-Havyn's Happenings-{4 Months}

FOUR.
Q baby,
I forget how quickly time flies when we have a little babe. So month 3 to 4 was absolutely exhausting and SO challenging. You screamed literally all day, everyday the entire month. You would never do tummy time and you were just so unhappy. I took you to my PT friend who showed me a few exercises to do with you to get you on your tummy. Then we had your 4 month wellness check and they confirmed that you had reflux. At this point you were going to the Chiropractor every two weeks. The Doctor prescribed you Zantac to try. You were on it for five days and had to sleep in your swing every night. In the middle of the night on your fifth day of taking it I woke up and you were choking on vomit. You were soaked in it and it scared me to death. So then they said that you had a reaction to the meds. Which is just another reason why I hate medicine. So I took you off of it and started going back to the chiropractor every week for adjustments. Within two weeks of adjustments you were getting much better. Thank goodness.

You weigh 15.7 lbs. and are 24 1/2 inches long. Not nearly as long as big sissy was but just as chunky. You talk ALL the time and when your tummy doesn’t hurt you’re the best little baby. So happy and always smiling. You love to stand up and get so mad when we sit down. You do not like being held like a baby. You think you’re so big. You love to hold your hands together and love your blanket pulled up by your face. You love to ride in the car now unless the sun is in your face then you go ballistic! You’re imitating some speech sounds and so close to blowing raspberries. You are rolling from your back and your belly. You still despise tummy time and won’t bear weight on your arms but we’re working on it. You love Nova and sissy more than anyone and you already look up to sissy. You still don’t like headbands very much and your hair is still so long that you have a ponytail. You’re full force teething and your shirts are soaked the majority of the time.It seems like every night we alternate between gripe water and Tylenol. If there's anything I don't play with it's fever. We're going to figure everything out with you one of these days, baby girl. I promise. We love you!!

Happy 4 months!!

||Thanksgiving 2017||

I've been a little MIA and am so behind on blogging. We have been so busy since Thanksgiving. I'm finally sitting down with my cup of coffee and trying to catch up. So the holiday season this year just seemed so rushed and chaotic. Anyone else feel that way? We had a pretty laid back Thanksgiving with Bradley's family and relaxed at home with our baby girls. As we get older and we lose family members, the holidays are just not the same. People stop coming around as much and try to make traditions of their own when the extended family dynamic changes. It just felt off this year. The food didn't taste the same, the vibe wasn't the same, and the company wasn't the same. Everyone seemed to be in their own state of mind rather than being thankful for being with family at the time. Is it strange that I'm pretty much obsessed with my little family? I couldn't be more thankful for them. No matter how tough life gets with two little ones and a husband who is gone all the time during basketball season. We had such a great time just spending a few days with each other and our girls over Thanksgiving break. We have so incredibly much to be thankful for. You know that song Count Your Blessings? It often popped in my head this season and the words rang clear to me every time.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings-money cannot buy,
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done.

-Havyn's Happenings-{3 Months}

THREE.
Q girl,
3 months have gone by so fast. You're growing so fast and becoming your own little person. Your little personality is really starting to shine through. You're still a little spitfire at times but you're turning into a very happy baby. You love when people talk to you and you're seriously the most social little thing I've ever seen. You talk and smile at anyone and everyone that talks to you. Your little grin is so contagious and I love it so much. You've slept through the night twice so far and for the most part are only waking up once to nurse. You're a good little sleeper. You have really started to love your swing, music, and having people's attention. The only thing you dislike right now is tummy time and that's because you're still having some tummy troubles. You're rolling like a champ but it's because you're trying every way to get off your belly. You're trying to reach for objects now and definitely track your sister and Nova girl. Sissy has finally accepted the fact that you're here for good and you're not going anywhere. She has started playing with you more and not getting as upset when we have to tend to you. You have started preferring bottles more than Mama recently. Probably due to the fact that you're starting to teeth and I went back to work.

