The Apples of My Eye

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Brandi & David

Most of you know I am a member on the justmommies.com boards. I frequently visit my February 2008 board and the April 2010 board. I shared my pregnancy journeys with these women as they have with me and we now all share in mommy-hood together and chat about whats going on with our babies which are all the same age. There has been a tidal wave of posts sweeping the entire site about a couple named Brandi & David. They recently lost their baby (on Saturday), born sleeping at almost 21 weeks. This couples story has touched my heart so much. They have been trying to have a child for many years and this is their 4th loss. She gave birth to twin boys at 20 weeks, born still in 2007. And then suffered another miscarriage the next year. This baby, Evan - was to be their miracle baby, conceived with medical assistance and due to be born September of this year. Brandi started bleeding on Friday and gave birth to her still born son on Saturday the 15th. They were praising God every day for this baby, and now he is gone. It is so very sad.

This is their personal blog: http://www.icanmakeangels.blogspot.com/

Here are some intimate photos she shared with her September 2010 due date sisters from Saturday.








My heart just breaks for this couple. I am posting this to ask for all of your prayers for them, and also to pray that the baby they are trying to adopt will make it's way to them very very soon. They need that baby so much to help heal their hearts.

The ladies on her board are taking up donations to help cover their funeral cost for baby Even. I have donated $100, and if any of you feel it on your heart to help please send your donations paypal to Astrid who is heading this up. Her email is: divinedcakes@hotmail.com

You can follow her story on justmommies with these links:
http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1976408-bleeding.html
http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1977386-just-heard-brandi-and-her-husband-we-need-prayers.html
http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1978853-update.html

http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1977789-brandi-and-evan-update-5-15-10-11-22-am.html

http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1979284-evan-navarro-born-today-to-heaven.html

http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1980021-pictures-evan-and-brandi-not-all-evan-just-little.html

http://www.justmommies.com/forums/f1294-due-date-club-september-2010/1980620-donations-for-brandi-and-david-update.html

1 Month

Jack is now 4 weeks and will be one month old tomorrow! He has grown so much and is changing all the time. He has outgrown newborn diapers and his newborn clothes are getting snug. He smiled at me for the first time this week and he also rolled over from his belly to his back yesterday!
He can get up on his hands and hold his head and upper body up really well. It just amazes me how strong our little guy is. He did really well 4 nights in a row with sleeping the entire night, just getting up to eat every 3 hours. Unfortunately we had a road bump last night and he was up for 3 hours fussing from 10-1am.

He has went from nursing each side every 3-4 hours for 15 min. each to nursing each side every 2-3 hours for 5-8 minutes each and now he is eating every 2-3 hours from only one side for about 8 minutes. He still is sleeping a lot but is awake much more than he was a few weeks ago.
He has about 3-4 hours of alert awake time during the day now. I am hoping to get him in to public health to get his weight and height checked soon. I was hoping to do it today during Ryan's lunch break but he had a lunch meeting today. Maybe Monday. I will update with that info once we get him in to get checked.

Lydia is doing great too. Her lip and gum are all healed up. She is really getting into Strawberry Shortcake lately and is always asking to watch her on the "tiny TV". She rarely even asks for Pooh anymore! She is speaking so well and talks in complete sentences most of the time. She has been so good with Jack and is very sweet to him. She likes to put her favorite toys next to him and cover him with a blanket. She absolutely loves being outdoors. Daddy took her fishing last weekend and she had a blast. We will definitely be enjoying the weather this weekend by getting outside. She has pretty much outgrown all her 18month clothes, the pants and shirts are all getting too short. I need to get her some 24month summer clothes, a new swim suit and size 6 shoes. I am really looking forward to taking a trip to Denver with the kids late this summer/early fall. I want to take Lydia to the zoo and the aquarium, I think she would just LOVE it now that she is at an age where she knows what things are. Lydia still takes a nap every day from about 2:30pm-4:30pm. I try to get Jack fed and settled around that time too so that I can lay down while they do to catch up on some sleep. Lydia's favorite toys right now are her tea party dishes. She also loves to clomp around in her princess dress up heels.

Ryan and I are doing weight watchers online together. I started a week and a half ago, Ryan just started this week. So far it's going great. I had went on it a month before finding out I was pregnant with Jack and I had lost 15lbs. It seemed so easy and the food was great. All the recipes we have tried so far are awesome and it doesn't even feel like we are dieting. I lost 7.5 lbs the first week, not sure of the progress this week since we weigh in just on Mondays. I know most of that was probably water, but it's nice to see the scale go down either way. I am hoping to reach my goal weight by Christmas of this year.

Ryan has been driving our car to work for the last month since his truck isn't drivable at the moment. He is in the process of building a new gas tank for it an it has taken quite a bit longer than expected. It will be pretty cool when it's all finished though since it is custom. He is staying busy with work and his truck.

My friend Erica welcomed her 2nd child into the world today via c-section. Miss Lynsey Anna was born at 9am weighing 6lbs 8oz and 20 in long. Congratulations Renney family!

2 Weeks Old

Jack turned 2 weeks old on Thursday, it's hard to believe that it's been 2 weeks already, it feels like we just brought him home. At exactly 2 weeks old his cord stump fell off and we gave him his first full bath the day after. He hated EVERY minute of it! Jack absolutely hates being naked, cold or having his diaper changed. He is growing bigger every day, I am excited to see how much he has gained in height and weight on the 6th when we go to his first checkup. He eats about every 3 hours morning and night, some nights he will sleep a 4 hour stretch. He is pretty content as long as his belly is full.

Lydia fell going up the stairs today and got a big fat bloody lip. She had a mouthful of blood and at first I thought maybe she might have lost some teeth. She had tripped and bit her bottom lip pretty bad. Poor girl! She is having trouble eating things and drinking out of a straw because of it, and that makes her cry. I hope she heals up quickly.


We received a beautiful handmade quilt in the mail today from my Aunt Karen. It is just gorgeous!! I love the colors, pattern and the stitching, and most of all there is a patch with all of Jacks birth info printed on it. How special. I will take some photos of it and post them soon. Thank you so much Aunt Karen!!

Here are some photo's from the last week:

After Jack's First Bath