Here are two quick pictures of Chip and the boys in celebration that Chip is home for the next three weeks to celebrate the holidays with us!

Here are the boys, being boys, but also showing their “brotherly love”

It’s been a while since I gave an update on Levi so I thought I should do that He’s three months old today and growing like crazy! At his 2 month check up he weighed 16 lbs, 12 oz (a chunk, I know!) and according to Mimi’s fancy scales he weights 20.2 lbs now. He currently wears 6/9 month clothes. His absolute favorite thing to do is be held and “talk” to you. He coos like crazy and smiles all the time. His second favorite thing to do is watch Bo. No matter what Bo is doing Levi loves to watch him and Bo already tries to teach him things. I hope and pray this “brotherly love” stays with them for the rest of their lives.

We’ve had some issues about sleeping in his bed lately though. He went through a spell where he wouldn’t sleep in the crib so I took up residence on the couch and let him sleep in the swing - bad idea! He got so use to either swinging to sleep or nursing to sleep that if we just laid him down in his bed he pretty much refused to go to sleep (fussing or crying for hours) so I finally “put my foot down” and just let him fuss himself to sleep and it worked! Even during the day now, he naps in his bed instead of in the swing. We swaddle him up tight at night, both to keep him warm and he likes to squirm in his sleep and wakes him self up if his arms aren’t “secured” If all else fails I can turn on the hair dryer or vacuum and he’s out like a light! So I’m glad to say we are both back in our beds (even though our couch doesn’t make my back hurt like our bed does).

His eating and sleeping schedule has finally evened out. He usually goes to bed around 11:30/12 and sleeps until 5:30/6, eats and then goes back to sleep until about 9. He stays awake until lunch time then naps for about 4 hours. He usually eats twice between then and bed time.

Physically he is developing very well. He can hold his head up by him self while sitting up and he can hold it up pretty well while on his tummy. I just know any day now he’s going to sit up and take off crawling then it will be LOOK OUT WORLD! HERE COMES LEVI!

Here are some random pictures of our family

Daddy & Bo

Mommy & Levi

Mommy & the boys

Bo “shaving” like Daddy

Levi’s smile

Levi had his one month doctor’s appointment on the 16th and he was deemed perfectly healthy He weighed 12 lbs, 8 oz and was 22 inches long. I’m sure he’s grown even more since then. He has already outgrown newborn size clothes and some 0-3 month outfits as well. In other news since his belly button finally healed Levi got his first official bath on Friday. He doesn’t seem to care for water very much but he did very well overall. Here are some pictures:

Here’s a picture of Levi and Daddy in one of the Shiloh fire trucks.

Levi spends most of his time asleep (of course) and his favorite place to sleep is the swing. He does fairly well at night, waking every 2-3 hours to eat, then he usually goes right back to sleep. Sometimes if he’s had a particularity restful day he will want to stay up till 12 or 1am or even later, but thankfully those days are few and far between.

Levi’s first doctor visit was this morning and he is doing very well. The doctor was very shocked that he has gained a whole pound since being released from the hospital on Sunday - so shocked they re-weighed him twice to make sure! On Sunday he weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and today he is 8 lbs 6 oz. Needless to say breastfeeding and Levi agree He is also jaundice-free and in great health. We don’t have to visit the doctor again until he is a month old.

Big Brother Bo and Little Brother Levi meet and become fast friends. On the first day Bo didn’t care much for the squirmy little Levi but we previously arranged for the boy’s to exchange gifts. Bo gave Levi a stuffed doggy and Levi gave Bo a train for his Thomas train table (James seen in pictures below). The train gift quickly won over his big brother and the next day when they visited Bo asked to hold Levi.

On Sunday as we were getting ready to leave a nurse told us about a fun thing called “Hand Hugs”. Bo wanted to lay with Levi and give him hand hugs. Levi turned it into hand kisses which Bo loved!

Here’s a funny picture of Bo playing in the nightstand while we waited to be discharged from the hospital.

Well we are home and somewhat settled in so I thought I might go back and tell the whole birth story of how Levi came into the world I had a doctor’s appointment Thursday morning so Aunt Erin was nice enough to keep Bo for me since Chip had overtime for the day. The doctor was very concerned with Levi’s amniotic fluid levels and wanted me to a) be induced or b) stay at the hospital for constant monitoring over the weekend.  He explained it as the lower his fluids the weaker he would be and might not be able to withstand the birth if he was dehydrated, etc.  Knowing it would be a L-O-N-G weekend sitting at the hospital waiting for something to happen we decided to go ahead and have my water broken. We did decided however that this is where the medical intervention would stop (no drugs, etc. to speed the labor).

