Two month report

Well, Gavin had his two month check up yesterday. He weighed 11 lbs. 4 oz. and was 23 inches long. That puts him in the 50th percentile for both. Also, his head is in the 25th percentile - such a difference from his off the chart sister. He was such so playful and smily at his appointment - until his shots of course. However, his big sister cried harder about the fact that someone was hurting her brother. She is so protective of him.
The rest of the day, he was understandably a little fussy. This was particularly challenging since I was fairly under the weather. I had a high temperature the night before and thought I was feeling better yesterday morning. However, I felt worse and worse as the day went on. Thankfully, my dad came to our rescue. He came and cooked dinner and played with Mikayla until Jeremy got home from work. Jeremy then sent me to bed and took care of Gavin so I could get some sleep. So far, I feel better today and Gavin is back to his old self. Hopefully the rest of the day will be good too!

Merry Christmas!!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas. We had such a nice couple of days. I feel so blessed to live close to all of our family. It is nice to be able to see everyone that we love at the holidays. It makes for a busy couple of days, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
On the 23rd, we went to my grandparents house out in West Georgia. They live almost 2 hours away so we don't get to see them as often throughout the year, so I was very happy to be able to get to spend some time with our family out there.
My family out in Utah will probably laugh at this picture since they had several inches of real snow this past weekend. My aunt bought this snowman on HSN. You put a soap solution into it and it blows out little soap suds that look like snow. Mikayla had so much fun running around in "the snow." Earlier in the week she had told me that it couldn't be Christmas until it snowed. I tried to explain to her that it doesn't snow everywhere on Christmas. When my aunt set this snowman up, Mikayla kept running around saying, "It's snowing on Christmas!! It's snowing on Christmas!!" I was so glad that she got her wish.
This is a picture of my Grandad bonding with Gavin. Gavin was showing off all of his smiles and grins. My grandad had a lot of fun with him. It was so nice to see this interaction. It was a little sad, though since my Mammaw wasn't in the picture. She has very advanced Alzheimer's Disease and is completely bed ridden now. She is kept there at the house where my aunt and some very kind health care workers take care of her - they do such a wonderful job.


On Christmas Eve, we went to my parents home. We were a little concerned that the whole evening was going to be a complete crash and burn. Mikayla completely refused to take a nap that day (even though she desperately needed one). Dinner at my parents was very challenging - Mikayla was very whiney, cried easily, and was very difficult to deal with. However, thanks to Aunt Lollie entertaining her with some piano playing, Mikayla turned around (as you can see in the above picture). My Mom and I speculate that Mikayla will be very involved with music when she grows up. Even when Mikayla was a colicky baby, if Aunt Lollie started playing the piano, Mikayla would calm down. It was amazing.
This is a picture of Mikayla and Gavin in their Christmas jammies. Mikayla loves to hold Gavin and cuddle with him. It's been so wonderful to see her interaction with him. She loves him so much and loves to be around him.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. First of all, our lovely children gave us a Christmas present by sleepin in until almost 9am. Very nice!! Mikayla's favorite presents from Santa were her "Pinkie Pie" My Little Pony and her little dollhouse. The pony sings and dances, she loves it! Mikayla's only disappointment, was that Santa wasn't downstairs in the morning. She was convinced that he would be there to show her the presents. We just tried to explain that Santa only comes when children are sleeping since he has to visit so many. Her three year old little mind, didn't quite appreciate all of this. After Santa presents and a family breakfast, we went to Jeremy's parents home spend some time with them. Mikayla had alot of fun over there. My sister-in-law got Mikayla alot of baby doll stuff so that she could take care of her baby while I take care of Gavin. There is a funny story that goes along with this. When Mikayla first walked in, the Cabbage Patch Kid was wrapped in a blanket in a carrier sitting next to the Christmas Tree. When we asked her who that baby was she exclaimed "Baby Jesus!" I guess it was fairly obvious that we have been talking alot with her about the Christmas story with her. (She understands the story, but we are still having a hard time getting her to connect it with Christmas and Santa and all of that stuff) The rest of the day the baby (whose Cabbage Patch name is Joseph) was called Baby Jesus. I am trying real hard to get her to call him Joseph. First of all, I don't want people at the grocery store and such to think we are religious fanatics. Secondly, I want her to understand that Christ is a special person like no other in the world. We'll see how it goes - she is only three after all.
Gavin slept through a large portion of the day. He was such a good boy through all of the craziness of the past couple of days.
This is a cute picture of Mikayla after she was "wrapped up" by her Aunt Ashley.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I know that we did.

