Brooks – 1 Month!

Sweet Baby Brooks you are one month old! Actually you were a month old on Wednesday! You are already growing SO fast! When we left the hospital you weighed 8 pounds even. When we went in for your two week check up you weighed 9 pounds and 1 ounce! So you gained over a pound in less than two weeks! I’m willing to bet you weigh at least 11 pounds right now(will have to weigh you tonight and put that on here! AND see how long you are!) You like to graze when you eat…and you have done fabulous with breastfeeding! We gave you formula along with breastfeeding until you were a week old and we both had the hang of things, but you haven’t had a drop of formula since then! YAY US! Your sleep pattern is typical newborn breastfeeder, up every 2-3 hours. But you seem to be moving towards longer stretches! You aren’t wearing newborn clothes anymore…already in the 3 month size mostly. You can wear some 0-3 month too. Diaper size is now 1…you were in newborn size for about 3 weeks!

You have sweet little fuzzy dark hair…a little on top and a lot in the back! And it looks like you got those sweet baby blue eyes just like Griffin, Peyton and Reece! That’s the ONLY thing you got from Mommy apparently! You look JUST LIKE Daddy! ;)

On your three week birthday you went back to work with Mommy! I’m so thankful that I can bring you with me! This is how we spend our days… 

You made your first visit to the gym this week! Apparently you approve! ;)

Mommy likes to call you Love Muffin…you also get called Little Buddy, Buddy, Little Fella…

You literally did NOT get put down for the first 10 days of your life. Mommy and Daddy soaked you up as much as possible and took turns just sitting around holding you! Your brothers and sister fight over you a lot. I love seeing each of them melt while they hold you!     We love you SO SO much! I can’t even remember what it was like before we had you!

And, yes, I’m still obsessed with your oh so kissable lips!

Love,

Mommy

On not finding out!

I thought that since our sweet boy is finally here that I would give my take on not finding out the gender!

I wish we would have done it ALL FOUR TIMES!

Seriously. It was that much fun! That one little surprise that you can give yourself…that moment when the baby comes out and your husband announces what it is…priceless! I am telling you…if you have the chance you NEED to do this at least once! Don’t get me wrong, it was sometimes hard while I was pregnant to not know and people WILL piss you off about it…but people are going to piss you off anyway while you are pregnant so this is just one more thing! HA!

I still catch myself surprised that he’s a he! Haha! I’m so thankful that it’s a boy though! Some people actually thought that I was disappointed that it was a boy…um just because I thought it was a girl the whole time doesn’t mean that I only wanted a girl! DUH! Actually, the morning we were getting induced Reece had spent the night with my sister the night before. Well at 3:30am she called me crying because she wanted me. After I got off the phone with her there was a “Please God, let this be a boy!”. Just because she’s my girl! I also didn’t realize until he was here how worried my husband was about having another girl! Reece has his heart!

Oh and how’s the girl that REALLLLLY wanted a baby sister?

She’s just fine with him! ;)

And the brotherly love is pretty sweet too!

Sure having another girl would have evened things out, but isn’t it nice how you get EXACTLY what you’re supposed to have? Brooks is the perfect ending to our family!

Reece’s Preschool Graduation

On Wednesday our sweet girl graduated from preschool! How is that possible? It seems like yesterday she was hanging with us at the office and now she’s all grown up on us. At least she thinks she is! With Paw Paw and Aunt Allison With Papa, Aunt Kelsie & Gigi With Mr. Ish With Paw Paw & Granna With Mimi & Pop With Mattie, these two are BFF and joined at the hip! Off to kindergarten she goes! Sad.

Landon Brooks – A Birth Story

Monday, April 22, 2013 was the best day of my life. Not that our wedding day or the days our other children were born aren’t VERY special to me, but it’s just we were ALL there this time..so it was SO special to me. The completion of our family.

We sent the kids on to school with plans on having them picked up and brought to the hospital when I was about 5 cm.

Josh and I arrived at the hospital bright and early at 6:oo am. As we walked in the door of the hospital Josh said to me, “I’m team Blue.” It caught me off guard a little because pretty much the whole pregnancy we thought girl. I was SO anxious. I wanted to soak everything up and not take one single moment for granted. Josh got us moved in to our room and I changed into my gown.

