4 Month Adventures

This past month has been a busy and wonderful one. We had a weekend with family coming to visit us and see the wildflowers, we traveled all over for Easter weekend, we went to see family in Corsicana for a picture for MiMi in the bluebonnets, and we made a long trip to Oklahoma for GrandGrammie and GrandPaPa's 60th Wedding Anniversary. In the midst of all that craziness I lost my phone, and a ton of pictures and videos. I learned a lesson the hard way.... back up the videos and pics on your phone!

So here are the pictures that remain....or that I borrowed from other peoples facebook :)

This is the bluebonnet photo for MiMi. Look at all those beautiful grandkids, she is blessed!
This is Titus playing with his beautiful cousin Kaylee.
That's the whole fam on Easter. I had a great one of him smiling on my phone.... so sad.
Some more cousin love from Jordan Easter morning.
Titus and my Aunt Jan in Oklahoma.
These next pictures are all from my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary reception. It was an absolutely wonderful party. I am so glad we went, we saw so many family members, and celebrated a truly great love!
Titus with my mom's Aunt Polly and Aunt Ada. They were so excited to see Titus.
Titus and my mom's Aunt Iris. She loves babies!

Titus and PawPaw
Titus and my cousin Mary Katherine. I think he looks like he could be her child.
That's me giving my baby some kisses....mmm... he loves those kisses.

Developmentally Titus has gained some new skills this month.
He can now grasp toys.
He almost always sticks them straight in his mouth!

He also has fallen in love with his toes. He grabs his toes all the time.
I think this is so cute.
We have also gone swimming several times this month. He really likes it, and I love it because after swimming he is soooo tired.


Oh yes and he hasn't lost that cute laugh and chuckle.

Counting the blessings of this past month leaves me feeling overwhelmed with gratitude.
Grateful for so many things but mainly for the wonderful gift of family.
We love you and thank you for sharing your lives with us.

Titus is 3 Months Old!

eTuesday April 5th Titus turned 3 months old. It seems like he has been a part of our family for years. It's weird to think it has only been 3 months. He has changed so much, our family has changed so much, and in such a short period of time. Yet, it is has been such a natural process. Wow God has a beautiful design for life. It is so wonderful when you let Him write your story. Before I get carried away back to Titus...

So much has changed this last month!
He has lots of new skills.... he is rolling over, if you want to see it you can watch the last post.

He also now giggles. Keith discovered that he does this while playing "rough".

He loves to lock his knees and stand up.

Here he is standing up on Keith's lap watching his cousin Little Mark's baseball game. He was very intent on watching the game.

He now is tolerating "tummy time" and holds his head up very very high.
He also enjoys the exersaucer, I think that is what it is called. We got this from a neighbor for free!

The "bumbo" chair is also a new favorite.

Titus went to his first wedding this month. Here he is all dressed up. I have to say he is quite handsome.

If you can't tell, Titus has added much joy to our house!

He still has his moments, but don't we all?


And for those of you that love to hear babies talk ( like me ) here is a short video of one of his many gab sessions.

Roll Over....

So I probably should save this for the three month post.... but I just can't. Titus shocked me this morning when he rolled from his front to back. I thought surely it was a fluke thing... but oh no... he has been doing it all day. Look how cute he is! It is so fun to watch him grow and change.

2 Months

Saturday March 5th Titus was 2 months old. This is hard to believe. This past month has been very smooth and fun. He has started to gibber gabber and I absolutely love hearing those sweet little noises. For this post I have put up some short videos of his very cute new skills. You may not think they are special, but as his momma I am just amazed!

Titus now smiles often, this very big goofy smile. He even does it on command for Keith. Watch and see.

Remember that noise making giraffe from my last post? Well not only does it make him sleep... he also talks and dances to some of the music.

Isn't he cute and determined?
Last thing... he has started eating his hands... ALL the time! Any help on how to stop this? We already use a pacifier but he will spit it out and then stick in his hand.
We are so thankful for the joy this little one has brought into our life. I can't wait to see what these next months and years have in store!

