Memorial Day Weekend

What a busy week! We are all still adjusting to life with a new baby in the house. Matt and I are also adjusting to being outnumbered!! All the kids are doing great. Brenna is growing like a weed and eating like crazy. She is more alert than ever and loves to look at our faces. She is working on smiling and gives tentative, half-smiles now and again. She does smile and giggle while she is sleeping which is adorable. Chloe is growing way too fast and can have an attitude to match. She has been testing boundaries big time lately (she was doing this even before Brenna's birth). So please pray with us that we can all make it through the latest phase without too much drama! Aidan is a giant walking band-aid. The boy plays hard, what can I say. His poor knees are bruised and cut up, his hands aren't much better. His forehead is generally sporting a new bruise also. But I will give him credit, he cries for a moment than keeps on going.

We had a great weekend. Nice and relaxing which we all needed. Saturday was gorgeous despite the weather man's predictions of rain. It was sunny and warm. So warm in fact that we broke out the brand-new sprinkler for the kids. They had so much fun playing in it. Our backyard now looks like a child's paradise with the playhouse and play set. We also have a plastic playhouse and toddler size plastic play set that we've had since Chloe was little in the yard. So there is lots of stuff for them to play on.





Sunday we went to church and than went to Nana and Poppa's house for a barbecue and movies on the big screen. Poppa took Chloe home with him right after church. The rest of us attempted to nap a bit in the afternoon (unfortunately our new neighbors are anything but considerate about the amount of noise they make) so we cut nap time short and headed out to Nana and Poppa's house. Aidan was thrilled to be outside and was all over the place. Chloe was riding her bike and picking on dad. Both of them got to dig in the garden and get completely filthy before the end of the day. After a delicious barbecue dinner we headed inside and watched movies. It was a late night for all of us but so much fun!!

Almost 2-Week Check-Up

I know I haven't posted any new pictures. We've been too tired!! I will try this weekend. I wanted to let you all know what the doctor said this morning at Brenna's (almost) 2-week check-up before I got busy with lesson plans for tomorrow. She is now 9lbs 8oz so we have conquered the birth weight. She is eating like crazy so there was no doubt in my mind that she had put on weight. She was only 21 3/8" long (somehow her height got screwed up right after birth). She is still long and skinny. She is long enough for 3/6 month clothes but they just fall off of her because she is so skinny. So dresses have been the clothing of choice lately. The doctor said that she looked healthy and beautiful so all is well. Now if Mom and Dad can manage to get more than 4 hours of sleep at night....

Sleeping Beauties

I don't know what it is about our kids but they are crazy sleepers. Chloe will start out the night with stuffed animals, pillows and blankets piled on her bed. By the time she wakes up in the morning it is all on the floor. Forget taking a nap with her, she has to have the ENTIRE bed to herself. Aidan sleeps like a twister in his crib. He will start out with his head facing one direction and turn completely around by morning and face the opposite direction. If you sleep with him you will end up either being kicked in the side or the face or have his head planted into a kidney. Here are the kids "camping out" in the family room on Wednesday.




Brenna seems to have inherited the crazy Webster kids sleeping habits. Here are some shots of her interesting sleep poses. Either way she is still absolutely adorable. I love the little sounds she makes while she is sleeping and her hilarious facial expressions while she is dreaming.

3 Days old & Still Gorgeous

Well, Brenna has been home for a day and a half and it has been an adventure to say the least. We were released early in the morning on Mother's Day (a great Mother's Day gift for Mommy, who was going stir crazy in the hospital) with a clean bill of health. Since we were all up and dressed early we decided to go ahead and go to church. Much to our surprise, someone told our Pastor's wife that there was a baby who was 2 days old at the service. So we got to stand up and introduce our little girl to her church family. Going to church was nice because it helped break up the day a bit for the other two kids.

Chloe and Aidan are adjusting to life with the baby albeit it is a rocky adjustment at times. Chloe has been a bit mouthy and has had a bit of an attitude, which is how she reacted to Aidan's birth so it was expected. Chloe is still excited about Brenna and is trying to be helpful. Aidan has been a handful but not anymore than usual. Although Sunday afternoon he decided he was NOT going to take a nap. So he stripped of his pants and diapers and peed in his crib instead. AHHHGG!! He is doing well with Brenna although we have to watch him very carefully to make sure that he is gentle with her.

