sick baby.

yes, it's been forever. i'm a horrible blogger. i wish i could hire someone to blog my life for me! maybe they could also help out with the rugrats, the mountain of laundry that is currently blocking my hallway and the trail of food that my little munchkins left wandering aimlessly through the living area and kitchen. it would be nice if my life blogger could cook as well. food is always a nice bonus!

the BEST part would be if my blogger could hold down my near 11 month old child for his breathing treatments so that we can avoid the hospital....he has pneumonia. THAT would be lovely!!!! j just had his first treatment and he HATED it. hated. he screamed, which i'm sure is actually good for getting the meds into him, but oh how it broke my heart. j is such a good baby. the easy one. so to see him that upset really bothered me. i'll have to get a breathing tx pic and get it up. maybe this will make me actually get back on here and follow-up! haha! speaking of follow-ups, j has a follow-up appt on monday, so if you could send a little prayer up for him we'd appreciate it. :)

forgot to mention.

see that great pic of sam and i off to the right? we won a runner-up prize in a nationwide year long mom and baby contest! yep. out of hundreds (maybe more, i don't know) we were one of just a few to get picked! that pic (taken by me) got us a $100 gift card to walmart! pretty cool huh?!! told you we have the most beautiful babies!!!!

boys, boys, boys.

so, being a mom of 2 boys is SO amazing! i love my little guys so much! sam has really warmed up to judah more and more. he loves to take his paci to him if he's fussing and his face lights up when we put judah in his lap. he also loves to rub judah's head and belly....something he has seen us do from time to time. it's the sweetest thing and absolutely melts my heart!

sam is now 16 months old and judah is 1 month old. time is flying already! they are both growing like little weeds. sam had a well baby check this past week and is holding steady at 27lbs. he's also taking a half flinstone gummy vitamin everyday because that child is the pickest eater ever! i don't know where he gets that from either. matt and i will eat pretty much anything. not sam though. his staples are oatmeal, grits, raisins, yogurt, gerber meals pudding, applesauce and mac and cheese. oh, and he likes sandwich meat and cheese. he also likes anything that is considered to be junk food. how do kids know what is junk food and what is healthy?? he won't even *try* most healthy foods. i gave him a banana the other day only to have him hold it in his hand and squish it like he was the incredible hulk. he then proceeded to pound it into the tray of his highchair. ugh. other than that though, he is doing fantastic!

he still sleeps like a teenager. it's unreal how long that child can sleep. i'm not complaining by any means but it really blows my mind! he is now going to bed about 7:30pm. he wakes about 6 or 7 am and talks to himself for about 10-15 minutes then crashes again until 9:30 or 10ish. we are so lucky! haha! we did try to get him to sleep in our bed the other day mostly just because we were feeling very sentimental and judah was in our room (in his bassinet), so we thought it would be fun to bring sam in. um, big mistake. he sleeps like a wild child! i mean, he throws himself all over the place. after thoroughly beating us to death he woke up (due to our laughing) then decided that it was really time to play! needless to say after 5 mintues of playing he wound up back in his room. in his crib. i'm not sure when (if) we'll try that one again!

judah is doing great and growing like a big boy! he weighs 11.5lbs now which is just crazy! sam didn't weigh that until he was like 2 months old! maybe even a little older! he really is a good baby although he does fuss some. i'm not going to act like he's perfect because then you all might get jealous. i mean, we do have beautiful kids so we don't want anyone feeling worse about theirs than they already do! hey, what can i say? i'm a proud momma!!!! and have you seen my kids lately?? anyway, back to judah. now that we are learning more of his likes, dislikes, and little quirks we are getting much better at offsetting any potential dramatic moments! woo hoo!

i'm posting some pics of the boys. the kicking pic is NOT actual kicking. we were all playing together on the bed and sam realized he could touch his foot to judah's head....which he did. literally. what can i say? he's a boy.

our family of 4

we are finally a family of 4! i'm a horrible blogger, i know. sorry to those who actually come on here looking for updates only to find nothing. but, here is an update for you! :)

judah cole was born on march 26, 2009 at 8:08 am. he weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 3oz and was 22 inches long! his apgar scores were 9/9 and we immediately fell in love. i think every parent wonders how they will ever love a new child coming into their home as much as they love the one/s they already have and although it can't be explained, it just happens. everyone had told us about this overwhelming love but until you experience it for yourself you don't really understand how it works. we were so worried about loving judah like we love sam but can now attest to God's amazing glory and His capacity to allow us to love in ways we never imagined.

after a great delivery and FINALLY getting to actually experience the birth of a baby together our world quickly turned upside down. i'm not going to get into all the details but am going to give the gist of what happened.

judah's lungs were not quite developed (although he was 39wks 1day) and he wasn't breathing on his own. so after having this big boy and these amazing apgars our little guy was sent to the nicu. he was never once rolled into my hospital room and we didn't get to hold him until he was 2 days old. i cannot even begin to make you understand just how hard it is to go through something like that. only those who have had little ones in the nicu understand the feeling of absolute helplessness that comes with seeing your baby surrounded by tubes, wires, and monitors. judah was placed on a cpap at 40% oxygen. he finally graduated to a nasal cannula after 2.5 days in the nicu. i was discharged on a monday (after being admitted on thursday) and judah had to stay until wednesday. it is so hard to come home without your baby. when we got home monday i went and hid in my closet and cried. the only people that i wanted around me were matt and sam. and to be honest, a 15 month old boy just won't let you love on him very much unless he's about to go to sleep!

