Pregnancy #2-Graham Scott Baker

Well, we were so excited to find out on March 28th that we were expecting our second baby! We were beyond thrilled and decided to share the news with everyone at Reed's 2nd Birthday Party. We had a family party at our house so it was the perfect time, except that it took everyone forever to notice Reed's Big Bro shirt! In fact I finally had to tell my Dad to read the shirt and he was very shocked and so was everyone else!

Then on July 5th, we were able to find out we were expecting our 2nd baby BOY! By the time the day arrived Reed had me convinced that it was a boy because he would only say he was having a baby brother. You could ask him, "Are you having a sister or a sister?" and he would still say brother! We decided it would be fun to have a little reveal party for the family so my sister made some cookies with colored cake balls in the center for everyone to bite into. They turned out so cute and everyone loved finding out together.

We were so excited to see this little profile!

We finally decided on a name in September. I have always loved the name Graham and Josh liked it right away, but there were several other names we considered for a while. We just had a hard time deciding. For some reason it was weird giving him a name, very different from naming Reed when I practically knew all my life that if I had a little boy that's what his name would be. But we finally settled on Graham and Josh wanted to use Scott after his brother's middle name. I think they go great together and I am totally in love with his name now, Graham Scott Baker!

This pregnancy has been VERY different from Reed's. It started off very similar, I didn't show much until 24 weeks or so (I was 25 weeks pregnant when we went to the beach in the previous post), I gained about the same amount of weight, Graham's heartbeat was always around 140 like Reed, and I measured right on track every week. With Reed I had what I would consider mild heartburn and with Graham I had a few days where I could barely eat it was so bad! Then around week 30 once I started getting bigger I started having so much pressure and I knew right away that Graham was head down. Reed was always breech and I never experienced anything like this. I have also had lots of braxton hicks contractions (a couple of nights ago I was able to time them every 2 minutes for 40 minutes) and never had one with Reed. 2 weeks ago during my 36th week I got very sick and was so sick I called the doctor and they wanted to check on dehydration. The nurse practitioner went ahead and did a full appointment and I had lost 4 lbs in 4 days and we had a little scare when she measured Graham at only 34 weeks and 4 days earlier I had measured 36. After an ultrasound everything checked out fine and Graham measured exact to the day! Once I got well, it was like my body held on to everything I ate and I got SO swollen! I did swell with Reed, but I had never seen anything like this! I am happy to report now the swelling as subsided and at least to a stranger my hands and feet look normal. I am feeling great and we are just SO excited to meet our Baby Graham in 4 days!

I can't really decide if my belly is the same size as it was with Reed or maybe a little smaller. Monday at my last appointment I actually only measured 37 weeks and I should have been 38 and 1 day. I want to guess that Graham is going to be a little smaller, but I only gained 1 lb less this pregnancy and it is Thanksgiving week (with no weigh in before delivery.....I couldn't have timed this better)! So I guess everyone will have fun guessing his size!

Here I am at 31 and 37 weeks pregnant. I took them wearing the same outfit to try to compare. I haven't been very good about taking pictures. I had taken several more in the mirror myself but unfortunately I just lost all of my pictures and videos off my phone.


Up next pictures from the 2 wonderful showers we were blessed with and a sneak peak at Graham's nursery! It most likely won't be 100% by the 28th, but it will be very close and will possibly be 100% by the time we come home from the hospital!

Reed at 2 and a 1/2

So once Reed turned two in April, the summer fun began!

The weekend of Memorial Day Reed starting telling us he needed to go to the potty, so we sent him to school in underwear for the first time and that was pretty much it! He had a little trouble for a couple of weeks with #2, but that quickly ended and he was doing great! He also learned quickly that he likes having a book while he goes potty and he didn't like sitting when he went pee-pee so we saw a lot of this.....

and this....

We still have some accidents of course, but 95% of the time they are during nap time and at home he just doesn't want to stop playing to go so we have accidents then too. Around this time he started finally counting to 10 all the way and singing the ABCs to himself, just not for us when we asked him. He started putting on his shoes by himself and this is something he still likes to do and he LOVES shoes!

In June, after showing some fear of water we started Reed in swim lessons! It took several lessons but he finally started loving it and he loved Miss Chelsey his instructor.

This summer Reed finally started watching a little bit of TV. I say that because up until this point Reed would never sit still longer than 5 minutes. I didn't/don't want him watching TV all the time, but it is nice to have him still long enough to get ready to go some where or get dinner started. Reed's first favorite was the movie Cars for about two months he watched it EVERY day after school and sometimes before! Then he started liking the cartoon Olivia, or as he calls it "Piggies." We still watch this cartoon every morning and every afternoon almost! We have a DVR full of every episode.

