Big boy hair cut!

Titan's hair was starting to get really long.. so we have been trying to convince him to get a hair cut. He is not a fan at all of getting it cut, though. So we usually fight him every time. It is usually Arek or I who is cutting his hair. He does good in the beginning, then is a pain once we are trying to finish. Finally, Arek asked him if he wanted to get his hair cut at the barber shop like daddy. Titan thought that was the coolest thing and finally agreed.. he was very excited. So we took him to the shop at the PX. I can't lie.. I was pretty nervous for him. I thought he was going to cry, or get scared or throw a fit even. None of the above happened. He was such a brave and big boy. He sat in the chair with the cutest smile on his face the whole time. He was very proud of himself. As he should be, he did great :) & Of course he looked so handsome with his new hair cut!

Mr. Mom ♥

Arek has been amazing, not only during this recovery time for me but during the pregnancy as well. After going into pre-term labor I was put on strict bed rest. Which was really hard for me. I have OCD, I like cleaning my house. I like everything done my way and I'm not one to sit on my butt for any period of time. Of course, with Liam's and my health at risk I did my best to follow all the strict rules. During this time it added a lot of work on Arek. Thankfully, he pushed hard and was able to get 12 days of leave so that he could stay home and help out with the house and kids until Harley came in to town. It was great having his help.

Ever since Liam was born he has been even more amazing. Now, I didn't have much choice but to lay in bed or on the couch majority of the first three days I was home. I had spinal headaches from my spinal tap which got worse any time I sat up or stood up. It was the most painful and horrible headache I had ever had. So I was more than willing to stay laying down as much as possible. He cleaned the house, took care of the kids and made sure that I had anything I needed twenty four seven. It meant the world to me. I know he had to be worn out and exhausted but always put us first.

I couldn't ask for a better husband or dad to our kids. He always provides for us, works his butt off and when needed takes over all the home duties, too. From bath time, to laundry, to dishes, to cooking dinner. He took care of it all during leave. I was definitely spoiled with not having to do much! It was amazing having him home for paternity leave. We are now sad that he is back to work and trying to get back into the routine of things.

Thank you to my amazing hubby! You are my rock, my best friend and the best husband and dad in the world ♥

Liam's first bath ♥

Of course he had to have more of a sponge bath then a real bath because of his umbilical cord and circumcision. He absolutely hated it. He cried the entire time and was not a fan of being wet or cold. So we rushed to get him clean as fast as possible. Liam is quite the pee'er already. The funny thing is.. as he was being born he came out peeing on all the nurses and doctor. He had his first diaper change peeing on daddy. He didn't dare miss peeing on everyone during his first bath! Although he miss aimed and got only himself this time! Haha. He of course did not like that at all either.

He has yet to loose his umbilical cord so it's still sponge baths for him and he hates it. I am hoping that once he can take a regular bath and be able to soak in the warm water more that he will start to enjoy it. Until then we make bath time as fast as possible. The whole time we were giving Liam his first bath MaKenzie and Titan were standing right there helping where they could and asking lots of questions. They were both concerned their brother was screaming and crying. The love they have for him already is precious!

Our first week home!

After two days in the hospital I was more than ready to come home with Liam and be with Arek and the kids again. MaKenzie and Titan were so excited to bring us home. They were sad they had to sleep at home without us and were anxiously waiting to show Liam our home and spend more time with him. They both wanted to hold Liam and love on him. It was priceless to watch them help hold him, feed him and MaKenzie was even interested in helping change his diaper. They are both very sweet and caring with him.

Our first night home was a little exhausting. Liam being born at night had his days mixed up. His day was night and his night was day. So when we went to lay down for the night. It seemed like Liam woke up every single hour. So, the next day we tried to mix up his schedule. We kept him awake as much as possible when he woke up so he didn't fall right back to sleep. Thankfully it worked and ever since our nights have been going great! He wakes up usually at 3am and 6am for a fresh diaper and feeding. Then he is awake for the day sometime after 9 or 10am. Definitely nice getting a lot of sleep each night :) MaKenzie and Titan also love their sleep so our days usually start about 9:30am. We are going to enjoy that for the next few weeks before MaKenzie starts school again and it's back to 6:30am wake up calls!


