Our little Angel!!

Well now that things have calmed a bit around here, I thought I would take some time to post more pictures and tell a little about her birth.

It all began at 1:00 am, the morning of the 7th. I woke up like always to go to the bathroom for like the 10th time, but this time when I stood up I felt liquid streaming down my leg! I was so confused? Was I peeing my pants or was my water breaking? Well after about 5 minutes of liquid gushing, then stopping, then gushing, and stopping again, I finally woke up Greg and said "Honey, I think my water broke." He woke up confused and said "no it's not." We then called his sister Michelle in Utah to describe what was happening and she confirmed that indeed my water had broke and to head for the hospital! Immediately after hanging up the phone Greg said "oh....I don't feel so well, I've got to go lay down." I said to him "you can't get sick now, we have to go!" Thinking that we had 2 more weeks to get ready I hadn't even packed my bag! We frantically tossed clothes in a bag and were out the door.

We got to the hospital and I was only dilated to a 1. Because it was the middle of the night they wouldn't admit me to labor and delivery until around 6:00am, so I had to just lay in the exam room bed. I told Greg to go and get some rest in the waiting room for a few hours until we moved rooms. My contractions didn't start getting intense until 3:30. I thought I was going to die!! It hurt so bad! I have a new found respect for women who have babies natural. At about 5:30 they checked me again and I was at a 4, so I asked if I could have an epidural. They were finally able to move me into a labor room and I was able to get my epidural. After that everything was smooth sailing!!! I didn't feel an ounce of pain the entire time. She was born at 11:36 and weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces.

I can't even begin to express how much love we felt for her from the first time we saw her. They layed her on my chest and I just rubbed her back and she just stared at me. She is sooooooo beautiful!! She has my nose, lips, ears, fingers, toes and hands. Everything else is Greg!! We are so grateful to have her here safe and healthy.

Here she is in her favorite position! She LOVES her hands. She'll just sit there and play with them and put them up by her face. I just love to hold her!!

Here is Brinley with her daddy!! Can I just say it is the most heart warming thing in the world to see Greg interact with her. He is so gentle and sweet and just talks and talks to her about how much he loves her and all the fun things that they will get to do together. For those of you who know Greg, he was a little bit surprised when he found out we were having a girl. He always envisioned having a boy first, but now he tells me all the time how he can't imagine having anything else.

This is Brinley with her new found friend! My MOM is here YEAH!!! Because Brinley came 2 weeks early my mom wasn't suppose to come until later, but after a few days alone Greg and I called her and asked if she could come a little early and help us out. Two days later she was here!! We love having her here and Brinley has bonded with her like you wouldn't believe.

Here she is in her car seat!!

I love this little yellow outfit!!

Brinley Ruth Carr

Here are some pictures of our beautiful little baby girl. We named her Brinley Ruth Carr. She is so sweet. I'll write back later with details about the delivery and things like that, but I just wanted to get some pictures on so everyone can see her!!

1 more month!!!

Exactly 1 month from today is my offical due date. Now, I know it is very rare for babies to come on their exact due date, but it still gives me a day to aim for. Normal activites that used to be easy are really starting to become awkward such as: walking, sleeping, getting in and out of cars, walking up and down stairs, and the list could go on. I guess I could say anything that requires movement is difficult, but I'm so grateful not to be sick that I will take being uncomfortable any day.

All in all I would say, so far, my pregnancy has been very typical. Nothing out of the ordinary. My doctor tells me I'm a "textbook." Hopefully that continues during the next 4 weeks. For some reason it still doesn't seem real that I'm going to have a baby. Greg and I will often just look and each other and say "I can't believe we are going to be parents."

I often think of an episode on a TV show that I saw like 10 years ago. It was on a show called Mad about You, and they had just had their first baby and had come home from the hospital, walked into their apartment and just stood at the door with their baby in arms. They walked around the apratment at first and showed the baby around, but after about 1 minute of that they had nothing left to do, they just sat there, looking at the baby, just the two of them, in complete awkward silence. After a minute Paul was like "so....we have a baby" Jamie said "yes we do" another pause and then all the sudden both just started freaking out!! They were like what in the world do we do now. It finally had sunk in that they have a little baby to take care of and not a clue what they are doing. I've always remembered that because I'm sure Greg and I will feel the same way for awhile. Anyway, I need to go! Just wanted to share some thoughts!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

A little update

Well its been a little while since I've posted some pictures of what we've been up to. The past month has been so much fun for us.