You're wearing size 2 diapers and wear size 3-6 month clothes comfortably. You're not near as long as sissy was so her clothes fit you a tad bit differently. You're a little chunky monkey and I love it so much. Your squishy little cheeks and thighs are to die for. You laugh out loud ALL the time when you're being played with. You love to cackle more than anything. You are just the sweetest little thing even when you're being a little mess. We can't wait to see what month 4 holds, baby girl!!

We love you so much!!

-Havyn's Happenings-{2 Months}

TWO.
Havyn Quinn, I just really love saying your name. Your first name means "a place of safety or refuge". Yes, it's spelt differently but has the same meaning. There's just something about you that makes me feel just that. When you look up at me with your big beautiful eyes and smile, I feel refuge. It's like when I look at you I see Jesus. You have challenged me in more ways than your big sister ever did and you have taught me patience and serenity in your short 2 months of life. You are still a little firecracker and have the biggest personality already. You still cry quite a bit but it is SO much better.

Around 5 weeks old I finally broke down and took you to a chiropractor. You just cried so much and like you were in pain. You hated your car seat, you hated laying down, you hated your swing, and you hated not being held a certain way. My mama instinct was coming out full force and I just knew something else had to be going on. The chiropractic series is a whole other blog post but bottom line is that it has helped you SO much. You had started spitting up after every feeding, getting hiccups, and having gas pains all day. You were just so miserable. I am happy to say though that the spitting up has reduced some as well as the hiccups. You still get pretty intense tummy pains though and I'm hoping those start to fade soon.

You are eating every 2 and a half to four hours during the day depending on how well you sleep after your very first feeding of the day. You are a super great sleeper at night. You only wake twice throughout the night to eat and that's after giving mama at least a 6 hour stretch of rest. You love sleeping in your rock and play and love that it rocks you all night long. You are starting to like your car seat just a tad bit more but if the sun is in your face you can forget it haha.

We went for your 6 week check up and you weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. and was 23 inches long. They said you were very healthy. You absolutely hated getting your shots though. You screamed so loud and it took you a bit to calm down afterwards.

You are becoming more and more social and LOVE to be talked to. As long as someone is in your face talking to you, you are the happiest baby. Your little grin is seriously the cutest. You coo and goo all the time and have semi-laughed out loud a few times. You start kicking your legs and moving your arms as soon as any of us start talking to you. You love seeing your sissy though. She can come over to you and you get so happy. You are tracking everything that passes you and you have noticed the bright colors on the tv and the ceiling fan.

You are wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. You still don't like having your clothes changed and hate it when I put a bow on you. You still love to take a bath and have the blow dryer going. You still have a head full of hair but have lost a little bit of it. It's still super straight and I can't give you a mohawk or make it curly. I think you're going to have hair more like mine. It looks dark brown but when the light hits it it's really light and has sort of a reddish tint. You can thank your sweet Nanny for that. Your eye color has gotten it's permanent color and they are brown with a little blueish tint to them.

Your mama is pretty high on your list and you always know when I am not around. It's like you look for me and get so sad when I don't come to you. You love to be covered up and have warm clothes on. You are our own little sister bird and we all love you so very much!

Love, Mama

-Havyn's Happenings-{1 Month}

ONE.
The first two weeks of your little life were just as they should have been with a newborn. You ate, slept, and pooped all day, everyday. Then it was like the day you turned two weeks old, things took a turn for the worst. You cried ALL the time. It didn't matter what we did, you always cried. From the time you would wake up in the morning until you went to sleep at night. Surprisingly, you have been a really great sleeper at night. You are wearing newborn diapers and clothes and you definitely hate being cold or having your clothes changed. You prefer eating off one side at a time every 2 hours. You go at least 3 hours during the night. You love to eat, you're a little chunky monkey but you're not a super great eater. You get choked a lot and it scares me so bad. I think you swallow a lot of air when that happens so then you get tummy aches. I thought you had colic and I cut dairy out of my diet for about a month. I noticed a small change but nothing drastic. You definitely love to be held and cuddled.