So I headed home to pack my bag, and Bo’s so he could stay at Aunt Erin’s house that night.  Chip met me at home and we headed back to the hospital.  We checked in and were given the same delivery room that Bo was born in (the hospital has been remodeled but the delivery rooms are the same rooms, just nicer) so that was kind of neat.  I had a group-b strep test two weeks prior and the results were positive so they had to administer 2 doses of penicillin (4 hours apart) before they could break my water (so Levi wouldn’t be in danger of getting it).

Around 6 pm they gave me my 2nd dose and the doctor broke my water at 6:05 pm.  Labor progressed very well and without any drug interferences I started pushing at 2:34 am and he was born at 2:39 am (five minutes of pushing YAY!). As you can see from the pictures below Levi was born with a full head of dark brown hair, the Brooks nose and looks very much like Bo did upon arrival.  He is perfectly healthy (praise God) and I’m feeling pretty good too (tired but good).  We came home yesterday (Sunday) morning and today we’re taking it easy.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes and congratulations!

Well were all excited about getting a cool 3D Ultrasound of Levi on Tuesday but of course the little stinker was face down and apparently asleep because he refused to move.  Ugg!  We did get a great view of his spine, liver, kidneys and heart (all from the back) and the doctor said Levi is perfect and healthy YAY!!  But oh what a let down after being so excited to see his precious little face in 3D.  If I hadn’t had a good hold on those emotion-boiling-over pregnancy hormones I probably would have cried.  Doc says I’m fine too - weight is good and all that jazz.

In other baby news we went shopping for summer newborn size clothes (Bo was a winter baby).  I spent this morning nesting rearranging the boy’s room and I think I have it the way that will work best but only time will tell.  Carters was having a clearance sale and we found Bo a “Big Brother” shirt to wear when Levi comes.  We also got Levi an adorable leaving-the-hospital outfit that is puppies (complete with hat and puppy socks).  I had forgotten how baby stuff just kinda takes over and if I remember correctly this is only the beginning, but I’m loving every minute.

Our family attended the open house of the brand new maternity care center at Athens Regional where we will deliver Levi..  The place is just beautiful and I’m so excited!  During the open house the nurses showed us around and one really nice nurse let Bo take pictures.  It was so amazing that he knew how to work the camera!!  He knew just which button to press and how to aim it and everything.  They have renovated all the old delivery rooms and we were amazed to see the changes they have made since we had Bo.  We even got to see the room he was born in.  It would be kind of neat to have Levi in the same room, but since all the rooms are equally nice I’ll be fine no matter where we are besides I doubt I care very much about anything other than the delivery.  The postpartum rooms are twice the size of the old ones and it will be nice for Chip to have a real bed to sleep in instead of a chair.  We all had a great time seeing where “baby brother will be born” and it made his impending arrival all that more exciting.

Not much to report on the farm-front except that Bo’s pet chicken Sophie isn’t a chicken after all, but a rooster!  She’s not a she, but rather a HE!  *He* crows very badly proudly and struts like *he* is the stuff but the best part is *he* is still the nicest out of the whole flock!  (I have to specify *he* because I still keep calling him a she and I don’t want to hurt his feelings so I’m trying to stop.)  Some of the hens are mean and I stay away from them for the most part but Sophie (no we’re not changing his name) lets me hold him and lets Bo pet him too.  Chip says the hens might start laying eggs around the end of August.  We were not counting on having a rooster so we will have to be careful to pick up all the eggs so we don’t have any chicks.  Since we have no clue what breed Sophie is we probably wouldn’t be able to sell the chicks and I don’t want we don’t need anymore.

The garden is growing pretty well.  We have WAY too many carrots and the okra plants have to be checked daily so the pods don’t grow to large (and hard).  We have lots of tomatoes coming in also.  The corn and onions haven’t done well at all, but we are thankful for everything we have gotten so far.

Bo is still very excited about going to ride Thomas and we are counting down the days (two weeks from tomorrow).  I drew a little blue train on the calendar and showed him how the boxes stand for each day we have to wait to go ride Thomas.  He didn’t look too happy to see so many boxes between now and then, but he is being very patient and good about it.

Well that’s about all the news I have for now.