3 months. 

Scott turned three months old on Tuesday. I can't believe he is already so big. He is starting to have really good control of his head and neck. Continues to roll from belly to back and is trying his hardest to roll from back to belly. He is full of smiles, we are still waiting on giggles. He talks all day long, he loves to suck on his fists and fingers and in the past couple days he has been so fascinated by his hands and fingers, he just holds them up and stares at them and talks to them, and smiles at them it is so adorable. 

He goes to bed every night between 6 and 8, he wakes up two to three times during the night and is ready to be entertained as early as 5:30 am, we prefer the days when he sleeps until 7. We have noticed he is a MUCH happier baby with this new earlier bed time, but it can be very frustrating, especially since it is still bright out when he goes to bed. The other night I wanted to go on a walk and Jeremy said, "we can't, Itty Bitty's bedtime is in 20 minutes." and I said, "boo". Scott also takes three or four 1 hour naps a day. I think one of my favorite parts of the day is when I lay him in his bed and he just lays his little head down smiles and takes his pacifier, trys his hardest to keep his eyes open and ends up losing the battle. About three to ten minutes later he will start crying, when I go in to give him pacifier again, he takes it with his eyes still closed and sighs. It is so adorable. Before we started this new sleep schedule we were "listening" to his sleep ques, and I think we were missing them. He would cry and fuss every afternoon and evening, for hours, it was really starting wear us down, my sister suggested that we read Baby Wise, our home is a much happier place now. It turns out he was so tired. The kind of tired where he was fighting sleep. Now with set nap times we are all happier. We still struggle with figuring out the exact moment he wants to go to sleep, even between naps, but we are learning. He has also started this thing were he SCREAMS in the middle of the night, he doesn't start fussing as he is waking up, he wakes up and SCREAMS! and doesn't stop until he is fed, cuddled and falls asleep. No joke he will cry until he falls asleep (well it feels that way, I have a really hard time being awake and completely aware of my surroundings at 3am) but it is so much better and everything goes much smoother! He does not sleep well anywhere but his bed, being held the littlest things wake him up, in his car seat or stroller a little bump will wake him up then he will be so interested in what is going on around him that he will stay awake for hours, it can be a real pain at church, oh how I miss his sleepy newborn days. 

As much as I hate drool, spit, and silvia and still think his little drooley face is the cutest. I love when he wakes up and is laying in his bed smiling and talking, just waiting for me to come and get him. I love how he gets excited when we put him in his car seat and stroller (I don't really like when he starts crying once we get in the car...), he loves to go on walks and watch people. He loves being talked to, even by strangers...a lady at WinCo touched his hand the other day, I almost died...I love the way he looks in his little onesies, the kid has sooo many clothes but I never get him dressed in more than just a bodysuit/onesie, my absolute favorite are long sleeved ones. 

He is still wearing size 1 diapers, 3 month onesies, 0-3 month clothes, and his pants (when we put them on him) are still NEWBORN! He is a skinny little baby and 0-3 month pants slip right off of him. We don't have a doctors appointment this month so I don't have stats on him, I guess we could do that. :) He is eating very well, doesn't spit up much and his gas has gotten so much better since it was horrible around 6 weeks. We still use gas drops everyday, but it's not the end of the world if we miss them at a feeding during the day. We love Scott so much and can't believe how fast he is growing. We brings so much love and happiness to our home and we are both so grateful to have him! 

I was thinking today about how fast the last year has gone by, 11 months ago we found out we were expecting a perfect little baby, and it feels like just last week that I was driving around town with the windows down and I felt him move for the first time, I had felt him move before, but it was the first ligit, no doubt in my mind movement that I knew he was in there and doing somersaults. I loved everything about being pregnant and knowing that he was all mine and as long as we was in my belly I didn't have to share him with anyone. Sure I would let Jeremy rub my belly and talk to him, but he was still mine. Now I have to share him with Gma's, his daddy, family, friends, people at church and stop in the store to let little old ladys oh and awe over him. I love that he brings so much joy to so many people, but he isn't just mine anymore. I can't help but think how fast this year is going and will go by, the other day Jeremy and I were talking about a theme for Scotts 1st birthday party, I know it is still nine months away, but I have SO MANY IDEAS! I might just explode. I love planning parties, not what we are talking about here though. I get so excited every time my little boy reaches a new mile stone and I am so excited to see him meet all the hundreds of milestones that are in our future. 

I feel like people really don't see enough pictures of my child, so if you have instagram follow me, if not get it and follow me, jneb225 and here are more picture than any of you probably want to see. 