I am slowly recovering. I have been pretty stiff and sore the past two days. Chasing Aidan does not help at all. I was doing good this morning until he threw a fit and had to be picked up and carried to the car. Not easy to do with the infant carrier and a rather heavy 22 month old! I have been catching naps when I can and trying to rest as much as possible. The kids have been good about leaving Brenna and I alone for the most part but it does mean that Matt is kept busy keeping up with them. He is just as tired as I am.

Brenna is doing well. She is still sleeping quite a bit and it is quite an undertaking to get her to wake up and eat. She is eating very well and makes sure she is completely full before she goes to sleep. She also has a bit of a temper if she doesn't get held when she wants and how she wants. She despises having her diaper changed and getting dressed is not pleasant either. But when she is fully awake and her beautiful eyes are open taking in her new world she is so adorable. She loves to look around and to have you talk to her. She actually gets mad if you are holding her and not saying anything. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family.

Meeting Nana & Poppa

Brenna was finally able to meet her Nana and Poppa Sunday afternoon when they returned from there vacation. It was love at first sight. Chloe and Aidan were excited to show off their baby sister but they were quick to want Nana and Poppa all to themselves.

Happy Birth Day Brenna!!

What a whirlwind the past 3 days have been! The past nine months of pain, discomfort, frustration and sickness have finally come to an end. As I write this I can't help but look next to me at the adorable bundle of love that made me so miserable for so long. :-) Isn't motherhood a beautiful thing? I am truly blessed this Mother's Day, not only by a new addition to our family but by an incredible husband and two other adorable children (well, adorable when they want to be).

As you know we were scheduled to be induced on Friday May 9th, although we were hoping I would go into labor sooner. No such luck. So we had everything planned and in place for a long induced labor on Friday. Well that was the part of the plan that changed. Yes we did have Brenna on Friday, May 9th but I was not induced, apparently she did not want to endure labor all day. I woke up at 4:30am on Friday to go to the bathroom and as I stood up I had a contraction. Not a huge deal. The next one was 40 minutes later. So I just figured that I would go to be induced and my body would already have things started. I called the hospital at 6am to see if they had a bed ready for us. No such luck, I was told to call back at 7:30am since they were very busy. Okay, no big deal. By 6:30 my contractions jumped from being every 40-30 minutes apart to less than 15 minutes apart. I jumped into the shower and when Lisa got to the house at 6:45am I was in full-blown labor. By the time we called the hospital again right before 7:00am they were suddenly 6 minutes apart. So much for a long, drawn out labor.

Matt drove like a madman to get to the hospital (it would of been funny if I hadn't been the one in labor). Although cutting past the line at the base gate because I was in labor was kind of fun. Lisa, Matt and I got to the hospital and were taken to a birthing suite. By at 7:30am I was in the bed demanding drugs and my contractions were now about 3 minutes apart. The nurses took their sweet time getting an IV in and hooking me up to the heart monitors, etc. I think they gave my pain meds just to humor me. They really didn't think I was ready to deliver at any minute. Lisa kept trying to warn them that my last labor was very quick but they still dawdled. At about 8:00am the nurse decided to check me. Much to her surprise I was almost ready to begin pushing. Duh!

So they quickly called in another doctor (mine was in the middle of a C-section) to come in and deliver Brenna. Before I knew it, it was time to push. I don't know if it was the pain medication in my IV (which had stopped working by now) or the numbing shots I received, but I didn't have any desire to push. Weird I know but that is how it was. 10 minutes of pushing and out came our beautiful baby girl. Matt did incredible and barely said anything throughout the entire process, I think he was a bit out of his element but just having him there to hold my hand was priceless. He got to cut Brenna's umbilical cord which did gross him out a bit.

Brenna Nicole Grace Webster was born on May 9th at 8:22am. She was 9lbs 7.5 oz and 22 inches long. She came out screaming! Her head was perfectly round (the nurses kept commenting that she looked like she had been delivered by C-Section not naturally). Her face was pretty swollen and she was a bit purple in places from bruises but other than that she is so adorable! She looks like a cookie cutter of Aidan and Chloe. I will add more pictures and information later. Right now I am going to finish my lunch and join Brenna for a nap!

Happy Birth Day Brenna 2

Okay, here is some more....