judah has now been home for a week. we've had 2 rough nights (which weren't really that bad.....we were just both sleep deprived from travelling back and forth between the house and the nicu) with him but i think he's finally getting the hang of being out in the real world. the past few nights he has been an excellent baby. we keep waiting for the drama to start. everyone told us that because sam was so good that our next would be a little devil but so far they seem to be wrong. i can only hope that it lasts. i tell judah that he owes us anyway after putting us through all the nicu time.

sam was a little thrown off at first by this new bundle of joy but has really done well. we didn't think he would be quite as aware as he is of his new brother but we were mistaken. he has held him although that didn't last for long. haha! sam is a real busy body since he hit a year old and rarely stops long enough to even look around. oh, and he is ALL BOY! it's crazy just how rough these boys are from such a young age. i can just see the broken bones and black eyes now.

matt and i are so grateful to God for what He did in our lives over the past couple of weeks. we can't wait to watch these 2 boys grow up together and be best friends. thank you all for the prayers!

more judah cole!

we have 8 weeks left everyone! we've scheduled our c-section for march 26 and i can't wait to meet this little guy. it'll also be nice to not be kicked from the inside anymore, and to be able to roll over in bed without wishing that i had an automatic rotation device! i know we'll have to adjust to having him outside of the womb but at least other people can help out then. for now it's just me and judah. :)

we had our 31 week ob appt today and everything is perfect. he's weighing in around 4.5 lbs according to the sonogram today. they think he will be about the same size as sam....sam was 8lbs 1oz. i got some medicine for heartburn! woo hoo! and we discussed the details of the section. for anyone who doesn't know or remember, i was knocked out for sam's birth and had to miss the whole thing. any mom who has been there knows how hard that is emotionally so i'm super excited to be awake and aware when he makes his entrance. wanna know what i'm most excited about? that ooey, gooey picture that you get right when they exit the womb! i can't wait!

above are the newest pics of mr. judah cole. you'll get to see the real deal shortly! i'm also including my first time to meet sam.....no ooey gooey stuff there. he was over 2 hours old when i first met him but that picture is my favorite picture of me and my little man.

judah cole's 4d!

we went for our 4d ultrasound today with judah. for anyone who hasn't done this....it's the most amazing thing ever! we did one with sam as well and it's so worth the money to see your little one all tucked up and comfy like that. he cooperated really well and we were able to get TONS of pics of him. here are a few of my favorites!

i know, i know....

what's the point in having a blog if you don't update, right? i really can't believe it's been as long as it has but since it has been a couple of months i'm going to blame it on the holidays and the pregnancy! :)

sam turned one on december 17. matt and i are still in shock that he's a year old! it's crazy just how quickly time passes by. his birthday was lots of fun! we actually had his party the day after because matt and i both had to work the day of. we just had a little family get together. he totally enjoyed it and you could tell that he kinda knew that it was all for him. i looked at matt the other day and said, can you believe that we only have 17.5 more years until he heads off to college?? matt just looked at me like i was a moron but that's ok.....

our christmas was wonderful! we had such a good time! santa came to visit sam and although we know he doesn't 'get' it yet, it was so cute to watch him playing with his new toys. the problem is that everyone got him so much stuff that we now have nowhere to put all of it in our house! our house is not that big people! we're tripping over toys everywhere we turn! we also talked to sam about what christmas is really about. it's so neat to start our own family traditions. who would have thought having kids would be so much fun?!!? you get to turn back into a kid yourself at christmas!

i have some pics from his birthday downloaded onto my computer. christmas pics will have to come at a later date. i promise not to wait too long! in the pics you'll see the little 4 wheeler he got from a few family members, he's already learning how to ride it, it's hilarious!!! oh, and he had a blast with his smash cake! i wish i had pics of him opening his presents from matt's family. they couldn't be here cause they live in texas but they sent a giant box full of gifts just for sam! we skyped them and let them watch him open them. i was so focused on skyping them though that i totally forgot to get the camera out! sorry!

oh, and yes, his cake says 'happy birtday sam'....i used to say birtday as a kid so since i made the cake i wrote that, just a little 'amy humor'.

guess i should also throw in a quick update on the baby! we are almost to the 3RD TRIMESTER!!!!!! this pregnancy has totally flown by! who would have known? we have less than 13 weeks left until we meet this little guy. we know this much cause he'll be a scheduled c-section. by the way, trying to name your second child is near about impossible! with sam we of course made our little list and added and crossed off names. truth be told though, i had alway loved the name samuel and matt really like cade. it just so happened that they matched up perfectly. therefore samuel cade came into our lives. this time however....totally different story! everytime we came up with something, someone had to put in their two cents. i will add that we didn't always ask for people opinions but we got them anyway. oi! we really thought we had it narrowed down a few weeks ago but the problem was that i just LOVE the name cole....and while we really really liked the names we had narrowed it to, we just didn't love them. all parents out there know exactly what i'm talking about. so, i told matt i really want cole to be part of his name...you pick out the rest. matt wanted this one to have another strong bible name with meaning so he finally came up with.....wait for it.....are you ready.....judah cole!!!!! and finally we are happy about a name! it means praise! we had actually discussed the name awhile back but just weren't sure until now. so, judah cole will be here at the end of march!!!!!!!