It was a Floor Sleeping Kind of Night!

These pictures basically sum up, our Tuesday night. RTB was working (he works 14 hour rotating night shifts) and CTB was having a rough evening.  We had taken him to the doctor because he had had a cough for about 4 days coupled with some drainage.  While we were in the waiting room at the Dr. CTB wiped out on the floor and hit his forehead directly ontop of another bruise he already had! Poor little guy screamed bloody murder but I'm sure only napping for 45 minutes at the babysitters plus it being dinner time, plus having to be poked and prodded at by the Dr. didn't help.  Finally, we left with "it's just a cold, you're doing everything you can, and it will have to run it's course" Ugh! We went home, ate dinner, RTB left for work, and thenMiMi came over to help since mommy is supposed to be "taking it easy. MiMi pretty much did bath time while Mommy watched and CTB played for about 25 minutes.  He was his happy self, splashing around in the water!  He even took some Tylenol out of a spoon (it's a miracle!). MiMi read him Llama Llama Time for Bed and CTB went right down.  Around 9:20pm, CTB began screaming bloody murder.  I let him cry it out for about 10 minutes but he was crying so hard I didn't want him to throw up from the coughing so I went in there! He did not want to be rocked, he did not want to lay in bed with mommy, he did not want it to be dark.  I called RTB and MiMi to get their opinion on what to do. So alas, I let him down and fully expected him to go running around but he sat down right beside our bed, layed down with his Lovey, and fell asleep! Of course, transferring him back to his crib was unsuccessful. Finally,  I ended up laying in the floor by his crib. CTB stuck his little arm out from between the railing and I rubbed his arm while he fell asleep.  Every so often CTB would stick his arm back out to make sure I was still there...... he was killing me with cuteness!!! OMG, how could I ever go back and sleep in my nice comfy bed when my sweet baby just wants his mommy to take care of him-- even if it means sleeping on the floor!

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

     Memorial Day Weekend 2013 has been unlike any other Memorial Day Weekend.  Usually we make the trek down to Myrtle Beach, despite it being biker week, and enjoy the relaxation that comes with waking up to the rolling of the waves.  Instead, this Memorial Day Weekend we stayed home.  Since I have been having difficulty with this pregnancy, in/out of work, in/out of hospital we decided that the most responsible decision was to stay close and enjoy time doing things around Richmond. We enjoyed an impromptu cookout at our house with family (see previous post).
   We also met up with some of RTB's old work buddies. One of his friends lives in New Kent on a lake and has an awesome setup!  They have two children, one who is 2 and a 6 week old, so the toys were endless and new to CTB!  He enjoyed driving a mini 4 wheeler, playing basketball, swinging, hanging out on the boat & dock, and the doggie.  It was so relaxing on the water. RTB had a chance to catch up, CTB had a blast with all of the "newness", and I enjoyed watching both of my boys have fun!  Perfect day if you ask me!

  We enjoyed a relaxed day of errand running and purchasing CTB his very own four wheeler.  During nap time, it charged secretly then we headed to MiMi and PaPa's to enjoy time on the screened in porch and yard.  We ended the weekend having a relaxed day at home before heading to a cookout at RTB's aunt and uncle's house.  They had opened their pool but it was too chilly to get in! CTB enjoyed playing in the yard with J and his lacrosse stick and ball.  He also enjoyed the doggie that was visiting from West Virginia and the kitty cat, Buttercup.

  It was such a nice weekend of catching up with family and friends but we can not forget the real reason for Memorial Weekend! Thank you to all of the servicemen past and present for serving our country to ensure our safety so that we may enjoy weekends like this! Home of the Free because of the Brave!! A special thank you to Uncle Rusty, CTB's great grandpa, CTB's grandpa, and all other family members who have served!

There is nothing like Family!

   I am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude! Last night, we had an impromptu cookout at our house and invited our family's!  It was just a fun time!  Everything was relaxed, everyone ate, talked, played, and laughed.  It's times like this that I am SO thankful for 2 AMAZING families! They do so much for us from watching CTB, providing a place for CTB and I to go when daddy is sleeping all day from working his butt off, impromptu donuts and treats, lunch/dinner dates, and good 'ole fashion playtime!  I watched last night, CTB just light up playing with everyone but especially RTB's brother.
Uncle Rusty would build a tower out of Legos and CTB would watch meticulously then wait for the all clear to bust through the tower, then he would just laugh and laugh before beginning to pick up the pieces and hand them to Rusty to "do it again"! We are so blessed!

