A Name and A Blessing

 
We are so thankful that our family and friends were able to be with us for Brooke's baby blessing.  My sister Kimberly came out a few days before the blessing to have some one-on-one time with Brooke and I am so thankful that she did.  It was so fun to see Brooke interact with her and I loved seeing Kimberly fall in love with Brooke.  I think Brooke was completely spoiled when she was here because Kimberly would hold her during her naps and when she was fussy.  She also went with me to get Brooke's 2 month shots, and I am super glad she was there.

Brooke's blessing took place on August 18th at our home.  We chose this date since all our family was able to make it, but it happened to be our Stake Conference, so we had to get permission to bless her at home.  I am actually so glad it worked out that way, because I enjoyed the intimate feeling of the event.  We invited all our closest friends and family, and we were so thankful for the support.  I was so emotional that morning, and basically was overwhelmed with gratitude for our little girl.  We sang "I am a Child Of God", Grandpa Meador gave the opening prayer, my Dad gave a spiritual thought, and then Kevin performed the blessing with all the men.  It was a huge circle of men, and Brooke was just wide-eyed and looking around the whole time, haha.  I was nervous about how she would act, but she was perfect.  During the blessing, I was wishing that I had someone go upstairs and take a picture from the loft looking down at the men surrounding Brooke!  I asked Kevin afterwards if he would have a re-enactment for a picture, but I was not surprised when he said no :(  He did such a beautiful job on her blessing, and I have an audio recording so that I can remember the words that he spoke.

After the blessing, we sand "Families Can Be Together Forever", Jerry gave the closing prayer, and we had a nice luncheon.  We spent the afternoon talking, eating, and passing Brooke around!

 My brother Jeffrey and his wife Madison were also able to fly in from Utah and stayed a few days into the next week.  My brother would try to beat Kimberly into my room in the morning to have a chance to hold Brooke when she woke up :)  We had lots of baby talk with them as they are expecting their little girl in January 2014!

The Arlington gang :)  Can't say enough about these girls.  We are so thankful for the friendships that have developed over the years.  A lot has changed since our original hangouts when Andreia was the only one with a child!  Collectively, we now have 7 kids, and 2 on the way!!  

 Kevin's friend Scott made the trip out from Utah as well, and Kevin was excited to spend time with him.  These guys have been friends since High School and have stayed in touch over the years.  Scott actually helped us move to Texas the first time we came here.

 Aunt Shelley came with Grandma and Grandpa, and we were glad to see her!

Throughout the afternoon, all the kids kept asking me if they could hold Brooke.  I was trying to let my parents have lots of time with her since they were leaving that afternoon and hadn't even flown in until 1 am on Saturday...so I kept telling them "in a little bit."  Well, as soon as I gave the go-ahead, all the kids were lined up on the couch ready for their turn, haha.  Adorable :)

This little baby was tuckered out by the end of the afternoon.   She promptly fell asleep on her grandma.  Kevin took the next week off of work, and we took Brooke to the pool for the first time.  She didn't seem to mind it, but wasn't super smiley either.  We only kept her in the pool for 10-15 minutes because it was SO hot out and we didn't want her to get burned.

On our last full day with Jeffrey, Madi, and Scott, we went to the lake and had some fun :)  Bev stayed home with Brooke so I could go with everyone, but it was weird being away from her for so long.  We were gone 5 hours and although I was having fun, I was also anxious to get back.

 We had a wonderful time with everyone and are so thankful for the effort that everyone made to be here for Brooke's special day.

Two Month Snapshot

We took Brooke to church at 5 weeks and Kevin jokes that Brooke was crying because she hates Sunday pictures too!  I was pretty nervous about taking her because I didn't want people to hold her, I wasn't sure how she would do in that setting, etc, but she was either awake and content, or sleeping in my arms. And nobody asked to hold her, which was a relief. The next week, I was a little less uptight and I let one of my young women hold her :)

 She still sleeps quite a bit during the day, and is starting to go one long stretch (4-5 hrs)  at night so I am feeling more rested.  I have really had to adjust my expectations of what I can accomplish during the day though because if she is awake, I like to play with her, and more often than not, she falls asleep in my arms and takes her naps there.  This is probably breaking all the sleep training rules, but I love that time with her!  It still is a bit surreal that she is our little girl.  Of course there are nights when I lose my patience because she is screaming and I can't figure out how to help her, but those nights are usually followed by a really great day, so it balances out in an emotional sense, haha.

 This picture cracks me up! She has started to gain more weight and I can definitely see it in her tummy and cheeks. 

 She is just starting to smile, and I swear, it took me a million pictures on both my camera and phone until I was finally able to catch it!! Pretty darn cute if you ask me :)

One Month Snapshot

Brooke had her first real bath on day 11 since her cord fell off on day 10.  Using the Puj Tub was not a good idea in the kitchen sink, but Brooke actually seemed to be enjoying the bath until she pooped in the water and we had to take her out into the cool air!  She let us know very quickly that she was unhappy, haha.  We now use that tub in our bathroom sink, Brooke hasn't pooped in the tub since, and she really seems to like the warm bathes :)

Here are a few of my favorite pics during Brooke's first month of life...

Father's Day at Our House

Since our little one arrived early, Kevin was able to celebrate Father's Day as an official daddy :) It has been so fun to watch Kevin in his new role.  He has always been leery of holding small babies, and although he is still very cautious with Brooke, he enjoys holding and caring for her. Nothing is better than seeing the man you love holding his little girl as she sleeps in his arms. I have asked Kevin a million times if he just loves Brooke (because I have moments where it just hits me), and of course he answers yes. 

