little miss brooklyn

our baby Brooklyn is here and we are so happy!! the best part  is that everything went according to plan....well, almost anyway :) here is the story of our latest adventure.

 

even though things were progressing much better with this pregnancy than the last two, I still didn't go into labor on my own. we had to be at the hospital at 7:30 am on the 12th to induce so we said goodbye to the kiddies and my mom (who had flown in a few days prior) and spent the 30 minute drive anxious to see what would take place the next few hours. starting off I was dilated to a 2 and once they started the Pitocin my contractions felt just like the Braxton hicks I had be experiencing but much more consistent. I was allowed to get my epidural whenever I was ready so once I started feeling pain I gave them the go ahead. I was so worried that if I progressed as quickly as I did with sophie and chose to wait to long for the epidural I would be too late. after the anesthesiologist left I sat and waited for the numbness to kick in. my legs were a little numb but nothing like I remember with the other 2 kids...they started me on a low dose so I figured I just needed to give it more time. at this point I was to a 4 and my water hadn't broken yet so the doctor came in to do that. I remember thinking to myself that it shouldn't still hurt this bad...I shouldn't be able to feel any of this. same thing every time I was checked. so after a while I was still feeling my contractions and they were getting strong. I told the nurse what was going on and she went to find the anesthesiologist to have him figure out what was wrong. he was in a C-section but would come check as soon as he was done. this is when things started to become really miserable. I was to a 6 and still feeling everything. every time I felt a contraction coming I would start sobbing....it hurt so bad (kudos to moms who go natural...I am a whimp) and I was super frustrated that I was having to worry about something like this. what was the point of going through the process of an epidural if it wasn't working and I never had issues with mason or sophie. after a while the guy finally came in. he adjusted the catheter in my spine and gave me a fast acting solution that they give to emergency C-section patients. he said if that didn't work within the next 5 minutes or so that they would have to re-thread my epidural. not what I wanted to hear. I was already in so much pain that I did not want to have to sit up and re-do the whole thing. luckily it did take effect and my pain gradually went away. hallelujah!! we were back in business. I was to an 8 now and the nurse said I should be ready in no time. sure enough she came back in shortly after saying there was a slight change in baby's heart rate which usually means its time to deliver. after confirming I was to a 10 she left to call the doctor and we were ready to end this crazy day. 1 contraction and 3 pushes later I was holding my third child!

 

look at that hair! at one point when my nurse was checking me she mentioned she could feel lots of hair on baby's head and then brooklyn came out looking like this! I LOVE it!! :)

so brooklyn was born on 11/12/13! she weighed 6 lbs 8 oz (exact same as sophie) and was 20 inches long. just perfect!

mason is going to be such a great helper! so glad to have him as the older brother. he loves baby Brooklyn :)

 

sisters!! so crazy how different they look...one dark and one blonde.



 

family of 5!

so grateful that my mom was able to come down. we don't get to see her often and the kids have loved having her around. even though we have plenty of people who could have helped out with mason and sophie, it was a huge relief knowing they could be with their grandma while we were gone.

 

 

 seriously so pretty!!

even though labor and delivery went a little differently than we were expecting, everything still went smoothly without any complications and we have a beautiful and healthy baby girl. I am so happy and blessed! I have an AMAZING husband. he is always so supportive and such a huge help...he has even been taking shifts with Brooklyn at night so I can get a little sleep (that is if she doesn't need to eat of course :). at the hospital I would watch him with Brooklyn and feel my chest swell with joy because I know my kids have such a great dad to take care of them. he gets a week of paid paternity leave so I know between him and our moms I will be well taken care of :) I am so grateful for all of my kids. they are each so different but all 3 mean so much to me! I am so glad I get to spend the rest of my life with my wonderful family! 

that's all for now! i'm sure you will be hearing from us soon (or at least seeing lots of pictures anyway :)



Fun-tober!

forgive me for the picture overload, but we had a busy month and since I have been slacking in the camera department the past few months I made sure to get some shots of our latest activities!

these first few are just some pictures from around the house.

 

my kids love going to the zoo, especially with their friends and I really wanted to get one last trip in before the baby is born. this time we were able to feed some birds and it was a lot of fun...I'm so glad I remembered my camera this time! we had birds on our heads, arms and backs and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!

 

my kids had their 6 month dental check up last week so I thought it would be perfect to base my preschool lesson around teeth. these pictures are from an activity we did about brushing. I soaked hard boiled eggs in pepsi which stained the shell brown. the kids got to use toothbrushes and toothpaste to clean their "tooth". they had a blast and were amazed to see that brushing really did make their eggs clean.

