Love, love, love

This girl adores her baby brother. She can't get enough of him and wants to hold him and kiss him all the time. She is definitely in an adjustment period and is pushing her limits with us but she is not taking out anything on her baby brother, thank goodness!



Getting to hold Ben on day two at the hospital.


Welcoming us home on day three.


This video overlaps with the other one but runs a little longer.

Bili Be Gone

What a week! Poor Ben is jaundice and has been on photo therapy at home 24/7 since Tuesday. They tested his bilirubin levels before we left the hospital and his levels were not high enough to treat at that time. We have had a lot of issues trying to get him to nurse and once we went home from the hospital, things got worse and they believe that his dehydration made his bilirubin levels raise. He lost weight at the first pediatrician visit last Thursday (never a good thing) and I have been pumping to give him extra food since he still isn't nursing well. I never expected to have such difficulties since I has such a positive experience nursing MB for 10 months without supplementing. We went back to see the doctor this Tuesday and the good news is that he gained four ounces but his jaundice was even worse than before. They sent us straight to the hospital to have his blood drawn and we have been on photo therapy ever since. Fortunately, our pediatrician has a portable light that we could take home but we are so tired of that light since he has to be on it all the time. It makes everything more challenging. We have returned to the hospital to check his levels three times this week and we have to go again in the morning and probably on Monday. The tough little guy hardly flinches now when they stick his heel. He has been such a trooper through all of this and rarely complains. We can't wait for his levels to be normal so we can get rid of the light and start trying to nurse full time again. He is such a sweet baby and we pray that he will be 100% by the end of the weekend! Here are a few pictures from the past week.

5 Day lamb photo. The lamb has returned to looking large with such a tiny subject by his side. I love that their heads are leaning in the same direction.
MB giving Ben a "hug" through the mini crib.
So peaceful with his little jaundice tan.

Lots of sleeping going on around here (for the kids at least).

MB and I had a date at Barnes & Noble for a book reading. This is going to be our Tuesday morning tradition so we can spend some special time together.

Lots of love for this little girl.

Our little glow worm sleeping on the lights.

He even has to be on the lights when we put him in the car seat to go to the hospital. You can't see the lights here since they are under his pajamas but you can see the cords that we always have with us.

He's Here!

We are so in love with our little man! Benjamin Frank Milam was born on 8/13 at 4:30pm weighing in at seven pounds, fourteen ounces and twenty inches long. He has a head full of dark hair and is so very handsome. He loves to snuggle, sleep and doesn't cry that often (yet). We absolutely adore him and big sister thinks he is the greatest. We are busy trying to get into the swing of things but we couldn't be happier. I will try to post more later.

Family of four!

Giving him a good look over, I think she approves.

Daddy introducing her to Ben.

He has been kissed hundreds of times already!

She is so proud and always wants to hold him.

I mean seriously...isn't he the cutest little thing? We can't get enough of him!

We must be on a first name basis now...

I love her! She is the soprano in the family for sure!

You know you are close when

your milk expires AFTER your due date! I am officially ready for the little fella to arrive and I think getting about one hour of sleep last night may have something to do with it. I have reached the super uncomfortable stage and am ready for all these contractions to actually mean something. I am going to be induced at 40 weeks (8/16) so please pray that he comes before then! I don't want to be induced but I also do not want to go to 42 weeks like I did with MB since I had so many post birth issues. Here is hoping that my next post is that Ben has arrived!

Two Years!

MB! This update is over a month late and you keep giving us more material to add on here so I figured it was time to write things down about what you are up to these days. Actually, what are you not up to? You are into everything and anything!

- These are some of our favorite phrases that you say: "Nice tent" when we hide under the sheets; "Oh weally?" when we tell you something new; "I get it mama" when you are helping us pick things up; "Mama get up" when you want me to play with you; "Dada, MERE!" when you are bossing your daddy around; "C'mon guys, tea party" we have no idea where you picked up on guys; "I no like it" at the dinner table; "Market, home, beef, none, weeeehweeeehweeeeh" when you are doing your version of this little piggy; "Matter mama?" when I am upset about something; "Doin mama?" you are a curious little thing; “Here go dada”; “Mon dada” when you want him to follow you”; “There go mama” when you hand me things; “Bite Finger” when you wanted us to see the pointer fingers that you used to bite. The pigment is darker there because of it but fortunately, you do not do that any anymore. “Look mama, look dada, look Mawy Bef”. You often refer to yourself in third person.

