I tell you, this little man has wiggled his way into this family.  I can’t hardly handle how my heart feels about him.  It kills me.  Just look at him.

Here are a few updates from the last month:

• Sleeps 12 hours at night (major disclaimer: he usually wakes up several times during the night, but just wants his pacifier and falls right back to sleep).  Takes two naps a day (and another disclaimer: I have such a hard time keeping him on a good nap schedule, since Rhett only takes one nap.  In the mornings, if Abel naps it’s usually when we’re on the go.)
• Eats 5 times a day – 8 oz. each time.  Started rice cereal and sweet potatoes this month.  Again, this is still super challenging for Abes, most of it ends up on him, rather than in him.  A picture to prove it:
• We stopped swaddling Abel this month since he started to roll so much.
• We haven’t been called out of church for a screaming baby this month.
• Not such a great car rider, but loves to be outside in the stroller.
• Super cuddly, which is a huge bonus since #1 will only cuddle if he is sick.
• Maybe a little chunky.  Abel was called “healthy” this month, which you can only say about a baby that doesn’t understand English yet.

And here are a few pictures of our five-month-old:

Four stinkin’ months.  A third of a year.  Is it just me or do you grieve more over how fast time goes with your second than your first?  With Rhett, I think we are always looking forward to what would happen next – crawling, walking, talking.  And now, I just can hardly bear the thought of Baby Abes growing up.  It kills me.

Here are a few updates:

• Weighs 14 lbs, 6 oz (45th percentile) and is 26 1/4 inches long (90th percentile).  Holy smokes.  Seems like this is going to be a big little brother.
• Rolls over from tummy to back, but not yet from back to tummy.
• Sleeping like a…ahem…baby.  Sleeps pretty consistently for 10 hours at night.  Takes roughly 3 naps a day – two 2-hour naps and a short catnap before dinner.
• Eats 5 times a day.  I am still nursing, and supplementing with formula.
• Over the past few weeks, we have started to see Abel’s personality mellow out to be more like Rhett.  The extreme separation anxiety has seemed to subside for now.  He’s pretty happy most of the time.
• Met his Uncle James and Aunt Ginny this month.  (Doug’s be-fri and his wife)
• Is totally enamored with Rhett.

And here are a few pictures of our little monkey at four months:

This month has been fun for us, as we’re starting to see little personality differences between Rhett and Abel.  They still look nearly identical, but their personalities seem to be really different.  Abel is a crazy momma’s boy.  I am loving it (duh), but it does make it challenging to leave him with a babysitter or at the nursery at church, or even with Doug.  In more than two years, we’ve never been called out of church for Rhett.  With Abel, 2 out of 3 times we’ve left him in the nursery, we’ve been called to come get him.  And somehow, as soon as I pick him up he magically falls asleep.  He’s a pill, for sure.

He also seems to be more emotional than Rhett was.  He smiles more, and cries more.  Rhett is in the thick of being a two-year-old, so he’s getting disciplined fairly often.  Typically, Abel has a bigger meltdown when Rhett is disciplined than Rhett does.

Abel doesn’t seem to be quite as laid back as Rhett was, but I still think he’s a pretty easy baby.  He’s a good eater and a pretty good sleeper, and a very happy baby.

Here are a few updates:

• Weighs 13 lbs.
• Had his first ear infection this month, but fought it like a champ.
• Was sleeping for about 7 hour stretches until that big bad ear infection.  We’re working on the 7 hour stretches again.
• Is crazy about big brother Rhett.
• Can get up on his side, but is not rolling over yet.
• Met a third pair of great-grandparents this month.
• Still naps in his swing or on-the-go.  (How do second kids have normal nap schedules?)

And a few pictures from Abel’s first quarter birthday:

Nevertheless, at six weeks, we turned a corner.  Rhett now lets Abel be within arms-length and will talk to him and give him kisses.  We’ve attempted (nearly daily) to let Rhett hold Abel, but he’s not interested in being that close.

Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures of my boys.

Bath buddies

Two very tired boys after a rough trip to the doctor.  Rhett diagnosed with bronchitis and Abel got his 2 month shots.  Brutal.

This one says “Moommmaaa, get that big bad baby off me!!”

Don’t judge.  Rhett rarely gets his hair brushed these days. 

They’re more than 1,500 miles away.  My heart is broken and I feel so helpless.  What do you do when your family is hurting and you can’t give them a hug?  We’ve sent giftcards to help with their basic needs, and we’re working to gather pictures and other special family things they have lost.  But it just feels like it falls short (too short) of the devastation.

It’s been humbling for us over the past 24 hours.  It’s been a good reminder that we are promised nothing.  That we deserve nothing.  All of these things that we have and that we enjoy and that we take for granted everyday are gifts from a good God.  They are grace to us.  And if it were all taken today, it would be devastating.  It would be really, really hard.  But would we be able to sift through the ashes and still declare that God is good?  And that even this is for our good?  Would we see it as an opportunity?  Man, I really hope so.  

I borrowed this idea directly from Dandee Designs. There’s not a single original idea of my own here.  If you’d like a free printable of the card, click here: Have a Ball Printable

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here is the latest on Baby Abel and a few photos at two months:

• Weighs 11 lbs, 3 oz (25th percentile) and is 23.5 inches long (75th percentile).
• Still sleeps a lot – 4ish naps a day.  Usually wakes up just once in the middle of the night around 3:30 AM.
• Started smiling right at 6 weeks old.
• Loves to be held tight.
• Prefers to be swaddled.
• Usually needs a pacifier to fall asleep, but pretty quickly spits it out after falling asleep.
• Might be a Momma’s boy.

Because I can barely remember if I ate breakfast, much less what happened last year, I need to record the birth story.  This is mostly for me, but since this is the world wide web, you’re welcome to read on.

I woke up at 6:02 AM.  I immediately told Doug that I was having contractions (plural), which makes me think that maybe I had been having them for a while, but had been sleeping through them and somehow subconsciously knew I was having them.  Right away, we started to time them.  They were about 7-8 minutes apart to start.  We laid in bed for about 1.5 hours timing pretty regular contractions.  I took a bath, thinking that if this wasn’t labor that maybe the hot water would help with the back pain.  The contractions continued.  I already had my weekly doctor’s appointment scheduled for 10 AM, so we just decided we’d wait till then to see if it was go-time.  Doug took Rhett to preschool (thank you God, for your perfect timing!) and we headed to the doctor.  Naturally, we stopped at Chick-fil-a on the way for breakfast.  I ate a chicken biscuit while trying to breath through contractions, and somehow enjoyed every bite of it.  We got to the doctor’s office around 9:45 AM.  I checked in and told them I thought I might be in labor. They very quickly got me in a room and my doctor came in and said “So, you’re having contractions?  What do you think?  Maybe 4 cm?”  I had had a false alarm two weeks prior, so I was a little gun-shy.  He checked and said, “The reason you’re feeling so crummy is because you’re at 8 cm.  We need to get you to the hospital.”  My doctor’s office is right across the street from the hospital, so they wheeled me across the street in a wheelchair (very dramatic).  Before I left, he told me that if I wanted the epidural that I would need to tell them right away because I didn’t have much time.  So, in the wheelchair on the way across the street, I decided that I wanted to go without the epidural (we’ve made a note to ourselves for next time – decide ahead of time, and take a class on how in the world to give birth).  We checked into the hospital at 10:30 AM.  For about an hour I had really intense contractions 2-5 minutes apart and then all the sudden my doctor’s crew arrived and it was time to start pushing.  I pushed 5 times and the newest Brown arrived at 11:58 AM.  Abel Bradley was here…and a BOY!  We were so surprised, but so thrilled.

Here are a few pictures from the big day.

Daddy and Rhett on Abel’s birthday

This picture was immediately after checking in at the hospital.  The last picture of my second pregnancy.

And here is what we came for…

Our first picture as a family of four (excuse Daddy’s sleepy eyes)

And finally, we were amazed at how much Rhett and Abel looked alike as newborns.  Brothers!  Rhett is on the left, Abel on the right.

Welcome, Baby Abel.  We are so glad you came.

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