One month old

As I expected, I have been extremely busy and tired over the last month and this is the first time I have the time and energy to blog about the last month. Let's start with Sarah's birth. After having some very minor contractions starting around 4 p.m., my water broke at 8:20. Michael had just sat down to dinner at a restaurant with his coworkers after just finishing a seminar to BYU-I students interested in attending law school. Fortunately, my good friend called me about 5 minutes before and when she heard that Michael wasn't home but that I was having some contractions, she immediately come over to keep me company. Literally 2 minutes after she walked in the door, my water broke. I texted Michael to come home and my friend helped me pack up the kids, and then she took them to her house for the night.

Once my water broke, the contractions started coming hard and close together. I even had a slight urge to push while making the 6 minute drive to the hospital. Once we got there, at about 8:40, the receptionist told us we had to wait for a nurse to take us up to the delivery unit. As we're waiting and I'm doubled over in pain, the receptionist asks us questions about when the contractions started coming and if I was sure my water had broken. Her bored tone of voice made Michael and me think that she thought I was just some first time mom who thought I was in labor when I really wasn't. Michael joked and told her that my water had broken on its own for our other two children and from the time my water broke to the time the baby was born was 6 /2 hours for the first and 3 1/2 hours for the second. Maybe this baby it would only be an hour. Little did he know that he would be about right. Finally, a nurse came and led us to the delivery unit.

I had every intention of getting an epidural and to speed things along, Michael stayed at the check-in desk to give the secretary all my insurance stuff while I went in to get the IV, which is required before you can have the epidural. Three painful pokes later, they finally get the IV in, but I am progressing so rapidly, that there's almost no chance of getting the epidural before the baby comes. This was the most miserable, painful time of my life. I have never been in so much pain. At first, I tried to handle the contractions as calmly, quietly, and dignified as possible. But soon, I couldn't control myself and I was screaming and moaning. I had only one volume and that was loud. Anytime the nurses asked me something or I needed to tell them something, I would yell. I didn't mean to yell at anyone, I just couldn't help it. I also had a hard time speaking clearly while in such pain. At one point, I screamed out, "Can't you just suction this baby out?". I was at the time thinking of when Jillian was born, she was having a hard time coming out so the doctor put a suction cup on her head and suctioned her out. After I yelled this, one of the nurses looked and me and said in a shocked voice, "No way. You're going to push this baby out". At the time, I didn't understand why she said that. Of course I was going to push the baby out. What else would I do? I was only asking (screaming) for some immediate way to get the baby out. Michael later informed me that everyone in the room thought I said "section this baby out" which they assumed meant having a C-section. It was only then that I understood the nurses response, though it still confused me. Why in the world would they think I wanted a C-section when I was so close to delivering her?

Michael, while trying to keep things light, would make little remarks, such as, "If it would help, I could always turn on ESPN and we could check the score of the game" or "I hope there aren't any women outside this room touring the facility because you're probably making think twice about having kids". The nurses were giving him dirty looks for saying such things and one even told him that he better be quiet or else I might hit him.

A short time later, I had a very strong urge to push, but unfortunately, the doctor wasn't there yet. The nurses began preparing to deliver the baby themselves when the doctor rushes in wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He has only enough time to put on the scrubs covering before sitting down and telling me to push. In three extremely painful pushes where it felt like my insides were being ripped apart, she was out. At 9:30, less than one hour after arriving at the hospital and one hour and fifteen minutes after my water broke( Michael was off by 15 minutes), Sarah Nicole Brown was born. She weighed 7.5 lbs and was 19 inches long.

I wish I could say the pain was over, but it wasn't. I continued to have severe cramping in my abdomen and I started shivering and shaking all over. After Sarah was born and the doctor was finishing up with me, I kept saying how much pain I was still in. The doctor tried to get my mind off the pain by asking me the silliest question ever: "Linds (he had a thing with calling me this), tell me where you went to high school". Really? I just had a baby and am hurting and you ask me about high school? You know what I said to him? Through clenched teeth, I responded, "I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work." So what does he do? He asks me a second time where I went to high school. I didn't even bother to respond the second time. If you're going to get my mind off things, ask me about things that matter now, like how old are my other kids, are they excited to have a new sister, where did you and your husband meet. These are things that are important to me now and things that I would like to talk about. Not high school.

Anyway, a few minutes later, I got some ibuprofen for the cramping. Those stopped shortly thereafter and I was able to have the IV removed, get up, take a shower, move over to the recovery unit. The only good thing about not getting an epidural was the recovery was faster and easier. I felt almost back to normal within a couple hours of Sarah's birth. Though I was totally unprepared for delivering without an epidural and would never choose to do it again this way, it went fast and I'm grateful that everything went as well as could be expected. It's been one month today since Sarah was born and I already can't imagine life without her, though I can (and often do) imagine getting more sleep. Welcome to the world, little Sarah.