Momma Now Knows (but didn't before)

So it's weird, I know, but I am now a mom. There a many wonderful friends and family who helped me transition into this stage of life with lots of advice. There are also many things I learned from friends blogs after they first had a baby. So I am here to do my share.... share the things I didn't know but quickly learned being a momma. If you are soon to be a mom, or one day hoping I hope this helps. Every baby and every family is different, but here is a piece of what I have learned so far.
Baby Essentials:

My Breast Friend
No it's not a typo.... that's what it is called. And for the amount of time I use this pillow a day I would say it's an appropriate name. When I came home from the hospital I had a boppy and well it didn't make things that much easier. Then I went to a lactation specialist and she made me try one of these... and well friends, it's a life saver! It makes breastfeeding so much simpler, and well more comfortable.

White Noise Maker

This little giraffe was given to us about two weeks after Titus was born. A friend from Keith's work said it would help with Ty not sleeping. This little giraffe makes different noises. The white sound noise calms babies and lulls them to sleep. Sometimes in the middle of the night Titus will wake up fussing and all I have to do is turn this guy on and Titus is sound asleep before we know it. I so wish we would have had this those first few nights!

The Magic Swaddle
This is it not on Titus.
This is my sweet boy all wrapped up.
So this thing really is magic. Keith is former army so he can swaddle and swaddle well, but our little boy had his arms out of those hospital blankets in no time, which means he was waking up in no time. So the magic swaddle totally keeps his arms inside most of the night. It is hard to explain how it works. If you want to know go to their website it has lots of really cool videos.
http://www.miracleblanket.com/

This momma has learned much much more... and will share in post to come!

The First Month

Today Baby Titus is one month old.
In ways it seems like it has been a really long month, then in other ways things have flown by.

It is crazy how much you can learn about a baby in the first month. Baby Titus loves to be held, well not just held but snuggled. I call him my snuggle bug. Titus is a fighter. We went through blood sugar issues, feeding issues and now he has RSV. Through all of this, he has not been a whiny baby but a strong baby. He doesn't fuss even when feeling totally awful. He just lets you know very clearly when he needs something. The term don't wake the baby doesn't really apply in our house, because when Ty is sleepy, he sleeps and nothing is going to stop him. Ty looks like Keith. Even the way his forehead wrinkles. I think the cutest similarity is the space between his big toe and his other toes. Oh but it does look like just maybe Titus got something from his momma, blues eyes... but we will have to wait and see.
Keith as a baby

Baby Titus

Titus has also proved that he knows some things, like who his momma is. He loves to turn his head in the direction of my voice.


This month I have been reminded how much God cares for and delights in me. When Titus is sleeping so sweetly and I can't stop staring at his little face and smiling, these lyrics play in my head " you dance over me" I truly believe God does the same awwing at His children, and takes just as much pleasure from us. He "dances over us."

I have also been reminded of what a wonderful man God gave me. Keith is a great daddy. He is very intentional about being a dad. He won't miss a doctors appointment. We discuss how we are going to do everything. I love that the baby is not just my thing, but that it is ours. He has been very supportive and just plain fun to be around.

As a family we have been so blessed by others. We had wonderful friends come visit us at the hospital. Family has made the long trip to see Titus. The church family has so graciously provided meals for us. With all the little health issues so many have come along side us in prayer. With all these wonderful things my heart can't help but overflow with thanksgiving. We have been loved so well. This is why God designed community. This past month could have been really stressful on our family, but I can confidently say it was a time of blessing instead. So thank you to all the sweet friends and family out there that have loved us so well.

At this moment baby Titus is in a nasty battle with a respiratory virus called RSV. We are almost one week into it. It is supposed to last 2 weeks. It has been so hard to see my baby cough and struggle to breathe. Please continue to pray for his healing and wisdom for Keith and I. Hopefully at the 2 month update we won't even remember RSV.

