Bennett Russell King

Who has time to blog with two kids?

Bennett Russell was born Sunday, 10-10-10 at 1:10 pm via C-Section.

9 lbs 8 ounces
21 inches long

We love him and are enjoying every second of holding, kissing, and loving this new darling.

My sleepy loves

I took this picture via iPhone yesterday. Aren't they sweet?

It reminded me of one of my first favorite pictures of them together.

Bennett at 30 weeks!

I had a routine Ob appointment this morning. She had told me previously that she wanted to do an ultrasound at this appointment, as I have fluctuated from measuring right on to measuring several weeks ahead.

I had asked my mom and sister if they wanted to come for the ultrasound today. By the time it was all said and done, the room was filled with my mom and dad, my sister, my niece and nephew, Russ, and Campbell. The sweet ultrasound tech was so gracious about all of us, and it blessed me so much to have so much family there, already loving our son.

I have had some moments lately of feeling nervous about whether or not he is still a boy. I think the fact that we didn't actual see any boy parts at our 20 week ultrasound (since we did the surprise thing), but only took the tech's word for it, I had been feeling less confident about it. Thank goodness he is still a boy. Everything else was great. Bennett looks perfect and cooperated with the tech so we could get some new pictures of him.

After the ultrasound, Russ and I saw the doctor. Bennett is already measuring 4 lbs, 1 ounce. She said he is in the 68% among his peers at the moment. She estimated that once he is full term, we would be looking at a 8 - 9 lb boy!

These aren't the best quality pictures. I scanned them in and didn't bother to fix/crop/straighten them.
Two feet and a hand. These limbs have been hanging out at the top of my stomach towards my left side. When I asked the tech what was poking me right there 23 hours out of the day, she took this picture.


Sweet face.

Bennett's "parts". Lots of confirmation that he is, in fact, still a boy. (yes, Russ was proud :)




This picture is a little hard to see, but baby boy already has a head full of fuzzy hair. In the next picture you can also see the hair on his head sticking up.


Another sweet face picture. His little nose looks like Campbell's to me (cute little turned-up nose).

I had told Campbell last night that we were going to the doctor today, explained about the ultrasound, and told her we were going to see pictures of Bennett. She responded "I don't go. I stay home". She watched the screen the whole time during the ultrasound, but clearly didn't understand what was happening.

Creepy Creepy

I've never been a big fan of private blogs. It's a pain to sign in...and what about the people whose blog I'd like to read but feel weird asking permission?

Today I got on the blog and went to the list of posts. I noticed there was an extra comment that was not there before. It was inappropriate - more like disgusting. Frighteningly directed at my sweet little girl.

It took me about 30 seconds (and a call to Missy) to decide to make the blog private. As fun as it has been to make some new friends via the blog, there is no part of me that wants internet pervs looking at my children's pictures.

I feel disgusted. And mad at myself. I know what I experience day after day at work and am so on-guard in the "real world" with Campbell. I just convinced myself that the "internet world" was safe and as long as I was careful not to give too many details about us, we were fine.

No matter how much I don't like private blogs, the safety of Campbell and Bennett is not worth having people read my blog.

2 years, 2 months

I realize that 26 months is not a huge milestone, but Campbell has been so funny lately and changing so much, I figured it was time for an update. And nothing beats bullet points.

*Last night she watched a short Elmo video through twice while she was eating dinner (before you judge me, it was short. And I'm pregnant. And Russ was gone). When the credits started rolling she asked to watch it again. I told her "No baby, you've already watched it twice". She held up 3 little fingers and said, "I watch it three times!". Although she has been counting some, it was the first time she had made a connection like that.


*Also last night, her and I were laying in her big-girl bed reading books before bedtime. One of the books she picked was the "Big Sister Book", which we've read quite a few times. She opened to the first two pages and said "Someone new at our house. You know who is? It's our baby! I'm a big sister now". I was pretty tickled that she had receited those pages to me and started laughing. After that she said it about twenty more times. The little comedian really appreciates laughter.


*To continue with my previous post, potty training did not continue with the same great success that it began. Day two and three were filled with more accidents. By the end of day three and going into day four, she and I were both a mess. She cried every time we asked her if she wanted to go on the potty, was totally unfazed by accidents, and asked to have her diaper on. Feeling like we had hit a wall, I picked up one of my parenting books. The direct quote was "if your child goes on the potty every thirty minutes when you take her, but never indicates to you that she needs to go, she is not potty-trained. You are." Dang. So apparently Russ and I have this potty business down. We prayed and decided to back off for a bit and try again in a while. We put her back in a diaper. Within twenty minutes, Russ pointed out that her mood had totally changed and she was her normal happy self. Since then, several people told me they had real success when their child was closer to two and a half or three.