Pre-school Angel

Mikayla's preschool Christmas program was last Tuesday. My mom, mother-in-law and father-in-law joined Jeremy Gavin and I. It was such an adorable program. Each age group had a theme - the two-year-olds were "Little Angels." They sang "Angel Band, "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." We were quite excited to see Mikayla actually joining in on the singing this time - during her Thanksgiving program Mikayla did more observing than participating. I apologize that I don't have any photos from during the program - I videotaped it instead.
There was a rather comical part of the program during the 3-year old presentation. There was alittle boy on the end who was totally involved in the program. He was singing loudly and dancing to the music - it was a hoot to watch him. The funniest part, however, was the little boy next to him who kept covering this loud little singer's mouth. Kids are so much fun to watch!

Mikayla's class had a book exchange with each other. They were all s excited.
Mikayla kept dipping her pretzels in the frosting on top of her cupcake. Definitely her mother's daughter.
This is a picture of the Christmas present they made for the parents. Iknow this will be displayed in our home for a long time.
I hope that everyone is having as wonderful a Christmas season as our family is.

Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer!!

Today we celebrated Mikayla's birthday. We didn't do anything big - I wasn't up for it with a newborn and everything. We had our family and a couple of friends over. It was a fun day.

My Mom worked her cake magic and made Mikayla a very nice "Dora" cake. Mikayla was so excited.
This is Mikayla showing everyone how old she is. She has been practicing this for a couple of weeks and was very happy that she is actually three now.
We had a wonderful time celebrating Mikayla's birthday with our family. The day did prove to be a little overwhelming for Mikayla. We had the party at 1pm and at the beginning she was great. Towards the end however, it was painfully obvious that whe was in desperate need of a nap. She was becoming completely incapable of sharing and was crying at the slightest thing. When everybody was leaving and we informed her that whe was going to be taking a nap, she had a complete meltdown. Luckily, only the grandparents were witness to this very out of character behavior. After she woke up, she was in a much better mood and had fun playing with her toys.
I can't believe that Mikayla is already three. I put together a little slide show of pictures of the past three years - I got quite emotional watching my little girl "grow up" through out the timeline of pictures. I often just wish that things could be a little bit slower so I could enjoy her as a little girl a little bit longer. She is such a sweetheart and is definitely my little princess. She is such a joy and makes Jeremy and I laugh on a daily basis.

Santa Claus is coming to town!!

We took Mikayla and Gavin to see Santa this evening. When we were on our way to the mall, Mikayla informed us that we were going to the North Pole to see Santa. We told here that Santa made a special visit to the store to come see here - I wasn't in the mood for a meltdown when we got there and she realized it wasn't the North Pole. Mikayla was excited to see him, but she did get a little shy when he started talking to her. Gavin slept through the whole thing, which with a newborn, is probably a good thing.

FINALLY!!!

Well, about two weeks ago, Jeremy and I decided we wanted to switch from cable and get a satellite dish. I wanted to get satellite so that we would have a larger variety of children's programming and to get KBYU (conference in comfy clothes!!). Jeremy wants access to the never ending list of sports channels. Also, the HD programming is much better with the dish. We decided to also switch our phone and Internet service to AT&T since we could bundle these with our DirectTV and save money. When they hooked up our satellite dish two weeks ago, this knocked out our cable telephone and Internet. We could have had both, but it would have required additional wiring and money. The downside is that I haven't had Internet access until today. Other than feeling cut off from the world, I do all of our banking online, so I kept having to go to the library and my mom's to pay bills and check our balance.




These pictures are from the tree lighting in Alpharetta. It was sprinkling a little when we first go there, but we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Jeremy was working, but my parents came, which was nice. This Christmas season has been alot of fun. Mikayla has a good grasp on the whole Santa thing - we are trying hard to teach her the real meaning of Christmas, but she always seems to hone in on Santa. She knows who Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus are and she understands the Nativity story, but she isn't quite connecting them with Christmas yet. Oh well, all we can do is keep trying.
Here is a recent picture of Gavin. I can't believe how big he is getting. He is starting to smile a little bit. He is also starting to "play" some. He likes this jungle activity mat thing that we have. We have been having some sleeping issues with him, however. He sleeps great as long as he is in bed with us. He isn't wild about sleeping in a bed all alone. We always start the night in his crib, but usually around 2 am when I am so tired I can't hold my eyes open, I end up giving in. I pray for strength that I can help him learn to sleep by himself.