Titus Aaron Becker - The Birth Story

Announcing Titus Aaron Becker January 5th 2011 3:53 p.m. 8 lbs. 8oz.

I totally intended to update to blog earlier, but well things have been crazier than we expected. Today I will share our birth story and then my next post will be on the crazy week that followed.
So Tuesday January 4th Keith and I went out to dinner at Kerbey Lane for our last date. Then we headed to the hospital to start the induction process. At 8 the nurse hooked me up to the monitor to see the babies heart beat and contractions. And surprise to us I was already having contractions 3 minutes apart. The doctor came and would not give me the medicine to start softening my cervix because I was already showing signs of labor. Keith and I tried to explain that my body had been contracting like this for weeks, causing me to get no sleep, and that I still had no progress. But the doctor was not convinced so she said if I had still been contracting at midnight and had no progress they would start the Cervadil. Around midnight I was still only one centimeter and at 80 percent effacement. Then they gave me the cervidil which is supposed to make your cervix softer and increase contractions. At 5 am they checked me again and even with the Cervadil there was no progress.
At 7 am they started the big bad potocin. At this point after being anxious all night and not sleeping I was ready to get things started. At 7:30 my doctor came and checked me and I was still at 1cm. She said she would like to break my bag of waters to get things going. I asked her to wait, and she said she would come back in an hour. At 8 am I had to go to the bathroom and Keith was helping me get out of bed and my water broke on it's own, at first I didn't know my water had broken, I thought I peed on my self and started crying. But then Keith helped me realize that I hadn't peed on my self that my water had broken. I stopped crying and was excited.
After my water broke I started to have real labor contractions that hurt. This is when Keith was such a help to me. We walked the halls, rocked in a rocking chair, and changed positions often. At 9 am they checked and I was at 2 cm, finally a little progress!
Sometime after that the baby turned and I went into back labor. Labor went from bad to unbearable. Breathing through contractions became much more difficult and concentrating became even more difficult. During all of this I remember is praying "Lord please help me not to faint." I was telling Keith to count, and whenever I heard 6 I knew the contraction was on it's way down hill. Back labor felt like someone had a hammer and was beating my lower back, no exaggeration. I actually bit Keith at one point, I know, awful. At 11:30 I asked the nurse to check me at I was only at 4 cm. She said that was good progress, but that was not good enough progress for this momma, then I started balling and asked for an epidural. The nurse said she thought I could finish naturally but totally supported my request. So with the blessing of Keith the anesthesiologist came and I got an epidural. After the epidural I could still feel when I was contracting, but no longer thought I was dying. Then for the first time I relaxed. They turned me on my side every hour to help the baby turn.
At 3pm I was feeling some pressure and asked the nurse to check me. And to our surprise she says "You are 10 cm and ready to push." That shocked us .... for the first time labor went faster than expected. Then nurse went to get the doctor and Keith went tell all the family. My mom and dad and Keith's mom and sister Shannon where all in the waiting area. They though Keith was kidding when he said I was ready to push. But it was no joke.
The doctor came around 3:15 and I gave one good push and she said it looks like we will have a baby in 15 minutes. I was like what?? I thought you had to push for hours... but no... this baby was ready to come out. So then we waited for all the staff needed to get there and a little after 3:30 we started pushing for real. I don't feel like I pushed very long at all. I remember the doctor saying three more pushes then one push later out came our baby boy. I was shocked! I expected a huge baby with black hair, and got a large but not huge baby, with blonde hair. Keith was in shock, and I mean shock, that God had given him a son. The first thing I said is "My baby is cute! Is my baby really cute or is just because I am his mom?"

So here are some pictures. Enjoy!

These are the proud grandparents aka Grammie and Paw Paw!

Titus, his MiMi and Keith.

Titus and his aunt Shannon.

Look at that long body.

This is my favorite!
Titus had a beautiful scream!
My next post will detail the very long and stressful week that followed. Thankfully God protected Titus and our family, and he is now doing well, but only after many prayers and doctors visits. Oh yes and my mom was here to help.... wow what a blessing!