Milestones

We reached two milestones last night!!
Last night, little Brynlee slept for 8 hours strait! AND she did it in her own crib in her own room!! I was so nervous to move her into her own room. I felt like she was so far away and that something was going to happen to her. I know it's silly, just call me a protective mom! Well, I laid her down about 11:00. I went in and checked on her every couple of minutes to make sure she was falling asleep and in a good position so I wouldn't worry. Once I saw her asleep, I went to bed. I woke up at 3:00 so I could pump (starting to save up breast milk!) and checked on her...still sleeping! I then awoke to her crying...at 7!!! I couldn't believe it! She had never slept that long before! The past three nights she had slept just over 7 hours, but 8?? She must love me. I am proud to say that I made it through the night without a full fledged break down and me, Brynlee, and Spencer all got a really good night's sleep!

Speaking of Spencer. Time for an update. Spencer started school this week and it has already been kinda crappy. For one thing, his online math class is a joke. It's so hard. His teachers give insane assignments 3-5 times a week that take at least 3 hours to finish. That is at least 10 hours a week if there are only 3. That is added onto his other two classes and 40 hours of work a week. It's so brutal, I feel so bad for him. Add on top of that that he has been sick twice this week, it just has been rough. I love him so much for what he is doing to support Brynlee and I. I am so glad that I married someone who is willing to work SO hard to make sure that we are taken care of and happy. I know that the next while is going to be long and hard, but we are working through it and I am just really excited for when the school part of this is all over!!!

We also are about to hit another milestone tonight...leaving Brynlee with a babysitter while Spencer and I go on a date. I am so nervous. I get so much anxiety leaving her anywhere. I have done it twice but never for more than an hour and I had just fed her so I knew she would be ok. Tonight, we have a date planned for when I pick Spencer up from work. I don't know when I will have fed Brynlee last, so she might get her first full bottle feeding tonight. I am leaving her with Whitley, who I am positive is going to do an awesome job! I am just so scared!!! :/ Spencer and I need some time without her though. Even when she is sleeping, we don't really get any US time. So tonight, it's all about us. This will also be our first date since Brynlee was born!

Last milestone of the week? Brynlee is getting blessed on Sunday! Grandma made her dress, we are making her some shoes, and she is going to look beautiful! I can't believe how fast things move with a baby!! :)

See you in 2!

Tonight we got to attend one of my favorite cousin in law's setting apart! He has been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Ecuador!! He leaves for the missionary training center (MTC) in the morning. This was such a cool experience. Logan is such an amazing kid. He is so kind, helpful, funny, and genuinely a good friend. Even though he is only 18, he and I are buds. Tonight I got to watch him take a big step in his life. For the next two years he will be serving the people of Ecuador and sharing the wonderful message of the gospel. He is going to be an amazing missionary!! His mom and dad should be so proud of their little boy (he's 6' 7"). There was such a strong spirit in the room as his mom and dad bore their testimonies along with his bishop, a member of the stake presidency, and the stake president. I am so grateful to have the church in my life. It was amazing to hear his blessing and how personal and specific it was to him. I am sure that he will remember the things that were said and that they will give him strength throughout the next two years. The people of Ecuador are lucky to get this boy, and they better take good care of him for us while he is gone!

My One Month Old

I can't believe it!! My pretty little princess is 

1 MONTH OLD!!! 

It's been a crazy month full of ups and downs and lots of tears, happy and sad! It has been full of smiles and frowns from our little baby princess, lots of late night feedings, and tons and tons of love. This little girl is the biggest blessing in our lives. I cannot believe I get to be a mommy to such a sweet little baby. She sleeps so well, she is happy when she is awake (for the most part) and she loves to snuggle. She has the skinniest little chicken legs always pulled up like a frog, she has the sweetest little lips that are almost always in a little 'O', and she has the prettiest blue eyes. I am such a proud mommy and can't wait for her to get a little bigger so we can see her smile more and so Spencer can actually play with her!!

