Growing Family: Final Four

B.H.A

Our baby girl

She is now here and our family is now complete, four and no more. Thursday night we had my in laws in town they are here to help out with watching Sophia with us in the hospital and afterwards as well they have been doing a great job and are a great help. Thursday night we went out for dinner for my father in law's birthday and just hung out waiting for Friday morning. Before we went to bed I started to have upper stomach pains, not like contractions but just cramps that would not allow me to sleep, and bothered Rusty and I thinking that we may have to go to the hospital early, so we stayed up for most of the night talking I finally got 4 hours of sleep and Rusty got zero. Four thirty we woke up and went to the hospital to check in at 530. Knowing it was a cesarean again it was nice to know the procedure would take an hour and there was not an unknown amount of hours of labor.In the end ut was an enjoyable delivery, I was more aware of what was going on. Received the spinal tab and the surgery began, all great with the exception of the nausea which occurred two times during. It seemed to take a while before we got to her, but as soon as she came out I had no idea what to expect as far as how she would look, I could only assume that she would look like Sophia, but maybe a little different. So she came out, Rusty looked and said to me she looks just like Sophia, then I heard her cry. Just like with Sophia it was a very emotional experience to hear her cry for the first time, WOW I am a mom of two girls now! They showed her to me real quick then Rusty bought be over pictures to see her and sure enough they looked very much alike, Rusty did a great job with the pictures there is one we have of Sophia when she first came out screaming on the table, and Brooke has the same exact photo. Brooke is beautiful, she has a similar face to Sophia, but different, cannot really pinpoint it exactly but Brooke's head is smaller, and her chin and lips are a little different, she also has a lot of hair, a little less than Sophia, not as long or as thick, but still gets lots of attention, a nurse at hospital called her a little dandelion with her hair, the nurses are the one who would spike the hair when they bathed her. She is such a good baby, although ready to leave hospital it was nice to have alone time with Brooke for bonding. When talking to my doctor about my feelings with how Sophia must feel with having a new baby, she said her husband told her that at least that older child had mommy all to herself for so long, and the younger child will always have to share mommy and never have her to herself. Never thought of that.

After surgery in recovery I was able to enjoy Brooke fully. Cesarean babies do not go through the canal which gives the squeeze to take care of lots of the fluid in the lungs, so since she did not have that you could hear she had fluid and hard times breathing, skin to skin helped, so we just laid her on me to help, and it worked! It was a great bonding experience. And the nurse took a cute photo of Rusty, Brooke and I which I loved, it was very nice of her to capture a real moment of us three. Recovery went well and Brooke's breathing was okay as well. I think because we have them so close together we are used to the not sleeping so getting up through the night is not bothering me so much. She sleeps pretty well, even four consecutive hours which allows for a decent sleep, doing this a second time around is so much better. I don't feel as scared to change diapers or hold her, breastfeeding is easier, it is all much easier making it so enjoyable, I am very happy to have two baby girls. I have enjoyed our alone time with Brooke and are excited to take her home to Sophia so we can get back to our lives.

Beautiful

Sophia's first visit with brooke was cute, she was not in the best mood, but as soon as she saw Brooke, she said "baby" several times with her hands open, like "oh, a baby, give it here, I can handle it" it was cute until we did not hand her over and she threw a fit. We appreciate all the visitors getting gifts for Sophia, we tried to give a gift to Sophia when she met baby, a gift from Brooke to Sophia, as did the other visitors, We also would encourage visitors to go to Sophia first then to baby, we were really cautious on making Sophia have a good feeling about the new baby. I think it has worked so far, she is being a real good big sister, and when I ask for her help with getting a diaper or things for baby she does so very well. I feel bad at times because she is really going through the terrible twos now, she will throw fits more and we are really working on placing her in time out and being consistent, but this is hard to do with the new baby because I feel she is going through so much right now with the stage of life and new sister. It may be difficult now, but know that it is for the best.
Rusty's mom and dad were in town until Thursday and let me just say it was a HUGE help. I felt like I was a celebrity and had a staff taking care of everything for me. lol Joking aside, they were very kind and helpful with Heidi and Sophia, taking them out to play and giving them attention, taking care of cleaning house, laundry, cooking, and Rusty's to do list, which by the way he did a great job at completing (with his dad's help)! Sophia really enjoyed her time with Nana and Papa, I was worried about her the most with my homecoming, and her not getting the attention she needed, but they helped relieve that stress. They even gave Sophia an Easter egg hunt in the house. For Easter my parents bought deli sandwiches and sides to the hospital, we placed Brooke in the nursery and went to the cafeteria and had easter lunch together.

Loving her Easter bunny,

Playing in yard with Papa

We thank God for all of our family who has been very helpful and supportive. It is a different feeling in our home now, when the four of us are all in the living room playing, watching tv, eating and ect it obviously feels different but a there is an excitement, happy feeling that we have, I think it just may be the fact that we know we have our family, we have our two girls and are very happy and thankful for two healthy beautiful girls. Although still nervous about raising two we are ready for the challenge and cant wait for them to be able to play together.