If we weren't outside playing or at the park, Reed loved playing play-doh and legos. He also still loved his trucks! He could tell us all the different trucks in books and when we were in the car! He would scream out dump truck, garage truck, gas truck, car truck and then he learned his farm equipment. Then he would yell out excavator, digger, backhoe! We were amazed how quickly he learned and how he could tell the difference.

Shortly after turning two the conversations began! Each month his vocabulary and understanding of what was going on around him just continued to grow! He would amaze us week after week with the things he would say, remember and do. We laughed on a daily basis at the things he would say!

Reed continued to not have much of an appetite or want to try new foods. Pretty much all he ate was chicken nuggets and occasionally turkey dogs, spaghetti or poppy seed chicken or some kind of chicken casserole. However, Reed is like his Mommy and loves his sweets. He would beg every day and still does for candy or popsicles! He also loves to drink anything instead of eating! milk, juice and sprite are his favorites.

In July, the "WHY" questions started! Everything was and still is WHY! It can be exhausting at times but we know he is learning and we have just learned to make a game out of it most of the time. Also this month while Josh traveled to Haiti I started putting Reed to bed awake. Up until this point Reed would fall asleep sitting on the couch with us and then we would put him to bed. We had taken his crib front off a month or so ago and I knew he was ready to start being able to fall asleep by himself. He did it every day at school and it was taking him forever to fall asleep watching TV every night. It took a couple of nights but by the third night there were no tears and he fell right to sleep. We would say our prayers together and Reed would go to sleep. Then on Labor Day weekend Reed got to move to a big boy bed in his new room (I need to do a whole post showing off his new room, we love how it turned out)! We had a couple of nights where Reed would show up in our room in the middle of the night, but we would just take him back to his room and he would go right back to sleep.

In August, we went to the beach and Reed loved it! We had so much fun, it was our last trip as a family of 3! We also got a new car and Reed quickly became attached to watching movies in the car. At school Reed is one of the youngest in his class and he missed moving up to a new room with the rest of his friends. So we went through a period where he didn't like going to school. In September, he was finally allowed to move up a little before turning 2 1/2 and he was back to normal. He loves his friends at school and we love his school. It is a Christian Daycare and I love him coming home singing Bible songs and seeing the bible verses they learn each week.

Lately, Reed is still very into playing with trucks, legos and his race cars and race track. He loves all things deer hunting, due to his Daddy. He loves to wear his deer camp pants, orange shirt (which happens to say Trick or Treat) and deer camp boots (camo rain boots). He has a small play 4-wheeler that he loves and plays with all the time. His favorite things to watch are still Cars, Olivia and Clifford. He still only eats chicken nuggets 90% of the time and loves his juice and milk. He is doing great in his big boy bed and lately I have been having to wake him up for school at 7:15. When he wakes up he drinks his milk and watches "Piggies" every day! He goes to bed around 8. After he drinks his milk we lay in bed with him and read a book or two, say prayers and he goes to sleep. I have to mention that Reed is STILL very much attached to his blanket that he calls his "Bye-Bye." At this point he may go to college with it! :) At school, Reed has been having quite a few accidents during nap time, so we have been encouraging him to go in the potty and allowing him to get a prize for going. He loves stopping at the gas station to pick out a treat or going to Sonic to get a drink.

Over the last few weeks we have really been trying to prepare Reed to become a big brother! We talk about Graham constantly and Reed really seems to understand that a baby is going to come out of my belly (it helps having friends with baby brothers and sisters too). His favorite thing to say is that he is going to change poopy diapers. I think he is going to be a great helper. I have a feeling we will have a little bit of jealousy but overall I think he will be very protective and love him to death. A couple of weeks ago I was going through tubs from the attic and found a lovey that had Reed's name on it and he immediately wanted it and started calling it his baby. He even wanted a bottle to feed it. He doesn't have to have it all the time, but he will occasionally ask for his "Baby" and sleep with it or carry it around. So I think we are all caught up with the life of Reed! We love this kid to death and just can't get enough of him! I will try to get a post done on his big boy room soon!

Reed's 2nd Year

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Reeds First Year

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It's really me....

Well, if you still have this blog on your Google Reader account or some how are seeing this it really is me and not a spammer! I guess I should take this time as well to apologize to anyone that has been receiving spam emails from me! I promise I have been trying to fix the account, just don't want to get rid of a 12 year old account.