When you were two weeks old you caught a little cold from your big sister. You thankfully recovered from it quickly but it definitely made me nervous because you were so young. You had been sleeping in your dock-a-tot at night in our bed but I started noticing you getting stuffy and colicky after feedings so I transitioned you to the rock and play. You do much better in it and feel snug. You do not like to be swaddled anymore. You loved it in the hospital but not so much now. You try to kick out every time. We haven't introduced a pacifier yet and I'm not real sure you will like it. You definitely try to suck on your hands all the time. I think you were a thumb sucker in the womb. It's like sometimes you prefer your hands over actually eating. It's so sentimental to see you wearing your big sissy's clothes that she wore. Man, I love being y'alls mama.

You love to take baths and have the blow dryer blowing on you. That's one of the only things that will calm you down. You have a ton of hair and it is so dark. I hope you don't lose any but I know that's probably wishful thinking. Right now it's more like mine and just lays straight. You hate wearing bows and having your head touched for some reason.

We haven't been able to do as much tummy time as I would like because of your fussiness and obvious tummy troubles. You are just like your sister with your strength. You could hold your head up from the time you entered the world. You love being upright on our chests and to be snug in your baby carrier. You love music and to be sang to. Your daddy can bounce you just the way you like it. You're not so excited about your swing right now but hopefully that will change. You already stare at your big sister and I know y'all are going to be the best of friends. We love you so much sweet girl and am so grateful for you.

Love, Mama

||Liv Turns Two||

My sweet sweet Olivia Jade,

It doesn't even seem possible to be writing about your second birthday. You have grown into the most beautiful little girl and are no longer looking like a baby. Which breaks my mama heart terribly. You are the most lovable little thing I've ever seen. You constantly say "hiiii!" and give kisses! You have had a little bit of a rough time since your baby sissy arrived but you love her nonetheless. You always give her kisses and say "I kiss hahahaha I kiss!" It has killed me having to watch you learn to play on your own and not need so much attention from us. You still demand attention at times but for the most part you are a great big sister. Your vocabulary keeps growing but you there's still a lot of it that we just don't understand. Your jabbering has started to turn into more real words you will be going to town and we'll hear "papa", "taytay" randomly. They're easily your favorite people right now. You love them so much and get so excited when they show up and emotional when they leave. You are their pride and joy for sure. They got you your little red jeep for your birthday and you LOVE it! You want to go driving as soon as daddy gets home everyday. You love to talk about papa riding in airplanes and you absolutely love to pray. Still and it's the sweetest thing. You've started doing it on your own and we can hear you thanking God for mama, daddy, sissy, Nova, papa, taytay, etc. and then you scream AMEN! Seriously the cutest!

You have gotten more particular about your routines for sure. Like your bedtime routine, you love the both closet doors to be wide open, the fan off, and the door shut. You tell us every night as we lay you down. You've started to love Rio, Frozen, and Elmo. You request those more than anything else right now. You are the roughest/slightly meanest two year old girl I know. Your daddy has played so rough with you since you were tiny that now you definitely know how to hold your own. You still love to dance and you make sure everyone else dances right along with you. You are so fun to be around and you play so hard. Uncle B and Aunt Bailey got you a cute little table and chairs for your birthday and you will sit and play at it all day long. You still have to be challenged though. You still love to dump and pour things out. You sit in the bathtub forever just pouring water back and forth into bottles. I'm ready for that phase to end because you've warped our living room tables from pouring so much. You get so bored during the day and we can tell you're aching for kid interaction. You get all giddy and excited when you see your friends at church and get to play with them. I'm getting you some educational toys and activities to get you ready for Pre-k3 that you'll start next year.

You are wearing 5t clothes and size 10 shoes. You're still our BIG girl. You weigh 36.6 lbs and are 3 feet 1 inch tall. Size 6 diapers but we're hitting the potty training hard while I'm still off work. My goal is to have you completely potty trained by the time I go back. You love shoes! There's no denying you are your daddy's child especially when it comes to shoes. Every time you get a new pair you have to wear them all day everyday for at least a week and you constantly ask for them. So cute! You love to wear mama's tshirts with your fro. You love to drink milk, orange juice, gatorade, and Sprite. You have a freak out if we make you drink water which we've been trying to do more now. You love to eat popcorn, blueberries, pickles, grilled cheese, homemade mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, and hamburger meat by itself. Your appetite is slowly starting to pick back up thank goodness.