CTB also got some special time with his cousin J.  J gave CTB a pop-up tent that he used when he was little and now everytime J comes over, CTB runs to the folded up tent and wants J to open it up and play! We are so blessed!
Auntie Tammy taught CTB a new special trick.  She was showing CTB how to say "come here" with the hand motion and CTB went right into the den and said "come here" to J so that they could play. We are so blessed!
Granny came over too and she got extra kisses, snuggles, and love from her two grandkids!  After CTB went to sleep and everyone was hanging out in the den, I watched her just smile as she watched her two sons and grandson (J) play some golf video game! I feel like that is going to be me....in the blink of an eye! We are so blessed!
CTB also enjoyed time with MiMi who got down in the floor and was building something of her own with Legos. CTB was mischievously tearing apart everything she made. MiMi had to leave a little early and CTB did NOT want her to go.  He ran over to the door, lifted his arms up, and whined "mimimimi". Of course this delayed MiMi's exit by a few seconds but she got some extra kisses before leaving! We are so blessed!

There is nothing like family and we are SO lucky to have so many wonderful people in both of our families to enjoy life with!!

You haven't truly lived until........

 Honestly, I have never really been challenged until the Norovirus hit the Bevan household!! Let me first start off by saying we are so blessed to have a generally healthy family!! We all get the occasional cold or virus but nothing like what we woke up to on that early Thursday morning!
  Wednesday afternoon:  RTB and I picked up CTB from our FABULOUS babysitter's house.  She mentioned that he had not really been eating which is HIGHLY unlike him! I thought maybe he was teething or was just having an "off" day as toddlers sometimes have!  We picked up our nephew J from daycare and CTB was SOO excited to have a buddy sit in the backseat with him!  We met up with Auntie Tammy for dinner at O'Charley's. CTB was not really interested in anything... bread, fruit, chicken, not even ketchup!! Once he denied the ketchup I really knew something was not right. (Sidenote: CTB will dip ANYTHING in ketchup! It is a family curse from my side of the family and he was lucky enough to get the ketchup (well really any condiment) obsession too!) RTB kept worrying and worrying at dinner that something wasn't right. I brushed off RTB's worrying as this happens often and usually when nothing is really wrong.  BAD MOMMY!!  We got home after dinner and did the nightly routine... bed, brush teeth, read story, bed.  CTB went down without a fuss as usual and I was not far behind him!
  Thursday {early} morning: Around 1:45am I heard CTB in his crib whine and I am super sensitive to any noise that he makes.  I immediately woke up but decided not to go in there because he had seemingly gone back to sleep. BAD MOMMY!!  Again, around 2:15am, he did the same thing and I again ignored it as he went back to sleep.  BAD MOMMY!! Finally, at 2:30am he did it again and I knew something wasn't right.  I stumbled into his room in the pitch black dark and began to run my hands around the bottom of his crib fishing for the paci. What I didn't expect to get were handfuls of mush.  At first, I didn't know what in the world it was and immediately went into panic mode. I flicked on the lights and ran back over to his crib and there my poor little man was covered in puke and the whole bottom of his crib was covered, I mean c-o-v-e-r-e-d in puke!! Thank goodness RTB wasn't working that night and I immediately began to scream for him. CTB was already upset and hearing mommy yell for daddy did not help the situation!! Poor RTB entered the room to mommy crying, baby crying, puke covered baby, puke covered mommy, and puke covered crib (I mean sheet, mattress protector, mattress, oozing in between the crib railings). We immediately went into "fix it mode". I began de-clothing CTB and gave him to RTB to throw in the bath tub.  While CTB and RTB were in the bath tub I began tearing apart, CTB's crib in an effort to get rid of the mess!  I decided that the crib sheet wasn't even worth trying to salvage and immediately threw it in a trash bag... the rest of his crib went straight into the washing machine and I brought up the Lysol wipes and spray.  I began sanitizing as I heard RTB yell for me.... CTB was puking again!  Poor little monkey!! We were able to contain it this time but CTB was absolutely pitiful and was not able to keep anything down.  We looked at each other and decided we were going to have to go to the ER if CTB wasn't able to keep any liquids down as he hadn't really had much the day before either! Again, the puking began and we packed up ourselves and headed to the hospital.  After about 4 hours in the ER, we were discharged with instructions that it may take 7-10 days for him to really come back around and to follow up with our pediatrician!
Thursday day/night: We got home from the hospital and thank goodness my mom had come over earlier to help out.  She had switched the dirty clothes from the washer to dryer AND put CTB's crib back together and picked up a few things around the house!  As soon as we got home CTB went straight to sleep in his clean crib. He slept for about an hour and then continued to feel lousy, laid around on RTB or I all day, and did not eat.  We felt so bad for our little man but knew we were doing the best we could! I went to the grocery store later that afternoon and my stomach began to feel not right. I chalked it up to being around puke all day and being pregnant. HOLY MOLY!! Later that afternoon, I was keeled over in pain in our bathroom floor.  I texted my mom and asked her to come over and help as now RTB was trying to handle CTB and me!  She gave extra cuddles to CTB while RTB called back and forth with my doctor. Long story short, I ended up in the ER that night until early the next morning! Thank goodness for my mom!! She stayed overnight with CTB so RTB could be with me at the hospital!
Friday: I was still not feeling well so RTB took on CTB all day. He called out of work Friday night because I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle much more then myself at that point.  THEN we got word that both Auntie Tammy and my mom had the SAME thing!!! I felt awful for sharing our very contagious germs and sickness with them!!
The rest of the weekend I continued to get better and better but CTB was still not eating.  We were reassured that as long as he was drinking that he would eat when he felt like it.  It took the full 10 days for him to be back to himself! We can officially say that we survived the Norovirus and I'll be happy to never see it AGAIN...ever!

