Pictures

 We had family/newborn pictures taken last week. Aubrie was 1 week old. Enjoy :)

Updates

This blog is 2 days in the making. It's so difficult to find the time! I did get to go to the bathroom the other day all by myself! :) I do cherish those few minutes by myself :)

Brody had his 18 month appointment this last week. For the first time I realized my sweet boy is indeed a toddler! He wanted nothing to do with our Pediatrician and definitely let her know that! He weighs 21 lbs and is 31 inches tall and is as healthy and perfect as can be :)

 B LOVES his little sister! LOVES HER! For only knowing her for 2 weeks he wants everything to do with her. When he wakes up in the morning the first thing he does is goes searching the house to find her. His first words out of his mouth are "Where's sissy?" He wants to burp her, hold her, hug and kiss her. We are so proud of how great of a big brother he is :)

 B continues to make us laugh always. He is daring and has not an ounce of fear in him. I'm still amazed we haven't made a visit to the ER yet. Thank you Jesus! Some of his favorite things to do are to jump off the couch into someones arms or if the pups are near on the pups (poor doggies), being chased, rolling on the ground, having dance parties, throwing balls, coloring, puzzles and playing with his sister.  The pic above he got himself into daddy's shorts. He's so cute in how much he wants to be like his daddy. He and Mike are definitely pals and B loves following him around mimicking his every move :)

These are some of B's favorite things, his milk and his monkey pal Marvin. The boy can go through probably a gallon a week of milk he loves it that much! Marvin goes everywhere with Brod (Marvin isn't allowed out of the house though). B calls him "Mar" and his milk is "Mi" so sometimes its a little tricky trying to figure out what he wants.
Brody is down to one nap a day, a picky eater, favorite word is "no", folds his hands when we pray, loves singing "This Little Light of Mine",  wakes up at around 7:00am and is in bed about 8:30 pm, sleeps great in his big boy bed, enjoys TV (he truly didn't know what one was until Aubrie came around, I need some kind of babysitter while nursing right?) favorite movie is Toy Story and is the greatest joy to be around! We are so proud of the young boy he is becoming!

Miss Aubrie is settling in quite well to the family. As of last Wednesday she weighs 7lbs 10 oz. She does all of her duties great (sleep, poop and eat)! The picture above is from her first bath, so sweet. Umbilical cord fell off right at 2 two weeks ;)

Girlfriend is a LOUD sleeper and we can't wait to get her out of our room at night. She is a belly sleeper (which makes me cringe every time I place her on her belly), doesn't like the swing, bouncer or bassinet. The girl just wants to be laid flat with her arms out, it's crazy she has preferences already.

She is such a sweet blessing to our family. I love having 2 kiddos in the house. This last week Mike went back to work and we all survived! I haven't figured out how to take care of two kids and keep a decently clean house, but oh well. Our church blessed us with 2 weeks worth of dinners which just ended. So this weeks goal will be to grocery shop and put at least 2 meals on the table. I can do it! But really, we are LOVING being a family of 4. This transition has been so much easier then our transition with B. Aub's has just kinda been thrown into the mix :)

Aubrie's birth story

Thursday, July 5^th, was a strange day and I would blame that on knowing that the next day we would have our daughter; one of the reasons I’m not a fan of being induced. I hate thinking about the “lasts”. This pregnancy I struggled with emotions around Brody. Don’t get me wrong, I was SOOOO happy to be pregnant and adding to our family. I just got sad that B didn’t have a say in anything. I got sad that he had no clue he wouldn’t be the only child anymore. I got sad thinking we would have to share our attention with someone else. I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to love our daughter as much as we loved Brod.  These emotions really stemmed from the fear of the unknown.  So little to say Thursday was just weird as we tried to get as much family time in and yet as much “resting time” in also. 