So much to be thankful for

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Thanksgiving day, we went to my parents house for dinner. My sister, Laura was home from college and my sister, Emily and her husband Morgan we here from Greenvile, NC. This was the first time that Laura had seen Gavin - I am glad that he still looked like a newborn so that it didn't feel like she had missed too much.
This is a picture of Gavin in his turkey outift. He turned one month old on Thanksgiving. I can't believe that it has already been one month since he was born. I feel so blessed to have this sweet little boy and his lively and loving big sister.
My grandparents were there for Thanksgiving dinner as well. My grandmother held Gavin for about an hour and half. This was very special to watch. My grandma is nearly blind due to macular degeneration and I feel so blessed that she is able to get close enough to my children that she can see them. I know it is hard on her some times, but when ever she gets cuddle time with them you can see her get so much pleasure.
We had Gavin blessed at church the day after Thanksgiving. My dad performed the ordinance and it was such a special experience for me. Gavin was so good during the blessing - he was wide awake and didn't make a peep. Both of my kids have done this - we were joking that they have set a high standard for the other grandkids to live up to.
This is our attempt at getting a picure of the four of us. Mikayla was not at all cooperative, but I was glad to at least get the day documented.
Here is a picture of Gavin at 5 weeks old. He had his one month checkup and weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz. and was 22 inches long. His height is in the 75%, and his weight and head circumfrence are in the 50%. I can't belive how big he is getting. Oh! We also just got his first smile. This is my favorite thing, because it always comes when you are so sleep deprived and frustrated. That little smile makes you forget all of the bad stuff and revel in the joy of motherhood.

Piggy boy!

Well, I took Gavin to the pediatrician today because he has been fussy after his feedings and I was pretty sure he had reflux like Mikayla did. He does have it and they placed him on Zantac (yeah!!) The most exciting part of the visit though was when they weighed him. His last checkup was 16 days ago and he weighed 7 lbs. 1/2 oz. They are supposed to gain about 1 ounce a day so he should have gained right around one pound. Well, our little porker baby weighed 8 lbs. 10 1/2 oz. - he gained 1 lb 10 oz in 2 weeks!! I was a little worried because he only eats for 15-20 minutes and I was told by te lactation nurse that he should be eating 30-40 minutes. I guess I shouldn't be concerned.

This will be a long one...

Well, I have finally found a couple of minutes to update everyone with what has been going on the past two weeks. Well, Gavin Michael Matthews was born on October 22nd at 8:03 am. He was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. My c-section went beautifully!! The recovery with this one has been so much easier than the first - a huge blessing considering that I have been having to chase after Mikayla a little bit. Gavin is such a sweet little boy. He is very easy to please...give him some food a place to sleep and he is set to go. He is much less demanding than his big sister was, another blessing since I am know the mom of two little ones. Mikayla has been adjusting better than I could have ever hoped. She loves him so much and always wants to hold him and tells me when he needs to eat. She has been such a big helper and I love watching her interact with him. Seeing her with him has probobly been the best part of this whole experience. It makes me tear up just sitting here sharing it with you. Here are some pictures of us in the hospital:

First photo of the three of us, thanks to the anesthesiologist.
First family photo. Gavin is about three hours old at this point.
This is Mikayla's favorite thing to do with Gavin. As you can see she is very comfortable.
Gavin all ready to come home from the hospital.

The day before Halloween, Mikayla's preschool class had a costume parade, a little program, trick-or-treating and a party. I was thankful to my mom for watching Gavin so that Jeremy and I could both go and take part in this. We sent he as a cheerleader, because her regular costume couldn't be washed and I didn't want it potentially ruined before Halloween. It was fun seeing her with her friends and singing and bouncing around. She has such a fun and bubbly personality - apparantly she keeps her teachers laughing all day long. I wasn't suprised, but it's nice to here that she is adjusting well to school. Halloween was so much fun this year. We had most of our family over that night and everyone got to see her and Gavin dressed up for the holiday. Mikayla was a princess and she had so much fun getting dressed up and wearing Mommy's makeup. She really go into the candy thing this year and couldn't understand why she could only have a couple of pieces and not the whole bucket.