Anyway, even though it may not seem important to me, documenting Reed's life and soon to be Graham's life is VERY important to me. I previously got so far behind that I just decided to stop, but I continued to jot down at least monthly what Reed was up too. So my solution now is to post links to Reed's 1st and 2nd year Shutterfly books and move forward and do my best to keep up! I don't really know what makes me think I can keep up with a blog with 2 kiddos verses one, but I am going to try.

So here it goes! Watch Reed grow up over the last 2 years through the books and then I will try to catch you up on what we have been up to over the last 6 months!

8 Months

Well, due to Reed getting sick the day I planned to take his 8 month pictures, I haven't been able to post. Needless, to say these pictures were taken 2 weeks late, but thankfully I had already jotted down his milestones on the 9th. It is amazing how much as changed since then. It is almost funny reading some of what I wrote, now knowing what he learned the following 2 weeks.

At 8 months Reed is.....

• Rolling over and over to get places and get what he wants. Still not crawling, mainly because he hates being on his stomach.
• Still no teeth
• Babbling so much more and only he knows what he is talking about
• Finally saying Da-da again at least every once in a while. He had stopped saying it for over a month.
• Said Ma-ma for the first time on November 13th, he says it all the time now...it is the BEST!!
• Much more aware of what is going on....if he sees something he wants you can't try to hide it from him, he will try to go where you put it
• Tried green beans, asparagus, carrots and squash for the first time. He liked everything except for asparagus. He hated it! I keep trying but he has hated it every time so far.
• Eating 5 bottles a day at 7, 11, 2, 5 and 8ish. He has yogurt after his morning bottle and solid foods, normally 2 to 3 cubes, after his 11 and 5 bottles.
• Loves mum mums and puffs. Doing great get puffs in his mouth.
• This is a funny fact about Reed.....he loves playing with toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. Josh's Mom works at a dentist office so we had a baby toothbrush that Reed as always loved chewing on and now he has three different brushes he chews on. He started liking toothpaste tubes when he would hang out in the bathroom with us while we were getting ready. We handed him one to play with one time and now he goes crazy to get them when he sees the toothpaste tube.


• Loves anything shiny, like silver measuring spoons or my mom's watch
• Reed will run over you in his walker. He is so fast! He now knows how to run and then coast and bang into things.
• He can jump to the moon in his jumperoo. He goes crazy in it.
• Gives five when you ask for one and stick out your hand.
• Loves tapping and banging on hard surfaces
• Started giving hugs
• Waved bye-bye to my Mom on November 17th but hasn't really done it that well again. He really thinks about it though when he sees us doing and saying it

• Still taking 3 naps a day, but I think he may be transitioning to only 2 naps.
• Still doesn't liked to be rocked. We just lay him down when he gets tired and he gets himself to sleep. Normally doesn't make a peep, sometimes he will talk himself to sleep.
• Still going to bed around 8 and sleeping great. Lately he has been sleeping past 7, usually around 7:20, but yesterday (12/8) it was 7:50
• Not waking up at all during the night, no more paci runs
• Wearing 6-9 month clothes, but they are just fitting, we will be moving up sizes soon
• Wearing size 2-3 diapers
• Will play in the floor for 30 minutes or more just playing with his toys by himself.

We decided to capture a crib picture with the crib lowered all the way down. This will be a good way to measure his growth.

This is our attempt to capture some pictures of Reed in front of his Christmas tree. We gave him the letter to try to distract from the tree.

It didn't last long....

He got it!

We never got a good picture with the whole tree, but here it is.

More first....some good & some not!