 

Curtis has been working a 9-5 schedule lately and it has been awesome!! I love having him home in the evening. one day he was home earlier than usual to attend the doctor with me, so we took advantage of the extra time together and had a "party". we picked up some dinner, then the kids each decorated their own little pumpkin, Curtis carved our big pumpkin, and we had chocolate ice cream cones. the kids worked super hard on their pumpkins and I loved the results :)

 

the Saturday before Halloween was our ward trunk or treat and chili cook off. it was curtis' weekend to work but luckily he made it home just in time to join us. mason has been insisting on a ghost costume since Halloween ended last year. everyone kept telling me just to use a sheet and I was pretty reluctant at first...I didn't want it to look ghetto with just a plain sheet, I don't have a sewing machine, and I didn't want it to cover his face. turns out I had to make some adjustments to the sheet anyway and did it all by hand so thank goodness you can only see my handiwork up close :) I ripped up the bottom into strips and I must admit, I was really happy with how it turned out! we stuck to the ghost theme for sophie too. I just bought a cheap white shirt and painted on a face with fabric paint, added white tights and made a tutu out of a headband and tulle and ta-da! her costume was done simple as that! they were both super cheap and pretty darn cute!

 

this week mason attended a Halloween party that one of his friends had then we finished off the festivities with trick or treating. sophie had a blast for the first little bit...running full blast ahead of the boys from door to door. after about an hour all the little ones started to complain about one thing or another so we called it a night...less candy for me to have to monitor :) in the end we had a pretty fun Halloween!

 

in other news, the baby should be here soon!! I had my second to last doctor appointment yesterday and was quite happy with what he had to tell us! he could feel the baby's head, my cervix is very soft and I'm dilated to a 1. he said once my contractions start it shouldn't take long to finish the job! it might not sound like much but it is for me! I have never progressed this far on my own before. Guess all these crazy braxton hicks are paying off! it makes me super nervous that she might try to come earlier than I am prepared for. if she does decide to stay in the oven a little longer I will be getting induced the morning of November 12th...the date just so happens to be 11/12/13 :) Curtis and I had talked about how cool it would be if the baby came on November 9th (that's the day he proposed to me 7 years ago) or on 11/12/13 (just because its a cool date). when we were setting up a date with the doctor, the 12th happened to be his day on call at the hospital so that was the day I got scheduled. we are very excited!!!

 

that was our busy and super fun month! next up...BABY!!!



just an update!

hello! just thought I would throw a little update post together really fast and inform you of the latest on our little family! 

just over 7 more weeks (6 before we can induce) until we will be a family of 5! everything seems to be going well with the pregnancy and we hope it continues to be that way. I have been having A TON of Braxton hicks and they are starting to get just a little painful at times. its a little unsettling because I don't remember experiencing anything like this with mason or sophie. it also seems like I am carrying this baby lower and more out....the husbands at church gave me a hard time one week and asked me if I had a basketball under my dress because that's exactly what it looks like :) this little girl ALWAYS has the hiccups! at least several times a day...no joking! although I feel her throughout most of the day (especially those dang hiccups!), she is most active early in the morning and before I go to bed at night. I (along with half the people I talk to) are super anxious to see what she looks like. mason looks like Curtis, sophie looks like me, so who will this baby take after?! I can't wait to see!

 my good friend and I are co-teaching preschool this year with just our kids and the boys are excited to go to kindergarten next year! her two boys and mason will go to the same school and be able to ride the bus together which I am very happy about! they have full day kindergarten here which I think is a little much for 5 year olds but i'm sure mason will love it! he is so smart and loves learning. I never hear him complain about doing his homework and he is constantly writing letters and notes. he spends almost every afternoon with his friends and the best part is when I tell him to come home at 5, he shows up right on time :)

sophie is my pretty girl. she is hilarious and has such a funny personality. we are putting the final touches on potty training just in time to buy more diapers for the baby. she loves mason and they have a great time playing together (when they aren't fighting of course). she loves to play with her friend Camille and cries if mason goes across the street to play without her.

 Curtis is working hard as usual. right now he is in the in-between stages of production supervisor and maintenance supervisor. once the production team has found someone to replace him, he will be working exclusively in maintenance. it means a terrible shift time of something like 2 a.m to 10:30 a.m. but it also comes with a raise so maybe I shouldn't complain too much :)

as for me, I hobble around with an achy back and hips and try to get through the day without killing my kids :) I have been working hard trying to get the primary kids ready for their primary program that is in a couple weeks. the original date was the same time baby is due so the awesome presidency moved the program up so I wouldn't have to find a chorister to fill in for me. mason is going to be saying a small part and singing "I am a Child of God" acapella with a small group of kids so I am super proud of him :)