You can't tell in this photo, but Gavins' sleeper says "Prince Charming" on the chest. It was very cute, Mikayla kept calling him "her prince"
Our sweet little Halloween pumpkin.

Okay, so that is a brief summary of the past couple of weeks. I promise to be good about keeping everone updated know that things are starting to settle down. Hope all is well and I'll talk to you soon.

Busy couple of days...

Mikayla at the pumpkin patch with her little pumpkin
Our family on the hayride (didn't induce any contractions - darn!!)
Mikayla on the pony at Ella's birthday party

Well, I thought I would try to get one more post in before I have this baby next Monday. We have had alot of fun doing some things this past weekend.

First of all, on Friday, we went to a pumpkin patch with our friends, Thomas and NIcole and their little boy Ryan. Mikayla loved seeing all of the pumpkins and going on the hayride around the farm. We had fun picking out a pumpkin and Mikayla even got to pick out her own little pumpkin.

Saturday, Mikayla was invited to a birthday party for one of her new little classmates in her preschool class. They had a pony ride there which was obviously a pretty big hit. There were a couple of other kids from her class there, and I enjoyed getting to meet some of the other parents.

I worked my last two shifts before going out on maternity leave on Monday and Tuesday. It has been very busy in the Pediatric Emergency rooms of Atlanta so I was pretty anxious to be done and have a nice long break. My husband keeps reminding me however, that my job is probably much easier than the adventure that I am going to embark upon in the next couple of weeks. He is probably right, but I enjoy the motherhood thing so much more, even when it is really hard.

I had my last doctor's appointment before my c-section on Monday. Everything is looking good and we are set for the early hours of next Monday morning. I have been talking alot more with Mikayla about what to expect next week so that, hopefully, the transition will be a little bit easier for her. These conversations have sparked some cute little comments from her. First of all, we have been telling her about how she gets to stay at Grandma's house while Mommy is in the hospital having the baby. I have told her that her and Grandma will come visit us alot while we are there. Mikayla is a big "Diego" fan...on the show, Diego runs around rescuing animals. Mikayla informed me the other day that her and Grandma were going to rescue me from the hospital, because she needed to see us more. I have also explained to Mikayla that the doctor will be getting the baby out of Mommy's tummy and that she will be able to see him. This has sparked alot of funny comments. First she said, "Dr. Graham is going to pull Gavin out by his feet and I am going to help him." I'll have to make sure I let Dr. Graham know he has a little assistant eager to help - he has three kids under the age of 4 so I am sure he will appreciate her point-of-view. She also keeps talking about how he is "stuck" right now and that he is going to come out soon. I've been pretty impressed about how much of this she is seeming to grasp. I hope and pray that next week goes smoothly for everyone, especially Mikayla.

Oh, I also wanted to inform everyone that Mikayla's furniture finally got here last Thursday. I have been a little stressed about the long delay that we had experienced in getting this - I couldn't really complain since we were getting such a good deal on it, though. It feels good to have Mikayla and Gavin's rooms set. It's also nice to have Gavin's clothes put away instead of all over the changing table. Mikayla loves her new bed and comments frequently about how Daddy made it for her. She has done really well, transitioning to a big girl bed. She doesn't usually go right to sleep when we put he in there, but we haven't had a problem with her getting out too much. I do hear her getting up to get books off of her bookshelf, but she has NEVER left her room. She doesn't even leave the room when she wakes up...she calls for us to come get her out. This is a little annoying in the morning, but I am also not in the mood to teach her that she can escape if she really wanted to.

I will do my best to post pictures of little Gavin as soon as I get home. Wish us luck!!

Petting Zoo!

Petting a miniature pony
Having a conversation a tortoise
Petting a pig
Being sweet with the bunnies
Petting a sheep and her dove buddies
Today, Mikayla's preschool hosted a little petting zoo. They invited the parents to come and I am so glad that I did! It was the first time that I have been able to see Mikayla interact with her class and teachers. It was a real fun experience. Mikayla had so much fun moving around with the animals, feeding them, and chasing a couple of them. The pictures show how much fun she had. I am really glad that my ever changing size didn't get in the way of me being there. It's hard to believe that I have only 11 days to go until my c-section!

