Cathedral Caverns

 Yesterday we went up to Cathedral Caverns with some of my family. We had a great time and the caverns were beautiful. These pictures do not do it justice at all! If you ever have the chance go there and see them for yourself I would definitely recommend it.

Largest Frozen (in time) Waterfall in the world. 

Cathedral Caverns holds 4 world records inside and this is just one of them. It is no longer alive and growing because a long time ago a man by the name of Mr. Gurly blasted a tunnel and dried up the water that naturally flowed over the rocks above creating the falls. Mr. Gurly believed he was the first to see much of the caverns and that it was his job to show the world it's beauty.

Originally the caverns were called Bat Cave. But at some point a woman, I can't remember her name, when she saw this room she decided the cave should be called Cathedral Caverns because of the beauty of this room. Still alive and still growing.

My mom and I in the Cathedral room.

Nana and BR after our tour. BR was SO good during the tour. She slept in her stroller the whole time and didn't make a peep. I had been a little nervous about taking her in there but thankfully she was an angel.

These are my adorable little cousins, Judah on the left and Elijah on the right. They live in PA and are down here for spring break with there momma, Andrea. I love when they come to visit!!

Andrea, BR and I after the tour. This was the first time Andrea and the boys got to see Brantley Rae. Sadly, Andrea has a cold so she didn't get to hold her but hopefully she'll be better by Wednesday when we go to visit our Grandmother and she'll get to hold her then.

Even though it was a bit chilly outside, we had a great time! I'm not sure that we'll go on another day long road trip with BR anytime soon. She got really tired of being in her car seat on the way home. It was pretty sad and I felt really bad. But we made it and she slept beautifully last night.

I Love My Little Family

Dinner with Bebe and PawPaw

Every week we have dinner with Chase's parents. Usually on Wednesday nights. It's really great to get to see them once a week and they of course love getting to see Brantley at least once a week as well. Last night I snapped this picture while they were both "ooing and ahhing" over her. It was so cute! Unfortunately our little camera doesn't take the greatest pictures anymore but still we got to capture the moment.

BR loves her Bebe and PawPaw already!

We've also started having dinner weekly with my parents on Sunday nights. I'll have to remember to take a picture of Brantley with them this Sunday so I can post their picture also. 

 I hope everyone has a great weekend!

6 Weeks Old

Today Brantley Rae is 6 weeks old! I can't believe it. She's getting so big already!

She's so much fun and pretty easy during the daytime. We've still been struggling with fussiness in the evenings (usually from 6:00-9:00). Sometimes we can walk around with her to calm her, sometimes she just likes to nurse every hour and sometimes nothing we do helps. We get really frustrated but thankfully we have each other so that we can stay in check and calm. We know that she can't help it and she's still a little baby and that this to shall pass. Thank goodness!

Tuesday I went to my Breastfeeding Support Group and BR now weighs 9 pounds! Isn't that great! I'm so glad that she's growing and gaining weight. She is still wearing Newborn size diapers but once we use up this last box of NB we're going to try Size 1. We were given quite a few Size 1 packages so I'm hoping they will fit her now that she's 9lb.

I took these pictures this morning when she was in a really good mood. She had just eaten and played in the floor with me for a good 30-45 minutes. It was great! Chase stopped by the house and witnessed BR in a good mood not fussing. That is very rare for him to see her not fussing since he's not home during the day.

She's getting better and better at holding her head up. When she's propped up on her Boppy she can hold it up really well, but when she's on the floor she can't lift it as high. We're working on it every day with Tummy Time a few times a day. She is starting to like it more, thankfully!

I've gotten in the habit of bringing her into bed with me after she eats around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. I'm too tired to stay up with her or to rock her back to sleep. So we snooze for another few hours in Mommy and Daddy's bed. I love it! I know I'm not really suppose to bring her into our bed but it's working for us for now. We're working on napping today and so far it's not going well. I started trying to put her down for a nap at 10:30 because she was falling asleep in my arms. Nope! She cried and cried, I soothed and soothed. Then I nursed her at 11:00. I rocked her to sleep and put her down at 12:00. She woke back up at 12:20. Seriously! 2 poopy diapers, Mylicon later, I'm done with nap for now! It's 1 o'clock, she's still awake with a tummy ache/gas. I'm rocking her and she's content. So for now that's all. I'm hoping to take some more pictures later and update more but for now I'm done typing with one hand. ha!

She's pitiful!