I will start with the not so good! Unfortunately, Reed got sick for the first time and it wasn't just a little stomach bug or snotty nose. He got RSV! On December 11th, which was a Friday, Reed woke up with a little cough, nothing to be worried about at all. Then on Saturday we went to Kaleb's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. He coughed a few times that day, enough that it made us wonder and I called the doctor's office just to see what they thought. Of course they said if he wasn't running fever to just watch him over the weekend and bring him in Monday if he got worse. By Sunday night we had decided that we would take him to the doctor just to be on the safe side. In the middle of the night Sunday the cough had gotten a lot worse and by Monday morning he was wheezing a little. Monday morning I had my mom meet me at the doctor's office and the doctor did confirm that Reed was wheezing, but he said it wasn't to bad and in the upper part of his lungs. He also said that Reed's ears looked perfect and clear. I was so relieved because that was my biggest fear that he had an ear infection. The doctor had us give him a breathing treatment in the office, which was my worst experience so far as a parent. I had to hold a mask, like an oxygen mask, over Reed's face for about 8 minutes. He screamed and kicked the whole time. The doctor sent us home with an inhaler to do as needed and that was it. Well all day Monday Reed was very lethargic and then through out the night his cough was horrible. Every time he coughed it sounded like he was going to throw up. On Tuesday morning I didn't know what to do but I went on to work and left Reed with my Mom again. I called to check on Reed through out the day and each time it sounded like he was getting worse. I also called the doctor's office 3 times on Tuesday each time hoping to get a different nurse that would confirm my concerns that we should bring him back in, but each time they just said if he isn't running fever he should be fine. The nurses also kept saying that sometimes the inhalers and breathing treatments make the cough worse because they break up all the mucus in their chest and make them cough more. Around 2:30 on Tuesday Reed was feeling so bad that I came home to check on him and shortly after coming home he got a low grade fever. My Mom and I just sat there and stared at him and didn't know what to do. He was struggling to breath and only able to drink PediLight because milk was to thick for him to drink and still be able to breath. We just didn't know what to do for him! My Mom thankfully is a home health nurse and had a pulse ox machine in her car, of course it is for adults but she hooked it up to Reed's big toe and the machine read his pulse ox at 93. Of course, I didn't know what that meant and Mom wasn't sure if it was reading right and she didn't know what was bad for infants, but she said 93 for an adult is not great. Finally at 4:15, we decided that we had to take him back to the doctor. I was prepared for them to just look at me like I was a crazy over protective, first time mother, but I had to do it. I just knew something wasn't right, even though I had been reassured by 3 nurses not to worry.



So we are able to make a 5 pm appointment. We get there and a very sweet, petite female doctor walks in, barely looks at Reed and says, "He has RSV!" What?? How, could he have gone from having a minor cough to RSV in 24 hours. The doctor the day before and all 3 nurses NEVER even mentioned a concern of RSV. Every mother would have remembered those 3 letters getting mentioned! She of course had the test ran just to confirm and it was positive. She looked at me and said you did the right thing by bringing him in. Thank goodness we did! Next, she looked at his ears and said both of them were infected. At this point I was freaking out, what the heck is happening to my baby. Then, she has the nurse check his pulse ox and it is 93. So my Mom's machine was right and the nurse says, "Oh that is not good!" Great, now I am scared to death. The doctor comes back in and let us know that he is a VERY sick little boy. She tells us that she doesn't feel he needs to be admitted to the hospital at this time, but he is very close to needing to be. Yikes, this is worse than I ever imagined! We did another breathing treatment in the office and this time Reed just laid there. He was feeling so bad he couldn't fight! We had to purchase a breathing machine so we could continue doing breathing treatments every 2-3 hours during the night. The doctor told us to watch him very closely through the night and if felt he was getting worse at all to take him to Children's. She said she wanted to see him back in the morning to make sure he was doing better. Tuesday night was very scary but a little better than I expected. We sat Reed in his carseat to sleep in our room. We was able to breath a lot easier sitting up. Every 2 1/2 hours during the night Reed woke up having coughing fits. At these times we would get up and do a breathing treatment on him while he slept. He never really woke up or cried during the night he was just coughing so hard it scared us to death. By morning Reed was breathing a little easier but definitely not acting like himself. We took him back to the doctor and the doctor said he still sounded awful but he could tell that he was on the upside of things and that the breathing treatments were helping. He told us to do them every 4 hours until Sunday. Reed still wasn't able or wanting to drink much milk but we did get about 2 out of his 5 bottles down him on Wednesday. Slowly, day by day Reed got to feeling better. We elevated his bed and he was able to sleep in his bed. By Saturday he was taking all 5 of his bottles again but still no solid foods.


The cough continued the week of Christmas. On Christmas Eve morning, he woke up crying and was wheezing pretty bad again. We had to do another breathing treatment and he slept sitting up in our bed that morning. The same thing happen Christmas morning and for the next two days. We decided this past Monday to take him back to the doctor again just to make sure he was really getting better. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't turning into pneumonia and have his ears checked out. He had been pulling on them a little more than normal. The doctor said that he sounded great and that his ears were looking much better just a little fluid left.



Through all this horrible sickness Reed as been a little trooper! He seriously has not cried and fussed hardly at all. After a couple of days of being very lethargic he has been back to normal as far as personality is concerned. He still is not eating much. Since the 15th he has only finished his morning yogurt once or twice and he has only had 3 or 4 whole jars of food at one sitting. We are used to him eating yogurt for breakfast and then 3 or 4 cubes (1 1/2 to 2 jars) of food for lunch and the same for dinner. The only real change has been that Reed has decided that he likes to be rocked/held while he goes to sleep now. He got use to being held while he was sick and now he doesn't like to just be laid down for naps and bedtime. Part of this is also contributed to Reed being able to sit up from a laying position now (more on that later). Anyway, for now I am eating it up! There is nothing like rocking my baby to sleep. He is just so sweet when he is sleepy. He just cuddles with his blanket and usually falls right to sleep, most of the time just a little bouncy on the couch and he is out.

