Love these moments of joy!

Caleb is just about a month old now. I adore him! These are the moments he sees Jesus in his sleep :)

New Do

We gave Riah his second haircut FINALLY. It was getting a little wild!

The end result...

Father Son Duo

Jesse had his first day off since Caleb was born. Riah loves his time with his daddy!

Caleb is now 1 week old. He is doing great! Nights are getting easier, as he is getting more of a routine down. He sleeps 23 hours of the day right now. I forgot about that! I am recovering well, but it is a slow process for sure! He is gaining weight at a rapid pace which is awesome. He is so tiny! I am so madly in love with him, I just want to hold him all day!

just a little miracle

THIS IS CALEB.
He came into our lives a bit sooner than we expected at 37 weeks. I had just found out at my regular checkup that he had turned to breech. If you remember I had a lot of extra fluid which showed in my ultrasound. The u/s tech had warned me that it was plenty to allow baby Caleb to turn any which way he pleased. Well, turns out he did.
Soooooo, I went in for an external cephalic version (where they turn the baby manually back to the head down position). It worked. If you can imagine a coupe of sumo wrestlers sitting on your stomach and chest giving your stomach a sort of "indian burn", that is what it felt like.
Afterwards I was monitored. Everything looked and seemed fine to me, but Caleb's heartbeat just wasn;t moving up and down like it should while I was having simple braxton contractions. Jani, my doctor, was concerned and didn't feel quite right about it, so she told me that I need to have this baby today!! BIG SURPRISE!! Either I was going to have to get induced with pitocin or opt to go straight for a c-section. We choose the pitocin, so we could attempt a natural birth.
Once they started that, my contractions began to come every minute although they just felt like strong braxtons. After reviewing the monitor and baby's heartrate, Jani just did not feel good about what she was seeing so she said I needed to have a c-section NOW.
Even though I really didn't have time to face the reality of Caleb being born that day, we had no choice, something was wrong. It was extremly tough. Turns out, Caleb's cord was tied in a knot! An actual knot! Very rare. If he would not have turned breech and I had not gone to the hospital for the version and to be montiored, it would have been a much worse outcome. Caleb is really a miracle! He knew just what to do to let us know he needed help. Smart little guy!
And here he is.. born July 3rd at 4:15. 6 lbs. 9 oz. 19 iches long.... Caleb Timothy Banks.

36 weeks

One more week till I'll be considered full term. I have an ultrasound this morning to check the size of the baby and my fluid levels, because I have been measuring 3 cm ahead. Baby has dropped about a little, not too much. I'll keep ya'll posted.

So, my ultrasound showed a healthy baby average size they say at 36 weeks, although what is making me measure big is not the baby, (they guessed 6.5-7 lbs right now), but the OODLES of fluid I have. I guess we have a swimmer on our hands! Hopefully he'll stay head down. He had what looked like a mohawk, which the doc pointed out was a full head of hair!! Wonder who he gets that from?! :)

My son is potty trained!!!

The day before we were having all of Jesse's family over for his graduation was the day I decided to give potty training a try on an aggressive approach. I was extremely skeptical and after the first day ended in about 3 different loads of dirty soiled blankets and underwear, I was about to give up and just accept that my 2 year old would not be using a potty until after 3. Jesse was quick to reassure me and gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going.
Sure enough, day 2 ended with only 1 load of partially soiled underwear and Riah was going to the potty without being asked.
Day 3, I was amazed!...He was pooping in the potty, and was going on his own all day! Only once did he have an accident while trying to get his pants down which just didn't happen quick enough in front of the potty,
Day 4..no accidents AND a dry diaper after a nap along with him saying "mommy...go pee??!! (as he headed off to the toilet once he woke up) Sorry for all the details. I just want to encourage mommies to keep going and not give up too quickly, also so I can look back on this when it comes time for Caleb to be trained. I am soo proud of my son! He did it! Now the challenge comes of everyday routine and errands. How will he do outside of our home?! We will see this week. To be continued....