Brynlee, Mommy and Daddy love you soooooo much!  I can't believe you have already been in our family for a whole month! It feels like just yesterday they put you on my tummy for the first time and I heard you cry. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital being visited by family and friends. It seems like just yesterday they took you away from me to put you under the lights. It seems like just yesterday that they brought you back to me and said we could go home! From that moment on I have kept you right by my side :). You did stay with Grammy for about an hour and with Grandma Green for about an hour, but besides that? You are my buddy! We go everywhere together! Even though you don't like being in your car seat or riding in the car, we have started to figure out some tricks to make you happier. I hope one day you start to like the car, apparently that's what all the babies do! Keep growing :). You are already starting to get your little baby boobies and they are so cute!! I can't wait until you will actually fit in your onesie that says, "Chubby Babies Cuddle Better". Right now, you would swim in it!!! You have also finally gotten back up to your birth weight! 6 pounds 11 ounces at your last visit to the pediatrician. You also grew 3/4 of an inch! Keep it up!!! Since you were born you have had a very strong neck, but right now you can old your head up for a pretty long time all by yourself! Daddy and I are so proud :).  We have also nailed nursing in public. We have had lunch at Red Robin, Barro's, Some Burros, and at lots of people's houses! Grammy isn't your favorite person, we can't figure out why! Maybe it's because she always holds you when you are hungry, but she says you hate her...I assure her you don't, but you will have to tell her yourself with some cute smiles in the near future. You used to only like laying sprawled out. Every chance you got you had both arms and legs out flat on the ground. One time aunt Kristi bundled you and you fell right asleep. We decided to try it and now you LOVE IT! Even if you aren't ready to go to sleep, if you get bundled up you are the best snuggle bug :). You also love bouncing...on your bum, on your feet, it doesn't matter! You love it! I also have a complaint...don't only give daddy the pretty smiles, mommy wants some too!! Always remember to burp after you eat, you forget sometimes and then your tummy hurts later. I will try to help you out with that one :). I love you baby girl. Happy one month birthday :)

Aunt Sherry made the cute backdrop for pictures last week :)

Your hands are always in the perfect poses! It looks like I made you do this but you did it ALL on your own!

You did this to yourself...

These are from today! Happy one month our little naked baby!!

Punching the camera!

Thanks for the smile!!

We love you Brynlee Lynn!!!!!

Mom and Baby: week 3

This past week has had lots of ups and downs. Let's start off with my trip to the doctor last last Thursday. I woke up feeling really weird. I tried to shower, almost passed out, and laid back in bed. Normally this stops that feeling and in a few minutes I can get up and feel fine. Well this time, I didn't feel fine. I felt really yucky and was scared to be at home by myself because if I passed out, there was nobody to help me or take care of Brynlee. I had my mom and grandma come over and we found out that I had a fever and got nervous. We called my doctor and I made an appointment for that afternoon. When I went in, they said it could either be Mastitis, a uterine infection, or something with my spine (from the epidural). When she checked me, she said it was none of those. She decided that maybe I was just getting the symptoms of mastitis before it actually came so she gave me a prescription for antibiotics to treat it. I had a fever for a couple of days and was having awful headaches but I am pleased to say that I feel a million times better!!! I gave up on my medicine yesterday afternoon because I had to work eating around it and it made me crazy. I made it 8 of the 10 days, I think that's good enough!

We have finally gotten the hang of nursing! It still hurts when she first latches on but after that there is no pain :). We had a little problem last week because of some sores I had so I could only feed her on one side. I pumped the other side and fed it to her in a bottle. That lasted 5 days and then I tried to nurse her again and I could finally do it! I was so happy. It's so much easier this way!!

Brynlee has finally started living her life like a normal person...sorta! She is eating TONS better and not as often and she is sleeping better. She still has been sleeping really restlessly but the other night she slept for 6 hours so I guess I can't complain! :) She makes our life so fun. We love her little smiles and her tiny little body parts. I love her to death!

We are blessing Brynlee on September 1st and after attempts to find a blessing dress, we settled on making it ourselves. Grandma and I went to Joanne's on Saturday and picked out fabric. I am really excited and hope it turns out as pretty as I think it will! I am so grateful to have such an awesome grandma who is such an awesome seamstress and is willing to put it together so quickly.

We took our first family picture tonight. The other day we were talking about it and realized that we don't have one picture of the three of us except for at the hospital when I was pretty much dead. So tonight we finally all looked good at the same time and we got a picture!

Grandma Hon got Brynlee a couple of bracelets and although my mother doesn't approve (sorry mom!) I love putting her in them! It makes her look like a little princess :)

Brynlee with her "cousins" (really they are my cousins...I don't know what that makes them to her)

Baby Lucy is 5 weeks older than Brynlee. Ezra and Rigdon are about 7 1/2 months older. She is so tiny!!

Our first family picture! I wanted a headband on her but it was MIA. :(

I love our sweet little family. It's perfect.