This is a picture of Reed on Wednesday night (not even at his worst) getting a breathing treatment. He quickly learned that they made him feel better so he would just lay there and breath them in.....so sad. Can you see how gray his eyes are? He just looked sick just to look at him!

Well, now on to the other first I alluded to in the title. Reed has had more first in the last two weeks than any other two weeks his whole life. The first one being his firth tooth! When we went to the doctor the first time, on December 14th the doctor put the tongue depressor in Reed's mouth to look down his throat and he said, "I see your little tooth poking through!" I screamed in the doctor's face, "You do!" I know he thought I was crazy. Sure enough I stuck my finger in his mouth (probably not the best idea in front of a doctor, but I didn't think about it until it was too late) and felt a little razor sharp point. We did our best to capture a few pictures once Reed started feeling better. For the last few days we have been noticing his other front tooth right under the gums and today I am pretty sure I felt a second sharp point. He doesn't like us to try to feel, but I am almost positive I did. So Reed has 2 teeth to ring in the new year with!

Can you see the little white speck?

I mentioned that Reed is sitting up from a laying position. This has been a gradual first. I took these pictures on December 5th of Reed pulling on his bumpers trying to sit up and got himself over on his stomach for the first time in his bed.







Then Josh's Mom sent me this picture on December 7th, saying, "Look Mom I sat up by myself after my nap!"

Then two days later my Mom took pictures of him sitting up, hutch over with his head on his knees sleeping. Saturday morning before we left for Kaleb's birthday party we lower the crib to the middle level and then that night he pulled up and was leaning half out of the crib reaching for his Christmas tree in his room. Needless to say we had to lower his crib to the floor that night at 9 pm so we could put him to bed. Then the next week while Reed was sick he perfected the sitting up in the crib and on the floor (no more crunches, like on his 7 month post). We took this picture before the crib got lowered to the floor. We should have known better than to think he wouldn't pull up like this at bedtime. Reed is starting to pull up on things that aren't far above him but he still can't pull up on higher things.

Next 1st, (I told you, Reed has been VERY busy lately) Reed started clapping on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve afternoon we were just hanging out with Amy and Branden they were both home for the holidays and ended up at our house, probably to see Reed more than us, but anyway we were just having a lazy afternoon. Amy was watching Reed play on the floor from the couch and I was walking through the house as I looked over and saw Reed clap his hands together. Amy had said, "Yeah" and Reed just started clapping. Amy didn't realize that he hadn't clapped before until I started saying did he just clap! From that point forward he clapped non-stop all day! I must say it is the most precious thing EVER!! All day on Christmas he would do one little thing and then stop and clap. Now all we have to say is yeah and he starts clapping. I love it!!

This is Reed clapping in Josh's lap before the Christmas Eve church services started! Look at those little chubby hands!

Big claps!

Finally, Reed is crawling!!! This also has been very gradual, but has of today, Reed is crawling more than sitting still! Josh and I know that our whole world as parents is about to change! For some time now Reed has been leaning forward trying to figure out how to get his knees underneath him. He as always hated being on his stomach so as soon as he would get in somewhat of a crawling position he would turn over.

This is a picture of him leaning forward. This was taken on November 29th, so it has been a while in the making!

Right before Christmas Reed started pushing up and getting on his knees but then he couldn't figure out to move forward. He would kind of hopped and rocked forward. He would only try fora few seconds and then he would quite and sit up. On December 17th and 18th he started taking 2 or 3 steps forward and that continued until this past Sunday, December 28th as Josh and I watched him crawl across the living room, but he was still not moving around much. He would still mostly only take a few steps and quite. I got a call from my Mom on Tuesday freaking out because she didn't realize he was moving so much more since Christmas. He had crawled to the kitchen after her. Josh's Mom said he was moving around a lot yesterday and I was home today and he was ALL over the place. I sat him in his room and left him and within less than a minute he was all the way to me in the kitchen across the tile even. I got lots of video, but not any pictures. So on the last day of 2009 Reed officially became a crawler!

This is what Reed would do when he tried to move forward. His leg always went out to the side and he would just sit up.

Here he is rocking on his knees. These pictures were taken on December 23rd.

Our little boy is growing up to fast! He has changed so much in the last couple of weeks. He is becoming a little boy to quick. On top of all the mobility he is babbling up a storm. He added bye-bye this week. He says Da-da and Ma-ma all the time and now he has started with the "b" sounds.

All I can say is we love him to pieces!! It gets better every day!! He is the joy of our life!