3 Months!

Time seriously goes by so much quicker the second time around!  3 Months for Miss Molly Elizabeth Hixon has come by so fast!  I still think you look like your brother!  Quite a few people say you look like me, but I can't see it at this point.  Adding some extra formula to your bottle seems to be going well in helping you pack on some weight.  Tummy time is going well and you have even rolled over frmo your tummy to your back a couple times.  This past month you celebrated your first Valentine's Day, where you got a cheerleader outfit for U of H (shout out to your Daddy's alma mater!) and a rose from your Daddy!  Big brother got a doctor kit to play with, and Casey got me flowers even though I told him not to. (I despise paying twice the amount for the same flowers)

Enjoying the Bumbo

Molly's first flower came from her sweet Daddy!

Caden showing off his muscles.  Molly doesn't seem impressed.

Me with my precious blessings!

Hixon Valentine's Day 2016

Father/Son Mowing

This last picture is absolutely priceless.  Caden thinks his Daddy hung the moon and is his biggest fan I feel.  When Daddy started mowing the yard, Caden had to go get his mower.  In his cowboy boots, he went out next to his Daddy and carefully studied what he was doing so he could imitate himself. So glad I snapped this picture.  What another wonderful month for our family of 4!

"for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones." Proverbs 2:8

Molly at 2 Months!

Sweet Miss Molly!  Hard to believe how much faster time is going with you!  You are the best baby!  Now you're brother was by no means a bad or difficult baby, but you just seem to be even more laid back than him and sleeping through the night already (Thank you, thank you!!!).  Turning 2 months meant a trip to the doctor for some shots!  Here are Molly's stats:
Weight= 9 lbs. 5 oz. (7%) Caden was 10 lbs. 6.4 oz. (7% as well! Ha!)
Height=23 1/4 in. (84%) Caden was 23 in. (40%)
Head=15.35 in. (73%) Caden was 15.59 in. (58%)

When we went to the doctor, little Miss Molly fell off the weight curve. In order to help her pack on some more weight, her pediatrician told us to add some more formula (but not more water) to her breast milk/formula milk combination to give her some more calories.  Hopefully that will help our little lady!  Now I just chuckle at all the people that told me she looked big for her age! Ha!  Other than needing to gain weight, we have a happy and healthy girl on our hands!

Waiting on the doctor at our 2 month check up

All you have to do is add a bow to make
big brother's hand me down girly!

Molly's 1st road trip to our church Marriage Retreat!

Caden thought Molly needed a hat

Matching outfits!

Girl can sleep anywhere!

Big brother loves his "baby"!  He always has to know where she's at and says "Hi baby!" a million times a day it seems.  Sometimes we have to put Molly in another room when she's sleeping just so she can sleep and not be woken up by her brother telling her hello.  We love, love, love you Miss Molly!

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

A VERY simple Christmas

   Maybe March is too late to blog about Christmas?  Oh well, here we go.  Christmas 2015 was a VERY low key and simple Christmas for the Hixon house.  With Molly being born 3 weeks before Christmas, you would think that I would plan ahead and have all my shopping done beforehand since I knew that we would have a new baby right before Christmas.  Not so much.  I was distracted by our adorable toddler and trying to get ready for our sweet girl, that it just never happened.
  So once Molly arrived, I just kept putting Christmas preparations off.  The only gifts under the tree until 3 days before Christmas were gifts for Caden and Molly from Casey's co-worker.  Thankfully, the kiddos were young enough to not really care about a ton of Christmas decorations or presents.  When I couldn't put it off any longer, I then found myself asking "What in the world do I get for Caden and Molly?"  Caden whose birthday was November 18th got more than enough toys and clothes, so what was there left to get the kiddo that I had not already told grandparents and aunts/uncles to get him?  Obviously, my creativity was not functioning at a high level with a newborn, but I didn't want to not to anything for them.  It was Molly's first Christmas after all.  At the same time, I also thought about what the true meaning of Christmas is about: celebrating the birth of Jesus.  While some presents aren't bad, I really didn't need to go overboard.  Santa ending up bringing  Caden a tee pee tent that he loves to draw in and Molly s this little teether blanket.  Their parents managed to get them both a few small things complete with goldish for Caden in his stocking and Molly a little toy (like I keep saying it was very simple).  While our Christmas was very, very simple, it was still very nice to spend time with each other and our loved ones.  Next year, I plan to be more on the ball with my Christmas shopping.  Though next year I will have Molly's 1st birthday to plan (sad to think of that for our sweet girl).    Here are some photos from our holidays:

A new Veggie Tales for Caden from his parents

Molly's Christmas presents

He loves his teepee

Caden 2015                                                                  Molly 2016

Our sweet babues!

Hixon Family 2016

Molly and her cousin Olivia who are 2.5 wks. apart in age

"In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace."  Ephesians 1:7

Molly at 1 Month Old!