I cannot believe September is over. October is already so packed with things that i'm afraid it too will pass in the blink of an eye. before you know it you will be seeing pictures of a beautiful baby girl! (hopefully I can squeeze in something about Halloween before then!) hope you all are doing well. we miss all our family and friends and think of you often!



baby, utah trip and other happenings

lots to talk about so lets begin!
(and sorry about the formatting....I don't know if it was my computer or the website but I was having some issues getting everything to center correctly)

 

starting off, if you weren't already aware, we are expecting another baby!! Curtis and I kept the secret to ourselves at first and told our immediate family after our first doctor appointment but decided to wait until we knew the gender before we announced it to everyone else. almost 17 weeks in my doctor gave me ultrasound and as soon as the image popped up I said "that's a girl isn't it?" and after some snooping around he made a definite "it looks like a girl". a few days ago I got my mid pregnancy ultrasound and it was still a little girl and everything looks normal and healthy. we were kind of hoping for another boy but the girl thing is definitely growing on me and I am very excited :)  so baby number 3 is due November 16th but we have talked to the doctor about inducing at 39 weeks to ensure the baby wont be too big (don't need to go through another mason and doctors tend to agree my body is too little for 8 pound babies!) and in hopes that Curtis will be present when it all happens (since he has to travel 45 minutes home then another 30 minutes to the hospital). so over half way and hoping that everything continues to go well! now if only we could decide on a name.... :)

 

a few weeks ago we took our annual trip to Utah. it turned out to be perfect timing as most of our family was also in town so we filled our days with lots of catching up! I will let the pictures do the talking.

 

Curtis went mountain biking a couple of times with my family and with his brother casey.

 

my whole family

 

my parents with their 2 grandkids



 

me and my siblings...how sad that I'm the oldest AND the shortest one of the bunch :)

 

we got to see my sweet grandma! I miss her!

the one Sunday we were out there, we were able to get together with Curtis' whole Sullivan side of the family. it was great getting to see everyone and amazing that a family that big could all be together especially considering we had family from Michigan, Missouri, Florida, Texas, Colorado and Utah.

poor little Sophie was worn out so she took a nap with her grandpa :)

 

the three oldest cousins reunited!

 

me and miss talia...she stuck to me like glue!

after the Sullivan reunion, we headed up to the cabin for a few days. it was so fun watching the cousins play together and it felt like we had never moved away. we had a craft activity for the kids, went 4 wheeling, ate s'mores and just relaxed. it was SO great being in mountains and cool air again!
sophie, mason and esther on the way to the cabin.

just my little loaf

fishing with the family

craft time at the cabin

reading stories while at the cabin attracted all the kids like flies!

 

after getting back from the cabin we headed to St. George for a few days. after all, it isn't a trip to Utah without swimming at James and Michelle's :)

 

our last full day was spent at fiesta fun in St. George. Curtis' brother had some points to use up there and was generous to let us come along. the kids loved winning tickets at the arcade games and then they rode the mini go carts for a couple of laps. afterward we headed upstairs and ate some yummy pizza.

 

mason, talia, jaxton, esther, sophie and emma.

 

as usual we had a great time! the long drive is always a torture (and this time my feet got swollen on the way out which has never happened to me in my entire life!) but we always love going "home" and seeing all our friends and family.

 once we got back to Texas it seemed as if we just couldn't get a break from bad news. a few days after getting home from Utah, mason tried to pull Sophie over the arm of the couch by her arm and needless to say it didn't end well. since it was 6 pm on a Friday night and no urgent care centers in our town, I headed to the ER with Sophie screaming and mason in tow (had our neighbors been home I would have left him there). luckily Curtis was able to leave work and meet me there which was awesome because I wouldn't have been able to be with her during x-rays. they said she had nurse maids elbow which is just a fancy way of saying her elbow got pulled out of place. once Sophie was taken care of, Curtis took the kids home in my car while I stayed to fill out discharge papers (which took forever thanks to the lady in front of me!). it is now past 9 pm as I get into Curtis' car and the battery is dead. he has to come back down the hospital to jump it and the next day we had to buy a new battery. a few days later, Curtis decided to see a doctor about one of his eyes. ever since we left Utah, one of them has been blurry and he can't see very well at night which is not normal for him. he went into the nurse at work for an opinion (since she is free) and she told him that he needed to see an eye doctor. she hooked Curtis up with a good doctor in the Dallas area who accepts our medical insurance. we were thinking cataracts or something that needed surgery which was seriously the last thing we need right now. turns out Curtis' cornea is infected. after three days of doctor visits (including the doctor coming in on the 4th of july just to check curtis' eye!) Curtis is on a couple of different eye drops and it looks like the infection is clearing up. hopefully he will regain his vision soon.

so that is our crazy life right now and just a little of me complaining :) overall we are happy and glad everything is going well with baby!