First Christmas

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had such a good time with Brooklyn on her first Christmas. I wish I would have taken more photos though. You'd think w/ it being her 1st I would have gone crazy, but I don't know what happened. I'll have to gather pics from my family for my scrapbook to fill in the spots I missed. Oops!

A few days before Christmas, we went to my Grandma's house to make cookies. I put Brooklyn in her "Santas Little Helper" outfit. Can you see what a good help she was? What a sleepyhead. Kurt said she looked like a boy in this outfit.

Here is one of my cousins and my mom decorating the sugar cookies. I helped too, but managed to stay out of the pictures. We made so many cookies that day. I just love baking with my Grandma.

We always have such fun decorating the cookies. We like to get a little creative!

Here is Brooklyn playing with my grandma. She is so strong already and holds her head up so well.

I was cracking up at this picture. I was putting Brooklyn in her carseat when we were leaving and she was holding her fists like she was ready to box. She had them so tight and wasn't moving. I had enough time to grab the camera. She is too cute! Put up your dukes!

This is my mom's Christmas tree. It was full of presents. I think the grandkids were a little spoiled this year! Brooklyn sure made out for only being one month old. She got lots of fun toys to grow into.

Here is Brooklyn hanging out with my mom.

This is my nephew opening up his presents. He is 17 months old now so was actually getting into it this year.

It must have been hard work opening all those presents because he crashed and burned. He was out like a light!

I just thought this was a cute little face... Brooklyn was trying to talk to us.

All in all, this was a wonderful holiday! Can't wait for many many more to celebrate!

1 Month Old Today (where did the time go?)

I can't believe our baby girl is a month old already. It seriously seems like we just came home from the hospital the other day. Time sure flies when you're having fun. I am way behind in posting, so hopefully this will catch us up. We are adjusting nicely to our new family of three. And believe it or not, I'm actually handling the sleepless nights better than I thought. Brooklyn usually goes to bed around 11 and we're up around 3, 6 and 9 for feedings. Not too bad!

Here are a couple of our Christmas pictures:

She looks so sweet in her Santa suit. (Thanks again Linae, that outfit is too cute and just perfect for the holidays!)

This was taken the first week we were home. She had a bit of jaundice so we took the swing in the backyard so she could do some sunbathing. Good thing our cold front hadn't come in yet.

This was Brooklyn's first bath at home. She did not like it at all since we had to do a sponge bath because her umbilical cord was still on. Boy does she have some good lungs!

She looks so frustrated here. Like she's saying "enough already".

She actually liked getting her hair washed though. I can't get over the expression on her face here. Such a cute grin.

Finally, bath is finished. No more crying!

And this is her all bundled up once the bath was finished. See, it wasn't the end of the world afterall. But I guess I wasn't looking at things from her perspective! :)

Just chillin.

She likes baths much better now that we can use the bathtub and submerge her in the warm water.

Here's Brooklyn playing in her bouncer. She is totally staring at the lights and animals moving around and making music.

And this is her on her activity mat. She found herself in the mirror. She usually will stay content for about 20 minutes or so with these toys before getting bored and moving onto something else. It's a nice break for me not to have to occupy her time and hold her around the clock.

Doesn't she look so peaceful when she sleeps?

In the beginning it was a little weird for me to be the "mom". When I hear the word mom, I think of my mom... but now that's my role too. I wasn't sure if I was going to know what to do with everything and wondered if I'd be able to handle it all, but things just seem to fall into place. I feel like I am right where I am supposed to be in life. We just love having this little baby girl in our family! She truly is a blessing!

WORTH THE WAIT - Brooklyn is Home!!!!!!!

I have finally found a minute to post about the birth of our daughter, Brooklyn Renee. She is now 11 days old and I am loving being her mother. I don't know what happens to all the hours in our days though. They seem to fly by. Our routine includes eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop, and several Dr. visits in between.

This was taken the night before she was born. Although I loved being pregnant, I'm happy to be able to see my feet again! :) Look at the size of that belly!

The birth experience: We had a c-section on Nov 17th. I had so many emotions in that room. It went by so fast too! The first cut was made at 11:23 and she was out at 11:24. I was so happy to hear her screaming voice. It brought tears to my eyes. I just love this little baby girl.

Here is her first picture coming into this world:

Our camera was set to video mode when Kurt handed it to someone to take a picture, so here is her first time meeting mommy! I can't even put it in words what I was feeling at that moment!

Here is the proud new daddy showing off his most prized possession :) Doesn't he look handsome in his scrubs? While the Dr finished up with me, Kurt went with the baby to the nursery to get her cleaned up and keep her company.


Here is my chunky monkey. She weighed in at 9 pounds 2 ounces and already had chubby little rolls on her thighs and arms. She looks so different today though. We are having problems with nursing and my milk supply. She ended up dropping a little over a pound in her first 4 days of life. We are currently pumping what milk I have to increase the supply and supplementing with formula to bring her weight back up. Not quite how I had planned the whole thing, but we're still trying to get the nursing to work. I hope we can be successful.

I had to stay in recovery for quite a while longer than normal due to some small complications. Kurt stayed with Brooklyn so she wouldn't be lonely. She was gripping onto his finger and just loving on her daddy. Kurt was going back and forth from the nursery to the recovery room showing me pictures of our little girl. I think the hardest part of the whole day was the time I was in recovery. All I wanted to do was see my baby and had to wait over 2 and a half hours before they released me to my room.

