Growing!

Briella had her two month check-up and she is a happy, healthy baby!

She weighed in at 9 lbs 11 oz, which is the 25th percentile (up from 20% last time) and 22 inches long, which is the 30th percentile (up from 25% last time). So, she is still little, but she is gaining some ground and growing well! Yeah!

2 Months Old!

It's hard to believe another month has passed! As I sit here typing this, my beautiful 2 month old baby girl is in my arms fast asleep after having finished eating. And while that makes for slow, one-handed typing, it is a wonderful thing!

Baby girl, this is what I want us both to know and remember about the second month of your life.

Life in General

• You are so alert when you are awake, looking around at everything, following people as they walk by, etc.
• As I mentioned last month, you enjoy staring at the ceiling fan and that is still true. You stare at it all the time. I'm not sure whether you like that more or staring at your monitor while having your diaper changed. I think you like talking to your monitor more than anything else. Oftentimes, you are so content in your changing pad - kicking, cooing, staring at your monitor - that we hang out in there for a while after your diaper has been changed. After all, there's no sense in moving you while you are happy. Plus it has given me a chance to go through your drawers and pull out the clothes that no longer fit.
• You have outgrown your newborn clothes and now wear 0-3 month clothing.
• You sleep so well! At night, you sleep around 6 hours before waking up to eat. And a lot of times you sleep over 7 hours, which your momma appreciates. :) 

Firsts

• trip to Salt Lake with Momma and Grandma Karla
• fishin' trip with Daddy, Grandpa Bob, and Momma
• dinner out at a sit down restaurant
• bottle fed to you by Daddy
• trip to grandparents' houses
• trip to the driving range

Pictures from this Month

 Happy girl!

  Briella, you are so sweet!

 Momma and Briella

Daddy and Briella

Happy Retirement!

When I was in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending my dad's retirement ceremony. What a joy and honor it was to meet all the people my dad has worked with over the past 34+ years, as well as to hear how much they enjoyed working with him and what a pleasure it was to work with him. Person after person would comment to my mom and I about how he was often the bright spot in their days, would keep things light (which in a government job isn't easy to do...ha), and what a wonderful person he is. I couldn't agree more! I know all of these things about my daddy, but I'm glad to see how special he is to everyone he knows. Love you, dadda!

This picture was taken of my dad and mom after the retirement ceremony. He received this American flag that had been flown in an F-16 along with a certificate and a letter recognizing and thanking him for his 34 years of service to the US Air Force. My mom also received these flowers and a certificate along with a letter for her support of my dad's service during that time. As well, both my brother and I each received a letter for supporting him in his work. I thought that was all pretty cool! And lastly, he will also be receiving a letter in the mail from the President thanking him for his service. Not bad for a 34 year career!

Happy Retirement!

First Road Trip

We made our first successful road trip to Salt Lake last week! Briella was a champ in her carseat both on the trip out and back and slept for the 2.5 hour trip both ways. Yeah! I was a little worried for the ride out because she was awake when I put her in her carseat, but I think we've found out that there's something magical about that carseat because whenever she's in it, she sleeps and for a long time. :) That bodes well for the many, many trips to Salt Lake and back that she will be making.

Briella with Grandma and Momma

Unfortunately, Ryan wasn't part of this inaugural trip, but he is the reason that we took the trip. He had to go to New Mexico for work and I wasn't quite ready to do the single mom thing yet. So, my mom drove out here and was going to stay with us while he was gone, however, my dad's retirement ceremony was that week. Of course, she couldn't miss that and I wanted to go as well. We decided that she would drive out here, stay for the night and the next day we would set out for the city for a few days. I'm bummed that Ryan wasn't part of this excursion, but am very thankful to my mom for escorting us on our trip and helping with baby girl.

Jensen and Briella....he loves her so much!

While I missed Ryan, this ended up being such a wonderful time with family and a couple friends! Briella and I got to spend tons of time with my family. They all love her so, so much. Jensen is so sweet with her and gets this gleam in his eyes when he looks at her (well, only for a few minutes until he's bored and wants to do something else. Ha ha!) Plus, I was able to visit with two of my dear friends, Dana and Missy and they were able to meet precious little baby girl. Such a fun time!

Grandma with her grandkids

Briella all cozy in Grandpa's lap

Dancing with Jensen

Thanks to my mom for the pics...I stole them off her facebook as I have yet to download the ones I took. :)

One Month Old!!!

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is one month old already! (Actually, I started writing this a few days ago...April 12th was the official one month, but you know how things go and the post just didn't happen.) She is amazing and all she does is eat, sleep, poop, and stare. :)

Briella, my sweet baby girl, below is what I want you to know (and what I want to remember) about your first month.

Life in General

• You are awake more often than you used to be, especially this past week when you started staying awake for up to 4-5 hours at a time. Before that you were not usually awake for more than 2 hours (if that even) at a time.
• You are able to follow objects with your eyes and one of your favorite things to stare at is the ceiling fan. You seem to always find that and just stare. Daddy says it helps you get oriented with where you are in the room. :)
• Your facial expressions and little noises are absolutely adorable. The way your lower lip pops out when you are about to cry is both so cute and so sad at the same time. Some of my favorite noises and expressions are when you are trying to poop. Oh so funny! I'll have to try to catch them on video or in pictures.
• You eat like a champ. For the most part you have never had a difficult time with nursing. There were a couple days in the beginning, but since then, not really any troubles. The only times that you have a bit of a hard time is if you have been crying and need to calm down before you can quite get it, but that usually doesn't take very long.
• I love that you were born with so much hair...love that crazy hair! I have no idea what to do with it, so it pretty much just sticks up everywhere. Daddy likes to put into a mohawk. Ha! It's so cute!

