Is there such a thing as a 1 1/2 birthday?

I'm grieving.  Our baby is 1 1/2 today.  Where does the time ago?  Wait a minute.  I know exactly where the time goes.  It goes to picking up the path of destruction that "Mr. Hurricane" seems to leave behind where ever he goes.  I've really never seen anything like it - the mess that is.  That's saying a lot from a mom of 5.  You all warned me that boys are different.  I knew you were right......but there's no way I could have imagined the shenanigans of my precious, outlet-licking, table-climing prince.  And there's also no way I could have imagined how MUCH we would all love him.  ;-)

And so that also explains the neglect of this poor blog.  I've got messes to pick up and people to love....lots of both!  I am so blessed!

Happy Birthday Brayden!!

How did it come to be, dear sweet little prince, that we all blinked and our tiny little

graduate-to-the-6-pound-club .................

became a little boy?!

Maybe one day you'll begin to understand how you've blessed and changed us all.

We love you.

I've decided I'll let his sisters post about his special day. The day wore me out emotionally! ;-)

A Special Day

Today is a special day around here. For that reason, there will be a special post to follow later on today. I've been anticipating this day (and this post) for some time. I knew it would be bittersweet. I've experienced a day like this 4 other times in my life. Yet, I knew this one would feel a little different, a little more intense. This time, I'm older and not so prone to taking things/people in my life for granted. This time, there are more people around to mark the day and to be affected by it. This time, I recognize I may never mark an event like this again. So I'm left wondering. Did Mary weep the day her precious Jesus turned one?

Wordless Wednesday

Tap, tap, tap.....is this thing on?

So today officially marks one month since we've posted anything new on this poor, neglected blog. I was gently informed in an email a few days ago (thanks, Mom) and a phone call yesterday (thanks, Dad) that some folks have wondered about our well-being during the silence. The hiatus really hasn't been intentional but life got so full we were too busy living it to write about it.

So here we are saying good-bye to August (the month, that is) and peering around the corner to fall. Brayden had his first vacation and his 4 month check-up in August. Fortunately, for all the nurses, he managed to resist showing off his impressive stream during this visit. He's a whopping nearly 13 pounds now - still a pound or 2 short of where all his sisters were at this age but still pretty good for a guy who started out looking quite skeletal 4 months ago.

We'll try to get some more vacation pictures up later on this week.

Eye Clutter

The girls think he looks "cute". I say he looks more like an obsessed tourist in the Museum of Natural History or maybe a prehistoric theme park. All he's lacking is a camera dangling around his neck and a fanny pack around his waist. What do you think?

Three Months

The calendar tells us you've been here three months but it feels like we've loved you forever sweet boy.

I can't believe our little, bitty, newborn preemie baby is 3 months old. He's growing and gaining and even (almost) has some rolls of fat on his thighs to prove it! He's smiling, cooing, kicking, drooling and doing his very best to take in all he can of his environment. The days of weight grain troubles and nursing difficulties seem far, far away. It's a good, good place to be. ;)

Friday Funnies

Brayden, please, please do not try this at home. I don't care that your dad enjoys the challenge of casting broken limbs. Just spare your mom some stress and don't do it, OK?!




(No time to post much lately. Hopefully, we'll get more pictures up soon.)

OK.....now I get it!

Brayden seems to attract admirers wherever we go. A common observation I hear is "Oh, he's SO small!" I'm always surprised to hear that since I know how far he has come. So today, I pulled out the girls' baby books and compared weights at 2 months of age. OK, now I get it. The smallest of the girls, Juliette, was 9 lbs. 7 oz. at 1 month of age. This was our frail little gal who wasn't supposed to make it through my pregnancy and eventually ended up having lung surgery. So when I look at Brayden, now 2 months old and a "chunky" 8 lbs. 15 oz. I'm reminded that chunky is a very relative term and I'm so incredibly grateful for his health.....and mine. ;)

Brayden with the founding members of the "Mr. B Fan Club".

Our Baby Bug

By Marina

"Just when I begin to wonder if anyone ever died from sleep deprivation, he smiles, and I forget how exhausted I am." ~ Mom

We just can't get enough of these.

But the smiling sessions take a lot out of the little guy.












Not to worry, there's always a cozy place to snuggle around here!

I love these beady, black eyes.

Weigh-in Report

Brayden had another weigh-in today. He's up to a chunky (at least relative to where he's been!) 7 lbs. 14 oz. And true to form, he managed to spray the wall next to the scale, AGAIN! His doctor has started calling him "hydro-(insert our last name here but for the purposes of maintaining some bit of anonymity on this blog, I'll not include it)".

Happy and Holy Weekend

This weekend we were so blessed to have (almost) all of our favorite people join us for Brayden's baptism. For so many reasons, this baptism was extra special to us. We were so thankful to all who joined us despite not giving them a whole lot of notice.



We also used the occasion as an opportunity to bless those who literally fed and carried (translated as "drove our kids all over town") us through the past 3 months. I can't imagine living through that very challenging time without the help and support of o
ur wonderful, WONDERFUL friends. With that in mind, we prepared some favorite Indonesian dishes and enjoyed some great fellowship and food together after the baptism.



It was absolutely worth every ounce of effort to pull the event together but suffice it to say some of us were utterly exhausted once it was over.

(Yes, I know the APA highly discourages the tummy sleeping position for babies. Brayden does not normally sleep on his tummy. He just happened to be slumped in his sister's lap in a near comatose state when she slid him on to the chair for this picture. Be assured he had highly trained medical professionals monitoring his every breath during the entire "photo shoot"!! :-) )

Dear Uncle Bryan.....