It was so nice to have both of our dads with us as well.  I really can't remember the last time I was with my dad on this special day.  Probably 10 years ago when I was home from college for the summer!  We had a delicious dinner and Bev and Melanie were awesome and brought yummy food so we didn't have to do much.  Brooke spent dinner in the swing, but was passed around the rest of the evening by the family.

First Week of Life

Our first week home with Brooke was both amazing, and a little anxiety-filled!  It was hard to believe that we were parents, and that our lives were completely focused on this one little darling girl :)  She was so incredibly sweet and loved to just be held.  Between Kevin, my mom, and I, she was getting lots of loves!  I felt so lucky because she just seemed so content all the time.  I would feed her every 3 hours, which took about 40 minutes, then I would pump, and then we would use the pumped milk to supplement her feedings via syringe.  This was the anxiety-filled part!  We had gone back to the doctor on Wednesday and Brooke had dropped to 6 lbs, 14 ounces (she was 7 lbs 0.5 ounces when we were discharged).  We were meeting with the nurse practitioner since our doctor was on vacation, and she was not my favorite.  She was, of course, super concerned, and was pressuring us to supplement her feedings with formula or go to a lactation consultant.  Although I understand that weight is important, I felt that Brooke was latching on and feeding perfectly, she was super content, and my milk hadn't come in until Monday evening, so we had only given Brooke 36 hours to pork up!  We were told that we had to come back the next day for another weight check to ensure that her weight either stayed the same, or increased.  Well, the next 24 hours were spent doing the same...feedings and supplementing when Brooke could barely keep her eyes open.  We often had to wake her up to feed her on the 3 hour marks, and by the time we got to the syringe feedings, she was asleep again and I feared that she was aspirating the milk.  

So we go back to see the nurse (Leslie) on Thursday, and Brooke was at 6 lbs, 15 ounces.  She had gained an ounce, and I was thrilled :)  I felt some huge relief, and a sense of accomplishment, haha.  Unfortunately, Leslie was still not satisfied and continued to lecture me about how she had lost so much weight since she was born, and brought up the lactation consultant again.  Long story short, she was super condescending to us, and when I assured her that the breastfeeding was going well, she told me that I "seemed pretty confident for a first time mom".  I wanted to hit her in the face, but instead I started to cry.  I was hormonal, going on random chunks of sleep, and I was frustrated.  I really felt like Leslie was making the week unpleasant, when really, I wished I would have just trusted my instincts and not let her ramblings get to me. 

That afternoon, we got home, and as my mom and I were getting lunch ready, Kevin took Brooke out of her carseat and was just holding her close to him.  I went over to talk to him and he just looked at me and said, "Our daughter is perfect, and you are doing an awesome job."  Best thing he could have said to me!!  Of course I cried again, and was emotional the rest of the day.  I would just be holding her, and would tear up, haha.  

We went back on Friday and Brooke had gained again and was at 7 lbs, 0.5 ounces.  This appointment was just a weight check so we weren't going to meet with Leslie, but as we were at the scale, she walked past and asked about her weight.  Her response was "We did it.", and then she corrected herself (thankfully) and said, "Well, you did it."  Yes, we did, no thanks to her! Our next appointment wasn't until the next Wednesday, and we were going to be with the pediatrician, Dr. Joki, who I love.

The week in pictures... Her first sponge bath.

I can't say enough about my mom.  She was the most amazing help ever and I don't think we could have done it without her.  She was constantly doing things for us, whether it was grocery shopping, cooking, bringing me water, keeping me company while I was nursing Brooke, cleaning my house, feeding me sandwiches while I was nursing, holding Brooke at all hours of the night, coming downstairs every few hours to help us with feedings, running a bath for me, etc.  She was a rock star, and we basically had an open door policy to our bedroom so she could come and go and help us as needed.  Kevin even told me several times throughout my mom's 3 week stay that my mom was awesome.  Kevin was able to stay home that first week with us, but once he went back to work, I really appreciated the help.

Bev was also able to come a few nights during Brooke's first few weeks of life.  She was a huge help and was always willing to take a turn during the middle of the night when Brooke just wanted to be held and I just needed to sleep, haha.  Brooke is definitely lucky to have 2 grandmas (and grandpas) that love her so much!!

My dad flew in exactly a week after Brookie was born and he was so excited to meet his first granddaughter.  The above picture is the first time he held her :)

Just for the sake of documentation (since this is my journal), MY healing was not going so well!  I was in A LOT of pain and was really struggling with managing it.  I had pain meds, but I had since run out of those amazing ice pads, the numbing spray, and the sitz bathes were only helping so much.  Friday morning I was changing Brooke's diaper and my mom happened to walk in to check on us, and I told her how much pain I was in.  She suggested that I call my doctor, which I did, and they told me that if I came that MINUTE, the doctor could see me.  If not, the doctor would be in surgery and I would have to wait until Monday.  I was conflicted because it was time to feed Brooke, I hadn't showered, and I didn't really want to leave Brooke.  BUT, I was struggling, so I decided to wake Kevin up to take me to the doctor, and my mom would stay with Brooke and try to give her a bottle of my pumped milk (which went flawlessly).  I am definitely glad I went because the doctor confirmed that i was still really swollen and bruised, and that she could see which sutures were bothering me.  I had two options.  She could clip the sutures and I would feel relief (but the "integrity of the stitches would be compromised"), or I could tough it out and hope it feels better with more meds, spray, and ice packs.  I opted for the later, and although it still took weeks of healing, all those extra things helped :)  And of course, this sweet little baby was a constant reminder that it was all worth it!