   Good golly Miss Molly is 1 month old!  Time goes by so much quicker with the second baby!   Doesn't help either that our calendar was pretty jam packed with Christmas holiday fun.  Molly thus far is such a great and easy baby.  Seriously.  Girl is a rock star!  God knew that with an active toddler who is fully embracing his 2 year old-ness with tantrums and all that an easy-going, laid back newborn would be just what we needed.
   I can't praise Molly enough in the sleep department!!!  Since she was born she would go 4-5 hrs at night between feedings, but I felt like that only lasted a week before this little lady stretched it out to 7 hours!  Big brother was never a bad sleeper at night, but he was your typical newborn waking every 3 hours, so this has been a MUCH welcomed surprise this second time around.  During the day, I feel like she sleeps more than Caden did too, which again is appreciated so I can focus on giving big brother the attention he needs.  The fact that Molly can snooze through your brother's near constant singing bodes well for all of us as I feel he won't get quieter with age.
   Two things we've had to deal with Molly that we didn't with Caden: blocked tear duct and thrush.  When Molly was 9 days old, one of her eyes became really goopy, so bad she didn't want to open it.  I thought it was pink eye since Caden had that in the past (pre-Molly).  When I took her to the pediatrician, I was happy to hear it wasn't pink eye, which is really contagious, but a blocked tear duct instead.  Our pediatrician just told us to do the following 5 times a day: wipe the eye, massage in a circle 15 times, and then put a drop of a breast milk in the corner of her eye.  That last part sounds strange I know, but it seriously works!  What I was not expecting to find out when we went to the doctor was that Molly had thrush, which is just a yeast infection in her mouth.  Since Molly had thrush, this meant that I had thrush since I was breastfeeding her.  Thankfully our wonderful pediatrician prescribed enough medicine for both Molly and I, so I was saved a trip to the doctor.
   You're not really any help with diaper changes Miss Molly.  You like to stiffen up your legs and since you're so little and fragile, I'm nervous to force you to do anything too much because I don't want to hurt you.  Molly is pretty chill most of the time.  She doesn't really cry that much, and if so there's usually a pretty easy reason why (woke, pacifier fell out, wet diaper, etc.)  Speaking of the pacifier, she is definitely a bigger fan of these things than her brother was.  Thank you to the person that invented the pacifier clip because that has been a huge help in not having to search for them.
   You're wearing newborn size clothes and diapers at this point still.  Since size 1 diapers start at 8 lbs, you're Daddy was ready to move you to size 1 diapers.  However, your Mommy was not so ready to see this phase of the newborn-ness go away so soon since everything else seemed to be flying be so much faster.  So you better believe, I went to Target and bought a box of newborn diapers that we probably didn't actually need, but this Momma's emotions did.

Molly's first Sunday at church

Ready to watch the Aggies play

Such a happy baby!

"The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them." Proverbs 20:7

Molly Elizabeth Hixon's Entrance Into The World

   Miss Molly's entrance to the world has some similarities to her big brother's, but she also had plenty of differences to make it her own story.  With Caden, my water broke at 39 wks at only 1 cm dilated (which I was for a couple weeks at least) and no obvious signs that labor was near.  Molly was WAY more active inside the womb than Caden, so I thought with that and the fact that this was my second baby so my body knew what to do, that Molly would come early too. Wrong!  I was even dilated and effaced more at this point in the pregnancy with Molly too.
   At 37 wks, I was ready for her to be here and not be pregnant because I was so uncomfortable.  This time around, I was much more honest and open about this opinion too.  At my doctor appt the following week, my doctor just mentioned talking about induction at the next appt if not much progress had been made.  I remembered thinking (and hoping) that it wouldn't be necessary and she would come on her own.  Then a part of me felt guilty for even considering it just because I was a little uncomfortable (truthfully, I was a lot uncomfortable) and didn't want to risk forcing Molly out when she wasn't ready.  After enduring another week of uncomfortability that I felt was worse without really any progress and talking it over with my doctor, the word induction had a much more positive meaning.
   When I went in for my 39 wk. appt at the doctor without really any improvement, I scheduled our induction for Friday.  Thankful that my doctor was on call that day so I was ensured that she would deliver Molly too!  After you go on this long journey together, you really hate to have someone else bring your baby into this world.  Plus, I absolutely love my OB/GYN doctor and I wanted her to deliver Molly just as she did Caden.
   Casey and I reported to the hospital just before 6:00AM and by 7:30 I was hooked up to the IV's and we were on our way to bringing our sweet girl into the world.  My doctor came by not too long after that to break my water, which isn't the most comfortable thing ever, but neither are contractions.  Based on where I was at when I came in that morning, my doctor estimated Molly to be here around 2ish.  Just like with Caden, things seemed to start out slow.  Neither one of them liked too much Petocin, but too little was not enough to help keep the contractions regular.
   My epidermal this time totally numbed me! Awesome, right?!  With Caden I remember I didn't feel contractions, but I could still have some feeling in my legs, they just felt like these heavy sand bags.   With Molly's birth, I could feel absolutely nothing!  They would move my legs and I was literally helpless to help, but the nurses were wonderful and helped me out.  It seemed like I was stalled at 6 1/2 cm, so I told Casey he could go get some lunch.  Just like Caden, things seem to happen when he leaves!  Sure enough, the nurse asked if I felt any pressure, which I hadn't all morning, and checked me to see if I had made any more progress.  She looks up and says, "I see the hair on your baby's head!".  What?!  My doctor went to grab lunch too and was about 8 minnutes out, so the nurse then tells me to try not  to push until both Casey and the doctor could get there.  Since I could feel nothing, this was a difficult task.  I'm texting Casey and both our parents to tell him to get back to the room.   Thankfully both he and the doctor got there before our sweet girl came.  For Caden, I only had to push for like 20 minutes and he was here, so I was hoping to do about the same this second time.  Miss Molly was ready to come because after only 5 minutes of pushing, our beautiful baby girl made her entrance into this world at 12:55 PM on December 4th, 2015 weighing 8 lbs. 1 oz. and measuring 19 1/2 inches long.

Molly & I at 39 wks. 4 days

Introducing Molly Elizabeth Hixon!

Daddy and his little girl!

Big brother meeting his baby for the 1st time.
I LOVE my babies!

LOVE seeing her name and thinking of her
amazing great grandmothers we named her after!

Ready to go home! (once we're buckled in of course!)

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well."  1 John 5:1