Our Beautiful Baby Brynlee

Brynlee Weston was born Monday, February 9, 2009 at 12:10 p.m. She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 20 inches long. She has light brown hair and she is perfect. I know you're all wanting more pictures, but deal with that for now because they're all on my mom's camera.

Sunday night we dropped Tyler off at my parent's house and he stayed the night there so that we didn't have to wake him up so early the next day. Monday morning at 4:30, Kenny and I got up and got ready. He gave me a beautiful priesthood blessing and we left for the hospital. Before we even got in I took his face in my hands and said, "This is the truth: I love you more than anything and I am so grateful that we are having this baby. Anything I say in the next 24 hours that's contradictory to that, I will not be held accountable for." :)

They were a little slow getting all the paperwork and everything completed so I didn't get pitocin started until about 7:15 a.m. The contractions got going pretty quickly and everything went very well. My doctor came in and broke my water an hour or two later (I really don't know when) and things picked up even more. I had decided before even going in that I wasn't going to get an epidural. This baby was going to be DRUG FREE! (minus the pitocin.) The contractions were a little harder, I think, because of the pitocin, but Kenny pulled me through everything and was my strength.

Thankfully this labor was SO much faster than Tyler's. 5 hours, start to finish. Obviously the pit is to be thanked for that. I didn't want to do it anymore by the end. I've really never been through anything so painful in my entire life, and there's nothing to compare it to. Kenny's beautiful hazel eyes kept me going. He had so much faith in me. His big hands wrapped around mine, letting me squeeze them as hard as I needed to. He put up with a lot. I even hit him once. (He is insisting that I tell this story because he thinks it's so funny). I don't know what he said but I was in the middle of a really hard contraction and he must have said something I didn't like because I hit him in the chest. Like a side-punch kind of a thing. I immediately started crying and apologizing over and over because I felt so bad. I was pretty much a wreck. But he talked me through everything and kept me relatively calm (there was screaming by the end, when I was pushing.) Everyone said to let my mind escape to somewhere else so as to not think about the pain. I would always escape back to our honeymoon and remember as we swam around snorkeling in the beautiful water at Coco Cay, holding hands. And walking along the warm beach together without a care in the world.

I didn't have to push for very long. I don't even think more than 5 minutes. It was so incredible to feel her descend down and be an active part of all of it, compared to when I had the epidural with Tyler. I wasn't able to resist the urges to push, so she came out quickly and I tore, and I felt it. But the relief when she was finally here was so amazing. It was such a beautiful feeling. She started crying and they handed her to me and she was perfect and right then, everything was worth it. She knew me immediately. She stopped crying for a minute and just looked at me. I was so overwhelmed, and so at peace.

Within an hour of being born she was nursing wonderfully and Kenny and I were just enjoying oohing and aahing over her and how gorgeous and perfect she is. We didn't decide on her name, Brynlee, until after she was born. But we love it, and it suits her. Tyler is so cute with her and says her name so adorably. He's still learning how to be soft and gentle with her. We feel so blessed to have two beautiful and healthy children. More pictures to come later.

I can smell the sunscreen

Why is it that Tyler naps during the most beautiful time of day? I get so anxious for him to wake up so I can take him to the park or just go outside next to our building and kick his soccer ball around (something we've been doing a lot of lately). It's hard, on days like today, to not just go jump in the pool. It's still a bit too cold for that. Meaning, it's only about 75 degrees today, and you better believe I turned the AC on. First time since we've been here, but I'm sick of sweating. I told Kenny he can talk to me about saving money on our power bill when he's 9 months pregnant. But oh! To walk by the pool every day that's here in our complex, it makes me crave summers so bad and takes me back to my years growing up here in Houston when we pretty much lived at the pool. Tyler loves the pool, too. We go on walks, per his request, just for the sole purpose of seeing the "wata". He lays down very carefully next to the pool and splashes his hand in the water, just to feel it; poor kid can't help himself.

I've been doing A LOT of walking lately to get this baby here. I randomly run up and down the stairs, too. Anything I can think of really. Still no baby. I think the only thing it's doing is hurting me, ha. But she still has until 5:30 Monday morning until I go in to be induced. I haven't lost all hope in her. Come on baby, you can do it. I'm so excited for my sister, Steph to come. She gets here on Monday, which is great timing!

For those of you curious about my sweet camera, check it out here. I know, it's way too fancy for me. He did get a good deal on it though. Now I've really gotta figure out photoshop and everything to make it all worth it. I love it though, and I can't wait till it comes in the mail.

Thank You Will!

I'm normal once again. You're awesome.

Help!

I made the mistake of trying to change my blog all by myself (something I've been wanting to do for about a year now!) and I finally changed the background but now the text is all off-centered and my titles are still orange! I am SO retarded when it comes to computers. Somebody please help me fix this.

