Well it's official. We're on the downwards slope to the year mark. How in the heck??! This month has been a whirlwind of growth, changes and far more sleepless nights than I cared for. While I'm hoping that it improves soon I'm being honest with myself and realizing I may never sleep more than 2-3 hours a night again...ever.

Update: Talk about handsome! Seriously. I make adorable children. I know I'm always saying that but my heart SWELLS every time I look at them...I love them that much! Gannon is on the move, growing fast and making himself known lately! Let me tell you, he is NOT going to be a second child in the shadows! This we know already! He's developing such the personality and while he's such a lover (slobber kisses for days!) he sure can be a firecracker too!


Gannon is proving to be a man on the move and DOES NOT SIT STILL! He started crawling on Sunday, October 2nd while home with Daddy and Garrett and hasn't stopped since! A few days ago he started attempting to stand next to things (the TV stand, his crib, our sunken living room step) and has succeeded a few times now! The look on his face is adorable as he's SO proud of himself. I wasn't quite ready for him to be mobile, especially SO mobile but he's not going to stop for nobody! He makes a beeline for his favorite things the minute you set him down and I've already heard "Hey Gannon! That's my toy!" a few times from big brother. Luckily, Garrett is good about distracting him with a more infant appropriate toy before ripping the toy out of his hands...usually anyhow.


Stats & Recent Appointment: At six months our little peanut weighed in at 17lbs 9ozs (50%) and was 25.5inches long (8%). His head was 43cm (37%). He continues to rank small on the growth charts though does have a good growth curve. His height is something that still make me nervous with the short femur worries that we had while pregnant but his pedi seems to think he'll be just fine. Looking back it's hard to believe that Garrett weighed over three pounds more than Gannon does at this point. Having had a child who consistently ranked in the 80th and 90th percentiles it's strange to have a "smaller" child this time around.

Features: Do you see that hair? Literally his hair makes me laugh everyday. It's so short and straight in the back and on the sides but the top is SO long and most of the time, curly. Where did the curls come from? It's certainly looking light these days and I'm secretly hoping it turns blonde. His eyes are really starting to seem a bit green too so maybe I'll have a mini me after all?

Teeth: I think there's one a comin'! The bottom, left side seems like it's making it's way! We've been keeping a stash of teethers chilled in the fridge as he seems to LOVE them! Clove oil on his gums has also seemed beneficial and a little Lavender and Peace & Calming allows him to get a little bit of sleep.

Sleep: Naps are fairly consistent and if we get a little off schedule he turns into quite the little bear. Generally his first nap is around 8am/8:30am. He'll nap for about 30-45 minutes at that point. His afternoon naps falls around noon and he generally naps about two hours then. He'll nap then again for 30mins to 1hr around 4:30pm. Bedtime however, is another story! We'd been doing pretty good most nights (only up 1-2 times) until the nasty teething monster made an appearance and now we've been up nearly all night, every night. I've been averaging 1-3 hours of sleep per night (I'll let you just imagine what kind of mood I've been in...)

Eating: Well, I may breed non-sleepers but they sure are good eaters! Gannon will eat almost everything you give him, though veggies are NOT his favorite! He still has a bottle about every 4 hours, 4-6ozs at a time.



Diapering: Size threes & fours. We have some threes that we use during the day, to use them up. For naptime and bedtime he wears size fours.


Clothing: I'd washed the 6-9 month and 9 month stuff as the weather was getting quite chilly and my smaller stuff was for warmer temperatures. There are a few 12 month things he's been wearing as well.



Social: My littler watcher of the world! Gannon is simply not content to miss a beat and you'd better make sure to keep him involved! He loves to smile and "talk" to just about anyone and he plays a mean game of peek-a-boo. It's quite cute honestly. When I'm holding him he'll smile and talk with someone for a bit and then bury his head into my shoulder, all shy like. A minute later he'll peak up and do it all over again. Freaking cute.



Nicknames: Monkey, monkey butt, squirtchunk, big boy, little love, Mr. Magoo, Gannie, Gan-Gan, Gannie Mc Fannie



Likes: Eating, bath time, being outdoors & his big brother! The song "Wheels On The Bus", anything electronic & being able to see the world.



Dislikes: Being warm, sitting still, having his hair dried, getting dressed, sitting still, being stationary in his car seat & getting his face wiped off. If you really want to see him squeal take something away from him...you'll hear him roar then!

Happy 32nd

We started dating way back when, you where just 23. The years have brought some ups and downs but we've managed to make it through them all.

We have created homes, careers, businesses and two amazing & handsome lives. Though some days test my heart and patience I am grateful for the time we've spent together and the days that are ahead.

Happy 32nd birthday hunny. We love you!