Counting with the Browns:

1. bed made all nice and neat that needs to be made.

2. loads of laundry waiting to be put away.

3. hours until our weekend starts.

4. days of school for Jeremy each week.

5. aprons, rarely worn, hanging on the wall.

6. running/congested nostrils. 

7. hours of peaceful sleep for us most nights.

8. yard sales on our list to visit tomorrow. 

9. cards waiting to be mailed.

10. pounds of baby weight still hanging around. 

11. pair of pants that won't stay on Itty Bittys tiny little body. 

12. unorganized clothing drawers in our home. 

13. hair bows and flowers that go unworn.

14. inches I wish I didn't cut off my hair.

15. meals eaten as a family each week.

16. miles to school each day. 

17. or more carrots eaten each day.

18. hours of sleep a day (by Scott).

19. plus one freezing toes.

20. days until Portland. 

21. School days before Jeremy's summer break. 

Some days I dread blogging. And the past three weeks have been one of those days. At first I told myself I didn't need to post because I had just posted. Then I thought we have NOTHING new to blog about. And then I realized I didn't even know where to start because I hadn't blogged in so long. Soon to come: Scott's first trip to CA and his second and third. Meeting great grandparents, easter, first smiles...It's a vicious cycle I tell you.

Hopefully we will catch up soon. For now I will leave you with this:

One Month Old

At one month Scott weighs 8lbs 13oz. 

He is 20 3/4in long. 

He has rolled over on us three times, belly to back (he is not always a fan of tummy time). 

He prefers to sleep on his side, when we put him on his back he still manages to get himself onto his side.

He is super gassy, especially at night. 

He has given us a couple "real" smiles. 

He loves car rides and going on walks, he really likes his car seat.

He does not like getting diaper or clothes changed or getting out of the bath.

There is a first time for everything. We tried a few new things today...

1. Kale chips, they were super good.

2. Sleeping until after noon with my baby.

3. Realizing our sliding glass door was left unlocked all weekend long, while we were gone.

4. Locking ourselves out of the house. 

We were invited to dinner at our bishops house tonight. When we left Jeremy took Scott out while I found a sweatshirt so I locked the door behind me (knowing he was already in the car, with the keys). 

At about 830 we get out of the car at home and Jeremy realizes he grabbed the wrong car keys, the ones without the house keys.

After some thinking and trying to break in (if only we hadn't realized the sliding glass door was unlocked early and locked it) we decided we needed to call a lock smith or go to a hotel until our rental office opened. We decided to call the locksmith, we were back in our cozy little home by 9:10.

1. Today was a beautiful day. We went for a walk around the neighborhood then came home put on shorts and opened all the doors and windows.
2. I'm slightly disappointed in the birth announcements I ordered.

3. This kid likes to stop breathing while he is sleeping. Oh and he makes these goofy little noises. I noticed it one night and kind of freaked out on Jeremy. He got out all our books and read that it was normal, so I put it on our list (it was the only thing on the list) of things to ask the pediatrician at our appointment. Well while my parents were here for his blessing they both noticed it (at separate times) and said he does it more than any baby they had ever seen (and they have seen lots) and they were worried about it. So the next morning at our appointment I asked our doctor. He watched Scott sleep for a while and called it periodic breathing and said it was completely normal and not to worry until he stopped breathing for 20-30 seconds or turned blue. Well my mom was still worried, especially if those things were to happen at night and helped us find this monitor. He really doesn.t mind it, even though this picture would tell you different... Anyway it vibrates after fifteen seconds of him not breathing to rouse him, and if he doesn't breath for five more seconds it starts alarming like crazy! We haven't gotten the alarm yet, but it has buzzed a few times. It is kinda of a cool little gadget.
4. I really need to pack for our little weekend trip.
5. Scott also thinks it really cool and cute to be wide awake at night, when we should all be sleeping. He does his normal, sleep, eat, get changed, be wide awake for a little while thing all day long. But in the evenings he forgets the wide awake part and just goes back to the sleeping part, same with the late mornings. Because when bed time comes (between 10pm-1am, depending on his feedings) and he is wide awake for at least to an hour, during this time he expects to be talked to, with the lights on, he prefers to be laying on our bed with both of us there talking and playing. And then when he finally goes to sleep he wakes up between 2 and 5 he wants to be changed and feed then held and sung too and that can take up to an hour to get him back to sleep. Not every night is like this, but the past few nights have been pretty bad. But he is pretty dang cute, regardless of what time it is and how tired we are.

Scott finally got his first bath at home today. He actually enjoyed it, which surprised us.

We were waiting for his umbilical cord stump to fall off, which happened during his circumcision. 

