Braelyn and Braxten

Now that I got Braxten's birth story on the blog, I wanted to get an update done on the kiddos and our little family of four.

Braxten: He is now four weeks old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He has been a very good baby. He only wakes up to eat once a night, if at all. If we put him to bed around 11, he will sleep until 6 ish most nights. When he is having a growth spurt, things are a little different. He loves to stare and try to figure things out. He stretches and wiggles and is starting to grin now and then-more than just gas. I will tickle his sides or tickle his cheeks with my hair and he will give me a hint of a grin. I love it! He is also starting to "talk" and coo a bit more. He will be really quiet and then all of a sudden let out a squeal and it catches me off guard. I can't help but giggle. I don't know how much he weighs. At his 2 week check up he was 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches. I look forward to watching him continue to grow :)

Braelyn: She is continuing to grow and loves being a big sister. She is 29 and a half pounds and 36 inches tall. She is a big helper, too. Braelyn will grab the dirty diapers and throw them away without me even asking her too. She will also come running whenever Braxten starts to cry. Today I was washing some dishes and he started to fuss. I heard him but was finishing the dish in my hand. Braelyn came running and said, "Mom, come here! Grab my hand. I need to take you to baby brother because he is crying!" I just had to smile and comply.

She is getting so smart! Today she did a 24 piece puzzle all by herself. She can count to 14 and sing her ABCs (Minus the J. She seems to skip it every single time...) She loves to play with all things princesses and babies, but she also loves cars and trains. She can navigate my kindle better than I can which is pretty sad. She loves to climb and jump on EVERYTHING! She is a little monkey. Her favorite TV shows right now are Super Why! and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (which is a cartoon spin-off of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood). Her favorite movie is Frozen-of course- and she keeps asking to go see it again. I have already pre-ordered it off of Disney Movie Club :) Her favorite color is pink and her favorite foods are pizza, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and PB and Js. The thing she wants to do the most is go to school. She can't wait to go and keeps telling me that she is 3 because I tell her she can't go to school until she is 3--Stinker...

Tyler and Me: We are just adjusting to being parents of two children rather than one. It is awesome and we wouldn't change it for anything. We didn't do anything for Valentine's-just got a Papa Murphy's heart pizza and Tyler gave me an Ice Cream cake. He is getting Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 if they ever decide to show up. I got them half off on Disney Movie Club. Hopefully they will be here in the next few days. I am starting to go to the gym. I love running on the elliptical. I am thinking about signing up for a 5k-possibly the one in Morgan. We'll see how it goes :)

That's it for the Matsons! Now here are some pictures because I know that is all you wanted to see anyway. P.S. If anyone has photoshop and wants to edit some pictures for me let me know! I love the ones I took, but they do need some editing.

Braxten's Birth Story

I have been meaning to write this for the past few weeks, but with two kids I am just now getting around to it. So here I go! This is Braxten's birth story.

My due date was January 19th, but we scheduled an induction for earlier. On January 16th at 7:15 a.m. we left our house with our family of three and dropped Braelyn off at my in-laws house. Tyler and I arrived at the hospital at 8 am and since I pre-registered, we were able to go straight to our room.

My first nurse was named Carol-Ann and by 9 am she had me on the pitocin drip and everything was underway. We watched season 4 of the Big Bang Theory while we waited for things to happen. Around 11:30 my doctor came it to my room to break my water and strip my membranes. I went from an almost 2 to an almost 3 just by her doing that. I got a new nurse named Cari (from Mountain Green) and she was absolutely incredible! She was very friendly and helpful and was able to keep me relaxed a bit better. At 2:30 my nurse checked me again and I was only a 3+ so I decided to go ahead and have my epidural. Dr. Patel came in within the next 10 minutes to start it. It took about 20 minutes to fully kick in, but I kept it so light I still felt the pressure of my contractions, just not the pain. Just before 4 the nurse checked me again and I was a 9+. It took me less than an hour to dilate 6cm! The epidural allowed me to relax and let my body do what it was meant to do. My nurse just let me finish dilating and wait until I felt ready to push. By 4:35 we started a couple practice pushes. Halfway through my second contraction she told me to stop because the baby was coming and she didn't want to be the one to deliver him :) She left and called Dr. Lister who got there by 4:45. She came in and gowned up while I pushed two more times, during which Tyler asked "What more can I do to help." After asking if it was okay with me, Tyler was gowned up as well. They got ready and I pushed 3 times through one more contraction. On my next contraction I pushed twice and Braxten's head was out! I loved hearing his little cry! I pushed one more time and my little man was here. They put him on my chest while Tyler clamped and cut the cord. This was the point where I could not hold back the tears. He was such a handsome little baby! I was a proud mama!

Braxten was born at 4:56 pm weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. He has been such a little joy to our lives and Braelyn absolutely LOVES her baby brother. I do have some pictures below. There is some leg showing so if you don't want to see, don't look!