*Campbell has an "Away in the Manger" book. Usually we read it once and then sing through it once. The other night I started singing and she started crying after a minute and told me "No more singing!". Apparently my voice is about as bad as I thought.


*Speaking of said book, yesterday she started singing "Away in a Manger, no crib for a bed. The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweeeet head." She has the cutest, most shrill singing voice.

Father's Day & Another Year has Passed

I don't really do monthly comparison pictures/monthly birthday pictures anymore, but I couldn't help but try to get Campbell to sit in the chair in our room for a few pictures today. One of our early favorite pictures of her was on Father's Day 2008. She was exactly one month old.

Last Year

And now

She didn't want to sit in the chair, but on the floor. Girl has opinions about everything these days.

A little bribery got her back in the chair.

I can't believe how much she has grown. And that hair!?! She is a total mop-top.

Her reward? Some outside water time. Keep in mind it was about 7:45 at this point and we are sticklers for our 7:00 pm bedtime.

"I need more wadder"

Russ is very proud of the plant life he's been salvaging. Our sago palm in the front keeps having these little mini palms sprout up underneath it. Russ plants the mini plants and tenderly dotes on them.

And not to be left out, the other member of our family. This is basically my view these days.

I really wanted to get a Father-Daughter picture on Father's Day. I probably shouldn't have waited until 8:00 pm at night, when she was in the middle of playing with the water.

Oh well. Happy Father's Day to my guy and the best father I could ever hope for my babies.

What's in a NAME?

Before Campbell was born, we had a boy's name picked out that we LOVED. While we were thrilled to have a daughter, we both automatically knew we would put the boy's name on the back burner only until we had another little one.

Bennett Russell King

Bennett has been in my family for a long time. My dad's middle name is Bennett, my precious grandmother is Bennie Jean, and her dad was named Bennett. In addition, apparently there were a lot of cousins/brothers/uncles in my great-grandfather's generation that had Bennett as a first or middle name. We are so excited that not only do we love the name, but it has so much history. AND baby boy will grow up knowing he was named after my wonderful father.

Russell is, obviously, Russ's first name. While he was not interested in having a junior, I love the idea of naming our baby boy after the best man I know.

So there you have it. We had struggled some with another girl name and are excited we have been able to use the two names we love the most on both of our kids!

The big reveal!

Monday was definitely a day I will never forget!

Monday morning we woke up and headed to drop Campbell off at my mom's house and get to our big ultrasound. Truthfully, I was somewhat of a hormonal mess. I struggled and prayed through the morning with fears about the health of the baby. SEVERAL times I tried to talk Russ into finding out the gender and surprising everyone with it that night. He was totally adamant that we would not!

Thankfully, everything looked great with baby King #2 at the ultrasound. The techs were delighted to be part of the fun of the surprise and did everything they could to shield our eyes from any "gender revealing" parts! We saw the doctor briefly and she looked over all the measurements from the ultrasound and said things look great. They paid especially close attention to the kidneys and renal arteries, in light of Campbell's illness, and said things look perfect at this point.

I had the envelope in my purse for the day, and surprisingly I wasn't at all tempted to open it. I'm not going to lie, it was torture to wait, but it felt a little sad to open it by myself and find out when I was alone. The last couple hours before the evening drrrraaaagggged by and I struggled to entertain myself.

We headed to my parent's house around 5:30. Waiting for everyone to get there felt like it took an eternity. As soon as everyone had arrived, we took group pictures with the boy predictors and the girl predictors. Obviously Team Blue far outweighed Team Pink!


My nephew, Gregory, made this sign-up sheet for everyone to sign.


Then it was time to open the envelope. Ready, set, go!


When Russ pulled out the card, this is what we saw...


And this is what shock looks like! I like that you can see Greg's arm celebrating in the picture. Gregory was all about evening the numbers.



Obviously one King is a better predictor than the rest. She said "brodder" all day and sported blue that night!


It was so fun to find out with our families and a few precious friends. I'd be lying if I said the shock of the baby being a boy didn't throw me off a little. I think the shock is wearing off at this point though. My dad keeps telling me I shouldn't be so surprised, that there are 50/50 odds!

We are so, SO excited to welcome Bennett Russell King to our family of 3!

Boy or Girl???

