Marcus is 4!!!!

This post is WAY behind, but everytime I have decided to write it, The pictures would not upload... so it finally worked this morning so maybe I can get caught up! Marcus is 4- WHERE THE HECK HAS THE TIME GONE!!!!! I still remember seeing him for the first time and saying "he is honestly so cute!!!" Here is a picture of his cake before I baked it. I tried this out and I loved how the inside looked after it was baked, the outside- Not so much!!! I dont think I will attempt decorating a cake again!! haha!!!
I decorated the house the night before(I did not get any pictures) We woke up and I made bacon (his favorite food) and confetti pancakes (they were disgusting and had WAY TOO much sugar)

We picked up Marcus' buddy, Brinlee, and went to lunch at McDonalds. We met up with his other good friends, Taya and Kamden.

Here is a picture of all of them!! They had so much fun!!!!

Here is a pic of the inside of the cake

and Rusty and Marcus sword fighting at the end of the night!!

Marcus has been a real BIG struggle this yr!!! We thought we got off lucky since he did not have a terrible 2 stage... but OH MY HECK!!!!! this child went from an angel to the complete opposite!!!! It has been a HUGE battle with him!!! He does not listen and throws the hugest fits!!! We honestly don't know what to do with him!!!! If he is tired, it sounds like world war 3 in my house!!!! But when he is not in a bad mood, he is the sweetest thing!! He LOVES his brother SO much and loves to play with him!!! It is fun that Bryce is getting more interactive becuase Marcus LIGHTS up when he laughs or plays with him!!! Marcus still loves his shows and movies!! He is loving soccer and LOVES T-ball! He has been a struggle, but I love this guy more than anything!!!! I can't believe he is 4 and a little boy!!!!!!!

T-Ball

Marcus has started Tball!!! I have to admit i was SOOOO worried- we signed him up for a basketball camp and it turned out to be a NIGHTMARE with him..... He wanted NOTHING to do with it, he buried his head into either Crispin or my side.... we could not even get him to dribble the dang ball.... after going through that and the frustration of trying to get him to participate... I was not looking forward to this and I would not have signed him up if I had known he would act like that... well his first practice was this last week... I explained to him a head of time that he will be in the field with his team and mom and dad cant help him out like in basketball.... we got there and he got his jersey and hat and he started to warm up to the idea... He was first to bat and as soon as he got the batting helmet on, HE WAS READY!!!! I was SOOOOOOOO relieved that he was trying!!!! and the entire practice his just had a huge smile on my face- I sat on the side just smiling as big as he was because I was SOO happy that he was enjoying himself!!!!
Here he is batting- I am not gonna lie- he has a hard time hitting it off the stand, but if we pitch the ball to him, he hits it 95% of the time!!!

Big Brother

Marcus is seriously the BEST big brother, EVER!!!!! It amazes me how much he loves Bryce!! he has gotten in trouble a couple times for hurting him- but only a couple times.... If Bryce learns something new, Marcus' face just LIGHTS up and he gets SOOOO excited for Bryce and always says "Good Job Bryce!!!!" it is seriously the cutest thing!!! Here are some pictures of my 2 boys!!!

SOOOO precious

Can I just say how much I LOVE Bryce????? He seriously has made my heart grow SO much bigger!!! One night he was having a hard time going to sleep-- so I held his hand and he calmed right now and fell asleep so fast... I honestly sat here for a good 30-45 mins just letting him hold my hand cause I LOVED every second of it!!!!!!

Swimming

We went down to my parents a couple weekends ago to go swimming, and it was Bryce's first time! He loved the water... he was completely content just sitting in the pool!!! and Marcus can now swim without and adult holding onto him the whole time!! Thanks to my dad for working with him and teaching him!!

I hope this video works... but it is both the boys in the pool

OOOOHHHHHm Poop!!!!

This is NOT for the weak stomach people........ Bryce just can't seem to keep his poop in his diaper...... We have had several messes to clean up...... Here is one....

And then this one happened the day before......