Then we wanted to wait until that had healed a little bit.

Yes we had to live with sponge baths for three weeks, and he HATES sponge baths.

Our baby is already three weeks old, holy smokes!

Blessing Day

Scott was bless on March 4th

I realize now I forgot to take a picture of Scott in his outfit, I think we will be playing dress up this week.

Brown Family

Gma Brown, Great Gma Tavey, Scott, Great Gma Baker, Gma Baker

Gpa Brown, Great Gpa Baker, Scott, Gpa Baker, Great Gpa Tavey

Gpa Brown, Scott, Jeremy, Uncle Justin

Uncle Dakota, Aunt Shelby, Scott, Gpa Baker, Uncle Robert

It was a beautiful and perfect day. After church all our family came over for lunch.

I really need to get better at taking more pictures.

Welcome Scott.

Our birth story, hopefully without too much detail. 

On Sunday, February 12th, while at church I started noticing signs of early labor. I couldn't sit still, I spent most of sharing time out in the hall and in my class room doing whatever I could think of because I just couldn't handle sitting for that long, I needed to be doing something. I was having irregular contractions and getting antsy.

Sunday evening contractions kept coming, same with all day Monday and on Tuesday. 

On Tuesday I had a weird feeling. I don't know how to explain what I was feeling but it was a feeling of being ready. Jeremy and I went to Michael's when he got home from school and we walked and walked. When we got back in the car we just sat for a minute, unsure of what to do, it was the day before Valentines so we decided an early Valentines dinner was necessary (neither of us wanted to make dinner and I had a feeling of now or never if we were going to do something).

...

I had spent the last month asking the baby when he was going to come, not really asking him to come but when. I just wanted to know when! Well around that time my belly button turned into the shape of heart, telling me he was coming on Valentines day. When I sent Kelly a picture she agreed. Jeremy said it wasn't possible and kept saying even while we were sitting in triage. He said the baby couldn't come until Thursday because he had midterms.

...

While sitting at Red Robin eating my half of our Burnin' Love Burger, my contractions kept coming and getting a hair stronger. I started timing them just for fun but they were still super irregular anywhere from 6 to 30 minutes apart. After we got home they started to settle down and come less often, I was a little bit disappointed.

At 6:01am on Valentines day (the day Jeremy had a biggish midterm) I woke up with this strange pain and feeling of having to pee (too much information?...it might get worse).  I thought to my self, I've never had to pee so bad that it hurt like this, weird! Well after relieving my bladder and crawling back into bed, my belly growled, then the pain came back. I looked at my phone, it was 6:06. I realized then that it was contractions.

I got out of bed opened my contraction timer app and went to poor myself some cheerios. I sat in the lovesac for an hour timing my contractions. 

6:09. 6:16. 6:28. 6:31. 6:35. 6:40. 6:50. 6:55. 6:59. 7:05.
They were still irregular, our doctor told us when contractions were happening every 5 minutes to go to the hospital, but I decided it was still time to wake up Jeremy. He uttered the words, "It's not Thursday yet, he can't come," and fell back asleep. I told him that this kid didn't care what day it was and I was getting in the shower. 

I sent my Momma a text message telling her it might be the day. And before I got in the shower I had a phone call from her, she told me not to wait very long before going to the hospital because with my brother Bryce (her first pregnancy which she says was a lot like mine) she didn't realize she was having as many contractions as she was and within four hours of getting to the hospital and just minutes of her water breaking he was born. That made me a little bit excited.

After showering and making my hair all cute and junk, I finished packing the last essentials in our go bag while Jeremy called the BirthPlace. They told us that my doctor was the doctor on call but to call her office and tell them my situation to see if I should go in. That was a mess and a half, the answering service (they weren't open yet) said that I didn't need to call just to go into the BirthPlace, after patiently explaining to her that they told me to call she said she would have someone call me back. That lady told me to do what I wanted, no joke those were her words.

Jeremy really wanted to go take him midterm at 10:00 but I didn't want him to leave me at home, espcially after what my mom told me. So he emailed his teacher and went to the BirthPlace. We checked in at 9:14. 

Our nurse Siri (one of my favorite people while at the hospital) hooked us up to monitors and checked me. I was still only dialated to 1cm and 70%, which is what I was at my appointment the week before. But she told us to sit and wait for the doctor. At one point Siri came in and told us that normally they would sent people in my situation home to labor, but the baby's heartbeat was dropping with contractions they might want to watch me on monitors for a while longer. Well it was almost noon before my Doctor got in to check me and I was 3cm and 90%. Which is good progress and because the baby's heartbeat was dropping they were going admit me. And she wanted to break my water. My nurse kindly reminded her that we were still in the triage room and that she should wait a while, thank you Siri!