Out Walking

Monday afternoon, BR and I met a couple girls and their babies at the Botanical Gardens to get some exercise since it was such a BEAUTIFUL day here in Birmingham. It felt great out there. We actually got hot! It was so wonderful to not be freezing. (Can you tell I enjoyed it? ha!)

The girls that we met up with are very nice and I'm so glad they invited me to join them. There were 7 of us all strolling our babies around the gardens. It was pretty funny. 

I didn't take this picture. I actually stole it from Liz's facebook page so that you could see what we looked like. haha! You should have seen some of the looks we got.

We had such a great time! See BR even had a little smile on her face. She had actually had a big smile just as I was taking this picture but I was a little bit too late and this is all a caught. I'm hoping that the rain will go away soon so that Spring can hurry up and get her to stay. I think I'm gonna go back to the Botanical Gardens with BR a lot once it gets warmer. If anyone would like to join us let me know. I would love to have someone to talk to while I'm walking around. No baby required, haha!

Hurry up Spring weather...We're ready!

Two Years Ago...

THIS happened and our lives were forever changed. Chase is such a wonderful husband and I love him VERY much!

Lately

So BR is now 5 weeks old and I can't believe it's already been that long since she was inside me and I was begging her to come out. haha! Life at the Williamson's house is completely different and for the most part, it's a good different. Brantley Rae has turned our world upside down and we're all still getting used to it.  I'm writing this post so that I can remember what life has been like over the past 5 weeks.

When we first came home BR slept all the time and ate every 2-3 hours no matter what time of day it was. She was often awake at night and only wanted me to hold her. We (myself, my mom and Chase) spoiled her rotten that first week because she hardly ever got put down and she got to sleep on one of our chests every night. Bad move on our parts but she slept=we slept. My wonderful mom was here for the first 3 days with us day and night. It was great to have her here helping out around the house and with BR. Chase ended up working those first couple of days while my mom was here and then he took half days when my mom went back to work. It worked out pretty well. Chase and I were able to talk BR's newborn pictures that Wednesday when she was only 6 days old. They turned out so cute! See...

 

Over the past few weeks BR has developed a touch of Colic. At around 5-6 o'clock each might she starts to fussy A LOT. Some times it helps if we walk around bouncing her, but then sometimes she wants to eat every hour on the hour until 9 o'clock. We've been trying Mylicon but it hasn't seemed to help all that much. My cousin, Sara, told me about Gripe Water last night. She said that it's a soothing agent type medicine instead of a gas relief. I'm gonna get some of that later today and try it tonight if we need it. Overall, I'm hoping that BR's colic goes away over the next week of so. I'm really tired of fighting her fussiness every night.

Brantley Rae has gotten LOTs of love from Mommy and Daddy over the past 5 weeks. We just love watching her little facial expressions and watching her change everyday.

On February 7th, BR took her first real bath because her umbilical cord stump had already fallen off. She didn't care for it all that much but she survived. I was so nervous during the whole thing that she was going to fall out of the hammock thing and fall in the water. Thankfully she didn't and I got her all clean and dry.  I was so glad for that to be over and done with. I waited a few more days before trying that again. haha!

I know another thing I was gonna document. BABY ACNE! Yuck Brantley Rae has got a serious case of it. It's all over her sweet little face and I wish there was a way for me to make it go away but I know I just have to keep her face clean and wait it out. I talked to the nurse at her doctors office this morning and she said it should go away in a week or so. We will see. Here is a picture of the acne. It's sadly worse on the right side but you can tell it's pretty bad. It doesn't seem to bother her so that's the good thing.

 

So guess what...Brantley slept for 5 hours straight!! Hallelujah!! 

I was SO happy, surprised and a little worried when I woke up and it had been 5 hours since I put her to bed. Thankfully she was okay and starting to wake up so I quickly went into her room and picked her up to love on her and thank her for sleeping so long. haha! I know that's silly but I seriously hope this becomes a nightly event so I can get more sleep.

Today has been a pretty good day. Chase has been off work today so we got to go to Jacks for breakfast. It was yummy and better than a bowl of cereal. When we got back home BR and I played, I feed her and after even more playing she finally went down for a nap at 1:30. She's still sleeping. I can't believe it! I'm sure she'll wake up soon and be ready to eat her lunch, if you will.

Don't you just want to eat her up? I do!

I'm not sure what all we're doing this weekend but I do know we're gonna do some shopping for myself and BR tonight. I need pants and she needs a mobile for her crib. I found a really great one at Toys R Us. I love going shopping for Brantley. It's so fun!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Maybe I'll have more pictures to share on Monday.