It was AWFUL!!!!!!! I grabbed Bryce and headed upto the bath tub and Crispin cleaned the carpet.... Our downstairs smelt bad for a couple hours....... Bryce should be VERY proud of himself!!!

Apple Annies

I am SO behind on this blog- about 6 weeks to be exact- so I will try to catch up because it has been a busy 6 weeks. This is right after Kara was born. Rusty asked me if we wanted to go down to Apple Annies to pick fruit and corn... It is about a 3 hr drive and SOME what close to Rachels house. so we decided to go so we could also meet Kara. We have the same picture below but of Grant hold Marcus.

Here is Bryce cooling down in the truck!!! I think this was his favorite part!!!

These 2 boys are SO close... I think the best part of this whole trip is when we got there both Marcus and Grant screamed each others name and ran up to each other and hugged. they truely love each other!!!!

We were able to pick peaches, apples, corn and tons of other produce items!!

I really do wish i lived closer to Rachel so the boys could see each other more often!!!! they have so much fun with each and I love that they play so well together (most of the time)!!!!!!

2 Month Follow up

This post is a little late since Bryce is now 2 1/2 months old. But I still need to get it done. Bryce got his 2 months shot, that was NOT a pleasant week for me!!!!! But while at his appointment we learned so much about Bryce, he has acid reflux, BAD!!!! the dr gave me some medicine to help with it, and OH MY GOODNESS, Bryce is a different kid on it!!! He is happy and smiles and talks to me. Before the medicine, if he was awake, I always wanted to pull my hair our cause he was SOOOOO cranky!!!! But now I am loving his personality more and more!!! He also mentioned how his head is going flat on the right side and its causing his ear to move so they are not even. He gave us some home stretches to do the next 2 months and when we go back for his next follow up if he has not gotten better- we will talk about getting him sized for one of those kid helmets. Its so funny when I tell people about it, they are always like OHHHHHH I am so sorry, and they seem like it is this huge ordeal. I guess with everything we have gone through with Bryce, I have just learned to roll with the punches and if he has to wear a helmet, I would prefer to get it over with now, going into the cooler months. That would just be miserable to wear it while its 115!!!! He has started sleeping better at night, He usually wakes up at midnight, 3 or 4 and then ends up in bed with me around 5- till Marcus wakes up. I can handle this schedule!!!
He stats were: weight- 11 lbs, 14 oz, height 23 inches. both of those are the 50th percentile. Marcus was 14 lbs and a half inch shorter at 2 months, lol!!!!!

Bryce really is such a SWEET baby!!!!! He loves just being held and cuddled!!! he LOVES LOVES LOVES sitting on my lap, if we are leaning back, he can pull himself to be sitting straight up all by himself, talk about some strong abb muscles!!!!!!! we bought one of those mats that you lie on the floor that has toys hanging above them, and just this week he started playing with them, and he can hit those toys hard!!!!!!!!! I seriously love this little guy sooooo much, and i am not going to lie- I am glad we are past the first 2 months!!! I start enjoy them much more when their personalities start showing and they start to conform to a schedule!!!

The picture below, Bryce and Kara are the same weeks apart are Marcus and Grant. We have the same picture but with Marcus on Grant at this age, I need to get it off my other computer and do comparision shots.

This picture shows how much Bryce grew in 8 weeks, except he was even smaller than Kara, I think she got down to 6 lbs, Bryce went down to 5 lbs, 10 oz.

8 Weeks

Bryce will be 8 weeks on Tuesday!!! I would LOVE to say he is such a good baby, who is happy and sleeps through the nights...... Not so much! He is SOOOOO colicky!!!!! He LIVES on gripe water, it helps half of the time and the other half---- We want to pull our hair out!!! BUT when he is awake and in a good mood, he is soooo much fun!! He started smiling and coo'ing and it is SOOOO cute!!!!!! He is up 3 times a night (on a good night) so I have been trying to adjust to about 5 hrs of sleep, anyone who knows me, knows that I NEED my sleep!!!!! So I struggle during the day and when nap time comes- I have to work, so I cant squeez a nap in, luckily on weekends, I take Bryce to Crispin at about 6 and I get to SLEEP!!!!! I was never going to be the mom who let her kid sleep in the swing, but sometimes that is the ONLY way I can get sleep at night!!!!! Marcus was an easy baby, so it has defiantly been an adjustment!!! He is a very cuddly baby!!!! He will just lay on your chest and just look up at you!! that is my favorite time!!!

