Look Who's 1 month old!

My Sweet Luke,

You are 1 month old today! I can hardly believe it! You have brought so much joy to your Dad and I! How do I even begin to tell you how much I adore you? I don't think it's possible! Well my sweet boy, I love you more than anything in this world and don't know how I have ever lived without you! Thank you for allowing me to love you more than I ever thought was possible! You have even made me love your daddy even more, he is amazing! Thank you buddy!

What are you up to:

~ You are 11lbs 15 oz

~23 1/2 inches long

~You still have your days and nights a little confused and sleep your best in the early mornings

~You LOVE to eat! You eat about every 1 1/2-2 hours during the day and about every 2-4 during the night.

~Your favorite place to sleep is on the Boppy! Your co-sleeper and our snuggle nest for our bed don't compare to the Boppy!

~You have such dark hair still! Your daddy jokes with me all of the time about how all of my genes are taking over in you. Little does he know, you look exactly like him! (in my opinion)

~You are wearing mostly 3 month clothes, as well as some 3-6 months (depending on the brand)

~You are in a size 1 diaper

~You love to be held, and what mama doesn't love a snuggly baby!?!?

~When you are sleeping at night in your snuggle nest, you love to have either dad or I's hands wrapped around you. You love to feel touched at all times!

~ When I sing to you at night, you like to get as close to my face as possible. You calm right down and just stare at me....I love those moments!

~Your eyes are still a dark blue, but daddy is convinced they are going to turn brown...we will have to wait and see!

~You, my love can poop like nobodies business :). You probably have at least 10 poopy diapers a day! The doctors say that now you could start going days without pooping, but I have a hard time believing that!

~You don't love sleeping at night, so we are trying to get a schedule down!

~Putting you in your car seat is heartbreaking! You cry so hard when we put you in it, but then once we pick you up, you are just fine and usually asleep!

~You have acid reflux and I blame myself for this and I am so sorry babe. I have reflux as well and they say it is a genetic thing.....I am praying yours goes away soon!

~You make the best faces. You have your old man face where you scrunch it up, you have your smiley face, and my favorite is your pooping face. When you are pooping or have gas you put your lips together and make an O face. It is SO cute!

~We are starting tummy time with you! You have such a strong neck already and move it back and forth!

~We have not gone many places yet, just a few places to run errands. We spend our days at home and I love it!

Thank you my sweet boy for being such a blessing!

Love,

Mama

A-Z all about me

I thought this could be fun...I should be writing Thank you cards instead........oh well!

A-Z, all about me. =)

A. Age: 25

B. Bed spread color(s): Cream and Black

C. Chore you dislike: Dishes...and laundry....I don't mind actually putting the laundry in the washer and then the dryer, it's the folding and putting away that I HATE!

D. Dogs: Yes, we have 1 dog. Mr. Bear Mallaire!

E. Essential start to your day: Putting my glasses or contacts in..lol, I am not an everyday Coffee drinker, but I usually need to start my day off with some nice cold water!

F. Favorite color: It depends for what. I love pink for a lot of things, but I would never paint a wall in my house pink, I also love green, turquoise green! But when it comes to clothes...Black all the way( only because I somehow think it is more slimming...but honestly you can't really hide the love handles and roles that well, especially now after having a baby...)

G. Gold or silver: Silver..... But I am really not apposed to Gold.

H. Height: 5′ 7”

I. Instruments you play(ed): Never have played an instrument....I always wanted to play the flute, and I would love to learn to play the guitar and piano...maybe one day!

J. Job title: Mom, Wife, Teacher

K. Kids: Luke- 3 weeks old!

L. Live for ______: God, Nick and my little man!

M. Most embarrassing moment: Probably the time when my foot fell asleep at a restaurant and I didn't notice until we got up to leave and I fell flat on the floor, twice! hahah

N. Nicknames: Bre, Nik, Babe, BreBee

O. Overnight hospital stays: Just when Luke was born!

P. Pet peeves: When people know that a lane is about to merge into one lane and they keep going in front of everyone! There are about 5978907 more things that people do while driving that drives me bonkers, but Ill just leave you with one!

Q. Quote from a movie: " If you're a bird, than I'm a bird" ( I think that is how it went, I dont remember and I am not taking the time to look it up)

S. Siblings: I have an older brother and Sister. I am the baby!.

T. Time you wake up: Well lately its been about 12am, 3am, 5am, 7am and so on! one day we will have a schedule!

U. Ultimate vacation spot: Hawaii is my favorite place I've ever been too! (Maui to be exact)

V. Vegetables: broccoli, Carrots, most veggies really!

W. What makes you run late: Not getting up early enough! And now it's because I have a baby!

X. X-rays you’ve had: On my teeth for the usually cleaning/checkup

Y. Yummy food you make: oh gosh, I guess Fettuccini

Alfredo!