Baby Bevan #2

Well... it is no surprise that we are expecting our second little bundle of joy!! We found out in early December and ever since it has been a whirlwind.  We had 3 ultrasounds before we were actually able to see a little "dot" on the screen.  Each time we would go, I would pray that the little baby was growing and doing well and finally 3rd times a charm... there baby was!!!

     Once it was officially confirmed, we decided to tell our families on Christmas.  I had notecards made to make the announcement.  I went back and forth with what pictures I wanted to include on the announcement.... should I include Carter or have it just be about Baby #2? Finally, I made my decision and sent them off to be made!  Christmas Eve we told RTB's family by handing out the cards and then on Christmas Day we shared the news with my family! AUGUST 2013...here we come!!

     As far as the pregnancy has gone.... it has had similarities to my pregnancy with CTB but also been MUCH more dramatic.  I thought for sure I was having a girl because I thought only a girl could cause this much trouble!!  I struggled with bleeding for my entire first trimester which involved LOT of doctor appointments, ultrasounds, and praying! My second trimester brought on fainting.... yes fainting/passing out.  I struggled throughout the entire trimester to stay on two feet.  This ultimately involved even more doctor appointments, hospital stays, being taken out of work, and even more praying! I'm excited to begin the third trimester as I am feeling better and heading back to work and then into summer!  Although, I am getting uncomfortable..... I am comforted by the fact that I can now feel Baby #2 move and groove!
    GENDER REVEAL: I had an ultrasound early at 17 weeks that determined Baby #2's gender.  RTB didn't want to know the gender (or so he thought) so I was lucky enough to have my college roomie and best friend join me for the ultrasound! After I returned home from the ultrasound, RTB didn't last an hour before he had to know!  His guess was a girl and I had said boy all along (well other than the drama thing).  Finally, he asked me to tell him one last time and I said "IF you ask me again I'm just going to tell you because I'm not going to live like this...haha" so he asked and I yelled "BOY!" Two boys...well three if you count RTB!!! I'm officially outnumbered and I couldn't be more excited!! We shared the gender at RTB's birthday dinner the following weekend with our family! My wonderful roomie/bf makes amazing cookies and was gracious enough to make gender reveal cookies for the occasion!(www.kookinginkateskitchen.blogspot.com) Below are some pictures from the reveal!

    From the get go, I knew exactly what I wanted his first name to be.... Wyatt!!  We had originally decided on Harrison for his middle name, however, after thinking more and more about it...we decided to dig through our family names to give him at least one family name:) CTB's whole name is family names pieced together (my family, his family, his family) and Wyatt is not a family name in either of our families but I am absolutely in LOVE with it!!! So after lots of digging and discussion we decided on "Alexander"for his middle name (part of RTB's side of the family)! Now let the monogramming begin!!!

CTB turns 1!!! Dr. Seuss style!

  Once I had decided on CTB's nursery theme, I began brainstorming first birthday ideas!!  I had pretty much decided that he was going to have a Dr. Seuss themed first birthday as soon as he was born!  I had SO much fun planning for the big day! A HUGE thanks to Pinterest and Etsy (two of my weaknessess) for adding those personal and creative touches on my little man's first birthday!

  We were so lucky to have family and friends surrounding us and CTB on his big day! MiMi and TeTe helped mommy put the last minute touches on the food table while PaPa and daddy ventured out for manly things such as ice and some last minute pick-ups! I decided to have his first birthday at our house but after we got all of those people inside, I may reconsider for Baby #2!! CTB You are so loved and have grown so much over the past year! I can't wait to see you continue to do new things, explore, and welcome Baby #2!

It's Been Too Long....

Over the course of starting a new school year, settling into a new routine, and being on-the-go constantly I lost track of the blog.  I am committed now to starting it back up again and posting regularly because I want to be able to have the same memories as I do from CTB's pregnancy, birth, and firsts for Baby Bevan #2!!! We are SOO excited to be on this journey again and to welcome BB2 in August!!

Since my last post CTB has celebrated lots of holidays. Below are a few pictures that capture the fun and joy of a family of 3!!

CTB's first Halloween

Little Pumpkin

CTB's First Christmas

Happy 1st Birthday!!

Dr. Seuss Party with lots of family and friends! You are so loved baby boy!

  CTB is SO fun and SO energetic and each day I am so lucky to be his mommy!! Can't wait to see what the next year holds for him and our "little" family!