- You love having tea parties although you like them best when it is only you and your daddy. It took me forever to get an invite and that only happened after dada was out of town for a while. You also love playing grocery store and you have quite the list of things that you buy. You never forget eggs, a bowl and a pan. You love playing with and throwing balls, hammering and dumping out all of your bowling pins. You like to clean up as long as I am singing the Barney clean up song, hey, whatever works. You always want to put on our flip flops and you can actually walk pretty far in them.

- You love your big girl bed so much and you have three stuffed animals that must be in bed with you and a fourth that is right behind them. They are teddy bear from Uncle Coop, dada duck (an Aflac golf club cover that daddy won in a tournament), baby bop that Cheryl gave you and piglet. You also request blanket and covers and then say "close eyes" so I guess I tell you that a lot. You still have not gotten out of your bed yet and we are so amazed and thankful.

- Your newest thing is wanting to blow your nose ALL the time. Even when you do not have a tissue, you will blow right into your hands. It’s gross and we are working on it but it’s nice not to have to use the suction thingy that we got from the hospital when you were born. You still love baths and now you also take showers by yourself. This has been really helpful to me because I have a hard time bending over the tub with baby brother in my belly. You always want to wash your hands and do not like for them to get dirty. You even enjoy brushing your teeth most days.

- You despise wearing shoes inside and you do not like it if we are wearing shoes either. You often say “shoes off” and will not quit until we give in. I am mostly to blame for this because I rarely wear shoes either. You are going to have to wear tennis shoes when you start going to school on Monday mornings and I already can sense a protest.

- I don’t really think that you are a picky eater but you still don’t eat very much. We don’t understand how you can be so uninterested in food but there are a few things that you love. Poppickles, fwuit snacks, ice cweam cones and sour cream. I am stumped over what to pack for your lunch when you go to school. You normally eat leftovers or soup and those are not easy things to pack. You do not like bread so sandwiches are going to be tough. So far I have bought some cups of applesauce and small bags of cheetos. What a healthy meal to send you off with. I may have to throw in a few other things so your teachers won’t talk bad about me.

- When you run fast only one of your arm pumps and the other one you tuck under your side. We finally caught it on video and it is pretty awesome. You can jump so high and we are pretty sure you have the makings to be a great pole-vaulter like your daddy. We can only hope you didn’t get my athletic skills or graceful moves. I think you would love gymnastics and soccer so we may give those a try in the next year or two.

- Your manners are so good these days. You almost always say thank you or please and if anyone sneezes (including yourself) you say Bless you. We are still working on yes sir and yes mam but those are harder to learn.

- You are one of the most persistent people I have ever been around. You do not give up for anything! This will be a good quality that I hope serves you well when you are older but for now, it gets you into trouble. It keeps you from minding and wanting to obey us and it can be so very frustrating. I just keep reminding myself that God put that strong quality in you for a reason and it is our job to help you learn how to use it in the right way. Discipline is one of the hardest parts about being a parent and definitely my least favorite. We are doing our best to be consistent and loving but know that we will mess up many times over.

- You are really bashful around new people and if you are uncomfortable, you look down and lower your eyes. It’s like you become frozen and sometimes you will not look up, even at us, for ten minutes or more. I don’t think of you as being shy but you totally are when strangers start talking to you and they are really close. Strangers that are far away have the opposite effect on you and you will wave and say hey or bye even if they are not even looking at you. Any time you see a baby or a boy out in public, you will point them out and stare at them as long as you can.