Siri quickly moved us into room 5 and put me on wireless monitors, asked us questions about our birth plan (pretty simple: as natural as possible, skin to skin and breast feeding) then she left us with orders to walk the halls and nap.

At 2:00 she came in and said that she had been covering the whole floor and as much as she liked us we were her newest patient and needed to turn us over to a new nurse, MaryJane (not my favorite person). MaryJane was very pro natural birth, which was good for us, but she was very...IN YOUR FACE...and that really annoyed me. I got very frustrated with her on multiple occasions (not sure if that was obvious) and really just started to ignore her all together. While she was telling us about all these things she wanted us to do, my mom and Jeremy's parents walked in, with lunch! 

We ate our sandwiches and started walking and walking.

The next seven hours were pretty uneventful, I talked to my sisters on the phone, walked, watched tv, drank a milkshake, walked some more, played SkipBo, got a saline lock, rested and drank lots of water and they kept watching baby's heartrate.

At 7:00pm my Doctor came in (as her shift was ending) and checked me, I was at about 5cm and gave me four options.
1. Break my water (obviously her favorite option).

2. Give me morphine and let me sleep all night.

3. Let me sit and simmer.

4. Start pitocin.

I was all alone in my room when she came in and felt very overwhelmed with the options. I asked the few questions I could think of and I went with the break my water option because it was the one my doctor most strongly suggested.

Right after my new nurse Edi came in and introduced herself. My mom asked her for a birthing ball for me and I started those exercises. About an hour later things started getting very painful. I got in the bath (which did not bring the kind of relief I was hoping for). I was miserable and I stopped watching the clock. I laid in bed for most rest of the night, squeezing Jeremy's hand with contractions, vomiting from pain and eventually buzzing nurse for pain medicine. She put something in my IV and it helped me sleep between contractions. I was getting very tired and grumpy. I asked for medicine two more times, I was checked twice more and at midnight my dad got there, I was happy to see him. 

At around 3:30am I started begging for an epidural, I think everyone was ready for me to have one. Jeremy was falling asleep and I think was sick of me yelping for his hand every three minutes. And lets be honest I wasn't being super nice to everyone around me. I hadn't really slept in almost 22 hours and I just wanted to sleep and pee (the baby was in a position that was keeping me from relieving my bladder and after trying 6 different attempts to pee I still couldn't!)and hold my baby. My mom asked the nurse to check me before I got the epidural (know that I wanted a natural birth and still did even though I was dying), I was only a (small) 7 and it was hard to say how much longer it would take because I wasn't dilating as quickly as they would like. 

after the epidural...

At about 4am the anastegialongist came in (another one of my favorite people at the hospital, not just because he had the good drugs). He told me I had a slight curve in my spine and my cartilage was ridiculously thick. It took him two tries to get it in a spot he liked (my IV took two tries as well). And I fell asleep during the process, while sitting up trying not to move. When the medicine finally kicked in I had a window in my left hip so they had me sleep on it. The window never really went away, but I felt so much better so it was ALL worth it. 

At six my new nurse, Krista (another one of my favorite people) came in and told us that my contractions had slowed to about every 8 minutes while I was sleeping that the doctor was probably going to want to start pitocin. And she did. Krista said something about a c section, which I ignored and around that time pitocin had to be stopped because the baby's heart rate was dropping more than before. Around 9:30ish the Doctor on call came in and checked me I was a 9.5 and she said I could probably start pushing in the next half hour. And I did.

When I had been pushing for about an hour the Doctor came back in to see how I was progressing. And she was not pleased. She told me I had less than an hour to get the kid bellow my pelvic bone or else she would try once to help him and then it was c section time. Krista looked at me with her sweet little face and said as politely as she could she said something like: Lady, get mean and get this kid out or I'll just call the Doctor back in and we will prep for a c section now. A c section was no where in our spectrum of acceptable or ideal, so Jeremy told me to get serious, as if I wasn't! Come on people...

Krista went and got the squatting bar and had me stand up and push for a while. After about 15 minutes she called the doctor in and it was go time! Dr. Brooks was shocked! She really didn't think I could do it. She ended up having to use vacuum extraction, resulting in a fourth degree tear (too much? oh well.) At 11:50am Scott Tanner Brown was born weighing 7lbs 13oz and 19.5 inches long. 

first bath

he really liked it

I'm sad that we didn't get more pictures of this board as it changed.  My dad kept writing on it (Come on Scotty Boy!) The 22 was Ken's guess on how long Scott would be and he wrong but felt like he still needed to win.

