Four Kisses

Today Morgan was holding Brynn and as he cradled her head he let her body rest on his lap. With his free hand, he reached down and gently took her hand, brought it to his mouth and kissed it. Then he did the same with her other hand and both feet. I don't think anyone but a mommy could know the worth of those four kisses from a sweet big brother to a lucky little sister!

7 Days Old

I meant to post this yesterday, but it just didn't happen (I seem to be saying this about a lot of stuff lately - laundry, dishes, putting Chloe's dresser together, mopping the floors, taking a shower).

Yesterday was Brynn's 1 week birthday! It is all a little surreal still: I am a mother to 3 kids, I am not pregnant anymore - YAY, my little infant is growing bigger and getting more alert every day and it has already been a whole week with not nearly enough pictures to show for it! So yesterday, I dressed Brynn up in a clean outfit, made sure her bow was stuck to her head, and set up a little picture studio on my bed with some fabric I bought to make changing pad covers and some sheets for her bassinet. Here is our little Brynnie at 7 days old.

There isn't a whole lot to say about a 7 day old baby since life consists mostly of eat, poop, and sleep, but here is what I want to remember about her at one week. She is extremely alert for a newborn. She'll spend 30 minutes or so at a time with her eyes wide open, taking in the world! She loves to look intently at Morgan's, Seth's and my face. Just like Chloe, she smiled at me in the hospital and has done so many times since. Yesterday she laughed - two different times. I don't know what she thought was so funny, but she smiled and giggled audibly. So cute! She isn't quite sure what to think about Callie - she gets a quizical look on her face whenever Callie gets close enough to see. The noise and chaos of her older siblings doesn't bother her one bit - I guess she realized in the womb what she was getting into! Monday night, she only woke up once to eat - granted it took her an hour and a half and 2 diaper changes before she was "finished", but I felt like gold in the morning after all that sleep! Unfortunately, I think Monday night may have been a fluke because she has not done that well since! Today, as I was looking into her eyes, I realized that they are definitely blue - at least for now - beautiful deep blue! Most of all, it is so wierd to have a baby so small. I know she won't stay that way long now that she is on the "my mom makes ice cream" diet, so I am enjoying every second of it!

Something About Brynnie

There is just something about little Brynnie that her siblings can't resist. Every morning, I wake up to Morgan whispering in my ear, "Mom, I want to come in your bed and lay by Brynnie." or the ever popular, "Can I hold Brynnie?" As soon as Chloe gets out of her crib, she, too, comes in my room, and asks, "Where's Brynnie?" Since I am usually feeding her in my bed, Chloe wants to come up and join us and, of course, hold Brynn.

The day we brought her home from the hospital, Morgan tried to pick her up out of the bassinet, and we all kind of freaked out, telling him how dangerous that could be for her...he hasn't attempted it since. What he has done is give her a binki when she cries, get the wipes and diapers for me, watch intently as she eats (which kind of wierds me out a little bit and really gives me empathy for cows), ask if he can go and give her a cookie too, gently sing primary songs to her in the car, let her borrow his stuffed animals, and hold her so sweetly - all by himself - as he rocks from side to side. Morgan loves his baby sister.

Chloe has been much more accomodating than I would have thought. She talks to Brynn in the sweetest "baby-ese" voice. Anytime Brynn is crying, Chloe goes right up to her and smiles as she says softly, "Issokay Brynn, shhh, don't worry, Issokay," over and over again. When Chloe is in her room "going down for a nap" and she hears Brynn cry, I hear an excited, "BRYNNIE!" from her room. Will naptime ever recover from this new baby thing? Chloe is constantly bringing a dolly to Brynn and putting it in her carseat/crib/face so she can "play" with it. She has also started asking for milk in "Brynnie's ba ba" so she can be just like her baby sister! It took her a few days to warm up and she still doesn't like seeing daddy hold Brynn, but I know that Chloe loves her baby sister too.

Goodbye Belly

Oh, pregnant belly, how I do not miss you at all! I love lying on my stomach to sleep, read, type and relax. I love being able to wipe the kitchen table without climbing up onto it so I can reach the middle. I love that I no longer have to pre-spot the midsection of every shirt before putting it in the washing machine. While my midsection is definitely not what I wish it was, I sure am glad you are gone! So, goodbye belly - I know I'll see you again, but until then, you will not be missed!

