn's little personality has been cracking us all up lately. She is speaking in full sentences and just hilarious. She really thinks she's older than she is. She loves her brother and sisters a ton. I love to watch her with them. She's recently found sunglasses and LOVES them. Just some funny things that she says is:

* color-ky-ee She loves to color and unfortunately colors on everything. If she gets a hold of a crayon, or pen or any writing utensil then she marks up something. Its been a permanent marker on her clothes, herself, crayon on our cabinets, doors and walls and pencil on our walls going down the stairs.

* Ridge- Adgy

* Hold her- admy meaning let me hold Brielle. She does this a lot and you let her and she just pushes her away pretty quickly after.

She won't say Brielle's name. Just calls her baby. She won't call Rachel, Rachel but calls her Chace.

She nonstop wants to go to Nana's house. I think its actually just a game to her to ask me or ask where Nana is all day long.

She talks nonstop. You can't get her to be quiet. She has this really funny walk that she does at times. She loves to brush her teeth. If she could, she'd do it all day long. She HATES nursery with a passion. I can't figure out how to help her with that. You walk in the direction of nursery and she flips. Curtis and I have swapped off taking her but its ridiculous.

Brielle looks more and more like Ridge every day. I thought it would be the opposite by now but its not. I am not going to post much about her since her 2 month post will be here around the corner.

Brecklynn loves to hold Brielle

On top of all this, I did my first yard sale almost two weeks ago. It was quite the undertaking but it felt good to de-clutter and I got rid of all my baby boy clothes. It was a weird feeling seeing them get sold but I'm glad too. It was very tiring but I made over $450 which was nice. Cambree came a long too and it was fun having some time just with her.

Despite what a true challenge this past month has been, I feel blessed to have this life and to be able to enjoy it like I am.

Brielle is 1 month!

Our little Brielle is already a month old. Thinking back to a month ago and my life at that time, and my life now, it has changed a lot.

I am amazed how this little baby has made me feel like a new mom all over again. I'm asking questions like she's my first. She's really put my sanity to the test. I love her so much and so grateful to have her in our family, but she has really put the exclamation mark at the end of our little family.

First her stats:

She is 20 3/4"- yeah amazing still how she's grown from 18" to 20 3/4" but oh well :)

And she is only 8 lbs. 2 oz. So still not even up to her birth weight yet.

From day one we've noticed her issues with gas. She really struggles with it and feeding her is interesting because you are burping her more than feeding her. She'll swallow a couple times and stop and cry from a gas bubble but she's so hard to burp that she's asleep usually before you get her to burp and she doesn't want to finish eating. She is only eating about 2 oz a feeding which is apparently really low. We try to feed her more but she refuses.

At night she typically will throw up a ton and we give have to give her a bath. She fusses non-stop and you can't figure out how to make her feel comfortable.

Its been a real trial for me because I am such a goer and doer that having to be holding her non-stop or caring for her all the time, has really been trying on my patience. There have been days where Brecklynn is in her pjs till 10 or 11 because I can't put Brielle down long enough to do anything else. I had these hopes of doing a little school time with the kids every morning but that's been hard too. Plus to top it all off, since I am truly going on 3-4 hours maybe a night, my tempermant isn't the best and the kids sadly pay for it. I know this time will pass (hopefully soon), but it sure makes it hard to feel like I am back to normal.

Even harder yet is getting people to believe me on what she is like. For the most part if we go out anywhere, she tends to shut down and be happy or just sleep the entire time. As soon as we get home though, she is crying non-stop and you can't put her down.

Brecklynn was a hard baby and I remember that about 3 months she worked herself out of it, but she wasn't nearly this bad. Doesn't help that my milk supply wasn't good this time round and just gave up nursing and just went to formula. So I wonder sometimes if that is a factor in it.

When I took her in for her appt. the dr. really made me feel a little better about things. No he didn't give me a remedy of any kind but just said it was ok to hold her all the time and she won't get spoiled. I was really worried about that. Cambree has been a real blessing, in that she is ALWAYS wanting to help hold her. I have utilized her a lot more than I thought I would but she is a great big sister. She helps get her up from her swing or wherever she is and brings her to me or will just hold her and try to console her. She hasn't gotten tired of her yet and even between her holding her she is asking to hold her more. I'm so blessed and grateful to have her.

So I am hoping this next month is a little better but from what I hear, we are only at the beginning.

I have been so terrible with pictures but I tried to take a couple of her with the kids.