Spoiled Rotten

Today I turned 22 years old. Wow. I like that I'm getting older.

I got spoiled bad today! But first let me tell you about my awful dream that woke me up feeling depressed and heart-broken! I had a dream that I was shaving my legs (that's the first clue you KNOW this is a dream...anyone that's been 9 months pregnant before can tell why) and Kenny was trying to tell me that he had cheated on me. I didn't even know what to say, I just kept crying and crying. I was asking who it was and just cried some more. It was the worst dream I've ever had. He laughed when I told him because I had "cheating dreams" when I was pregnant with Tyler, too. Must be my subconscious insecurities about looking like an elephant manifesting themselves in my sleep again. It really was bad, though.

Back to my awesome birthday day. I got up with Kenny and made omelets as he got ready for work. They weren't so bad, either. Ham, swiss cheese, avocados and tomatoes. Then I kissed him goodbye and wished that he could stay and spend the day with me instead. Oh, and he surprised me with some chocolates before he left. I got ready for the day and then got Ty ready and fed once he woke up. My mom came and picked up Tyler before 9, and gave me some birthday money and told me to enjoy my day :). Have I ever mentioned how awesome my mom is?

I did a lot of shopping. Shopping for myself, shopping for Ty's birthday that's in exactly one week and I'm afraid I won't get around to it once the baby comes (any day now, right?). I also bought a double stroller which we will need. I treated myself to lunch at Sonic, took a nap, finished "quilting" (my crappy version of it anyway) and binding my hearts table runner, and it looks awesome! Kenny came home from work and took me to Olive Garden for dinner. Oh, and he gave me a diaper genie (hallelujah!), and new shoes and earrings (that I picked out of course). But that's not even all. I have a SUPER nice and fancy pantsy camera coming in the mail.

I was having some serious Tyler withdrawals so we hurried home from dinner, grabbed the chocolate dream dessert that I had made and went over to share it with my family, and retrieve my son, who didn't seem to miss me at all. My mom also had cupcakes and ice cream ready! They sang, we partied, and now we're home and I'm feeling slightly guilty about the fact that I have consumed more calories today than I should in an entire week. But not too guilty.

Told ya I'm spoiled. Spoiled rotten. Happy 22nd birthday to me.

Let's Face It

I just don't have babies early. I just don't. My kids take their due date way too seriously.

I did go to my appt. yesterday, and she did strip my membranes...or at least she tried to. Apparently I have an incredibly long cervix (how's that for way too much personal information?) and she said she wasn't able to do much as hard as she tried. All that pain, and for nothing. I was, needless to say, a little bummed afterward. Tyler wasn't very early. He was born the day before his due date, and even then it was at like 10:40 that night. So anyway, I have an induction scheduled for the morning she's due. Maybe that will get her butt in gear and make her want to come on her own. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

Ya know how some recipes it's not an exact science, you just take it out of the oven when it looks right, or smells good? Well that's how some people have babies. But my instructions said 40 weeks, and they will not be done until then. So keep cooking little one, and you just come when you're good and ready. I will enjoy my birthday tomorrow, still pregnant. But hey, at least I can say I was 22 when I had you.

Happy Groundhog Day

What in the world happened to January? I can't believe how fast that went.

Today is such a beautiful day. For as much as people complain about the summers here--and with good reason because they are almost unbearable--it's pretty fair because we get to play all "winter" long.

My baby shower the other night went very well. It was so sweet of Brooke to do that for me. She had Kenny write a letter to our daughter and they read it out loud at the shower. It was so sweet and made me so excited to watch him be a daddy to a girl. He's pretty rough and tough with Tyler so it will be fun to watch how he interacts with his little girl.

It was a little bit awkward when I would receive a gift and they would have to tell me who they are...but so nice of everyone to make me feel so welcome into the ward. The most common phrase I heard at church yesterday was, "still no baby, huh". Obviously.

I know I really shouldn't post that picture, but there you have it. I have been having contractions off and on for the past few days, and I was dilated to a 2 1/2 last Tuesday. I'm going in for an appointment in an hour and she will strip my membranes today and hopefully get this baby on the go. I know I'm impatient because she's really not due for another 7 days. But who wants to wait if they don't need to? By the way, she caught up on growing. Whether it was how she was turned or what, I don't know. But she is measuring just fine now.

Yesterday we spent some time with 2 of Kenny's buddies from work and their families. We had such a good time! It was fun to meet the guys Kenny messes around with all day at work. They all started there recently and have a good time together. Their wives and kids are so nice, too. Tyler loved playing with them.

Hopefully my next post will be showing off my daughter :). Wish me luck.