He looks like he is bald, but he still has hair!! It is just so fine and it sticks straight up so you can't see it in pictures. He is outgrowing most of his 0-3 month onesies!!! We like to call him thunder thighs, becuase they are huge!!

Once we switched him onto the Alimentum formula-All hell broke loose!!! He throws up a LOT and its so sad cause after he does, he just gasps for air as he tries to clear to stuff out of his mouth. I hate when it lasts a couple minutes cause he struggles so hard and it just breaks my heart!! He is down to throwing up about once every 2 days. I luckily know the signs and can try to get my best to get him in a good position. I can have heard people say they have had hard infants and will never have kids again.... I always thought, not all kids are the same.... I know am one of those persons! not that we were going to have anymore- but man, I.AM.DONE!!!!!!

Pre School

I can't believe Marcus has started Pre School!!! He has been twice and he LOVES it!!!!!! He started a couple weeks early cause his teacher is having a baby in September and taking a couple weeks off, so she is just starting them early so she can get everything in. We are very lucky that we know the teacher and it makes it that much easier dropping him off with someone I know. The first day when we were driving there I was telling him his teacher was going to be Mrs. Jamie, he wanted nothing to do with her, he wanted to go to Jessica's house (his babysitter)!! But after that first time, I think he now understands what is going on. On the second day going there, he was sitting in the back seat singing "I'm going to preschool" over and over till we got there. He has said there is a mean kid in his class, but I dont know if Its just a story if there is a bully. Marcus will either defend himself pretty fast and show that kid who the boss is or he will just take it, who knows!!!!!
here he is sitting at his seat!!! He was SOOOOOOO excited when he saw the classroom!!

Later that day- he came home and dropped something and said "Dammit" he has said it before and he thinks it funny- so I put soap in his mouth and explained that that is a dirty word so I have to wash his mouth out. I am pretty sure he learned it from the movie Tron!! The soap did not really work though, that night when it was bath time, he put the soap back in his mouth and said I have a dirty mouth and he thought it was funny..... Maybe I will try pepper next time, lol!!!

Ugh!!!!!!

This formula pictured above is what Bryce has to start eating..... and just in case you are not familiar with it, it cost $30.00 a freaking can!!!!!! It all started on Friday when I noticed some bloody mucus in Bryce's stool. He had it for the weekend and then it went away. Well last night it came back. So I called his Dr and he had us come in. He has an allergy to milk products so he wants us to put him on this formula. Poor Bryce has just had a rough life so far... I am hoping he starts to conquer all this stuff and can just be a healthy baby!!! I am also BEYOND grateful that my dad works for Similac and that I can order it directly from them and save me a little money.... I still can not comprehend how a place can charge that much for baby formula.... sounds RIDICULOUS to me!!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!! here is to hoping life will slow down in the Pixley Home......