Small and Simple Things

Yesterday, Morgan gave his very first talk in primary (talk about bad timing!). Since there was no way I was missing my little boy's first talk but also no way I was taking Brynn to church, I snuck in the back of the primary room right when it was time for his talk. (I know it is RSV season - don't worry, I am being careful!) My Mom, John and Stephen came to support him and he was so excited to see everyone there to watch him.

The topic was I am a spirit child of Heavenly Father and Seth went up to help him. With absolutely no fear, Morgan held up the picture of him and Seth holding Brynn and a picture of Heavenly Father. He told how before his baby sister came to live with our family she lived with Heavenly Father. He told about how he looks like his dad and he also looks like Heavenly Father because he Heavenly Father made him in his image. I was in tears, of course, and it was such a sweet testimony of the plan of salvation. It was worth all of the effort to get there! I love the small and simple things!

The Details

I know I promised details and pictures in my last post, but it has taken me longer than I expected to get everything recorded, so here they are. Feel free to just look at the pictures - my record keeping tends to be very detailed which can often translate to boring or TMI. :)

My labor with her was pretty long and boring. Despite lots of Pitocin and my water being broken, I was only dialating about a cm an hour. At 2:00 I was at 4 cm. and by 5:30 pm, I was only to a 6, so the nurse said she would check me again at 6:30. I was feeling some pain on my right side, so the anesthesiologist gave me a boost in my epidural, and shortly after, Morgan pushed my epidural button as he asked, “What’s this?” and gave me another boost. Up until then I had really great feeling and control of my legs, which I was feeling really good about. Oh well, I thought, at this rate it will be a while before I start pushing, so the double boost will wear off and I will have more leg control to push. My dad, mom, step dad, brothers and kids had all come by to visit and pass the time, but they were all getting hungry, so they decided to head out for dinner since it was going to be awhile. The combination of not sleeping Tuesday night and all of the pitocin in my system was making me really sleepy, so I took a short nap when they left.

At 6:15 the nurse came in to bring me more ice chips and check my monitor and I asked her to check me so I could go back to sleep and not have to be wake up again in 15 minutes. She checked me, and to our surprise, I was at a 10, completely effaced and there was a baby head ready to pop out. Seth called my mom and told her to hurry back and the nurse caught my OBGYN, who was on his way to do an emergency C-section. Dr. Lamb (my OB) came to see if he should go do the C-section first and then come deliver me or if I was close enough to delivering that he would have to deliver me first. The plan was to do a test push and see where we were, but when he checked me, he forbade me from pushing and told me to hold her in until he got his gloves on. My mom walked in the door right then - perfect timing! I held perfectly still so as not to push while Dr. Lamb got his robe-thing over his arms and his gloves on. He had me do a soft push and the little head popped out, he had me push softly one more time (during the same contraction) and there came her tiny little body! I remember looking at the clock while they were cleaning her up and thinking - it is a good thing I had them check me at 6:15, because it isn't 6:30 yet and I have a baby!

Since everything went faster than my body was expecting, my uterus didn't firm up as quickly as it should have, so my doctor was worried about hemorrhaging. They gave me a shot of something and massaged my tummy vigorously for the next 20 minutes - at which point I was grateful Morgan had given me that extra epidural boost! When she was all cleaned off, Seth and my Mom got to hold her and I fed her for the first time. As I held her and looked into her sweet face, she looked like a Brynn. I asked Seth what he thought and thankfully he agreed, so she finally had a name! My family got back shortly afterward and everyone got to hold and admire her before she was whisked away for all of her testing and evaluations. Morgan and Chloe were so excited to meet their little sister. Morgan couldn’t wait to hold her and took a turn right away. After she saw that Morgan was excited to hold her, Chloe wanted a turn and then the next 10 minutes were filled with each child proclaiming, “my turn,” as soon as the other one (or anyone else) got her. Once the baby was gone, everyone headed out and my mom and John took the kids home to get them to bed.