Sarah Nicole Brown

For those of you who don't know, Sarah Nicole Brown was born last Thursday, March 8 at 9:30 p.m. It was quite the event and happened extremely fast. I'll go into more details later, but here are some quick details. My water broke at home at 8:17 and Michael was not home from work. He rushed home, and an hour later, she was born. I was planning on getting an epidural, but there was no time. It was miserable, but I made it through and now Sarah and I are doing great. Welcome to the world, little one.

Annabelle's Nail Salon

After Annabelle asked if I would paint her nails the other day, we three girls turned it into a nice little party. I did both Annabelle's and Jillian's fingernails and toenails. Annabelle then asked if she could paint my nails. Annabelle is pretty good at painting pictures, but she had never before painted nails so I knew this would be an interesting experience. After I explained how to get the brush properly out of the bottle with just the right amount of polish, she went to work. It was really finny to watch how carefully she tried to stay on the nail. I've never seen her so focused on a task before. When she was finished, she took a look at my nails and said, "Oops, I got a little bit on your skin". It was quite funny. But overall, I thought she did a pretty good job for a five year old's first nail painting experience. Later that night, I redid my nails. The next day when she saw my feet, she noticed that there was no more paint on my skin. I told her I had gotten it all off my skin the night before. She looked again at my feet, and said, "They look beautiful. I did a good job, didn't I, Mom?". Jillian has been enthralled with looking at her nails. Every time you ask her about them, she says they're so beautiful. And thanks to Jake and the Never Land Pirates show on Disney, she actually sat still and her nails did turn out pretty well.

Annabelle's first birthday party

What in the heck was I thinking when I told Annabelle she could have a birthday party?! Here I am, 37 weeks pregnant and trying to plan a pirate-themed birthday party for 10 4-6 year old kids. I can only hope that I'll get some extra best-mom-in-the-world points for doing it. A special thanks to my sister (who was a HUGE help in helping me decorating the cake, though Michael was instrumental in the eye-patch on the cake) and my good friend who helped with the set up, the clean up, and everything in-between. I couldn't have done it without you guys!

We played several games, opened presents, and had cake. I think all the kids had fun. One of the games we played was "pop the cannonball". My sister and I had filled black balloons with treasures (beaded necklaces, gold coins, tattoos, etc) and the kids had to try and pop them to get the treasure. It was so funny to see them try and sit on the balloon and bounce right back off. Eventually with some help from the adults, all the treasure was collected. It was interesting to see how Annabelle acted during her birthday party. I don't think she really understood what she was supposed to do as the birthday girl. But she got some fabulous gifts and got to play with her friends, so overall, I'd say it was a success.

Happy birthday, Annabelle

Annabelle turned 5 last Thursday! I can't believe she's that old already and will be starting kindergarten this fall. Where has the time gone? We had a nice family celebration that night. After eating her choice of birthday dinner - stromboli- we opened presents and had cookies and ice cream (we were saving her birthday cake for her first birthday party on Saturday). She has such wonderful grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles who were kind enough to think of her and send gifts. Thank you to everyone. It was great evening of family fun. Happy birthday, Annabelle!

Puppy children

A few days ago, we went to Walmart for a few items. Walmart was promoting the new release of the Disney classic Lady and the Tramp, and employees were giving out free balloons and other things, among which was a dog mask. Annabelle and Jillian each got one and couldn't wait to get home and try them on. For the rest of the day, they were crawling around on their hands and knees wearing their dog masks. It was really funny to watch.

New bunk beds

In only a matter of weeks, we'll need a crib available for a new baby, which meant that it was time to get Jillian out of it and into a real bed. So, Michael and I decided that instead of moving Annabelle downstairs to a room in the basement by herself (I wasn't ready for that), we would get bunk beds and have the girls share the room that Annabelle has. After waiting for weeks, the bunk beds finally arrived last Monday morning. After Michael got home from work that night, he got started putting them together. It took a little longer than expected, but he got it done and the girls slept in their new beds that night. They were both so excited. I was a little nervous about how Jillian would do. Annabelle has slept on a top bunk many times before at grandparents' houses, and I knew she would be fine. But now that Jillian didn't have the bars of a crib to protect her from falling out at night (and she is a mover when she sleeps- I would usually find her feet where her head should be), I was nervous. But she certainly was excited.

That night, they both did great! Jillian didn't fall out and I think she slept better than she ever did in her crib. It was funny to see her in the bed though because she's so small and can get lost in the covers. It's been a week now and neither kid gets out of their beds once they're tucked in. Jillian seems to be sleeping better and I'm loving it.

They also love playing pirates on their beds. They have lookout towers and they use their blankets as flags. It's so fun to see them playing so well together. The only downside of their sharing a room is that they wake each other up in the morning. Before, one of the girls would usually sleep in longer than the other and because they each had their own room, it wasn't a big deal. But now, they both seem to wake each other up a little bit earlier than usual. But so far, it hasn't been too big of a deal. I have early morning piano lessons three days a week so I'm up already anyway. The other days, if I haven't slept well (which is pretty much every night now), I can ask the girls to go downstairs and play for a half hour and they do it. Although they do try my patience pretty often, I really do have some great kids.