Baby Update

Well, I had an ultrasound today. Unfortunately, because he is so big in my tummy I didn't get any fun pics, however, it was still neat to see him moving around in there. They are currently estimating his weight at 5 lbs. 9 oz., which is in the 4oth percentile. I am excited that it doesn't look like I will have to carry a 10 lbs. baby. They gain about a 1/2 pound a week at this point, so with about 3 1/2-4 weeks to go, I am guessing he will be in the 8 -8 1/2 lbs. range.
The whole reason that I had the ultrasound was done is because my previous scans had shown a low-lying placenta, which can pose some risk to me and him if my water breaks spontaneously. I got good news that it is no longer low-lying and has moved towards the top of my uterus.
The ultrasound tech said that everything was looking great which is always reassuring.
Mikayla had fun watching Gavin on the TV screen - she seems to be getting very excited about being a big sister. I hope that excitement carries over once he arrives!!

Ah...the little things

It's amazing the things that excite you when you have children. I have been searching for a double stroller to use after Gavin is born, so I'm not having to chase after two children. I wanted a sit n' stand stroller and a double umbrella stroller. I have been coveting this particular umbrella stroller made by Combi. It is small, easy to fold and has lots of little extras. It also costs $200 (more than the full-size sit n' stand that I want). I had decided that I would just get a little bit cheaper one that was around $80 and be done with it. However, today I went to a consignment sale and found the Combi stroller in near mint condition with the instructions for only $100. I was so excited - I marvel at the things that excite me since I have had a child. I mean, it's a stroller for pete's sake!! Oh well...

First night went well!

Jeremy and I set up Mikayla's temporary big girl room yesterday and decided to go ahead a let her sleep there last night. Mikayla was so excited about it that we were worried that she would never go to sleep. To our pleasant suprise, however, she went to sleep very easily and didn't get out of bed once! I don't know if we will be this lucky every night, but I think this is a very good start.

Mikayla's big girl bedroom

Well, we have finally ordered Mikayla's furniture for her new big girl room. We had planned to make a trip down to Ikea today, until Jeremy found out that he could get this furniture through work at wholesale cost. We are going to end up spending about $50 more for higher quality furniture. I am so excited!! The only downside is that we won't have the furniture for about 2 weeks. Oh, did I mention that I am having a baby in 7 weeks!! We are trying to figure out a temporary solution to get Mikayla in her new room by next week, so that we can paint the nursery. I am hoping Jeremy can just borrow a simple metal frame from work... we'll see. We tried moving the crib in there last night, but it won't fit through the door without disassembling it - I was not interested in this option. Also, we learned that Mikayla has a bit of an attachment to her "yellow" room and doesn't want to sleep in her "pink" room. The next couple of weeks should be fun. I'll keep everyone posted on how things go.

Starting out on a big day

Mikayla eating her breakfast before school
All ready to go to school
She looks like such a big girl!!

Well, I have decided to jump on the "blogging bandwagon" and start a family blog. There are going to be many changes to our family in the coming months, and I thought it would be fun to include all of our family and friends that are spread out across the country.

First of all, we are expecting our second child at the end of October. I just scheduled my c-section for October 22nd at 7:15 am. First of all, when I asked for the earliest time possible, (since I didn't want to spend the day hungry since you can't eat beforehand) I had no idea they did them THAT early. Oh well, it will be nice to have a full day with our new little boy. Secondly, it was very wierd scheduling our child's birthday. My c-section with Mikayla was unplanned, so this has been a very new experience for me. I have kind of been procrastinating (what's new...) getting everything ready for our little arrival. We just finished painting Mikayla's new room, but we still need to get the furniture before we can move her in and paint the nursery. Hopefully, this little man will sit tight and wait for his scheduled arrival. Otherwise, I don't think I will be ready.


Another thing of note, today was Mikayla's first day of preschool. She was absolutely giddy this morning as we got ready. You could tell she was very excited. Jeremy and I drove her to school and dropped her off in the carpool line. This was very hard for me! I must say she faired much better than her mommy. She was a little apprehensive at first, but there were no tears or screaming. I on the other hand, held it together until the door was closed. Then I started crying. Between being pregnant and little emotional anyway it was bound to happen. I have to say, however, it was nice to get some work done around the house this morning without a "little helper".



Well, I will do my best to keep this thing updated for everyone. Talk to you soon!