Liam had his first doctor's appointment just a couple days after leaving the hospital. He then weighed 6lbs. 13oz. He seems so tiny. I love having a newborn. I wish this stage could last much longer than it does. It seems that in the blink of an eye they are turning four and six years old! Liam has a lot of hair like MaKenzie did. So far it hasn't fallen out to bald like Titan's did. It is thinning out though. He has the baby deep blue eyes that we are hoping stay and change into the same as MaKenzie and Titan's. Although they have had the same exact eye color Titan's are starting to change and sometimes his look shades of green like Arek's. Either way.. they are all three absolutely gorgeous :) It is going to be hard to keep the boys away when MaKenzie gets older but I'm glad she will have two brothers to help with that! Also, I know both Titan and Liam are going to be Ladies men but glad MaKenzie will be there to keep them in check!

We are now a family of five! It still doesn't seem real. I stare at Liam in Awh of him and amazed at how absolutely precious and perfect he is. I can't believe that he is really here with us now. It's also crazy not to be pregnant anymore, but such a relief! Of course, I have been an emotional wreck over the situation though. A lot of happy tears but sad tears, too. I am sad that this is going to be our last baby and I am just trying to enjoy every single second of it. Also sad that not matter how much I cherish every single day.. the years just fly by. I wish there was a pause button or at least a slow down button. I want my babies to stay young forever! It's going to be insane when they hit the teen years. I can hardly even imagine it! For now, I will just cherish every moment and continue to thank god for blessing me three times with the most precious and beautiful children in the world! :)

Liam Jeremiah Brock ♥

At 37 weeks and 2 days pregnant Liam Jeremiah tried yet again to make his grand appearance. I was hesitant to go into the hospital since I had been in three times before this in preterm labor given medicine to stop labor and sent home. I didn't want to have to go through all of that again. So we waited a while. Then my contractions became a consistent 3 or 4 minutes apart. So Arek insisted on calling my doctor. They asked that I come in right away. So off to the hospital we went. After being checked in and hooked to the monitors my contractions were still 4 minutes apart. Dr. Silva came in and said that since I am past 37 weeks he was going to go ahead with the C-section since they were so close together and he didn't want me to be in labor. Then the nurse came in and my contraction jumped to 2 of them being 8 minutes apart. So she said she was going to try to tell Silva we should monitor them a little longer and he went home. After getting our hopes up I thought we were going to be sent home yet again. So we sat there on the monitor for about an hour. My contractions went to 2 or 3 minutes apart and were getting stronger.

A nurse came in with a bunch of supplies and said Dr. Silva is on his way.. we are going to need to go ahead with the surgery. Absolutely made mine and Arek's night. We couldn't be more excited or anxious to meet our baby boy! So before I knew it.. they had me prepped and ready for surgery. It had been almost four years since my last c-section. I was extremely nervous and didn't exactly remember how the surgery went. Arek held my hand, smiled, joked and distracted me as much as possible. It helped so much having him right there by my side. After lots of uncomfortable pressure at 9:00pm on July 9, 2011 I heard our baby boys first cry! Of course I cried, looked up and Arek was crying. It was such a precious moment. Seeing Arek's huge smile and listening to him describe our baby boy and how proud he was was absolutely priceless. After what seemed like forever they brought him to me to love on snuggle and kiss. He was absolutely gorgeous and perfect.
After the surgery, Arek followed Liam to the nursery to get checked out, weighed and bathed. Liam Jeremiah Brock was a 7lb 7oz bundle of joy. He was 19 3/4 inches of perfection :) I had to go to recovery but after a half an hour Arek and Liam came back to the room. Seeing and holding Liam skin to skin was priceless. We got to bond together the three of us and it was great. All the months of hard pregnancy and being uncomfortable or in pain were suddenly not important at all. Every second was completely worth it.. just to be able to hold him in my arms. After bonding Liam had to be taken back to the nursery. He swallowed amniotic fluid while he was coming out and it caused his respiratory rate to be high. Sadly, he had to be monitored over night. Of course we just wanted him to be healthy. So MaKenzie and Titan came back to the nursery with daddy and said goodnight to him since by this point it was almost midnight. It was hard visiting him in the nursery only and having him hooked up to monitors and an IV. I stayed in the nursery most of the time because I did not want to leave his side! The next morning MaKenzie and Titan came back with cards they had made for Liam and got to bond with him! It was priceless to see their reactions to their new baby brother. MaKenzie was just as motherly as she was with Titan and was in absolute awh of him. All she wanted to do is kiss and love on him and tell him how cute he was. Titan was also in awh. He just stared at him and smiled and touched him gently. He kept saying "Liam's awesome!" He gave very gentle kisses and was so precious with him. Seeing the three of them together I couldn't help but cry. I am so beyond blessed with the beautiful and precious kids and I could not ask for more. They are each perfect and special in their own ways!