New words/phrases: mine, let's go, in there, home, a whole bunch, remote, no home, i break, no, that mine, mean, face, talk, her feet, nasty, elmo, oh mess, move. You love to tell Nova to "shhhh" and when Havyn cries you will tear up and tell her "Havyn hush!" You attempt to sing your ABC's and you love to wear your flip flops everywhere you go. Your absolute favorite shoes of all time were your red rain boots which you've grown out of now and you most definitely not happy about. Cue Christmas gift! We love getting to watch you grow and learn everyday, sweet girl. You love like no one else and you are our most treasured gift. We love you so so much!!

||Havyn Quinn's Birth Story||

I'm so behind on this post as Havyn is a 5 weeks old now. Oops, life! Okay so we had my induction date set for almost 3 weeks and I made a point to get everything ready and spend as much time with Olivia as I could before then. Everything was going as planned and then the night before we checked into the hospital, Olivia caught the dang stomach bug. I had just finished cleaning the house and was getting ready to take my shower and head on to bed as we had to get up early. Then the next thing I knew vomit! Everywhere! As many of you know I have a serious phobia of throwing up. Like I can make myself have a panic attack if I think about it too much. So as usual, I started freaking out thinking I was going to be puking during my entire labor and delivery but the Lord came through and didn't allow me to catch it. Thank goodness. So as you can see a very stressful, sleepless night going into "labor" day. This put a damper on things because my mom was supposed to go to the hospital with us but instead she had to stay home with a sick little Liv.

Bradley and I left our house around 5:20am the next morning and checked in a little before 6am. It was actually nice because the hospital was quiet, minimum staff and patients and it just gave me an overall peaceful feeling. A little before 8am my doctor came in to check me and I was still at 4cm. I immediately asked when I could get my epidural even though the only pain I was experiencing at that point was irregular back contractions. The nurses had to keep increasing my pitocin because labor kept stalling. She was very comfortable in there and was not ready to come out! Around 830am my doctor came back and broke my water. He was confident that it probably wouldn't be long before I was ready to start pushing. During this time, it was just Bradley and I in my room and the occasional check in from my nurse. It was honestly so nice. We had time to reflect on becoming parents to two baby girls and just talk and rest. This time was just so much more relaxing and low key. I guess because we knew what to expect and we love my doctor so much that we literally weren't worried about anything.

Around 1045am the anesthesiologist came in for my epidural. He had a student with him and I was totally cool with him explaining everything to her. It was a teaching moment and I am all about that. My blood pressure was a little low so he had to administer my epidural very slowly and as he was explaining to the student why he was doing that, it totally freaked me out haha! But I didn't say anything. At that point it was time for my catheter to be placed and I let the student do it. It's crazy how much more gentle a student is as they are just starting out than seasoned nurses and doctors haha! I continued to labor more regularly and when my doctor came back to check me at 1130am, I was already at 8cm and a -1. He said we'd have a baby within the hour. Before the nurses got the room ready, we had a little bit more alone time and I am currently obsessed with the song Humble by Kendrick Lamar so Bradley had to play it to get my mind right. By the time he came back around 1210pm I was fully dilated and ready to push! Our doctor is such a nut and seriously takes the nerves and worries out of the experience. As he was getting dressed he was hopping around my room calling himself the gyno-man which made all of us crack up! They got me situated and it was time to push. Bradley was a great cheerleader and he even watched the majority of it this time. I pushed twice and her little head was out with SO much black hair. The minute her head came out everyone gasped at how much hair she had! One more half push and she was out, screaming her little head off which she still does haha! A perfectly healthy baby weighing in a 7 lbs. 9 oz. 19 1/2 inches long born at 12:38pm.

We had a full two hours of skin to skin time and she nursed like a champ. Once she was finished nursing Bradley got a little skin to skin time with her as well before they came in to give her a bath. This time around was just so much easier in so many different ways and I'm so thankful for that. I was starting to get super nervous about it all again because my recovery with Liv was so awful! It was uneventful to say the least in the most perfect way. We are now parents to two beautiful baby girls and we are SO blessed!