Firsts
Of course, there are going to be many firsts over the next few months, but this month your firsts included your:

• first bath (after your umbilical cord fell off which happened when you were 2 weeks and 1 day old...so thankful it came off so soon)
• first stroller ride...the three of us walked down to the mailbox. I think it was a little too bumpy on the gravel road. That didn't seem to bother you, however, I think we'll wait for a while before we go on the gravel road again.
• first doctor appointment
• first trip to Vernal
• first trip to church which was on Easter
• met your cousins for the first time
• first bbq

Pictures from this Month

2 Week Check-Up

We have a beautiful, healthy baby girl!!!

At her first doctor's appointment on Wednesday - her 2 week check-up she weighed 7 lbs. 1.5 oz and is 19.5 inches long, which puts her at 20% for weight and 25% for height. Yep, she's little! But she started out little, so the fact that she is 5.5 oz. heavier than she was at birth is what's important and shows that she is a healthy girl. :)

On another random note: she found her thumb yesterday and has started sucking on it and it's SO CUTE!

Baby Love

My Absolute Favorite Moment of the Past Few Days
A few days ago I was standing in the kitchen when I heard Ryan start to whistle "Amazing Grace." He was holding and staring oh so lovingly at his baby girl while he hummed. Oh my! It was utterly heart-warming and a moment I will never ever forget!

Our First Trip Out
It was nice to finally get out of the house to go somewhere other than to the doctor either for me or Briella. All I wanted was to go to Payless and eat at Gandolfos, so we headed over to Vernal on Saturday. Briella is a champ in her carseat and pretty much slept the entire time other than when Ryan changed her diaper and when I fed her. So, we ended up going to Lowes, IFA, Gandolfos, the park to eat our yummy sandwiches, Kmart, and finally Payless.

It was the cutest thing, while I was in Gandolfos ordering our food, I noticed Ryan had moved to the back seat. So, I was worried that Briella was crying or hungry or whatnot, but when I got out there she was sleeping and he had gotten into the backseat just to keep her company. :) I'm pretty sure she already has him wrapped around her little finger! There's something special about a daddy-daughter relationship and I'm excited to watch it grow!

Once we made it to Payless, Ryan told me to take my time while he sat in the car with Briella, so that's just what I did. A little shoe shopping was just what I needed. :)

Pictures of our Precious Baby Girl!
We love her SO MUCH!

March 23 Edition of Being Thankful

Today, I am thankful...

• that we took Briella out for her first ride in her stroller yesterday evening. So much fun. :)
• for getting my appetite back. Mmmm...food. Ha ha.
• that it's the weekend and the weather is going to be beautiful for some outdoor fun.

March 22 Edition of Being Thankful

Today, I am thankful...

• to be a MOM!!! (yes, I thought I'd state the obvious. :))
• that I am finally feeling human again. :) After the last few days of feeling horrible and then discovering yesterday the reason why, I am feeling SO much better. Maybe now I can start to get into somewhat of a routine with Briella and feel more capable of takng care of her.
• for Ryan. I know I say that a lot, but this time I mean it in a whole new way. He has been my rock star ever since Briella was born. He has taken care of me and her in such an amazing way. I don't think I would have stayed even as sane I as did without him (and to tell you the truth there were times I thought I might lose it altogether).
• to be able to watch Ryan as a father, a daddy! A whole new side to him. He melts each time he sees her and whenever he is home he just wants to hold her. In his words, "I saw what she went through," meaning her birth and how traumatic it must have been. (It's a good thing that none of us remember being born. Ha!) She will definitely be a daddy's girl!
• for this beautiful weather. We may just have to break out the stroller and go for a walk later.

Briella Kai Roberts!

Briella Kai Roberts was born March 12, 2012 at 4:09 AM, weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and 19.5 inches long!

Briella means "God is my might" and Kai means "rejoice." As well, both of her grandmas' names start with the letters "Ka" and we wanted to honor them with a middle name beginning with those letters.

I do hope to write a more complete post about my birthing experience, but for now I just want to get these details down so I don't forget. Plus I like numbers, so this is fun for me. :)

I have to admit that things didn't go at all how I was hoping (all natural, unmedicated, etc.), but this is how my birthing experience went as told by numbers. And when all is said and done, Briella is here and all is good!

• 32 hours of total labor (back labor nonetheless. Yikes!)
• 11 hours of labor in the hospital
• 7 hours with an epidural
• 1 hour of pushing
• 3 attempts to get an IV in, including 3 different nurses. Apparently, I have tiny veins.
• 2 attempts to get an epidural in. Apparently, I was 1/10 cm away from being unable to have one.
• 2 times that I passed out following delivery
• 1 IV drip of glucose water following passing out
• 3 blood draws
• 1,000,000 stitches. Ha ha ha, not really, but seems like that. :)
• 1 AMAZING husband who massaged my back for hours to help with the incredibly intense back labor, plus much, much more. Could not have done it without him!
• 1 BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL!

What an unbelievably amazing experience bringing new life into this world! Our lives are forever changed! We love you, Briella!