the beach

I mentioned before that while Nana and Poppa were visiting we took Titus to the beach for the first time.  I thought he would really enjoy the nice day, being outside, change of scenery, etc.  

But, as you can see, he was not a fan...

Bo and Claire, however, LOVE the beach! Its so much fun to watch them play and explore.

Michael spends  a lot of time "playing defense" when we go to the beach.  Boden and Claire have no fear of the water at all.  They will run right out into the crashing waves, get knocked down, sand in their face and get back up and do it all over again.

Tactic #2 to keep Claire out of the waves for a few minutes...snacks!

Pretty much the only thing that kept Titus from screaming was nursing.  So, while I didn't get to do much playing in the sun, I did get to enjoy the view and the breeze and just relax.  I'm sure it won't be long and Titus will be charging out into the waves with his sister and brother and there won't be much relaxing happening, so I will enjoy it while I can.

"I think I'm gonna go to the boat store today"

good thing pastor jim preached about staying out of debt last week :)

a whole month already?

*warning: prepare yourself for photo overload!*

I can't believe it, a whole month has already passed since Titus was born.  It's been a busy 6 weeks with lots of family and visitors and learning and adjusting to being a family of 5.

Titus is a sweet baby and is so loved by his big sister and big brother.  They always want to be near him, kissing him, talking to him and holding him. He loves to smile at them, and we love to see his toothless grin.  Every one of those smiles is gold to me...a sharp contrast from the screaming.  He has been a bit colicky, so evenings are a little rough around here and there isn't much sleep happening at night.  But, hopefully that won't last too long and we'll all begin getting a little more rest soon.

He is definitely growing well...at 6 weeks he weighed 13lb 7oz and was 23.5 in long! He has gained 5 pounds since birth!

Bubbe & Zeyde (Michael's mom and stepdad) stayed for about a week after Titus was born.  They were a huge help with the kids and with meals while I was resting and recovering.  Then Grandpa and Grandma (Michael's dad and his wife) came for a few days.  The kids loved having them here.  They also made it possible for me to make it to church just one week after Titus was born....there was no way I could have made it out of the house with all 3 kids and have been dressed and presentable in public so soon!

Claire, Titus and Bubbe

The 4 Brueseke boys

Claire and Grandpa

Then a few days later, Nana and Poppa (my parents) arrived.  Poppa helped us out with some projects around the house - a new garbage disposal (yay!), some painting, a new bathroom vanity/sink, and started some grass growing in the back yard.  And Nana helped out with the kids and the LAUNDRY...which I had been completely neglecting.   We did have a little fun too - we took Titus on his first trip to the beach.  Although, he didn't quite enjoy it like we had hoped...he pretty much cried the whole time. :(  

After about a week, Poppa had to leave for a business trip, while Nana stayed another week and a half to help me adjust to life with 3 kiddos.  I loved getting to spend this time with my mom and she was a huge help to me.  I think she might have enjoyed spending time with her grandkids too :)  Poppa then came back for a few more days before they made the long roadtrip back to to Nebraska.

It was so great having family here to help us through the first month.  I was able to rest a lot, the kids got the extra attention they needed, and the house didn't fall apart....we are incredibly blessed and so, so thankful.

Nana and Titus

Claire helping Nana play Sudoku

Poppa meeting his newest Grandson

Here's a few more pictures of what we've been up to for the past 6 weeks:

Brothers

swimming

lovin' on babies

multi-tasking

Mama and her boys

hard to believe Claire and Boden were once as little as Titus

my parents brought my old guitar for Boden to play - he LOVES it!

playing at the park

this is how moms lose the baby weight...we don't get to eat! 

Daddy and his babies

Frozen Yogurt Bar

Bathtime

apparently Claire is more interested in texting than in the story book

a little chutes and ladders

Bubbles!

It's still so wild to me that we have 3 kids!  They are such an amazing blessing.  Thank you Lord!

Titus meets his new friend Wyatt

You may remember our friends, The Grill's, from this post about their last visit to VA this spring.  They came out again last month for another modular class, and brought with them their newest little one, Wyatt Solomon.  He was born just 5 days before Titus.  It was so fun to see them together...even if they wouldn't look at each other :)



This time they stayed in a hotel, which was probably a good idea since my parents were staying with us, and the chaos of 6 kids 4 and under, though tons of fun, was a bit much after a few hours.



It was so nice to catch up with Jenny, share birth stories, share newborn tips, talk about sleep (or lack of sleep to be more accurate) and just be mamas together. I miss her!  She is so much braver than I to make the 15+ hr road trip out here with a 4 week old! And in true Jenny fashion, she did it with a smile and made it sound so easy.



We took an afternoon to hit up our new favorite place - The Frozen Yogurt bar! Yum! Where else can you get yellow cake batter flavored frozen yogurt and double chocolate frozen yogurt topped with blueberries, strawberries, brownies, pretzels, captain crunch, butterfinger, sprinkles and jelly beans? (Boden said it was delicious by the way)

An attempt at a shot of both families...another challenge with 6 kids 4 and under.

Thanks for coming to visit, Grills!  We love you and miss you...come back soon!

The birth of Titus Samuel

I've been putting off writing this post for so long because a) I'm exhausted, b)I don't know where to start and don't want to leave anything out, and c) I'm exhausted. But, I need to get it down so I remember, so here goes...

My due this pregnancy was May 17.  Boden was born 10 days before his due date, Claire born one week before hers.  I just assumed (silly me) that this little guy would be early too.  I've always had sympathy for those women who see their due date come and go, but honestly I have to admit, I never thought that would be me.

During my 37th and 38th week I was still busy unpacking boxes and getting the house in order, so I was hoping he wouldn't come too early.  However, I was confident I'd have this baby the week before his due date.  But when May 17 came and went, I was a bit discouraged.  Ok, I was pretty emotional.  Michael said I was holding it together well, but inside it was a struggle.  So many emotions - excitement to meet the new baby, anxiety/curiosity about what the labor would be like (my previous two labors were COMPLETELY different, I was really praying for a "claire" labor and not a "boden" labor), frustration about what to do each day wondering if that day would be THE day...should I make plans? should I not? etc. and simply just feeling huge and not wanting to be pregnant anymore.

Funny side note: While waiting for the baby that last week I read somewhere that fresh pineapple has some enzyme in it that helps ready your body for labor....I ate an entire pineapple one afternoon....I'm pretty sure the only thing that did was make my mouth raw!

Michael's mom and step dad who had been waiting since the beginning of May for "the call" to come out and help with the kids, decided to go ahead and make the trip from St Louis in hopes that baby would be here soon.  They arrived on Friday afternoon May 20.  I wasn't sure about having company in my current emotional state and not knowing how much longer we would all be waiting, but it turned out to be a great thing.  Michael and I went out on a date that night while Bubbe & Zeyde took the kids to Chuck E Cheese.  It was great for Michael and I to have that evening together, I really needed that.

The next morning, Saturday, I woke up at 4 am with some contractions.  I started timing them at 5am and from 5-6:30 they were consistently 8-10 min apart, lasting about 30 seconds.  I decided it was a pretty good assumption that I was in early labor, so I tried to get a bit more sleep.  When everyone got up,  the grandparents packed the kids up and took them to the zoo for the day so I would be free to labor at home comfortably and without distraction.

Of course, I had hoped we'd have a baby by noon...but at noon my contractions were still not all that close together.  When we would go out for a walk they would be 5 min apart for 30 seconds, so I would go lay down for a bit and they would stretch out to 8 min apart for 45-60 seconds.  It went on like this for several hours and I got frustrated.  So around 1 I decided I needed to stop thinking about it - and I sat down at my sewing machine.  I had some fabric I had been wanting to make into a dress for Claire, so I set to work and tried my best to ignore the contractions and Michael got to work finishing up some projects around the house. 3 hours later the dress was done and the contractions were getting stronger so I decided to take a shower and relax a bit.  After that I sat on the exercise ball (which was amazing for labor and before labor - I swear this really helped baby move down into position...I bounced on it constantly thurs and fri after my friend Saina brought it over for me to borrow- Thank you Saina!) and my contractions finally started to get consistent.

