Briana's Journal

So I've neglected this.. mostly because it's so much easier to post on Facebook, and a lot of people on my friends list here are there. But he's here!

The doctor offered to induce me, and I jumped on it 1) to make sure Braden didn't get too big (I was afraid of another 10lb baby.. or larger!) and 2) I wanted the boys' birthdays to be as separated as possible. So on the 15th, I headed off to the hospital to start the induction. They hooked me up to the pitocin drip, and at 11:45am, they broke my water. Soon after, the contractions started in earnest (OW), and at 2pm they finally put in my epidural. As soon as they got me situated, the midwife decided to go ahead and check me, and said I was good to go. About a dozen pushes later, Braden Leland was born at 2:55pm. He was 7 lbs 13 oz, and 19 inches long, and came out with a head of red hair.

We are in love, of course. He's a good baby, only crying when he's hungry or uncomfortable (of course), though he has a tendency to pee on Daddy during diaper changes. Kelen so far is doing great as a big brother. He's asked to hold Braden a few times, and likes to snuggle him. When Braden is quiet, Kelen tells me "We need to give him love," and gives him kisses. In the first few days home, when Braden was crying, Kelen would cover his ears and tell me to take Braden to the other room or give him Froggy (pacifier with a stuffed frog sewn to it).

The real test is when I start working again next week. Work changed my status to a work-at-home contractor so I could stay home with Braden and not put him in daycare. I have no paid maternity leave, so I'll be starting work again sooner than I'd like, but at least I don't have to go anywhere much. It'll be interesting to see how I can work around lil man's schedule. At least it's easy in these early months when it's eat, sleep, and diaper changes.

And now the requisite baby picture. And yes, he's already holding his head up!



And the brothers:

This one is due January 18th, though I've already told the doctors I don't want to go quite that long. I'm quite willing to be induced at 39 weeks this time. And in response, the doctor put me on a diet to help prevent another large baby. Gah! As of today, I'm 16 weeks, and everything looks good so far. I have my anatomy scan on the 19th, and we'll hopefully learn the gender then, though we're already assuming boy. Kelen is a bit ambivalent, at first saying he's getting a brother, a sister, and a baby (my response was "Only one! Only one!") then saying he didn't want to be a big brother, and now we're trying to get him excited by telling him all the things he can teach the new baby. But he's 3 and a half, so I expect his feelings to be all over the place. I'm just waiting for the jealousy to kick in after this one comes.

Hmm, a long absence in posting, but not in reading. I just don't often have much to say, or time to say it. I keep thinking I should remedy it... but then I get distracted. Oh, shiny!

I've been watching the Doctors Revisited specials on BBCA each month. Some of them were fun to laugh at the campiness and effects. I've decided I do not like Six, but Seven was good. A bit more like the Doctors I know. They're supposed to be doing all 11 Doctors, so another month and I'll be back in familiar territory.

I haven't gone anywhere (except physically) and I still read my friends list every day. I just never get around to posting. How sad is that? Facebook's quick posts fit my day more often.

Let's see... Kelen's growing in leaps and bounds. His words are more clear, his sentences are more complex, and when he's not making me want to tear my hear out (usually at bedtime) he's making me laugh and smile. After all, how can this boy not make you smile?



Work is going well, though it's busy as heck right now. I need to clone myself, I think, just to get things done quicker.

Anything else I can think of to say is rambling, and I gotta do a few more things before work. So... that's it for now.

Instead of spending the 4th with family having a barbecue and watching fireworks over the bay, we had Arby's and watched fireworks in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express. Fun times.

We're on vacation up in New Jersey right now. Sean's cousin got married on Friday in the Bronx, and we decided it would be a great idea to spend a few days in NYC and see some of the sights. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was fun. Saturday we went to the famous Katz Deli (of Harry Met Sally fame) and the World Traade Center memorial. It was beautiful and a bit depressing. Sunday we went to the Museum of Natural History and Central Park. I was a bit disappointed that Rexy wasn't there and the entranceway looks nothing like Night at the Museum, but there was still a lot of cool stuff. We had to skip a lot of Thenupper two floors because of time, but we made it a point to see the Easter Island statue. Sadly, no gum gum for Dum Dum. In Centeal Park, I had to see Belvedere Castle even though we were dead tired. Then we walked down to Strawberry Fields for Nancy. Yesterday, we went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty before going back to Sean's aunt's house. Today we're going to Long Beach Island. Nancy wanted to go at 8, but considering it's 7:30 and the only ones awake are in our bedroom, who knows when we're going.

I'm finding out why huge family vacations are a pain in the butt. Thanks to various frustrations, this may be our last one for awhile, other than another family wedding in a few years.

I've taken a ton of pictures, but no way to upload them, so those will have to wait until we get home.

Today is our 12th anniversary. Happy anniversary, love.

This anniversary is a special milestone for me. My parents were in the process of getting a divorce on their 12th anniversary, and my mom moved out the next day. So we've essentially passed the length of my parents' marriage. Yay!

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Hey, FoLCs, in case you weren't aware, the Kerths are tonight at 6pm EST. Same bat, er.... same cape channel? Super channel? *shrug*

Well, aren't I just slack. I haven't updated since the new year. My hard drive crashed the other day while I was trying to watch a trailer on Yahoo Movies. Now I'm too scared to go watch the trailer I wanted to see. Maybe I'll do it on my phone later. And it's a pain to try to back up files on a mac using the command line, when you can't browse your home folder. But now I'm reformatting and praying I got everything.

Kelen turned 2 last month. It was a small party this year, just the three of us and Nancy. Kelen still had a ball opening his presents. He's talking up a storm now, learning new words every day. Which means we have to watch what we say. :-D A few weeks ago, I learned why my mom had problems disciplining me when I was young. I kept telling him no on something, and he put his hands behind his back and looked so cute that I couldn't help laughing. Luckily he hasn't done that again! We're trying to work on colors so that he can move up to the next class at daycare. His favorite color word is blue. "What color is this?" "Boo!" "No, what color is this?" "Boo!" "No, it's green." "Geen!" Silly kid.

I finally changed my number last month. Daycare has a long-distance block on their phone, and could never call me (and I work out of state, so they can't call my work number, if I had one), so I fixed that. Unfortunately, when I did, we had problems getting my older phone to work, so I ordered a new phone. I am now the proud owner of a Droid Incredible 2. It's so much fun what I can do on my phone!

That's all I got for now. Gotta wake Kel in a few minutes, and my OS download is at 20 minutes remaining, so off to start my day!

Looking back, 2011 has been a year of a few changes. The majority of which is changing jobs, which is going well. And watching Kelen grow and learn is the biggest joy of my life. This year he's gone from a gummy mouth to a mouth full of teeth, from crying and babbling to saying new words and babbling (his favorite phrase is "What's that?", and can repeat almost everything we tell him). Some family drama came to a head, health issues cropped up in family members - my great aunt had a mastectomy and is going through chemo, my nephew (the one Kelen's age) now has glasses to deal with sudden bad vision and a lazy eye - but the three of us have been fairly healthy.

I don't know what 2012 will bring (other than the coming apocalypse, hehe) but I'm looking forward to a good year.