I thank god for keeping Liam and I safe and healthy during surgery. Also, for blessing me three times with the greatest gifts of all! The process of pregnancy and child birth is absolutely amazing. The miracle of a baby is one of the best miracles in the world. We are now a complete family of 5. This is our last baby and we are going to enjoy every second of it. I hope the years start to pass by slower. It seems that in a blink of an eye the kids are growing up!

36 weeks ♥

Boy has this been a tough pregnancy.. With MaKenzie and Titan I didn't have any sort of complications with the pregnancy until delivery. Mister Liam is kicking my booty. He seems to be very eager to make his grand appearance into the world. I have went into preterm labor with him three times now. The last time causing me to stay in the hospital over night. I had to take three doses of Nifedipine through out the night to stop the contractions. The doctors really wanted Liam to stay put until I was past 37 weeks. At the time I was only 35 1/2 weeks. I have also had SVT during this pregnancy which caused me to have a 280 heart rate. Pretty scary moment for me. & Low potassium which caused me to pass out. Needless to say, I am ready to have Liam Jeremiah Brock here in my arms and done with this pregnancy!

In this picture I am 36 weeks! Arek and I are very anxious and excited to meet our baby boy. July 21st is coming up fast and we can hardly wait. We have been ready for him (as far as his nursery and stuff goes) for weeks and weeks now. We know this will be our last baby and are trying to enjoy every second of it together. Even through the complications I have really enjoyed watching my belly grow and being pregnant. I love feeling Liam move around. The kids also love feeling him kick and are anxious to meet their brother!

Kenzie's 1st Surgery!

Oh how I dreaded this day. MaKenzie had big tonsils to begin with so when she got a sore throat or Strep her tonsils would swell up and look so big they always made me nervous that they were going to take up her whole air way. So when the doctor suggested she go to a specialist and get them looked at I knew he was right but I still couldn't help to be terrified. As I knew the specialist would say.. he wanted to take them out. So we scheduled her appointment after her tball season ended and school got out.

MaKenzie had been very brave leading up to the surgery. She asked a lot of questions and was nervous of course, but still said she was going to stay brave! On the morning of the surgery I fought back tears and knew I had to stay strong for her since naturally she was very nervous. I know it is a common procedure and surgery, but of course I was still nervous on what if something goes wrong. The nurses were very nice and Kenzie was comfortable right away. She got a "tonsil surgery doll" that she got to color along with a book about a boy getting his tonsils out and a few pages to color while she was in pre-op. We got to sit back there with her during this. She absolutely loved the Tonsil story.. we read it like 20 times. She related to it and the little boy got ice cream and was happy afterwards so it helped her know she was going to be okay, too.

The moment the nurses had to bring her back to the OR was when I broke down. I teared up giving her kisses and saying see you soon, but the second they took her back I bawled. It amazing how much love I have for my kids. They truly mean the world to me. She was brave though and the nurses were super nice. She said the "sleep doctor" gave her a "bubble gum sleep mask" and it all happened really fast. The great thing about the surgery was how much they kept us informed. We had a patient number for her so while we were in the surgery waiting room we got to watch the screen which updated when she was in the OR, when the surgery started, when she got to the recovery room, then when she went to post-op. We also had a phone in the lobby where we got a call from the nurse in recovery telling us how well the surgery went and how she was recovering and waking up. The doctor also came out to tell us how she did.. how brave she was before hand and didn't cry at all. Then we got another call when she was moving from the recover to post-op and a nurse came out to get us once she was there. We were very well informed the whole time and make the time go by easier and faster. I was very happy with that! The cool part too was we got a card in the mail a week later from all the nurses signing it hoping she had a smooth recovery!

In post op she was out of it most of the time. She was in and out of sleep but very happy to see mommy and daddy as we were to see her! The surgery itself was only 15 minutes long. We were only at the hospital for about four hours and then we got to bring her home since everything looked great and there was no bleeding. She stayed on the couch the rest of the day and night, but the next day she was already wanting to get up and go. She had a great recovery and the hardest part for her was waiting to eat regular. She wasn't in any pain and I had to keep telling her to rest and relax. She is now fully healed and doing wonderful. I was terrified before hand and wanted to cancel the surgery, but I knew she needed it and I am so thankful it's done and over with now! & that we don't have to worry about her tonsils anymore. She is one brave girl and I am very proud of her :) Also very thankful for insurance. Just got our bill for this surgery in the mail that tricare covered and it was $12,000!!