- You currently are wearing size 12 or 18 month shorts/skirts and 18 or 24 month dresses. You wear a size four diapers. We are going to start potty training full force towards the end of September. We are going to wait a month or so after you start the moms morning out program and I wanted to wait until I would be home with you every day. Your stats are definitely improving and you weighed 23.4 pounds (10%) at your two year appointment and are in the 55% for height but I can’t remember the number of inches.

Here are a few pictures that haven’t appeared on the blog yet.

Showing off your running skills.

Practicing with a big girl cup and wearing my "bracelet".

The day we set up your big girl bed, you were so excited!

Sweet hugs for daddy.

Attending your first big screen movie with Lucy. We went to see Winnie the Pooh and you did much better than I expected. You sat in your chair for the previews and the first few minutes of the movie and then you wanted to stand up for the rest of the time. You both talked to the screen and we were so relieved that only one other kid was in the theater. I expected to have to leave half way through the movie but we made it to the end. I think we will wait a while though before we attempt another movie, you aren't quite ready yet. We were lucky that the movie was only one hour long!

Ice cream cones are the new favorite.

Playing dress up and channeling cousin Sadie. The head piece was a little big but you thought it was a necklace so it worked.

Name and a Nursery

It's hard to believe I only have two weeks left but we are ready for the little fella. Speaking of, we have a name! His name is Benjamin Frank and we are going to call him Ben. We had a tough time deciding on a name this go around but we absolutely love it! Both names are family names but Frank is extra special. Dan is the 5th generation to have Frank as part of his name (there were a few Franklins that we are counting) so Ben will be the 6th. We have known for years that if we had a son, Frank would be part of his name. Frank also was my Paw Paw's name and I absolutely adored him. He was a mighty fine man and I am thrilled to have a son named after him. We also have other wonderful relatives that are named Frank. Ben will have a great heritage of men that share his name and we are so excited to meet him.

The nursery is finally finished too. A few weeks ago, I had a major nesting moment and we rearranged all of our bedrooms in one night. Dan has been such a trooper! My office moved into our room, MB's crib, changing table, glider and chest moved into the new nursery/guest room and MB has a new bed, the chest that Dan built earlier this year and a new chair. All in all, everything has turned out great and I am thrilled to be finished with it. We hung the last picture this past Sunday. Nothing like the last minute! Most of you will find this boring but only a few family members have been able to see it and I have been receiving requests for pictures. With that said, here is the final room...

View from the door. I painted the painting on the far left years ago and the ben one I painted as soon as we picked a name. I used a freezer paper stencil to paint on fabric and then wrapped that around a canvas. The boat painting was a Goodwill purchase and a bargain at $5!

Up close view of the crib. It's so funny to see it with boy bedding instead of pink.

Another view in the room. The lamb is taking a rest and gearing up for a new baby to pose with.

The changing table area. I used painters tape to paint these two and it was pretty easy. If you see the paintings up close, you can see all of the flaws and where the paint ran under the tape. That bothers me a little but all in all I like the way it looks.

The "guest" part of the nursery. I have a feeling I may be spending some time in that bed too so Dan can get a little shut eye every now and then. I changed the quilt out and other than that, most everything is the same.

Cousin Love

MB loves her cousins so much! She asks about them every day and includes them in most of her bedtime prayers. They are so much fun and get along with each other really well. We are excited that my brother and sister-in-law will be having a baby boy in October. Our babies will be only two months apart and they are going to be so close. Here are some recent photos of the cousins.

We had a car full on the way to the Milam family reunion. There were two DVD players going and multiple snack cups that were passed around to make sure that everyone stayed happy.

Cousin Sadie turned three and has a sweet new ride. MB jumped in right away like she was made to be the copilot.

Sadie's driving skills must be hilarious!!!

MB kept hugging on Sadie and we were so excited that she is starting to be more affectionate. Normally she wants her personal space and doesn't give too many hugs.

Enjoying a birthday tea party.

MB would follow Owen to the end of the world, she adores him.

They had so much fun playing in the fountain together. MB was a little hesitant and preferred to watch Owen run through all of the fountains.

Sam is just learning to walk and he had a blast at the fountains too. I love how he smiles with all of his body, you can't help but grin when you see him!