Tomorrow is THE day. If you've ever been pregnant, you know that the "big ultrasound" day is monumental. Perhaps only second to the actual birthing day. (That is, unless you are like one of good friends who recently waited the whoooole nine months to be surprised at birth. I do not have that willpower.)

We aren't finding out at the ultrasound. Instead, we are having a fun reveal party with our families and a few close friends tomorrow night. I actually had the idea, shared it with Russ, then changed my mind and decided I just wanted to find out at the ultrasound, only to have Russ fall in love with the idea. Dang me. I do appreciate his motives though. He is excited for this baby to have something special that is all his or her own, as no doubt he or she will be on the receiving end of many hand-me-downs!

So tomorrow, after 10:00 am, one of us will be carrying around an envelope that holds the highly anticipated secret. Please don't call and tempt me to open it, as I am positive I will be experiencing my own torment of willpower tomorrow.

My next-door neighbor and precious friend, Missy, brought me these jars this afternoon. How cute are they??

So what will it be?

Boy?

Or Girl?

6 Years Later

Today I've been married to my love for 6 years.

6 years sounds like an eternity, when some days I feel like we got married yesterday!

When I think back to what the past six years have held, I am amazed at the journeys we've walked together.

Two apartments, One house (and six months with my parents!)

The last semesters of Russ's undergrad.

Two and a half years of grad school for me.

Several big "I got the job!" days.

One move from Nacogdoches to Houston.

One BIG career change for Russ.

One beautiful baby girl.

Being a part of two great church families.

Another sweet baby (boy or girl? We will know soon!)

Tears, Joy, Fears, Arguments, Laughter

Did I mention the laughter??

Russ King, there is nobody I would rather walk through this life with.

Happy 2nd Birthday Campbell Rose!

My dear Campbell,

It's hard to believe that on this day you are turning two. Two years old! It sounds so grown up, so not a baby anymore. At two years old, you are the funniest, sweetest, most darling little girl I have ever known. Mommy and Daddy are constantly proud of your sweet nature and the love you show to other people. May God continue to cultivate that sweet heart of yours and the gifts He has determined to give you. As amazing as we already think you are, we are excited to watch you become the person He created you to be.

The past year has been filled with milestones, wonderful moments, and challenges. At 13 months you started walking (out of nowhere one day!) and we endured a UTI (that came with a 106 fever!). This was mommy's first indication that things weren't quite right with you.

(First Day as a walker!)

You spent much of the summer (months 14-16) sick. You seemed to catch every virus and were never able to shake stuff off. While we had some great times in the midst of that, we became increasingly more concerned about your health. You began to pick up more and more words, fell so in love with your Jo, and became a big fan of "num-num" (soy milk).


In October, at 17 months, we began the most difficult journey we have ever walked. As I have reflected on your past year lately, I have been overwhelmed with emotions about these things we faced. In the week before you were hospitalized, you became very very sick. I recently looked at this picture of you on my phone and the reality of how bad you were hit me pretty hard.


In the weeks we spent at the hospital, you were amazing. Your sweetness was evident, in spite of the difficult things you had to endure. I will never forget you being so sick, hooked up to a million wires, laying in your bed in the PICU and dancing while your Aunt Amy fed you bites of your first meal in a week. You amaze me little girl.


On October 28th we finally received some answers and on November 2nd we finally brought you home. I would be lying if I said those first few weeks home weren't hard. You were traumatized, scared of your bed, the highchair, and being left alone for a second. Your daddy and I felt scared at every rise in number of your blood pressure, that we would end up right back where we started. Over time you showed us how resilient you are. By Christmas we were marveling at how "normal" you had become, how much more active you were than before you got sick, and how your language (and hair!) were increasing more and more.



At 20 months (January) you had a language explosion. Seriously. I have never seen anything like it. You began to pick up words at an astonishing pace, form sentences, and astound us with the things you probably knew long before you could verbalize them. At 21 months we found out you would be a big sister! Although you tell me "big sister", I know you probably don't understand. You have been wanting to touch, look at, and kiss mommy's growing belly though.


In the past few months, you have become increasingly more like a big girl. You form sentences that amaze us, understand the world around you so much (lots of pretend play!), and look more like a kid than a baby. You are still the sweetest girl, although we have learned that you are somewhat of an introvert.


We are so proud of you little girl. Not many children go through what you have in their second year of life. You have shown so much joy in the midst of things that were remarkably hard and continue to grow into an amazing little person. We are blessed that you are ours.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy