Before & Afters

I love a good before and after, so I dug up a few photos of our house before we moved in. We have changed things and moved things several million times. It was a joke for awhile that every time someone came to the house it was a different color. At one point we had a wall in the kitchen teal, I don't even know what I was thinking.

Here is our kitchen before complete with ivy border!

David and I have been in our home for 6 years and it has taken us a long time get it just the way we---errr I wanted it. We have done everything 100% ourselves and by we I mean David, myself and my dad. My dad has taught us too much and fixed a whole lot too!

I never thought we would get the smell of animal urine out of this carpet, we even had to bleach the underneath when we tore it up-bleck!

The built ins were my dream and we still have to fix the top but we are waiting until we finish the crown molding in that room first.

This was Titus' room before BEFORE.

Before his room it was my office/craft space and I don't have a decent picture of it.

I finished my masters degree in this room.

Now one of my greatest accomplishments sleeps here.

David makes the joke that our house is 50 shades of grey and...well...it is. So when I decided to do color in here I think we were both shocked. I am hoping to do a post with pictures from his nursery but I have yet to decide on what to put behind his crib...

Pink carpet in the master bedroom.

This is not how we originally had this room either-these walls were a pale purple and before that a different purple because I couldn't decide on the right purple and then it an off white color and then this color and I am currently trying to talk David into painting it a lighter grey color...

I have no before picture of our bathroom.

So posting an after picture would just seem silly.

I have before and afters of Canaan's room when it was his nursery in this post here--->Canaan's Nursery

I also have before and afters of the big room in our basement that David transformed into his room that he is never even in here---> Marvel Man Room

ONE MONTH

FOUR WHOLE WEEKS and a few days have passed since we welcomed our sweet baby boy into the world. It feels like yesterday and a decade ago all at the same time. 

He really is perfect- as all parents say of their sweet new baby.

While I feel like he was born j u s t last week, he has changed so much since we first met him ONE month ago. 

Coming home from the hospital.

He’s little belly is legit and we’ve already had to cut his nails(bite down-all daddy) 3 times.

We visited Dr. Broering's office last week for his one month appointment, and he has grown so much!  This boy has packed on the POUNDS since his last visit 2 weeks ago - I was actually surprised when the scale bounced to NINE pounds!

Wearing newborn diapers and newborn size clothes - although all those 0-3 month clothes hanging in your closet are not too far off from fitting.

Titus at ONE month

Weight: 9 pounds 1 ounce (22nd percentile)

Birth: 6 lbs 8 oz

Height: 21 in (18th percentile)

Birth: 19 in

Head: 36 cm (15th percentile)

E A T

I was so glad to have a good initial experience in nursing with Titus, I admit I A L M O S T forgot how hard those first couple days/week actually is. I at least had more confidence this time around than I did with Canaan. Titus eats about every 2-3 hours during the day and will sleep in an average of 4-5 hours between feedings throughout the night with some 6 hour stretches 🙌🏼

We held off on offering the “nun-na”(pacifier, it’s what big brother called it so it’s stuck) at first - and he is still trying to get the hang of it. He wants it and likes it it’s just big and flies out of his mouth a lot! 

So many questions about his pacifiers were posed to me-their from Ryan and Rose 

P L A Y

We haven't exactly done any sort of 'play' during this first month, but Titus is really strong and will hold his head and upper body up for several minutes while laying on our chest or being carried on our shoulder- he loves to observe his surroundings and does not like to be carried like the baby he is! Titus can roll to his side. Titus has started to focus on objects close to his face and acknowledge a familiar voice.  We have even heard a few coos, and most of them have been for big brother.

S L E E P

Thankful for the healthy sleeping babe that he is.  He is awake during the daytime hours for about 45 minutes to an hour between feedings and will fall sleep the last 45 minutes to an hour before he's ready to eat again.  At night he will sleep about 4.5 hours after the last feeding before I go to bed, and then wake again about 3.5 hours after that.. ultimately I am waking 2-3 times through the night to nurse him. Last night he woke only ONCE!! Canaan has always been a good sleeper so I’m praying Titus is too! 