I am a Miracle Worker

I have officially worked a miracle. What is it? Well...I have kept another human being alive for 18 days. I have been the sole provider of food for a human being for 18 days. I have rocked and cuddled another human being for 18 days. I have burped and changed another human being's diapers for 18 days. I have gotten to look at a sweet little baby's adorable face for 18 days.

Can you believe it?!?! I know...me either! I am actually this baby's mother! And while Spencer has been a HUGE help, I feel like if it weren't for me, this baby probably would have died by now. I am afraid sometimes that I am going to wake up and she is going to be gone, or that she won't be alive anymore...but every morning she is and it is another little victory for me. Being a mom is scary!

Anyways. Yesterday I had Brynlee in the cutest little outfit and we were washing the sheet on our bed (Brynlee decides to pee all over it in the night when I can't really see what I'm doing...) so the bed was white (we have a mattress pad) and she was sleeping so cute...so I took a bunch of pictures of her. She is quite photogenic if I do say so myself!

These are a few of my favorite things

In no particular order:

-I love when someone else is holding Brynlee and she is crying, they give her back to me. And even though it sometimes most of the time (ok let's be honest) almost always stresses me out, I feel cool that I can calm her down. It's not because I have some special touch; I'm not even convinced it's because she knows it's me. I just have spent so much time with her crying that I have figured out the tricks!

-I love when we are getting ready to go and I get to take her away from whoever has her and take her home with me. She is MY baby and I get to take her with me!! I can't believe it! I get to take her home and keep snuggling her!

-I love how many times Brynlee smiles in her sleep. I know people say it's gas, so either my baby is the gassiest human being I have ever seen OR she is dreaming of angels OR she is just plain happy!! And let me tell you, those smiles are SO CUTE!! I keep trying to get one on camera but I am just always too late.

-I love when we put Brynlee up to our chest, she puts her hands under her chin and she tilts her head back and looks us strait in the face! I love watching her look around and figure out her surroundings.

-I love that she doesn't like to be horizontal. Even though it makes our lives a bit difficult sometimes, it's so fun! She likes to be sitting up, she likes to bounce and she likes to stand up. She is not even three weeks old yet and she already is trying to be a big girl. Oh great...I'm in for it, aren't I...?

-I love when she surprises me by sleeping good at night! It's not that she's a bad sleeper (usually about 4 hour blocks) but, for instance, last night she slept from 11 pm to 5:30 am!! That's 6 HOURS!! I was so excited when I saw what time it was! Little surprises like that are nice :)

-I love getting her dressed. Even though there are very few outfits she can actually wear because she is so tiny, I love getting her in her little clothes. Spencer told me last night that he is going to be so sad when she grows out of these little clothes. I told him that there are tons more cute little clothes in the closet and he said he knows, but these tiny ones are just so cute!

-I love watching her eat. I can't even tell you how many times I have wanted to take a picture of her nursing but decided that probably wouldn't be appropriate...haha! I just love to stare at her. She just looks so happy and comfortable.

-I love listening to her eat. When she gets going, she makes these super loud gulping sounds and she starts breathing really deep. I love it!

-One of my favorite moments of all time is roller her over after she finishes eating. She is usually asleep, she has lines all over her cheek from whatever I am wearing, she has milk dribbling out of the side of her mouth, and her mouth is still usually sucking a little bit! It is so sweet!! She just lays there like someone who just ate a huge Thanksgiving meal and can't move. I love it so much. Her cheek is always super warm too. It's one of the things that is making sticking with nursing worth it. Bottles don't do that as much.

-I love when people tell me that she's so cute. I mean, I know she's cute...come on....look at her parents ;). But I love when other people think she's cute too. Everybody wants to touch her little hands and feet and kiss on her cheeks. My only problem is everyone always wants to hold her and I have a hard time saying yes because I want to hold her!!!!

-I love when she is in her little lamb swing and trying to go to sleep, she always turns on her side, tilts her head back, and tries to nurse out of the little headrest. It's right at the level she needs so she just sits there and licks it. It's so funny! She eventually falls asleep but she will got at it for a while!

-I love watching Spencer play with her. He treats her like she is a big kid already! He just loves to take her out in the living room, he turns on Seinfeld, and they watch it together. He turns on music and makes her dance (she actually LOVES this. She just really likes to be bounced). He lays on the couch and talks to her. One time, he had her propped up against his legs and he was doing sit ups and asking her if he had done enough and based on her facial expression would do more...he's a funny guy, but I love him to pieces.

-I love when she holds in her binky with both hands. I don't think that's actually what she is trying to do, but she spreads her fingers out really wide and covers her binky with both hands. It's so cute!

