Brayden Matthew Lerch

Our sweet little Brayden was born Thursday, November 10th at 4:10 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. He's a big boy! I was induced one week early. Imagine if I had gone until my due date! I would have given birth to an almost 10 lb baby! The delivery of Brayden was a much better experience than that of Addy which I am grateful for. The recovery has been much better as well. Here we are awaiting his arrival.


Here he is!




He had some jaundice unfortunately and has been under the lights for the past five days.
Addy warmed up to him pretty quick and is constantly wanting to give him kisses and see how he is doing. She has her own little baby that she takes care of as well and it has been kind of fun to watch her follow my actions. When I change Brayden's diaper, she changes her baby. When it's time for Brayden's nap, her baby has a nap. While he was under the lights, I constantly had to keep her from putting her baby under the lights as well.
Brayden is such a little sweetheart, and we are grateful to have him in our family.

Nap Time

I have been having the hardest time getting Addy to take a nap lately. I went into her room to check on her today and this is what I saw. It's hard to tell in the picture, but she is wearing 3 shirts, 1 dress, 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of panties, and two socks (both on the same foot). I even put a chair in-front of her closet. I have no idea how she got in!

I Am a Child of God

Addy sings "I Am a Child of God" all day every day. She LOVES this song! It's usually a little more high pitched and enthusiastic, but as you can see, she is busy eating and singing at the same time.

35 Weeks

We only have about a month left before this little guy is here! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Here is my 35 week picture. Is it just me or did I get huge in 5 weeks? :)

I Love To Sing

Addy is 22 months now and her favorite thing to do is sing. She sings pretty much all day long. She makes up her own little songs and she combines songs. I tried to tape her singing, but I could never get her at the right time. She has such a sweet little voice that I can't help but laugh when I hear her singing her little songs in the back seat of the car. She usually stops and says "laughin?" and I say "yes because you are so cute." So she will say "laughin? I cute!" Matt has done a great job teaching her manners and she will now say "excuse me" at all of the appropriate times. He also taught her the word "fart"(typical dad). The other day she said "I fart, say excuse me". It just made me laugh to hear her say that. She is still doing great with the potty. She has only had one accident since I last wrote and it was actually my fault. We were at the store and for some reason she always says she has to go potty the second we get into a store. She had already gone before we left the house, so I didn't believe her when she said she had to go, so she had a little accident. I don't think she will regress once the baby comes, but you never know. She's really into it right now. She has even been taking her baby and her lamb to use the potty as well. I don't mind that she takes her toys to use the potty, but it does result in frequent "baths" for them. She will run down the hall with them and hold them on the potty and say "Go potty? A try? Did it! A job!" (she starts most of her sentences with "a") The other day I heard her say "it's ok, got you, got you" while her baby sat on the toilet. I often say this to her because she get's a little nervous sitting on the big potty. She is at the stage where she copy's EVERYTHING I say and do, so I have to be really careful. The other day while I was putting her in her car seat I accidentally pushed the panic button on my key and muttered under my breath "stupid car" and what do you know, Addy has been repeating that phrase over and over again since then.
We took her pick out her own pumpkin the other day. She loved it! We found a perfect little pumpkin just for her. She also got to take a little walk through a hay maze.

Potty Training

I have been potty training Addy for a little over two weeks. She's pretty young for potty training, but she doesn't like having a wet diaper and was pretty consistent about telling me when her diaper was wet. One day we went through half a package of diapers and I decided it was time. She went straight to underwear. From past experience potty training other children, I found that pull-ups were too much like diapers and potty training took much longer. The first day, I pretty much followed Addy around with carpet cleaner and a fresh pair of panties the whole day. I bought a package of 10 pairs of panties and she went through all of them. I will admit, it wasn't fun constantly cleaning carpet and panties, but after three days of staying home all day and putting her on the potty every hour, she got the hang of it! The key is staying home. At first, I would stay home part of the day and then put her in a diaper and run errands. She was sort of getting it, but she really caught on when we just stayed put. Like both her parents, she LOVES treats, so that has been a huge motivator (she's kissing the potty treat jar in the picture). She will try her hardest to get a few drops out so she can get a treat. The other day, she was on the potty and nothing was happening, so she tried making potty noises to trick me ha ha. Funny girl. She hasn't had an accident in about five days and goes on her own now without being reminded. I'm so proud!

30 weeks

I can't believe I only have about two months left! Time went by fast! Here is my 30 week picture! Looks like maybe I'll have another big baby!