A Rough Start

Poor Bryce has not had a good start!!!! Last Tuesday night we went to bed and when he would wake up to eat, I noticed he would not latch on and so I would give him a bottle and he still would not hardly eat the bottle. We woke up Wednesday morning and I was telling Crispin about it and I rubbed my had over his head and it felt pretty warm to me. I told Crispin I was just paranoid but to get the thermometer instead, We took his temp and it was 99.7. So I called up our Dr and we headed straight in. He was quite alarmed by his systems. He is usually very loud and laughs and jokes through the whole appointment, this time- he did not. He sent us out for blood and urine tests and then to get chest xrays. those tests literally took us almost all day to complete! But we got the results back that afternoon and everything looked good. He said he probably just has a virus but if his temp hits 100, we needed to get him to the hospital. So we started giving him tylenol every 4 hrs! the hardest part was in the night, he would wake up to eat and then I would have to wake up an hour later to get him his medicine on time. But his fever never hit 100, so I kept us what I was doing. Saturday rolled around and his temp never even hit 99, so we thought we were in the clear and he was getting better. Sunday we woke up and Crispin was holding him and then he laid him down to sleep and he was just squirming and making noises and just looked uncomfortable. So I picked him up to see if he would stop and he just squirmed in my arms and felt pretty warm to me. I took his temp and it was 100. so I told Crispin we needed to go, Right then, Marcus decided he did not want to cooperate or anything, it took us about 15 minutes of fighting with him just to get clothes and shoes on him! We went to a hospital down the road from us and there was NO waiting. we checked in and when we went to the waiting area- a nurse was there ready to take us back. They got us back to triage and we waited for the Dr, he came in and said that Bryce would be admitted to Cardons Childrens Hospital, but before they transported him, they would do a couple test. We had more chest Xrays done, and then they needed to do a spinal tap. I took Marcus out of the room for that and Crispin stayed. I could hear Bryce screaming in the hall way and I can only imagine what Crispin went through being in the room with him!! I felt SO bad for both of them. They tried 3 times and were not able to get any fluid. Then they needed to do the IV, 2 different people tried and poked him about 7 times before the called down the nurse from the maternity ward. She decided to go into his head. I could not watch- it was honestly so sad!!!! after they had it in, I could not even look at him without getting lightheaded. at this point, the ambulance was there and ready to take us.

We had 2 guys in there with us and they were both really pleasant. the guy that sat in the back with me was a chatter box!! It helped take my mind off things, but he did not lack for words. When we got to the hospital, Crispin was waiting for us (the ambulance driver drove like a grandma!!!) we came straight upto our room. I think this was the point where it hit me how serious it was. The nurses where dressed like they were going into a surgery, they had on face masks, gloves and a gown covering their scrubs. They checked him over and then we waited and waited for the Dr. he finally came in and said he wanted to try the Spinal tap again (the nurse stepped in and said he was the best and never misses) he looked at his back and said the other Dr aimed too low and that is why he was unable to get any fluid. Both my and Crispin agreed to it, but neither of us could watch him go through that again. We just told him to take him and get all the tests done and bring him back. The Dr came back later and said he was able to get the fluid on the first try.

This has been a REALLY hard thing for me to go through!!! I have stayed strong but when I am alone here, the reality of the situation kicks in. I miss Marcus SOOOO much!!!! He is my buddy and I only get to see him once a day and depending on how he is acting, depends on how long they get to stay. I try to sing 'I am a child of god' to Bryce, but every single time I try, I get maybe 5 words in and I just start crying and I cant do it. Crispin has been amazing through all of this. He has taken work off to stay home with Marcus and that helps me here. Marcus was beyond traumatized when we had Bryce and we were not there, and so this way he atleast has his dad there and can stay some what in his routine. I have such a wonderful husband that would do anything for us, and I am beyond grateful for him!!!!!

We are hoping to be able to go home tomorrow. I am ready to get out of this place!!!! The staff has been wonderful and this is an amazing facility, but I can only take so much of being away from my whole family! I am ready to get home and get back into the swing of things and have a healthy baby boy!!!! I am grateful for everyone who has reached out to us. It helps knowing that so many people are aware and care about Bryce!!!!

Bryce Alan Pixley

Well he is finally here!!! Here is a LONG post of the story. On Saturday my mom was here and we started to clean my house... we washed walls, base boards and just cleaned. I woke up Sunday and did not feel good at all.... All I wanted to do was sleep!!! I maybe spent an hour outside of my bed!!! then on Sunday night my upper back had this sharp pain, like in my rib cage area, like someone was just holding a knife in there.... That pain lasted all day Monday and on Tuesday, my lower back started hurting. I called my Dr and he was out of town and the nurse told me to go to triage... I did not want to go!! I would have felt SO dumb if they sent me away! I had called them around noon and i just kept working while Marcus was sleeping. Crispin came home and I could tell he wanted to go to the hospital... I would go through moments where I was ready to go but then 5 minutes later I talked myself out of it. Finally around 4:00 I yelled at Crispin outside that I was ready to go and we better leave now before I change my mind. He came in the house and was getting stuff together. I told him not to do that because they were going to send us home. I did not even let him bring the camera. we got to the hospital about 5 and I saw 2 pregnant people walking out, I was relieved and told Crispin ' atleast I wont be the only one.' They put us in a room and the nurse came in and hooked me and and started asking all the questions. It took about 30-40 minutes. while she was doing that I was having a lot of contractions. She checked me, which was one of the most painful things I have had done. I was dialated to a 2. she told me she was going to call the on call dr. When she stepped out, I told Crispin I was literally not ready and could wait another 2 weeks for my scheduled c-section. She came back in at like 6:15 and asked if we wanted to go home or have a baby. I told her I wanted to go home, then she said 'Sorry, you are scheduled for a c-section at 7:30" I instantly started crying and freaking out. She said things were going to move fast at this point. Ya we sat around for a good 30 minutes and I had to pee SOOOO bad!!!! they finally got everything together and wheeled me to the O.R. the Spinal block was sooo not bad!!!! They got everything ready and then Crispin came in, I remember I was just freaking out, all I wanted him to do was hold my hand and the instant he did, I calmed way down. Bryce was then born at 7:55 pm. he weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. one of the first things I asked was what color of hair he had, it was black! I was hoping for a blonde headed kid but no luck!!!

Crispin's work bought all these diapers for us!!!!! I was so happy!!!!

Marcus absolutly LOVES Bryce!!! He is constantly going up to him and hugging and snuggling him!!! I need to put the video on here of Marcus teaching Bryce how to do knuckles, skin and shoot spider webs from his fingers!!! Marcus has had a little rough patch but we are trying to get past that cause he can be a HANDFUL!!!!!!!!!!

We are so in love with Bryce and can't believe he came 3 weeks early!!! He has been sick for the last 4 days and it has been NO fun!!!!! it makes having a newborn that much more stressful!!! we have been to a dr's office every single day this last week and I am ready for a couple days that we can just stay home and not worry about being somewhere at some time!!!

36 Weeks Pregnant

I have hardly been on my computer since I got my new iPhone, so it has been awhile since I have updated!!!! As you can see, I am HUGE!!!!!!! I am beyong miserable and the fact that I could still grow for another 3 weeks depresses me! I am SOOO ready to be done and start healing!!!! This pregnancy has left with ZERO energy and I am usually someone who cant sit around (unless one of my Tv shows are on). I cant wait to be able to just get up and do something without it hurting! I have decided that if I go into labor on my own, I will contemplate doing a vbac, but I will not go past 39 weeks, when they do a C-section. I highly doubt I will go into labor on my own!!!! Marcus told me today as he was laying there talking to Bryce, that Bryce said he wants to come out tomorrow, its Crispins bday tomorrow and I think that would be a wonderful way to spend it!!! :) I think I am so miserable at this point that I am having a hard time picturing me holding another baby, I dont know if I just dont want myself to get So excited only to realize I still have to be sick and in pain for another 3 weeks or what, but I have not thought about the end much!! I am not a patient person and boy is this pregnancy trying my patience!!!!! I really cant wait for the day that i get to go to the hospital and meet little baby!!!!

Bath/Slave Time

We had been outside for a while and my feet were REALLY swollen. I was giving Marcus a bath and looked down at them and thought it would be really nice to go get a pedicure. So I decided to stick my feet in Marcus' Bath.... He LOVED washing my feet and lower legs!!!! He truely is someone that LOVES helping people!!! Now I need to just teach him how to rub under my feet where they get sore ;) I love my little man SO much!!!!!