Then we just waited on my BFF, Jamie, who was my labor nurse to arrive! SO SO SO thankful to have the opportunity to have her. She knows me well and that really helped.

Once she was there she got my IV going and got the pitocin started. Then my doctor came in to break my water. Y’ALL!!! I have never in my LIFE…there was SO MUCH fluid. It was insane. My sister and Josh were both in the room and they said it sounded like a balloon pop. Even Jamie said she had never seen that much and she’s been delivering babies for a long time! We did know from an ultrasound that there was extra but we had no clue it was THAT much extra! All of that happened around 8:30am and I was only 1cm dilated.

The next hour was pretty uneventful but I could tell the contractions were getting a little stronger. Then by about 9:45 they were UNBEARABLE. I was shaking from the pain…I have never had contractions that strong. I think it was just because he was SO low for so long and once I started dilating it was just going fast. Lucky for me the anesthesiologist came and gave me the best epidural ever! He was SO nice and patient with me as I had some really bad contractions through it. Poor Jamie, I was clinging to her so hard I thought I would rip her scrubs! About 5 minutes later I was in NO pain at all. It was glorious. I don’t see why or how anyone could do that without an epidural.

Meanwhile, family and friends were coming and going. They were picking which team they wanted to be on. I was talking with Josh and mentioned that if it was a boy that I thought I wanted to call him Brooks instead of Landon. Well, apparently that was the plan all along and I had forgot. Actually I really think that I was so sure that it was a girl that I wasn’t worried about it. HA! Hopefully our sweet BOY will forgive me for thinking he was a girl!

My fabulous sisters patiently waiting with their team pink stickers! 

Around 11:15 I started feeling  really weird. My head felt funny. I asked Jamie to take my blood pressure because I just didn’t feel right. It was normal. She decided to check me. I wish I had a picture of the look on her face. I was 5cm but she could tell that I would be 10 VERY soon. About that time her lunch relief came and so she ran to eat. We sent everyone to get the kids. As time ticked on I could just tell that it was getting really close. I could feel the baby moving down and started having pressure. The kids arrived and I got to see them briefly before it was go time! It was SUCH a relief to have them there because it was so important to me that they be the very first ones to know what the baby was!

Last pic as a family of five! Honestly, I was just trying to hold the baby IN at this point.

Around 12:15 Jamie got back from lunch and I told her that I was pretty sure it was time! She checked me and said it was! One of the other nurses called my doctor to tell him to hurry on over to the hospital and Jamie told me not to move! HA! Dr. R said no pushing until he got there.

This is about the time that I just wanted to hold Josh’s hand and cry. And cry. And cry. Happy tears. He called a few minutes later and said he was there and that I could push. I pushed a couple of times and had to stop. We called Dr. R and told him it was time to deliver! Once he arrived I pushed a couple of times. I felt the baby coming out and made eye contact with my doctor, we both smiled and at 12:41pm I got the biggest and best surprise of my life when I heard my husband say, “IT’S A BOY!!”

He came out kicking and screaming. Perfection.

Still can’t believe he was 8 pounds and 3 ounces!

I was cleaned up and so was he. And y’all know EXACTLY what I did as soon as they handed him to me! KISSED THOSE SWEET LIPS 975 TIMES!!!

Josh went and got the kids. They were all team pink! They walked in the room and gathered around me and the baby. Josh told them they have a baby brother! They were quiet….but smiling as they checked him out! Griffin cried. Sweet boy. He had been really worried about me for a few weeks. I was huge and miserable and everything hurt…I tried to prepare them as much as I could for when they saw me in the hospital but he was still emotional. He cried more the next day when he was holding Brooks and said, “I’m just so glad he’s here!”

After we had a little family time the kids went to the waiting room to tell everyone the news ! Needless to say I wasn’t the only one surprised!

Daddy’s first time to hold him! He’s a pro! Reece’s first time to hold him…she loves him SO much!

Peyton’s first time to hold him! And Griffin’s first time to hold him! 

And then there were SIX! I’ll be back soon with more from our hospital stay!