It was about this time that I told Michael that I really felt like I wanted to get to the hospital to have a monitor on the baby.  This is pretty strange for me because I prefer to labor at home as long as possible and because I typically prefer intermittent monitoring so I can move around freely when I am at the hospital.  But, this feeling was nagging at me for several hours that afternoon.  Finally, my contractions were about 5 min apart and we headed to the hospital.  We texted several friends and family to let them know and to ask them to be in prayer for us.  It's about a 20 min ride to the hospital and by the time we got there my contractions were only about 2 min apart, and my water started leaking on the walk into the hospital.  For some reason I turned down Michael's offer to be dropped at the door and chose to walk in from the back of the parking lot with him....not my wisest choice ever.  Even though I was having contractions rather close together, I still didn't think I was that close.  We got up to labor and delivery just before 7pm.

Another couple rode up on the elevator with us.  They were first time parents and were coming in to see if her water had broken.  Michael told me later that the husband to one look at me in the wheelchair and told his wife "yeah, you're not in labor...you don't look anything like her".  Men say the funniest things to their pregnant wives.  I wish I could have seen the look on her face.

Anyway, we got checked in and I was dilated to 7 or 8.  We had two really sweet nurses, one who actually goes to our church.  They confirmed that I was leaking amniotic fluid, but my water hadn't fully broken yet.  I got hooked up to to all the monitors and we waited for my midwife to arrive.  Once she got there I had her break my water to hopefully move things along.  Shortly after, the midwife told me I needed to start pushing, although I didn't yet feel the urge to push and I wasn't quite fully dilated.  But, everytime I had a contraction, the baby's heart rate would drop.  They midwife and nurses were careful not to alarm me, but we knew by the looks they were giving each other that it wasn't an ideal situation.

Thankfully, it didn't take long, otherwise they may have had to use some interventions.  About 25 min later, Titus Samuel made his appearance!


They had to jostle him around a bit to get him to really yell, but he was doing fine.  Once the umbilical cord was cut and the midwife began looking at it, she discovered the reasons for the drop in heart rate.  His umbilical cord was tied in a complete knot, and she then told me it had also been around his neck.  Apparently, an umbilical cord tied in a knot can be the cause of stillbirth. I guess it can get tied up when they are still little and moving around freely, then when they get bigger and start descending into the birth canal it can pull it tight and cause the blood supply to be cut off. They told us we were lucky that he was ok.

We know it wasn't luck.  It was the prayers of so many friends and family.  We are so gratefully that so many people were praying for us and for Titus.  The Lord certainly protected him.

watching some Sunday morning preaching with Daddy

ready to meet their little brother

I wanna hold him!!!

Claire: "EYES!" (learning new body parts is dangerous when you have a newborn)

We are so excited to have this new little life in our family, and so thankful that God has entrusted him to us to raise.

Titus Samuel

We are in love all over again....

Titus Samuel Brueseke

May 21, 2011 at 8:24pm

8lb 7oz & 21.5 inches

 I will share his birth story soon...when I have time to put my thoughts together a little more clearly. For now, we are getting as much sleep as possible and loving on our new little guy.  

mmmm...

warm sunny day, playing on the beach, a walk on the boardwalk, family, and ice cream....does it get any better?

Michael thought this photo was funny....it made us think of the candid photos of celebrities you see in  People magazine or somewhere.   We'll pretend that we are totally cool enough to have paparazzi following us around (instead of the reality...which is that everyone was too interested in their ice cream to pay attention to me taking their photo! :) )

18 months and no more crib?

Little Claire is growing up fast.  18 months already, can you believe it? I can't.  Maybe it's because she's the second child, or maybe because we had so much going on with moving (a few times) and pregnancy but time has seems to be going by so fast!

She is one spunky little girl. She has so much personality and boy, does she love her big brother.  She follows Boden everywhere and wants to do everything he does.  He, for the most part, is great about it and wants to show her how to do new things and of course tell her what to do.  I seriously love watching them interact.  I'm excited to see how they take to having a new baby around.

Speaking of new baby, it was time to move Claire out of the crib to make way for #3.  I was so nervous about this since she's just 18 months, and honestly moving Boden out of the crib was a serious chore for a really long time.  He has just now gotten to where he stays in bed when we put him to bed.