-I love her sad face. I know that's kinda mean, but her sad face is so, well, sad! If you see that sad face, you want to just pick her up and hug her forever. Hopefully I gain an immunity to that before she can use it to her advantage because right now...it's irresistible.

-I love her hair. I love how much there is, how soft it is, how red it is, and how pretty it makes her! I think if she were bald she might look a little funny.

-I love her birth mark. It's this cute little circle right by her left ear. It's so cool because the circle actually completes on her earlobe! I just love that little thing that makes her so unique.

-I love getting to say mommy. I love that when I say mommy, I mean me. I love calling Spencer daddy. I love that we are Brynlee's mommy and daddy.  I thought that would be weird or hard to transition to, but it's so easy! It's like I have been mommy my whole life. I might be ok if that's the only thing I went by for the rest of my life :)

-I love all of the pink. Yesterday she was in the cutest pink dress, in her pink car seat, with the pink cover, with a pink binky, and a pink blanket. And I was SO HAPPY! I love having so much pink around.

-I love my sweet Brynlee Lynn. I love her chubby cheeks, I love her button nose. I love her chicken legs and her long feet. I love her soft and amazing smelling skin. I love her belly button and her ears. I love her rolls...of skin. I love her eyes and how much they are starting to be open. I love kissing her cheeks, her mouth, her feet, her nose...EVERYTHING! I love her baby breath, I love her nonexistent eyebrows, and I love her fingers and toes. I love how she always grabs my fingers and holds on for dear life. I love her wimpy little cry and her dinosaur cry. I love her in clothes and I love her little naked body. I love when she's lathered up in lotion. Most of all, I love that she is my sweet baby and I get to spend eternity with her. I love that we are at eternal family, sealed in the temple.

The Joys of Motherhood

Nursing is hard. It seems like something that is built into your body and is the way you are supposed to feed your baby should be like second nature right?? WRONG. Nursing is one of the hardest things I have ever done. We are 11 days into this adventure and I have already gone through so many different challenges with nursing.

1. In the hospital, Brynlee wouldn't latch. I had the midwife come and she helped her do it and she was latching great!
2. Still in the hospital, she wouldn't stop screaming. She wasn't interested in eating at all. She would be perfectly mellow and then I would get her ready to eat and she would just scream. Come on girl! I'm giving you the food right now....oy.
3. Once she grew out of that one, we got home and then she did ok for a day or two. Then She went back to the screaming. This time it pushed me to the edge and I just broke down crying. I was ready to just give up and give her breast milk in a bottle for the rest of the time. My mom talked me out of it though and we figured out she just couldn't latch because I had too much milk.
4. Once my milk came in, she switched from screaming to just squirming. She would suck a couple of times, move her head all around, make a mess, and then do it again. It was so frustrating. Sometimes it would take me over an hour and a half to feed her because she wasn't consistently eating. So annoying.
5. Once my milk regulated she could latch on again. And latch on she did!! Every hour and a half. I honestly felt like I was spending my entire day just feeding her. She would eat, fall asleep for 30-45 minutes and then want to eat again. It was exhausting!!!
6. Once I decided I wasn't going to feed her so often and hold her off it seemed like everything was going great...until my milk wouldn't let down (This started last night). She isn't the most patient baby in the world and when she wasn't getting milk, she just screamed. It was awful. This is our current problem. Hopefully she will learn to be patient and try a little bit harder to make it work. Hopefully this problem doesn't last too long.

On the plus side...last night, she only woke me up ONCE!!!! She slept from 9:30-1:00, I fed her until just after 2, and then she stayed asleep until 7!!!! It was amazing!! I feel so rested and so does Spencer. It's amazing what a good night's rest can do for the soul!

Today we are going to Wal Mart to get a couple of different kinds of binky's to see if we can get her to take it better. Her binky makes her SOOOO mad. She hasn't figured out how to suck on it right. She just tries to suck on it like she's nursing and when nothing comes out she gets MAD. Hopefully she grows out of that too because I need her to like a binky...

Ahhhh, the joys of motherhood.

Brynlee's First Bath

Brynlee got her first bath the other day. There isn't much to say about it but pictures are always fun! She did not like it very much, until we put her head under the faucet...she actually liked that!

Pardon my no makeup and crazy hair! It was my first shower home and I didn't feel like getting ready...

Our little angel baby!

This is one of my favorite things to do! Even though I know she doesn't mean it...I love her kisses!