Mike and I headed to the hospital and got checked in at midnight. I was feeling fine until I saw the hospital gown. For some reason that’s when it all became real to me. We were having another baby! I suddenly got really nervous for the labor part and really not wanting to do it. I was quickly re-thinking this idea and going home. Mike wouldn’t allow me to stay pregnant forever so as he guarded the door paper work was done, an IV started and medicine begun to get me contracting. At check in I was a whopping 2 cm. Mike and I were “tucked in” and tried to get rest. Mike got a couple hours of sleep. I stayed wide awake staring at the monitor waiting for the worst to happen as it did when I was in labor with B. I started to feel some discomfort within an hour or so but totally tolerable as I nibbled on ice chips and got out of bed every few minutes it seemed to go to the bathroom. Something about having IV fluids pumping into you while having a baby on your bladder just doesn’t go together. 

At 6:00 am when Pitocin was started I remained at 2 cm. So frustrating because I was putting out strong contractions every couple minutes. By 6:30 I was feeling miserable. I hate contractions and everything about them.  Why feel pain when there is relief is my philosophy. So my epidural was placed and working by 7:15 J Life was good again! Soon after, I felt as if my water had broke. To our surprise I was bleeding, bleeding a good amount to the point we all began thinking my placenta had abrupted. Baby girl, thankfully though, continued to look great on the monitor. Additional labs were drawn from me and we just waited it out because Aubs wasn’t in distress from the bleeding. 

Doctor came in to break my water at 8:00am and I continued to stay at 2 cm, holy moly I thought!! I was able though to continue enjoying my “no pain” state and rest. Have I said how much I LOVED my epidural? I kept telling Mike how much I wish he could feel as great as I felt. It was the first in months that I was able to be comfortable and rest.

Finally at 9:00 am I had progressed to 4cm and at 10:40 to 8 cm and the bleeding had stopped!  Making progress!!  Soon after that exam I became nauseated and knew I was entering transition time! I looked at the monitor and also noticed a heart rate rhythm that is indicative of baby being ready to be born.  We wanted my sister in the room to take pictures so we quickly called her to come immediately. I was feeling pressure but kept my mouth shut until she entered the room because I really didn’t want her to miss the birth. She entered the room and I sent Mike to tell the nurse about my pressure. She checked me and quickly called my doctor because little girl’s head was just about to pop out! At the time some other nurse friends from the floor were in my room and my nurse looked at me and strictly told me not to laugh because I could laugh her head out! :) 

Doctor got to my room quickly. I told him I was feeling pressure and he pretty much just said push away. It went two pushes for her head, and one push for her shoulders/body and I then our ears heard for the first time our sweet Aubrie Marie screaming away in our doctors arms!! I remember so clearly seeing my slimy, vernix covered girl and noticing some fat on her body and being in complete disbelief of how big she was! Everyone was in disbelief!  I held Mikes arm as he kissed me and we just watched our sweet girl. We all in the room were laughing, smiling and saying over and over “look how big she is!” Then my nurse did the greatest thing. She placed a blanket on my chest as my doctor then placed my daughter on it. Because Brody was in distress, he was taken immediately to the warmer and so I was so ecstatic to hold Aubs right away! I scooped her up, and dried her off as I kissed her like crazy!  She was perfect! We have a daughter! We are a family of 4!

We couldn’t wait to get Brody up to the hospital for him to meet his sister. So after nursing Aubrie we called Mike’s parents (who were with B) to bring him up. He walked into our room sporting his Big Brother shirt and of course did nothing of how we imagined the moment to go! Ha! Sweet, silly boy! He was kinda timid of the room, me being in bed and me holding a strange little girl. He did let Mike hold him but that was about it. In his defense though it was a big moment in his life. He did pose long enough for a family picture. Brod has warmed up lots to his little sis thankfully. In fact I would go as far as saying he really does like her.

So there it is, Aubrie’s birth story. The thing I love most about it is the fact that it’s boring. We got our excitement with Brody’s birth story and so a boring story was exactly what we were going for.  It was nice, relaxing and just fun! Aubs and I went to visit my floor yesterday and the word going around the unit concerning my delivery is PERFECT! Thank you Lord! We were so concerned about placental issues and A still continued to measure close to 4 weeks off days before being born, and NOTHING came to be (well except for the bleeding, and once doctor looked at my placenta there was no abruption)! We left the hospital the next day and anxiously came home to begin our new adventure of being a family of 4! I love being a family of 4!