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Giraffe

Well that was fun! Happy Weekend!

Breastfeeding and breathing

I honestly have had a hard time writing this post. Before I was even pregnant, I always knew that I wanted to breastfeed my babies. There was no question about it! But, I never realized how hard it can be :( I know that breast milk is the absolute best thing for Luke and I plan on continuing to breastfeed, but to be honest, I am struggling. He latched on right away which was great, but my little man is hungry ALL THE TIME!! I don't feel like I am producing enough milk for him! There are times when he will be so hungry that he goes crazy trying to latch on, moving his head back and fourth so fast and hard that is scares me that he will hurt his head! Nick and I call him, "Wild Man" because he goes crazy!

I try to pump a few times a day to help with my supply. I don't know if it has helped or not. We have given Luke a bottle in the middle of the night (with my breast milk) after he nurses for a little while, but is still hungry ( oh and I don't need to hear that it is not good to give a baby a bottle so early, and that it will interfere with breastfeeding, I've already heard it, and frankly I am doing what I feel is best for Luke and Me) That is what I am struggling with most. I DON'T want to have to give him a bottle at night. I want to exclusively breast feed, but there are times when I know he needs more. Ugh...I never knew it could be so hard, but I am doing to do whatever it takes to do what is best for Luke!

On to my next topic.....breathing.... I never knew babies can have such weird breathing patterns. I was not told this at the hospital, or anywhere for that matter! Luke is almost 3 weeks old and he still has certain breathing patterns depending on what he is doing. If he is awake he has a normal breathing pattern, if he is asleep, but not in a deep sleep his breathing is crazy! There are even times when he will hold his breath for about 5 seconds....talk about giving a new mama a heart attack! When he is deep asleep he will breath soft and normal. I know there is not a manual when it comes to being a mom, but boy I am one big stress ball! I knew that I worried a lot before having Luke, but I have reached my all time high now! SO stressful!

* I wrote this post a couple days ago, and I have to say breastfeeding has gotten a little easier in the last couple of days. I know that it takes time, and I am proud to say that I have stuck with it and am feeling a little more confident with his feedings! Thank Goodness! Being a new Mama is stressful and I am glad that the little "bumps" are starting to smooth out a bit!

Happy Friday everyone! We are hoping for a nice relaxing weekend! Its supposed to rain here in Phoenix.... and we all know that we LOVE us some rain!!

~Breanna

My Miracle

I title this blog post as "My miracle" because what I am about to write is the most precious, God given miracle a human being can receive...... My sweet son, Lucas Ryan Mallaire. Here is our story, the story that God created before I even knew it was coming....

Being pregnant for close to 10 months is tough. I am not going to lie, I had my days where being pregnant was a challenge. I was extremely sick for the first 5 months. Having a full time job and trying not to throw up was hard! But as hard as some days were I LOVED being pregnant! I loved watching as my stomach grew bigger day after day. The sweet movements I would feel from him was one of the best feelings I ever experienced. I felt like my body was doing what it was created to do...growing a baby. Every day I was experiencing Gods miracle inside of me.

As my due date was approaching, I was beginning to become anxious. I was so excited to meet my little man, but I honestly was a little scared of what was about to come. Not scared in a bad way, but scared as in, "Can I do this?" I was about to bring a human being in this world, and I want to be the best mom to this boy as I could possibly be. My very purpose in life is to be the best wife, and mom I can be. I was hoping this was possible.

On Wednesday, March 16th I had my regular scheduled doctors appointment. There had been talk about how big Luke was going to be from day one. I always measured bigger and my ultrasounds determined he was a big boy. What were we expecting?..... my husband was 11lbs and some change! Of course we were destined to have a big baby! When the doctor came in and did my exam, it was very routine. I was dilated 1cm and that was it. Nothing to be too excited about since it can take a while to dilate. We talked of where we were going to deliver when the time came we scheduled our next appointment, not expecting what was coming that night...

After the appointment, Nick and I went and had breakfast. We ran a few errands and spent a good 2 hours in Babies R Us ( that was becoming a ritual for us those days). When we got home I made dinner. At this point in the night I was starting to feel a little "crampy" nothing extremely bad, but a little uncomfortable. I remember telling Nick that I was starting to feel a little different, but it was hard to explain how. As the night went on I started to become even more uncomfortable.