Brayden says "THANK YOU!"

From the bottom

of his.......

....well....

his BOTTOM....

"THANK YOU!"

Smooch Moratorium

Only in a house full of girls would you have to place a moratium on smooching! But fevers, sore throats, and runny noses have put a temporary halt on the constant public displays of affection Brayden receives at all hours of the day. It's nearly killing them to not be able to kiss him! ;)

Happy Due Date Brayden!

Today is my due date and the day our family had been eyeing for months.Little did we know that by now we would have over 3 weeks of "getting-to-know-you" time with our sweet boy.
What a joyous head start we've had!You've come a long way baby!

The Makings of a Chunky Monkey

Brayden had yet another weight check today. But this time I used a new strategy. As I undressed him and placed him on the scale, I told him to do his best "fat boy" impersonation. And you know what?! He did! Our boy is up 9 ounces putting him a whopping 2 ounces over his birthweight! I'd say that is good reason to celebrate. He must have thought so too because he then proceeded to shoot a long stream onto the wall next to the scale. Fortunately, we go to August's partner so since we're "family" the nurses who had to wipe down the christened wall found it endearing rather than gross.

We'll try to post more pictures this weekend.

Countdown to The End.......Or Rather the Beginning

(This post was written 3 days before Brayden's birth but never published. The content is even more true now.)

In the past week, I've had two different conversations with folks who assumed we would "be done" having children after this one. The conversations included questions like this:

"You're not planning to have any more, right?"

or

"At least you know, since I'm sure you're not going to have any more, that you'll never have to go through something like this again, right?"

I really understand where they are coming from. Really I do. I'm 41 years old and about to have my fifth baby. August is older still (shhhhh......he really doesn't look it). Why would we add more to an already "oversized" family? Furthermore, we homeschool and we care for August's widowed mother who lives with us. Our plates are full enough, we're told.

But I guess my question is......who decides the size of the plate?

Seven years ago, I thought we did. Eliza had surprised us and we were stunned......and done! I couldn't imagine "handling" any more....and this was even after much prayer. But God had some things to say to me, to us. And this "conversation" between us and Our Lord would last years.

Soon after Eliza's birth, I read an article entitled The Baby IS The Lesson. (I'd encourage you to click over and read it......or if you don't have time now, come back later and give it a read. You don't have to have a newborn in the house to glean something useful from it.) Upon reading that article, I became the student, and Eliza (or God through Eliza) the teacher. Recesses of my heart, that I didn't even know existed, were opened. I was challenged to rethink my priorities and those things I thought I should be teaching/modeling to my children. I was challenged to reconsider how much importance I assigned to my own agenda for each day or even for my life. I was challenged to rethink my definitions of success and accomplishment. We (August and I) were challenged to rethink the value we place on our children and also our openness (or lack thereof) to new life in our family.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." John 12:24-25

I was, up until that point, a happy and contented grain of wheat. So much so, that my decisions were calculated in a way that would hopefully avoid any need for death to myself. I wasn't a horrible mother but I wanted to serve God in ways that I got to decide. I had plans and projects - good and noble - yet many of them distracted me from my family. And although I was glad to work my children in around those things, I did not understand that my children WERE the agenda. How much better would my children understand the sacrifice of Jesus for them on the cross if they were to see their own mother living sacrificially.

"Behold, sons are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the son's of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them!" Psalm 127:3-5

I'd love to do a word study on the word "happy" in the above verse. I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean a life without trials or pain but I'll bet it has a lot to do with fulfillment, lasting meaning, and joy. As I witnessed this "happiness" in families around us, I began to long for it and I noticed that the more I put aside my own plans and embraced what God had for me, the more peace and joy I experienced. Over time, it became clear that in our family, embracing what God had for us meant being open to more children - regardless of our ages, regardless of the size of our family already, regardless of not being understood (and possibly even being judged or mocked) by much of the world.

This baby that we'll all meet within the next two weeks is a culmination and a beginning. He is the culmination of many, many years of struggling, wrestling, and longing. He is an answer to 7 years (down to the month) of prayer. (Incidentally, the number 7 in the bible refers to fullness, completeness, or perfection.) He is evidence of changed hearts; and he is a sign of God's undeserved faithfulness and mercy. While I'd like to think this mama is more dead to herself than ever before, I'm sure I've still lots to learn. And I'm so glad the Lord has sent this little man to help me continue on in those lessons.

So maybe my plate is full now and maybe it's not. The truth is, I don't know the size of the plate, but I know the One who does and I'm keeping my eyes on Him.

Back in the 6 Pound Club

Brayden had another weight check today. If you recall, he was up 6 ounces in just 4 days last week. For that reason, I thought our goal of being back to birth weight by today wasn't unreasonable. That would have required a 10 ounce gain over the course of a week. Yet the little guy had only gained 3 ounces, bringing him to an even six pounds. Ugh!

I know I should feel encouraged that he's headed in the right direction but I had so hoped for a much greater gain this week. I really need to stop expecting him to act like all my other babies and keep remembering that we haven't even reached his due date yet. (Keep telling me that, would you please?)

I know we will get there, eventually, and this phase will be a distant memory. But in the getting there, however long it takes, I need to be more intentional about celebrating our victories, however small they may be. For although small, they are still a part of Brayden's story.

Life with Mr. B

By Marina

He's Gaining!!

Our little man went in for his weight check today. He has put on 7 ounces in the past 5 days! Woohoo, we're headed in the right direction! Thank you for praying and thank you Lord!