August

I have to brag on my husband for this one, he came up with this idea to decorate this cake and I thought it was pretty cool!
Cort sticks EVERYTHING in his mouth

daddy and cort, they both look so happy :)

cort still practicing steadying his head

I thought cort was pretty cute in these pants

these pics are all from about a month ago, I will take and post some new pics soon!

New Photos of Cort

Blessing Day

This is the only picture I have of the three of us, taken on Cort's blessing day in May.

I have been pleasantly surprised lately waking up and realizing it has been seven or eight hours since I last fed him, Yeah!! Cort is doing good, smiling more and more, kicking lots, talking more, crying more too :(, and getting big.
Clif is doing good too, enjoying being a dad even if he does avoid diaper duty now. He is struggling to get his garden going since he is busy and working on so many other projects right now. The garden is all planted though and twice the size of last year.
I am doing good. I enjoy being able to slowly start doing more and more of the things I did before Cort was born. I love the feeling of when I actually get my dishes washed, or my laundry put away, or dinner made, etc... I am excited to have two of my sisters home for the summer and look forward to doing lots with them. I am enjoying summer and the warmth and green things.
I need to put some pics up but it will have to be next time, sorry!

I love being a mom even if it is hard. It is always rewarding though despite the hard work. Lately Cort has developed a new habit. After he eats I will set him on the couch next to me while I pump and during that time he will start kicking his legs over and over and over and smiling up at me as if he is trying to show off how smart and talented he is. It is so fun to watch and every now and then he will even give me a little laugh along with the smiles. It is so sweet and probably one of my favorite parts of the day now! He and I are spending a lot of time together right now since his daddy is gone for four days on our stake's pioneer trek taking pictures. We miss him lots. I got to go up and see him a little yesterday which was fun but it was sad to hear about so many of the youth complaining and getting really upset that first hard day. I am hoping that as they finish up the experience their attitudes will improve and they will come away from it glad that they went instead of complaining about how hard it was. Life is hard! They need to learn that and do the best they can at each task it throws at them.

New Pictures-Seven Weeks Old

May is Here

May has brought me a couple things:

My one year anniversary on the 1st. Clif and I went on a mountain drive and went out to eat.
My postpartum depression "junk" started going away the first few days of the month, YEAH!!
My son turned one month old on the fourth.
My nieces dropped flowers off on my door step and ran off. (I am not supposed to know who it was but I couldnt' help peeking)
My body has almost completely healed from both labor and gall bladder surgery.
My son is getting blessed on my very first mother's day.
My husband in gone on a four day pack trip so I moved in with my parents for the time he is gone.
My backyard got flooded thanks to the big ditch carrying a bunch of junk down and clogging it up, luckily my dad and my neighbor were around to help clean it out.
My siblings, some of them, came down to visit and for the baby blessing.

Sorry, I haven't done much, been a little busy. Cort is doing great, mommy is a different story. The second week after Cort was born I had horrible pain and ended up in the ER then sent to the hospital in Show Low to have my gall bladder taken out the next day so now I am recovering from that too. On top of that I had the stomach flu and thanks to my breast pump I am sore in areas that I would never have imagined :( ! Despite it all, I really am not doing too bad, just taking my time getting back to normal :)!

You always hear that being a mom is hard but now I know for myself. I can't really complain either since besides cort not nursing, he isnt a hard baby at all. He hardly ever cries, when he is hungry he will either make smacking noises and/or make short wimpering noises. He didnt ever cry when we took him in to get circumsized, that made me feel so much better and happy that he was such a brave little boy. But I have come to realize how much of my time he now occupies. I feel like I am constantly feeding, pumping, and changing diapers. He isn't too bad at sleeping, I usually get at least two two hour stretches of sleep at night, sometimes three and then at least one nap during the day. Not being able to nurse it hard on me, it takes time to pump and clean up after each pumping and it makes me sad which isn't good with the whole hormonal changes going on in my body. I cry a little here and there when I am frustrated but I hear that is normal right after having a baby. I really am doing quite well and so isw Cort, it will be nice to get past the hormones and always be able to remember how blessed I really am that so much has gone so well for us. Its an exciting, fun, and worthwhile adventure becoming a parent!

William Cort Browning is now a reality!

I woke up Saturday night at 11 pm with contractions that were harder than I had had before but not real bad. They lasted for an hour coming 10 minutes apart so I woke Clif and told him. We spent the next two hours timing more till they were six minutes apart and getting harder. We headed to the hospital (an hour drive) around two thirty Sunday morning and got there a little after three (yes there was a little speeding). The hospital wasn’t very busy so we got wheeled up to a room and hooked up to all those “wonderful” things like IV’s and blood pressure cuffs right away. I spent the next three hours squeezing Clif’s hand to death as I strained through contraction after contraction (no epidural by my own choice). I dilated at a pretty good rate we believe and by six thirty in the morning I was at eight centimeters but my water hadn’t broke and the doc was just barely getting in town from being away with family for Easter weekend. Around seven I started getting the urge to push and that’s when I started really struggling, It was so hard to not push, my body wasn’t obeying my brain telling it NO, not yet. After about a half hour of that (a horrible half hour, but at least only that long) the doc came, I was dilated to ten and they were going to break my water since it wasn’t doing so on its own. I pushed for about fifteen minutes is all and our son was born at 7:42 am (which is cool I think since I was born at 7:59 am) weighing only 5 lbs and 9 oz, 19 inches long. They put him on my tummy all covered in white goo still and I remember thinking, “well, he doesn’t look like what I expected”. They asked if I wanted to hold him after they cleaned him up but I was still on my back getting stitched up so I told them not yet (does that make me a bad mom if I wanted to hold him when I could do it comfortably?). I made it through all the afterwards stuff and was happy to finally be able to relax some and get to hold him. My stay in the hospital was not real enjoyable afterwards since my tailbone hurt A LOT! But I didn't have much pain besides that so I am not going to complain too much. Clif has been a great daddy changing diapers, feeding him, and helping out with all sorts of stuff while in the hospital and now that we are home. Currently we are struggling with nursing since his mouth is small and his tongue is a little “tongue tied” but we are working on it and eating only breast milk now.

I hate this picture but its tradition. I was so red, either from sunburn the previous day or just being over heated and flushed during the whole labor and delivery.
Probably not the best pic to start with but its one of our favorite characteristics so far, he has my long toes but is already talented enough to bring his toes all together as if grabbing things with them

Another attractive one but this is what we felt like in the hospital.

Aunt Keara holding Cort after we dressed him to go home.

Very tiny kid for the car seat, we had to put it on the smallest setting to fit him.

Oops sorry this one is not right side up. He likes binkies.

He has big eyes!! I love it!

Skinny Legs!

First bath time, we did pretty well.

We have a "sweet" Uncle that came up with a nickname already: Gollum!! Probably since we are so skinny! I am hearing "My Precious" now.

Big eyes again and can you see why people keep saying he has red hair?