He's here!

I am proud to announce that our second son, Ryan James, was born on Monday, March 8th at 7:55am.

Here he is!

He weighed 8lb 10oz, 20 3/4 inches long and is just PERFECT! All 3 of us are in love with him! Brandon is such a good big brother and always wants to hold Ryan. He loves on him and gives him a lot of hugs and kisses, it is so cute!

One year ago today

One year ago today I was standing in the baby department of Target when I got a phone call from Holt. They had the file of a waiting child and wanted to know if we wanted to see it.

Of course I said yes, hung up the phone and tried to call Patrick. He was in Fremont visiting someone in the hospital and didn't answer. Finally, in what seemed like forever, he called me back and I excitedly told him the news. We both waited, separately for the email to arrive and it finally did (by this time I was in Sam's club). I forwarded it to Patrick and we both opened the pictures to see the cutest little baby boy!

We both hurried home and were finally able to open up the rest of the files including his background and medical info. We forwarded everything on to Dr Kolb (Holt strongly urges you to get an IAPs medical opinion on all waiting children and wait to accept the match until you have talked to one) and waited for his call.

That came on the morning of the 6th and Patrick excitedly called to tell me the good news Dr Kolb had shared with him and then we called Holt to tell them this was our son! We had a bunch of paperwork to fill out and then we had to wait over the weekend until Monday to hear back that we were officially matched!

So, considering my c-section is on Monday, March 8th, we will have gone from zero to 2 kids in almost exactly one year! What a blessing from God! I am so thankful tonight for both of my sons and can't believe I have known of Brandon for an entire year now!

Another piece of good news came today! We have a court date of April 12th to finalize Brandon's adoption! It will be legal, he will become a US citizen and he will be ours forever (as if he wasn't already)!

My mom arrives tomorrow so, unless this baby decides to come in the next 17 hours, she will be here to celebrate with us!

Ok, I'm tired and heading to bed. Good night!

18 month old and 1 week to go

I know I have been very quiet lately, sorry! I am still pregnant and getting rather uncomfortable at this point. Today marks 38 weeks and 1 day of pregnancy, only 1 week until my scheduled c-section! My bags are mostly packed, the baby's bed is set up and his clothes are all washed! I REALLY wanted this little guy to wait until March to come and I got my wish. Now all I wish for is that he will be healthy!

We went to our last visit at the perinatologist on Friday and the baby is looking great! They did a biophysical profile (BPP) and he scored 8 out of 8. He is in the 65th percentile for weight (approx 7lbs 7oz at this point) and looks great. His kidney measurement is still higher than "normal" but still in the mild range. It looks like his official diagnosis is Hydronephrosis Grade 1 and he may need a scan before or soon after he leaves the hospital.

By the end of each day I really start to feel horrible, my back begins to really ache and I start to get more contractions but nothing serious yet. If nothing happens before it, we will meet this little guy on Monday the 8th, my c-section is scheduled to start at 7:30am and we will need to be there at 5:30! :) Early day but I haven't been sleeping great anyway.

Brandon is doing great! He had his 18 month well check last week and the doctor is pleased with his progress in language. We had to do some sort of assessment (I think for autism) of his verbal/word recognition skills and he scored in the "not a concern" range for everything! Yay! He is talking more and more; he now says "Hi', "Daddy", "Mommy", "Me", "No", "Amy", "Backpack","Oww" (what he calls the cats based on the noise they make) and has imitated "Thank you" once.

He is a very loving baby who gives tons of kisses especially when you are giving him something he wants, I think it is his way of thanking us. I really hope that he will adjust well when his little brother comes home and that he is ok with me being gone for 3 days. He will get to come visit me but he is such a momma's boy that I know he will really miss me and I will miss him!

Ok, here is a picture of me at 36 weeks 2 days (2 weeks ago). It was taken with my cell so not the best but you get the idea!

Ok, I need to go lay down! Will update when he comes!