Cute hair Jeremy

Car Seat test before going home. :D

 I appologize for the lack of pictures in this post. I wish we had taken more throughout the whole process...well at certain times during the process...

This picture was taken a few days ago but I think it sums up perfectly how our little buddy feels today.

 

It is safe to say that today was a pretty rough day in our house.

At around 3am Scott woke up hungry (totally normal) and my head was pounding and pulsating (not sure thats a word to describe head aches, but that is how it felt) with the head aches I have experienced since Scott was three days old. It had been a few days since I had had one so I was hoping they were gone for good, no such luck. Luckily after feeding him and going back to sleep it went away. 

Yesterday Scott's belly button started bleeding, which we read was normal so we weren't worried, we just kept cleaning it the way his doctor told us to. Until this morning, it started to smell. I was hoping it would fall off before his doctors appointment today so he could get a real bath before his appointment, but it didn't.

So when Jeremy got home from school we gave Scott a sponge bath, he HATES sponge baths. He loves being naked but hates water, don't know where he got that.

Then we went to the doctor. It was circumcision day.

Good new first: Scott gained almost a pound since his last appointment he was 8lbs 1oz, he is above to his birth weight! And in the 30th percentile.

As soon as we got him naked and weighed he started getting mad, I think he new what was coming.

The doctor came in and asked if we had any questions and went over the things that can go wrong. Talk about trying to worry someone to death...obviously there are risks with everything, there is probably a reason they had Jeremy read the paper and sign it and not me.

After about a half hour the doctor came out and told his that everything went really well and he did great, but he did bleed a little bit at the end. :/ 

Then the doctor happily told us that he cleaned up his belly button for us and it fell off! So glad I didn't have to deal with it when it fell off. They have always grossed me out beyond belief. 

When the nurse brought him out to us he was not happy, not even a little bit. He wasn't crying but you could tell he was sad. He just wanted to cuddle and did not want the nurse or doctor to open his diaper again. He just wanted to be left alone.

After the 15 minute wait for the bleeding check and getting all the instructions we put Scott back in his car seat and luckily this babe loves his car seat. Once we were in the car he just settled right down (until the first stop light...).

 I think Jeremy feels like the worst dad in the world. He was almost in tears hearing his crying at stop lights and said he is not sure he can have any of our future sons circumcised.

When we got home he took him out of his car seat and cuddled up on the lovesac with him. I tried to take Scott so Jeremy could eat dinner and he wouldn't let me. Jeremy said Scott needed some serious manly love. And I think it is true, he gets frustrated with me and cries and cries (Scott doesn't cry a lot, only when he is super hungry, or really doesn't want his diaper changed, he is a good baby).

So here is to hoping the next few days go by very quickly and little guy heals quickly. I realize that one day he won't appreciate me writing about his circumcision online for the whole world to read, but hey it's kinda our journal when I forget to write in our real one).

Scott has just been doing okay. He is taking his medicine really well (I can't blame him). He has been sleeping since we got home, and when he isn't he fakes it, he just doesn't want to be bothered. When we wake him up to eat he just cries and doesn't want anything to do with me, until he realizes he is kinda hungry then he will eat, but goes right back to sleep.

Things to remember for our next son: have the circumcision done in the hospital when he is itty bitty itty bitty (the birth place I delivered at charges an extra 200 dollars for the surgical tray so pediatricians refuse to do it there). And we would have done it earlier if his insurance didn't take so long to get straightened out.

Because no one wants to remember our baby as sad, here is a picture of little bear from last night when he was much, much happier than he is tonight.

 Meet Scott Tanner Brown.

Born: February 15, 2012 @ 11:50am

7lbs 13oz 19.5in

Today is the day we were expecting our baby boy and I am so glad that instead of laying in a hospital bed I am sitting in our lovesac holding my precious little boy. And I can't believe he is already a week old. I love him so much and all I ever want to do is hold him and squeeze him and kiss him. He has been sleeping pretty well, eating super well and cuddling even better.

I am working on our birth story and will post that soon.

Some things we have noticed about our adorable Scotty Boy.
He looks just like me. He likes to sleep with his arms cuddled up nice and tight on his chest like I do. He doesn't like his feet touched, either do I. He has his Daddy's hair line. He plays with his tongue like his dad does, even when he is not hungry.
He does the Baker crinkle chin. He doesn't like sleeping on his back, he tucks and flops to his side most the time. He loves his car seat. He really doesn't like sponge baths, or his diaper changed in the mornings.