Brynn was perfectly healthy and beautiful from the second she arrived, but I really struggled with my recovery. I felt pretty good – not shaky or freezing as with past deliveries – but the shot they gave me to help my uterus firm up made really sick, and I ended up throwing up the ice chips, 2 crackers and a few sips of “post-delivery cocktail” that I had been able to eat. They gave me some zofran and I started feeling much better. They moved us up to our post-partum room and Seth headed over to give Brynn her bath. My grandparents and Seth's family arrived just in time to see the bath and my food came. Since it was late in the evening, it was just a turkey sandwich, jello, pudding and juice. Everyone came in our room to visit and hold baby Brynn and I slowly ate my jello and pudding and drank some juice, but the medicine was still affecting me and I ended up throwing everything up again. By that point everyone had gotten a chance to hold Brynn, so they all headed out.
Seth wanted to go show off pictures of his baby girl to his co-workers in the ER and then he headed home to relieve my mom and John. Over the course of the night, I got very little sleep. Brynn was excited to eat, so she came back to see me every couple of hours. Tearing during delivery had caused swelling and I couldn’t go to the bathroom on my own, so they put me on an IV drip and a catheter for the night. This made sleep more difficult, so I didn’t get much sleep – again.

I “woke” up feeling utterly exhausted and very emotional. They dropped of my breakfast and I burst into tears. Why? I don’t exactly know. Possibly because I was starving and the toast was covering the eggs on the plate and I was thinking there was no way this piece of toast and 2 slices of bacon were going to cut it. In the midst of this mini-meltdown, the doctor came in to do rounds and her inquiry as to how I was feeling led to more uncontrollable and unexplainable tears. Nope, no pain…nope, no complications with the baby…nope, no lack of support…really – everything is good, I just can’t stop crying! Then my new nurse for the day came to introduce herself while I was still emotional and then the new CNA for the day came to introduce herself. Finally after the bombardment of people, I was able to get control of my emotions and felt very embarrassed for the breakdown! When the pediatrician came for his rounds, I was able to avoid a total meltdown – woo hoo!
Seth brought the kids in a little later and I was so excited to see them and hear that they missed having me there when they woke up. We watched the rest of Wall-E, but when that ended, I realized that having kids in a hospital room is highly stressful. They held baby Brynn, got on and off of my bed, pushed every button in the room, called the nurse and the nursery at least 5 times and almost ripped out my catheter tripping on the tubing. To avoid another total meltdown, Seth took the kids home to eat lunch and take naps.

After they left, I got my catheter out and was able to take a short nap which made all the difference. I felt like myself again! My mom brought a breadstick and some cookies from the Pizza Factory and some outfits for little Brynnie. Later I got to take a shower and get dressed and then Seth and the kids came back to visit with Happy Meals in tow – much less stressful this time (I think that was mostly due to my mental state)! After we ate our dinners, we headed over to the nursery to get Brynn and ran into Grandpa Mark in the hall. We went back to our room and held Brynn and then Grandpa took the kids to get ice cream and play at McDonalds while Seth and I rested in the room. At 7:30, Seth headed out to get the kids and get them home to bed so he could watch the office. My mom and John brought me some food later and I was able to get a little more sleep Thursday night.
The kids were so cute when they got to my room Friday morning and they were very excited to see their baby sister! We attempted to have some pictures taken – but they didn’t want to cooperate, so we just got Brynn’s picture taken and then we checked out and headed home!













THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of our family and friends who have been so sweet to us! The help with the kids, offers to help with the kids, provision of food and treats, sweet and tiny outfits for Brynnie, emails, comments, texts, etc. of love and support have not gone unnoticed! We are truly so blessed to have such amazing support! We love you so much!

One Day Old

Just wanted to let you know that, for the first time ever, my child fits in a premie size outfit! She is so beautiful and is the perfect blend of her siblings. She is a champion eater, so I am sure it won't last long - especially since I make ice cream instead of milk!

She smiled at me today when I told her that I loved her and we cuddled together all afternoon! Happy one-day birthday baby Brynn!

I promise to post about the delivery, meeting the family, the kids reactions to baby sister, my recovery and lots of pictures tomorrow so stay posted!

Welcome to the World Baby Brynn

Announcing our sweet little angel

Brynn Tate

Born January 21 at 6:26 PM

6 lbs. 4 oz. 18 1/4 inches long

We love this little girl so much and are so glad to have her here! I will post more pictures and details later. Mom and Baby are doing great!

Here is the "ready to have a baby" picture that I forgot to add to the last post.