My baby is in high school now!!!!

My big, goofy boy!

Marcus Bratton Jr is now officially a high school freshman. YIKES!!! On Thursday, May 22nd Marcus graduated from Jr. High and will be attending Buckeye Union High School next year. He has already been practicing with the freshman football team and is very excited about being i high school. I, on the other hand, am terrified and feeling very old! I am very proud of him for getting his grade up at his new school and he has made a wonderful friend that we really like, T.J. They have become best friends and will be playing football together.

He looked so grown up and handsome the night of graduation. After the ceremony, we went and had dinner at the Cracker Barrel. we've never eaten there, but the food was outstanding and he prices were really good. Since it is the only sit down restaurant in town, that works out nicely for us!

Marcus and his teacher. Mr. Rasmusen

PopPop was there for the big day and got to meet T.J.

Mommy and Caleigh's first outing! (It was sooooooooo windy)

My two handsome Marcuses

Welcome Caleigh Grace Bratton!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Even though the days before the birth of Caleigh were emotional and difficult, God blessed the day of her birth and the days since. We arrived at the hospital nervous and anxious. I had never met the doctor who would be performing the C-section and I had had nightmares and anxiety attacks throughout the night. I was put at ease when I met Dr. Hashad and the wonderful nurses at Mission Hospital. As my family began to arrive, the weight of my unfulfilled dreams for my daughter's birth began to lighten. At 6:00 pm the anesthesiologist came in and walked me into the operating room. They wasted no time prepping me, but I again began to get nervous when the spinal block didn't seem to be very affective. Marcus came in camera and video in hand prepared to try and capture as much on film for me as he could. Thank God he was there! As they began to pull her head out, I began to feel more and more pressure that was quickly becoming painful. As the assisting doctor began to push on my stomach to get the baby out, I was crying in pain and was told that they could give me something that would help, but may make me "a little drowsy". As I squeezed my husband's hand trying to bear with the pain, I asked for the medicine and was out cold within seconds. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her enter the world or hear her first cry, or hear the words I was so nervous I would never hear "It's a Girl!"
I woke up in the recovery room extremely groggy and unable to see straight. I watched what I could of her first bath, closed my eyes to listen to her sweet cry, and finally heard a nurse refer to her as a pretty little angel. So, it was a girl, and to the best I could see, a perfect one! Marcus quickly asked them to move her warmer as close to my bed as possible so I could touch her. After about an hour, I was waking up a little more and now only seeing double as opposed to multiple. Marcus Jr. and Elijah were able to come in and meet Caleigh as well as my parents, In-laws, sisters, and my 2 best friends, Heather and Aliki. Recovery took 2 1/2 hours instead of one, so Caleigh and I didn't get to our room until close to 10:00 pm. All the cousins and JoJo were finally able to see our sweet new addition to the family.

The next few days in the hospital were so wonderful. So many visitors and I got to have 4 sleep overs!! The first night Marcus stayed with me then Heather on Friday night, my mom on Saturday, and then my sister Barb on Sunday night. I had so much fun with them as well as with my sweet, quiet baby girl. I got to get a lot of rest, eat a ton of yummy food, and was spoiled by the nurses.

On Monday, my dad and JoJo came to take us home. Barb was still there to help us load up and head to Grammy and PopPop's where we would stay until Wednesday. Again we had many visitors, including play dates for JoJo. Marcus and Elijah had already headed home on Sunday with their dad to finish of their last week of school. On Wednesday we loaded up the van and my dad drove the three of us home to Arizona. It was a long but fun drive. Caleigh slept the entire time only to wake up to nurse when we stopped for dinner in Blythe! Yeah - hopefully she will be a baby that continues to travel well. The only bummer was that we discovered poor JoJo had a fever and he spent the next two days with the fever, the runs, and some vomiting. Thank God Caleigh and I did not catch it.

We have been home almost a week now and she is just as good a baby as her brothers were. She sleeps a lot, wakes up to "play" a couple hours a day, and sleeps in 4 to 4 1/2 hour stretches every night. She barely cries at all - squeaks and peeps mostly. She is nursing very well and pooping more than her brother's ever did! I am healing slowly but surely. A big difference having this surgery at 21 with no kids and living in a little apartment than having it at 35 with 3 wild boys, and a big ol house. I'm getting there and I am trying to milk it as much as I can. Marcus stayed home Thursday to Monday night and got the house clean, painted Caleigh's room, did a bunch of grocery shopping, and impressed me with his cooking skills.