We noticed he sleeps the best in his crib, so we started him in his crib last night and it broke my heart. I kept Canaan with us til he was 5 months.

T I T U S

Boy, you are the center of life in this house, we all just stare at you most of the time and we can’t keep your big brother from kissing you. He always needs to know where you are at. You are starting to find your voice- and even still your cry is the most precious thing.  You pout your lip out in between the 'wah' whaling and make it known when you are unhappy.  

hunger + gas pains get you worked up the most.  I've also never heard a little babe like yourself hiccup the way you do. You hiccup just as much outside the womb as you did inside-ALOT- multiple times a day.

You have the most expressive facial movements - I love love love your sleepy grins, wrinkling of your nose, and pursing of your lips.  I forced one real grin out of you, but I think we are close to seeing them more frequently. You are coming more and more into developing who you are.  In one moment I see an exact replica of your brother - your little eyes are nearly identical to his, and in the same glance I see myself, its your nose that resemble mine the most, just as your brothers did. You do have your dads receeding hairline. Your hair in the blondest and people we don’t know comment on it the most. 

I really cannot wait to see what month 2 has to bring - how you will grow and change over the next four weeks.

You make me (and your daddy) so happy.

I still cant believe we have been blessed by you for one whole month already.

How perfectly you fit our family.  

ONE MONTH PHOTO DUMP

Coming home for the first time

Dads tradition of getting the babies a cake on their first day home.

Have to document that first target trip.

Third Trimester

This poor little guy has not gotten the attention he deserves, but we love him so very much! I do these posts for me and for my family. I realize barely anyone cares about my ice cream cravings but we’ve worked so hard to get our babies here and I want them to look back and see that we’ve held every moment of their lives dear to our hearts and I want to remember that being able to carry them has been a gift and a privilege to their mama!

when people ask how far along I am I want to respond with something along the lines of “800 weeks with 72 weeks left to go.”
I feel like this pregnancy has been the longest ever when I look back through photos of my pregnancy, yet the weeks have flown past in a blink of an eye. 

I’m definitely in my most exhausted state because I have a two year old little boy that doesn’t allow me to stop for a second, between potty training and the rough housing and the mommy “picky up,” I’m in bed when he is EVERY. NIGHT. I’m basically just praying all the stars align and this little guy is just as good of a sleeper as his big brother has been.

Canaan has no pants on in this photo and he insisted I wear his glasses(nonprescription).

Baby boy is a BIG boy! we are well over 3 pounds(this was his weight estimate at 28 weeks, I'm currently pushing 33 weeks) and we’ve seen him pretty frequently once every month of my second trimester. he’s measuring a week ahead of time, as he has for the last several weeks and I 100% feel the weight of this belly. His placement is very low and its become difficult for me to even sit with my legs crossed or pull my legs up while I’m attempting to get comfortable to sleep.

oh.. sleep. whats that?? aside from constant baby bumps and tumbles in the womb at all hours of the night I have found it to be so hard to find a comfortable spot in the bed to fall asleep. staying asleep just doesn’t happen, I’m up at least every hour and a half and most of the time I’m lucky if I can fall back asleep within a reasonable amount of time.

food is.. whatever. no real cravings. David on the other hand certainly has a lot. 🙄 I start my day great high protein breakfast and end my day with Girl Scout cookies or mint ice cream in front of the television 🙂

we have been slowly working on the nursery and finally its coming together.. we had a ton of things in boxes and bins and donation piles while we updated Canaan’s big boy room so the nursery became a catch all space. now that his room is basically “finished” I’m so excited to get the nursery done! we have all the “things”.. we just need to put them all together.
we have so many fun activities planned before baby comes in the next 8 weeks. I have a vacation from work to take before maternity leave kicks in. I just want to soak in all our time as a family of 3! So if you have any ideas for us send them my way... preschool shopping 😭and the children’s museum is already on our list. here’s to enjoying the next 8 weeks growing our sweet baby.

Photos of Baby Boy:

(they are not weekly, and most of them were taken in our bathroom mirror, but I promise little boy that I will do better once you are here.)