First, we decorated our little apartment for Christmas. This was mine and Greg's first Christmas away from family. Thanks to all of our amazing friends and ward members here in Valley Forge it was a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We went to many parties and ate and ate and ate!!

This was by far Greg's favorite Christmas gift. For those of you wondering we are still having a girl.

Next, our friends Scott and Heather came to visit us. I love visitors!!! We had so much fun with them. We went to all the major places around here. It was so fun to watch them see so many new things for the first time.

On January 8th I turned the big 23! I'm getting so old! I had a fabulous birthday! Greg took me out to dinner and gave me a gift certificate to get a much needed pedicure! I'm so excited to use it.

My Mom sent a package with an adorable rag quilt that she made for the baby!

I also got this beautiful new comforter for our bedroom.

Another big exciting event that happened this month is that I've reached my third and final trimester. My tummy grows larger each day! Here are some pictures at about 31 weeks. Only 2 more months!!

Well that's about it for now! I'm working on the nursery right now so I'll post pictures when it's all finished!!

Tagged

I have been tagged by my good friend Lis. I'm suppose to list 6 interesting things about myself or habits I may have. I will do a mixture of both:

1. I'm very rarely tempted to eat junk food when it's in my own house, however when I'm at other people's houses and they offer me junk food I could eat it forever. It is the weirdest thing. Growing up my Mom always had tons of treats at our house, but I hardly ever ate it. On Halloween I would put all my candy in a big bowl, eat one or two pieces that night, put it under my bed and forget about it. I would have Halloween candy for 8 months out of the year. Normally I would just use it for bribery for my brother to do stuff for me.

2. I swear I'm psychic. I've thought this forever about myself. This one time I randomly started thinking of this young women leader I had years and years ago. I just wondered what she was up to and if she had any kids. I kid you not the next week I saw her and her husband with their 2 kids at the training table. I hadn't seen her or thought of her in years. Similar things happen like this all the time to me. I will predict who is on the phone, what # I'm going to roll on a dice and all sorts of random things. It's so crazy!

3. I'm way to sentimental. I keep everything! I have in a box at my house almost every letter that has ever been written to me. I just know already that I will be one of those Mom's who keep every piece of art work their children ever do and all their reports from school and so on. I'm going to need many boxes!

4. I love playing really good practical jokes on people. My friend Heather and I when we were growing up would do them to our friend Kajsa. We would get her so good!! I think we felt so satisfied doing it to her because she was so smart and it was fun to see how far we could take it. One time when we were like 15, we came up with this great story and told her that I was moving to Washington. At first she didn't believe us but after about 2 minutes of convincing she just started hysterically crying and screaming at me " you can't move, you can't move" she was so emotional and dramatic that it made me start crying and Heather too. We were all crying so hard that it took me about 5 minutes before I could talk to be able to say that we were just joking! Honestly if you ever want to know how someone really feels about you, just tell them you're moving! Anyway I have pulled many of these in my lifetime! So fun

5. I will never bite my nails!! I use to be a nail biter before I got braces, but after I got them off I just can never bite them again!

6. I'm still a child at heart when it comes to Christmas. I still wake up at 4 in the morning to open presents. This past Christmas I woke up at 3:45 in the morning and just couldn't stand it any longer. I woke Greg up and said "Greg, Santa came to our house." I made him get up and we opened gifts then went back to bed.

Happy Halloween (in about 2 years)

Greg and I went Christmas shopping a few weeks ago at the mall. While we were there I was waiting for Greg to come out of a store so I decided to go into the Disney store and look around. I never buy anything because everything is so expensive, but when I walked in the lady told me that all Halloween costumes were on sale for $4.99! The only thing that's usually $4.99 at the Disney store are their pencils! Anyway I went over to look and fell in LOVE with this Nemo costume. Granted it's for an 18 month old, but that's how old our baby will be in 2 Halloweens from now, so I got it and decided to save it for her.

When we got home we were so excited about it that we went upstairs to our neighbors who have an 18 month old baby and tried it on her. I hope that our baby looks as cute in it as little Macey does!!!