We still haven't watched the video of her birth yet, but I hear that my sweet husband did an amazing job catching it all for me and, as you can see from the above album, got great photos for me too!

We can't wait to come back to see everyone next week and make some more memories with our little princess.

Some Sad and Sucky News

Well today has been an overwhelming day. As some of you know, I got a phone call from one of my doctor's associates asking me to call. I called to find out that my doctor, the only one in the group to do V-bacs, had to leave for at least 2 weeks for a family emergency. It is his daughter who is very ill and on a ventilator. I don't know what happened, just that it was unexpected and it is very serious. Please pray for him and his family.

The doctor precedes to tell me that no other doctor in the Mission OB/GYN group feels comfortable inducing me and giving me the opportunity to try for the natural delivery. This is despite the fact that I have had 2, yes 2, babies naturally since my c-sections. So my options at that point were -

1. wait for my doctor to come back,which would be in no less than 2 weeks (I am due in 9 days), but if I go into labor before he returns, they would do the C-section anyway

2. try to find another doctor by next week in a different group that will do the V-bac - and be accepted by my insurance, that will take a new patient one week before they are due

3. come in on Thursday and have the unnecessary surgery that probably could have been avoided

So, after much deliberating, crying, swearing, discussing, and all the other stuff, we opted to just go ahead and schedule the c-section for Thursday evening at 6pm. Needless to say, I will be in the hospital a tad bit longer than expected, probably until Monday instead of Saturday, and then onto my folks until Wednesday.

The point of all this is, please come and see me on Fri, Sat, or Sun or call me at my parents and come see me Tuesday or Wednesday. I will be out there for almost a full week and will need to make all happy positive memories to go along with the best memory, the birth of our little girl. I don't know when I'll be able to come out again, but hope that I will heal quickly. I would also appreciate all your prayers over the next few days. My spirits are better than they were a few hours ago, but I am still broken hearted about things being changed so dramatically and so last minute.

Bottom line is - God is in control and must know something I don't know and stepped in and re-planned it, so I know it's all going to be okay, but I still would love your prayers. :)

If you already got this in my e-mail - sorry, there are some people that I don't e-mail addresses for. :(

May is busy...and it's just going to get busier

Well, May has only been 11 days so far, but it has already been busy. I celebrated my 35th - YIKES!! - birthday on the fourth. Marcus, the boys, and I all went out to lunch at In-n-Out (a mere 15 miles away) and then saw IronMan. We all loved the movie. It was very well done. Then we came home, I got to take a nice long nap, and then Marcus and I went out to dinner just the two of us to TGIF's (that's where we went on our first date) As you can see in the picture, he did most of the celebrating and had 2 margaritas and then he couldn't figure out why he wasn't photographing well. we kept taking em and taking em, but he just kept looking drunk.










On the 7th, Marcus, Joseph, and I all hopped in the big rig and headed out to the OC for my last doctor's appt. We had a great time, JoJo got to drive..a little, but we were all EXHAUSTED when we got back on Friday. Saturday was work day as we cleaned up the house and got a few projects completed. Marcus Sr. even made dinner!!!

Sunday, as you know, was Mother's Day. It was very difficult to be away from my mom today, but I still had a nice day. Markie brought me breakfast in bed. Marcus Sr. got all the things done on his "Honey do" list, and we went out to lunch at Black Angus - my fave - and then when we got home Marcus and the boys gave me my present. A nice big above ground pool to help me survive the next 2 days of pregnancy in the heat and then we can all enjoy it until we have the $ to install a real pool hopefully next year. I even got to sleep while they set it up. I am looking forward to getting in that puppy tomorrow and floating all day.

The boys and I on Mother's Day



The next two days will be filled with relaxation, packing, and all last minute baby preparations that need to be done. We will be leaving Wednesday am to head back out to finally welcome our baby girl into the world on Thursday, May 15th. I made a little photobook with some fun snapshots throughout my pregnancy - enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Almost there!!!

I just saw the doctor and he has set the date for my induction - Thursday, May 15th. OH MY GOSH that is 2 weeks away!!!!! Does anyone wanna come over this weekend and help me paint her room??? Ha Ha Ha



I am so excited - I have everything ready except for painting the room and I need to put the crib together. I have officially finished washing all the clothes that Aliki gave me for her and the chances of her wearing all of them are slim to none. I will have to change her 3 times a day just to make a dent, but I have no problem with that. Everything is so cute, fun, beautiful and happy.