Gannon's Birth Story

Gannon is over six months old now. Creeping seven months if I'm completely honest. It seems like an odd time to be posting his birth story I'm sure but in all honesty this one took some time. I don't mean time to type...but more time to heal from. With all the concern my last few months of pregnancy brought I wasn't sure how to feel about Gannon's birth day. I just knew one thing...I couldn't wait to hold him. To see his precious, perfect self with my own eyes.

Let's back track just a bit though. For those of you not familiar with our story...I'd wanted a second child for a long while. My husband on the other hands wasn't so sure. Eventually he felt ready (right about the moment I'd decided we should wait...of course) and Gannon was created a mere two weeks later. Talk about fertile Myrtle huh? Coming from a girl that was told she likely would never be able to have children I was SHOCKED when it happened so quickly.

This pregnancy, his pregnancy was far more rough on me than our first. I had horrible, panicking cramps the first 14 weeks. I had morning sickness which persisted all day. Each day brought bouts of dizziness and lightheadedness starting early in my second trimester. When we finally reached the third trimester I was feeling a bit better, mostly knowing I was in the home stretch. Enter my 33/34 week appointment where our world turned upside down when major concerns arouse concerning Gannon's development and size. Suddenly we where faced with a potentially scary diagnosis, concerns and more doctor appointments than we cared.

We worked through that in time and after being assured (and reassured) by our fabulous maternal fetal specialist that Gannon didn't carry any genetic disorders we where relieved! That happened sometime between our 38th and 39th week bringing us right to the wire. I (& Gannon) was diagnosed with Intrauterine Growth Restriction and it was deemed medically necessary to induce and deliver baby asap as his growth trends where on a constant decrease from week to week.

We where given a list of potential dates and settled on Friday, March 18th.

That morning I hugged Garrett tightly as Steve loaded up my hospital bags. We drove the short drive to my parents house, dropped Garrett off and headed to the hospital. Stopping for breakfast on the way. We made our way to the Women & Infants unit, checked in at the desk and where brought to labor room #422. I remember the nurse, Sam asking on our walk there "How are you feeling?" I replied "Nervous, just nervous".

I changed into the fabulous gown, signed mountains of paperwork, had an IV started, lab work drawn and started our antibiotic, penicillin due to testing GBS positive.

My doctor stopped by around 8:30 that morning. Checked and found me to be 50% effaced, 2cm dilated and at -2 station. The heart rate looked great at 132. She advised us to get started with Pitocin. About 22 minutes later our nurse started the Pitocin and it was increased by 2 about every ten minutes. My doctor came back around 11:22am for another check. We'd made a bit of progress at had dilated to 3cm and effaced to 60%. She broke my water at that time.

By that time my contractions where strong, super strong. I was handling them a bit better than I did with Garrett as I knew more what to expect this time. After commenting a few times on how strong they where it was decided to increase my Pitocin only by 1 going forward. By 11:53am my Pitocin was running at 13. That really, really got the contractions going even more so we decided to leave things be for a bit. When my doctor stopped by again later (12:43pm) I was still 3cm dilated, effaced to 70% and baby had come down to -1 station. We turned the Pitocin up by 1. She joked saying "You know...it is Friday. If we could deliver this baby by 4pm that would be awesome for my schedule right?" We laughed knowing that our boys like to take their sweet time coming into this world.

My nurse came in joking a bit later saying "Let's see if we can get things moving with this little man huh?" I laughed. The Pitocin went up to 16. With that increase my contractions where unbearable. I hadn't wanted an epidural but I knew that it could very well be a long time before delivery. We paged for an epidural which was placed around 2:15pm. With a little adjusting and a couple bolus doses (which nearly ended up being a bit too much!) I was more comfortable.

I was checked again at 2:56pm and found to 5cm. My doctor had mentioned to me that with the second baby, 5cm is the magic number and things usually speed up around that point. I believed her but settled in for the long haul, resting on and off. I figured if we followed the timeline of Garrett's delivery I still had about five more hours or so...

It wasn't even an hour later when I lifted my head from the pillow saying to Steve "I think it's time. I'm feeling that pressure!" We paged our nurse who came rushing in. It was shift change and they where in the middle of report. She checked me quick and stated "Well! I guess I'm going to get to see this baby before I leave after all!" I was 10cm. It was 3:38pm. My doctor came rushing in, again joking "well you took my 4pm thing pretty serious huh?"

After they where all set up. We began to push. Just two short contractions later Gannon John entered the world at 3:52pm. He was handsome, perfectly perfect and had a full head of hair...just like I'd hoped! In that moment my heart swelled nearly right out of my chest. It was then they placed my second (oh so tiny!) miracle on my chest. I was instantly in love.

And, like that all the worries of the past few months fled from my mind.

We where fine.

He...was fine.