At last, I was finally able to hold my precious baby girl. Again, more emotions than I know how to express in words. It was the most amazing feeling to finally snuggle my baby in my arms. I had no other care in the world!

Look at those cheeks!

Recovery was not as bad as I had expected and we were able to go home already after 2 days in the hospital. Here we are saying goodbye to Room 18! We are packing our precious cargo!

Brooklyn in her first ride in the Expedition: She likes riding in the truck and just falls asleep.

First day home... she got to try out her new swing and loved it.

She looks so peaceful...

We are having so much fun adjusting to parenthood. I don't even mind the long sleepless nights either. Brooklyn is such a good baby too. She typically only cries when she needs something. She had quite a bit of jaundice after we were released, but that is finally under control (poor baby had to have blood drawn 3 times after we were home to make sure her bilirubin levels were going down so we didn't have to go back to the hospital). She is finally starting to put back on some of her weight and is up to 8 pounds 5 ounces.

I have come to realize that motherhood is the BEST thing in this world. I would do anything for this little girl. I am so happy to have her in our lives. We cannot wait to take Brooklyn through the journey of life. We love her so much!

EXCITING UPDATES!!!!!

#1. FIRST AND FOREMOST - BABY UPDATE:

As of Wed, I am dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced, but she hasn't dropped yet. I've been feeling like she is getting really big and running out of room in there, so I asked the Dr if they could estimate her size... They sent me in for an ultrasound. Here is what they could get of her face. She has chubby little cheeks already.

And here is her big foot...

They are estimating her at least 9 pounds already (and I'm still 2 and a half weeks from my due date) and said she's measuring at 41 weeks gestation! They measured her belly several times and said that it is very large (bigger than her head). My Dr. is concerned that if I have a normal birth, there is a big chance of her getting stuck after the head comes out, which would cause complications. He is recommending a C-Section so we are scheduled for Monday morning the 17th. I was hoping to have a normal delivery and was a little bummed at first, but the more I think about it, I trust my Dr and in the end, all I really want is a safe, healthy baby! So, Monday it is... I AM GOING TO BE A MOMMY IN A FEW DAYS!!!!!!!!!

I have loved every minute of my journey through pregnancy and am so excited to meet our beautiful daughter! The gift of life is such a miracle and I feel so blessed to be having her join our family!

#2. I'M OFFICIALLY RETIRED!

My last day of work was Oct 31st. I have officially changed my career to full time mommy! It feels very weird to be home since I've worked for so many years (since I was 15, not counting babysitting as a young teen). But it's a nice change. I have my time back to spend how I want to, not on someone else's clock! And it's made the past couple weeks of pregnancy a bit easier as well :)

I am so grateful to Kurt for making this happen for our family. There will be a few sacrifices that we will have to make since we have cut our income in half, but in the end, it will be so worth it. I feel so strongly about being home to raise my family.

#3. OUR NEW RIDE:

After the baby shower, Kurt was putting our stroller in the trunk of my car and it barely fit. You had to put it in halfway, then twist it to a different angle, and it took up the whole trunk. We've been talking about getting an SUV, so we just had to make a decision a little sooner. Last week we found this from a private seller... a 2003 Expedition.

Now my stroller and carseat fit perfectly. We are officially ready for Baby Brooklyn!!!!!!!!!

Busy Week - Halloween and Baby Shower

Happy Halloween!!!! Hope everyone had a fun and safe night! We went over to my parents' house to BBQ and hand out candy. My dad fixed hamburgers and hot dogs for all of us and set up his tiki torches in the front yard. It was fun.

My dad got this new Frankenstein this year. I don't know who had more fun w/ it, him or the kids. This guy talks and says something about having a scarier costume than you and pulls off his face to reveal a skeleton and laughs all scary. It was fun seeing all the reactions from the trick or treaters.

My nephew was more interested in eating all his candy!

He was dressed up as the cutest little lion. His mom turned his wagon into a little zoo for him with stuffed animals all around. She even made a sign for the front of the wagon that said "Feed the Lion". It was so cute!

His sister was dressed up as a rebel cheerleader. She sure scored with the candy too! I might have to hit her up for some treats :)

At the end of the night, my nephew was plum tuckered out and was the first to fall asleep.

October 25th... Last Saturday was my baby shower. There was quite the turnout. I think about 35 or 40 people showed up. It was loud, crazy chaos. I loved it! We had a great time and ate lots of yummy food. I wasn't really paying attention too much to get pictures though. I wish I would have thought about that and pulled my camera out to get snapshots of who was there.

Here's me with my big ole belly!

My mom put together a little banner with the baby's name and pulled out some of my baby pictures for display. Mom's are great at that type of thing aren't they?

My sister in law carved the cutest little baby buggy out of a watermelon. She used a pumpkin carver. What a great idea. It turned out so adorable!

This was my cake. We kinda forgot about it and it wasn't set out until the end so sorry for those of you that left without getting any. It was really yummy. And the bakery messed up so we had a full sheet instead of the half that was ordered. My mom ended up sending it home with everyone so we wouldn't be eating it for a week!

When I came home, Kurt had to haul all the gifts from my car upstairs into the baby's room. What a trooper. Looks like we won't need diapers for a couple months! Yeay!

I can't believe how many gifts we ended up with. Little Brooklyn is sure going to be one spoiled little baby girl! Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the shower. It was fun to have everyone together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby!

Now I just have to figure out where to put all this stuff. My project for this week is to get everything washed and put away. I can't wait to meet our little baby!

Whew, and that was our week in a recap!