Sorry this won't be a picture post, although it should be.
First thing's first, this blog has been terribly neglected due in part to lack of internet at my actual residence and in part to the birth of Brynlee. If you would like to see pix of her today go peruse my facebook photos, she is there. If you are patient I will get some up here by the New Year- a gift worth waiting for!
Brynlee was born Nov.4th at 6:04pm. She came 2 days earlier than her ultrasound predicted, however according to my dates she came exactly on time- not like her sister at all! So Bryn weighed in at 8lbs 8oz and was just short of 22 inches long- yeah you read that right. She is and I think will forever be our beanstalk. Bryn has lots of hair- thankfully because I had to endure months of heartburn and desperately wanted it to be worth it, and lets face it, if she had been born bald it could've been a dealbreaker :P Kidding! She was also born with really dark blue eyes and they seem to be getting bluer everyday. I think I really expected that she would come out identical to Kalea, but alas, Brynlee, like Kalea, is her own brand of beautiful. Bryn was luckily born without any twins- you'll remember Kidney Stone from my pregnancy with Kalea. So the doctor thinks that the absence of other stress inducing factors has been the main reason that I've been able to breastfeed- I know TMI, but it's been nice to not have to fork out the cash for formula- and also the main reason that labor did not feel the same. Let me explain further. When I went into labor with K my body went nuts, as in I spent a good few hours of my life in the bathroom writhing in pain, hot sweats, cold sweats, shaking like a leaf on a blustery fall day, hurling etc... I could hardly walk down the apartment stairs to our car and I thought I might actually die from the whole experience. Fast forward to Brynlee. Um... I think I'd describe my pain as, I dunno really bad menstrual cramping... But off and on and I could still talk and laugh and was running errands and cleaning up around the house. I'm serious. It was night and day different. In fact Steve was asking me all day how I felt and I was like, "I dunno, nothing really hurts" then he made the suggestion that maybe we should just go to the hospital and get checked out. So when we got to triage the nurse, bless her heart, told me that since I was so happy and still able to have a smile on my face, they'd check me but I'd probably get sent home or sent for a walk around the hospital until things really got going. Sounded cool to me and to her. So she has a feel and was like "Oh my goodness, you're 5-6cms dilated I need to call your doctor!" I was pretty shocked myself because at that point with Kalea I already had an epidural helping me relax! That's pretty much the story. They got me up to L&D and we had a baby within a few hrs. Oh and yes I had enough time to get the epi, although I had to wean off of it before I started pushing and therefore delivery hurt. The only part of the process that I wasn't smiling through was getting Bryn the heck out of me. And after all I could say was "That really hurt"- in the tone of voice you would expect from a small child, not at all like a grown up and I said it repeatedly, over and over until someone acknowledged the fact that, yes indeed that hurt.
Special thanks to the following individuals:
Steve- for being smart and taking me to the hospital before things got too crazy
Mom- for taking care of Kalea and even making sure she got her H1N1 shot
Dr. Hitchcock- for being the best baby catcher of all time, well 2/2 times and...
Everyone who made me food and helped with the adjustment- I think we are now adjusted.
In other news, Christmas came and went in a whirlwind this year. So quickly, in fact, that the Christmas wreath that I was working so hard on before Christmas is still sitting on my kitchen table :S However, it is finished! I can't wait to put it up next year! LOL I got the tree lights sorted out and back on the tree just in the nick of time ie. the tree got decorated on the 23rd :) We might as well have bought a real tree like Steve wanted to... But my mantle was decorated for weeks before Christmas, and we had indoor lights as well, so it still felt Christmas-y. We'll be taking the tree down ASAP so we can hang pictures, etc... I have big plans for that corner of my home... Anywho, Santa came for a visit- the kids must've been really good because they got spoiled. We enjoyed time spent with family and are looking forward to using our mall gift cards tomorrow :) My wardrobe needs some spice, to say the least. We were gifted with a Wii this year, for which I am grateful because now I can "play" during naptime and get a bit of a work out in- yay for Wii Fit Plus, it is freaking HARD! I lost 5lbs playing Wii Fit after I had Kalea, we'll see how much I can lose this time around.
Steve's off until the 4th, which is good and bad. It's bad for the obvious reasons, his boss is retarded and didn't give the guys a bonus or "a week off with pay" like so many generous employers do, Steve got a hot chocolate and a handshake??? Bah-humbug. It's good though, because we're actually getting a lot accomplished at home :) Like, we finally have pictures hanging in our living room and Kalea's closet organizer is finally getting put up. It's also giving me some much needed rest- Steve keeps asking me why I'm so sleepy? I'm just trying to get as much in as I can now before he goes back to work! It's nice having someone to hand Bryn off too, or to play with Kalea while I'm feeding Bryn.
Anywho, we'll try to post pix right away. Don't get your hopes up for any Santa pix because some little girl was not interested in the man at all this year. I'm talking she death gripped me like a monkey on steroids, so sorry!