Boden and Claire are continuing to share a room at our new house, and we thought it would be fun to get them a bunk bed.  It's not a traditional bunk bed, because they are really too little for that, but it's much lower to the ground.  It's from IKEA -


The top bunk is only about as high as my waist and it has sides all the way around so he can't roll out.  And the bottom bunk is right on the floor, so it's easy for Claire to get in and out and not a big deal if she falls out.  It has a fun little tent for the top bunk that we had on at first.  Boden really liked it during the day, but kept asking us to take it off at night.


I think it made things just a little too dark for him.  We decided to just take it off and maybe in a few months or a year he might be ready for it.  I made their coordinating quilts over the past couple months and was so excited to finally finish just last week.

My sister, Molly, helped me out by planning out the quilts for me.  I just told her how many different prints I wanted to use, how big I wanted the finished quilts to be, and that I wanted to keep it simple since I knew I didn't have a lot of time to get them done.  She came back with all kinds of tables and measurements and told me exactly how much fabric of each print to buy.  It was fun to have her design it for me.  My brain totally used to work that way, and I used to enjoy figuring out stuff like that... but since having little kids and being pregnant I just can't seem to sit down and focus on those kind of details for more than 2 minutes at a time! lol.  Anyway,  here's the quilts:  (Mostly made with fabrics from Amy Butler's Soul Blossom collection, with a few other random prints thrown in)  I'm so happy with how they turned out and I really had fun making them.



So, back to Claire in her big girl bed.  Since 6 mo old Claire has been an amazing sleeper - just lay her down and she's out for 12 hours.  Bedtime was always a breeze, so I was a little scared we might have to give that up with the new bed.  The first night was a dream though....I put her down and didn't hear from her til morning... and that continued for the first 4 nights.  Aside from the one night where we found Bo and Claire wandering the hallway at 2 am, Boden insisting that Claire needed to go potty so he was taking her..(no, she is not even close to being potty trained...i'm sure she had no idea what was going on!)  I thought for sure we had gotten a pass on this one!

Night 5 however, was a different story.  I think she finally figured out that she could get out of her bed.  And she did....over and over and over until we finally got exhausted and put her in the pack n play at 10pm so we could all go to bed.  The next night I was determined to outlast her.  I put her to bed and sat on her floor with my back to her.  I put her back in bed, no talking or anything, every 5-10 SECONDS for about an hour! The child is determined I tell you!  Then for the next 30 min she went from getting up every 45-60 seconds to kicking the wall and giggling about it.  Finally after about and hour and 45 min she started settling down and by 2 hours she was asleep.  I decided to go downstairs and have a bowl of ice cream to celebrate my victory.  I should have gone to bed to get my rest....had I known we would have a repeat of this event from 4-6am!

It's a week later now and I'm sitting outside her room and she's only gotten up 4 times in an hour, although tonight I have peeked in 3 other times to find a pantless, diaperless, giggling little girl that I have had to re-dress...that's new.... I thought we were making improvements?!  It's taking about 1 1/2 hrs to get her to bed each night and we still have issues once in awhile in the middle of the night when she gets up and wanders around and we have to start all over getting her to bed.  Not as much improvement as I had hoped in a week.   We had one interesting hiccup the other day at naptime...she got up and closed her door and locked it....but couldn't unlock it.  They are the kind of doors that have a little flat key that unlocks them from the outside....but none of those little keys were left here when we moved in.  We eventually had to completely removed the doorknob to get her out!  poor thing was scared.  It reminded me of the time when we lived in an apartment and Boden was about Claire's age.  I went out on the back deck for some reason and he went in, shut the sliding door and locked it.....him inside and me out on the deck - 3 floors off the ground!  It was so scary - I had no idea what I was going to do and poor Boden just started crying.  Thankfully, Michael came home early from where ever it was that he was and I only ended up being locked out there about 10 minutes.

Ahhh, the joys of parenthood.  In just a few short days or weeks I'll be up all night with another one.  Thank God he gives us the grace to do it.  (And amazing husbands who help! I have to give some credit here to Michael - he has been getting up for all the middle of the night sessions lately and letting me sleep...THANK YOU!) I'm praying our new little guy just starts sleeping thru the night at 6 weeks on his own....I've heard these children actually exist...let's pray I get to experience that first hand one day!

Happy Easter!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." 1 Peter 1:3