Because Brenna was so large I did lose some blood (no where near what I lost with Aidan) and had to have an episiotomy. It did make for a long first day though, I was very shaky and unsteady due to my blood sugars being all over the place and the blood loss. It took three liters of oxytocin throughout the day before I was finally able to stand up without wanting to fall over.

Brenna's size meant she had to have her blood sugar tested and sure enough hers was at 20 right after she was born. Which was way too low so we had to start feeding her immediately to get her sugars back up to normal. It was quite a struggle at first to get her to latch on and eat. She would suck once or twice and than fall asleep so Matt kept patting her foot to get her to wake up and eat more. We finally got her to eat for about forty minutes before she decided she was done. She was out cold for the rest of the day.

Well, except for when she had her bath...





Matt walked in right in the middle of her bath (after going home to check on the kids and my Aunt Kim and Uncle Randy who had gotten locked out of our house without any clothes or diapers for Aidan :-) ). So he got to put on her diaper and help her calm down under the warmer after she was all clean.

Happy Birth Day Brenna 3

Aunt Lisa left soon after Brenna was born to take care of some school business but not after "oohing" and "aahing" over her new goddaughter. Later in the afternoon Matt went to go pick up my Aunt Kim, Uncle Randy, Chloe and Aidan who were at Nana and Poppa's house for the afternoon (Nana and Poppa were still on vacation). Chloe was so excited to finally meet her new little sister. Although her excitement wore off once she realized that Brenna wasn't able to get up and play dolls right away. Aidan was excited to see the "aby" but didn't make any connection to her being his sister. Although he did try to burp her a bit forcefully when Matt was and he kept telling her "hi". We didn't get a picture of Aidan holding or sitting next to his new little sister but we did get one of Chloe holding Brenna.


Matt went home with Aunt Kim, Uncle Randy and the kids for dinner and to get some things for the night. Brenna and I used the quiet to nap. Well, I tried to nap but between doctors, nurses and beeping machines it wasn't very easy. Matt came back to the hospital at 8pm or so. We were fortunate and did not have to check out of the birthing suite that night due to the fact that all the patient rooms were full. So we took advantage of the large room and watched movies, cuddled with Brenna and just enjoyed time spent with the three of us. Matt headed back home Saturday around 11am to take on kid duty for the rest of the weekend. My Aunt Kim and Uncle Randy headed home to Portland. It was so nice to have someone to take care of the kids and they loved every minute of all the spoiling they received. I was still very sore but doing much better (especially after a shower) and looked forward to spending the rest of the day resting as much as possible before heading home.

Much to our disappointment, Brenna could not be released from the hospital Saturday. I am a strep B carrier and because she came out so fast there was not enough time to get antibiotics into my blood stream to protect her during labor. Strep B can cause breathing problems and pneumonia in newborns. Because of that she had to stay in the hospital 48 hours to make sure that she did not have strep B. I was doing better so to get me off the nurse's hands my doctor discharged me late Saturday afternoon but I was allowed to stay with Brenna until she was discharged. This way I didn't have to worry about being woken up every 3-4 hours to have my vitals taken. Yeah!!

Here are some pictures I took of Brenna on Saturday....



Brenna's test results came back fine early Sunday morning (Mother's Day) so we were able to go home! Matt and the kids came to the hospital at 9am and we headed home. We even made it to the second service at church. I even had the opportunity (albeit a very surprised one) to introduce her at the service. So now we are at home and resting. Chloe is doing all right with the changes going on. Aidan on the other hand is close to pushing both of us over the edge. The joys of parenthood! I will post more pictures over the week! Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Playset Construction

Last Saturday and Sunday it was finally warm enough so we could build the playset. What an adventure that turned out to be! Dad and Matt started Saturday morning and we finally finished Sunday evening. So much for the claims on the box that the playset could be built in 8 hours. The kids of course were dying to play on it. They were so excited. Aidan didn't quite get what all the commotion was about until after the set was assembled. But he had a blast spending two days outside running around. Even Mom and I helped with the construction, making the two-man swing and climbing wall. Got to love any chance to play with power tools!!

The set is finally up and the kids have had a blast playing on it every chance they get. Aidan wants to play on it constantly and gets mad when it is raining and he can't. Chloe loves it and climbs all over it like a pro. The playset will be well used by the end of the summer I am sure. Matt's already got plans to add to it and make it more fun. It will also be a big help when the baby is sleeping because now I can send the older two outside and keep the house quiet for Brenna.