WARNING: Now is where I start talking about yucky stuff, so if you don't want to read about it, then stop! :)

At about 8:00 ish, I went to the restroom and noticed that I had lost my mucus plug...fyi, that is the worst word ever...I hate the word mucus...yuck! and I was also bleeding. The only position that was some-what comfortable was on our computer chair at our desk in our bedroom. Every time I tried to lay down my "cramps" got worse. I tried to get some things done around the house, and concentrate on what my body was telling me. About an hour later my "cramps

were getting worse and I finally admitted to myself and Nick that I thought I was having contractions. Now since I had lost my mucus plug, was bleeding and was having what I

"thought" was contractions, I decided to call the on-call nurse at my doctors office to ask them their opinion on how long I should wait to go to the hospital ( since we were having him in Scottsdale and we live in Avondale). The doctor that I talked to said that I was probably only bleeding from my exam that day and that I should not go to the hospital until my contractions are 5 minutes apart and I am in ALOT of pain. So we waited. I sat at the computer trying to get through my contractions. I downloaded a nifty little app on my iphone that times contractions, so I started using that every time a contraction came.

When I started my contractions were about every 8-9 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds. As the night went on my contractions started coming every 4-5 minutes. At this point I was extremely uncomfortable and told Nick that I think it was time to go to the hospital. My water had not broken yet, but I knew that what I was feeling was very different than my every day pregnancy symptoms. We got all our stuff and headed out of the house on our way to the hospital! The drive is about 45 minutes, so needless to say it was quit an uncomfortable ride. All I could do was breathe and grab on to the seat handles every time I had a contraction. I like to think that I was handling them pretty well, but who knows!

We got to the hospital around 10:30pm. As we were riding the elevator up to the 2nd floor, all of a sudden I could feel liquid leaking out of me! I started laughing and told Nick, " I either just peed myself or my water just broke." When we got to the check-in, they had my registration already and sent me straight into the triage room. I got into the room, changed into the spiffy gown and tried to breathe through my contractions. The triage nurse was soo nice! She put those pink and blue monitors on my belly right away and we could hear our sweet boys heartbeat. The nurse checked me again and I was still only dilated to a 1. WHAT!! I was a little disappointed because I was terrified that they were going to send me home and I was not sure how I was going to handle the pain if they sent me home.

The nurse then asked me if my water had broken yet. I told her that I thought it broke in the elevator but wasn't sure since it wasn't a whole lot of liquid. She decided to test me to see if it had broken. When she was done checking all of a sudden a rush of liquid came out and I was sure that she had finished breaking my water for me. I told her that I think my water just completely broke, she checked me and said, "Well you are right, it did. Guess what you are staying with us now!" I was relieved since I knew they were not going to send me home! At this point I had decided that I wanted an epidural! I wimped out pretty quickly, but I was so uncomfortable, and needed some relief!

Now I was in my delivery room, getting all settled in. The doctor that was going to do my epidural was in my room already setting up all his stuff! Talk about getting things done quickly! He gave me my epidural and I was all set! The nurse that I had at the time told me that this is the time that I should try to sleep. So sleep is what I tried! Unfortunately the epidural decided not to work on my left side. I was still feeling every contraction on the left side of my body. Not fun! They had me turn to my left and lay on that side for a while to try and get the medicine to move to that side. It was not working! A couple hours went by and I was still feeling everything. She decided to check to see if I had dilated any more and when she checked me she said, "No wonder you were feeling those contractions so bad, you are at an 8." The nurse decided to up the medicine in my epidural. It still didn't fix it. So she upped it one more time and a few hours later it finally worked! I was relieved!

By now it was Thursday, March 17th- St. Patricks day! I was excited to think that we were going to have our sweet Luke on such a lucky day. With him being Irish and all, it was a perfect day to bring him into this world! At about 6am my nurse came in and decided that I needed to switch from side to side to try and get Luke to turn. He was head down but he was turned the wrong way. I did that every 30 minutes for the next couple of hours.

At around 8:00am the nurse came in checked me, I was dilated to a 10 and asked if I felt like I was ready to push. I couldn't feel anything, only pressure. From this point on I started pushing with every contraction. The pressure was increasing with every contraction and was becoming really uncomfortable. In my mind I knew that labor can last a long time. I knew that if could be hours from now until he came, or he could come any minute. With each push, I pushed as hard as I could. I wanted him out, and I put every ounce of my strength into each push. I didn't want to be pushing for hours!

After about 5 or so pushes the nurse told me to stop pushing! WHAT stop pushing? For all you moms out there, once you are pushing, it is really, really hard to just stop pushing! The doctor was not there yet and they needed me to stop until she got there! ahhh! The pressure was so intense that I was about to go crazy! Fast forward about 20 minutes, the doctor got there, I pushed a few times and he was out!!!

Lucas Ryan Mallaire was born at 9:58am on March 17, 2011! He was 9lbs 8 ounces! It was the best moment of our lives! He cried right away and it was such a wonderful noise!

I feel blessed beyond belief how smooth my labor went! Luke has become such a part of our family already and we can't imagine life without him!

I will be updating more often about our sweet boy....I hope you join us! Life is good, and I am excited for what life is all about being a mama!

~Breanna