Brynn Ruth Allen

Brynn Ruth Allen was born on August 21.  She was born at 11:51am.  I ended up having to be induced.  Again.  It all went really well though.  I had to be at the hospital at 6:30am, and was hooked up to the pitocin at 8am.  She was born less than 4 hours later.  I always need help getting started, but once I get going, I go pretty fast.  Luckily, the epidural worked amazingly well, unlike the last two times.  Probably because I made sure to ask for it very early.  There were a few complications during the labor, but they worked out fine luckily.  We didn't know, but the cord was wrapped around her neck.  Every time I would have a contraction, her heart rate would dip way down.  The nurse kept having me change positions, have an oxygen mask, and finally I had to have fluid pumped back in around the baby so she could have a little cushioning again.  That seemed to help out.  She was also in a posterior position, which we were worried about.  I had been having lots of uterine ligament pain, which the Chiropractor said typically leads to the baby being posterior.  But, everything worked out safely and we finally have our sweet baby girl here!

 My last photos being pregnant!

 She's here!!!

She was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 inches long

 Brynn's first visitors

 The kids came RIGHT when school got out to see their new baby sister

 I don't think Ashlyn's smile could be any bigger

Seriously one of my favorite pics

 Going home!

 She really hated being put in the car seat.  She cried all the way home too

Some things I want to remember about Brynn:
She has the most hair of any of our kids when they were born.
She has two cute dimples that I can't stop kissing.
She has the smallest head of any of our other kids. Her head size is only in the 60% range, and the rest were born with head sizes in the 97%.
She had the funniest sneeze the first couple days after she was born.  It was sort of like a soft yell or a bark.
In the hospital especially, she was constantly smacking her lips.  She still does, but not as much.
For the most part, she is a pretty mellow baby.
Her favorite place to be is laying on or by mom.
She loves to pee whenever Dad is changing her diaper.  Haha!
She loves having a bath.  She totally relaxes in the warm water (until we start washing her anyways).
She really hates being swaddled because she loves her hands free to be close to her face.
Every time she cries, she snorts.  A lot. 

The kids really love her.  Especially Ashlyn.  She follows Brynn and I around wanting to hold & feed & change & dress her.  She is already a diaper changing pro.  She can change any diaper without any help.  She carries her around really well too, actually better than Jayden.  Can I just say how much I LOVE having older kids to help out?  It really makes such a HUGE difference.  It's also fun to watch them interact with Brynn and enjoy her rather than being jealous of her.

I love all the faces that newborns make when they're sleeping.  Here are some of the many faces of Brynn when she was 10 days old.

 

We love Brynn so much!  We are so excited to have her in our family! 

End of Summer Adventure- Day 1

Earlier this year I found an awesome deal on 2-day passes we could use to get us into a bunch of fun places around Salt Lake.  I wanted to do them this summer with the kids, but have been physically in a lot of pain, especially when walking too much, which is what we would do with these passes.  So, we kept putting them off and eventually figured we would use them after the baby came.  Then I noticed the expiration date, September 2...  Last Monday after my 38 week check I found out I was hardly progressing and got a bit depressed and decided we needed to get out and get our minds off things.  I was VERY worried how I would be able to handle 2 full days of being out and about, but I was also tired of not being able to be the kind of mom I want to be.  So, we decided to just go for it and get out and have some fun!

First, we went to the Olympic Park in Park City and went zip-lining and rode the Alpine Slide there.  It was a lot of fun!  Johnathan & Ashlyn did the zip-line and the boys and I did the slide.  Jacob had his little heart set on doing the zip-line, but didn't weigh enough so he had to do the slide with me.  He is still bummed about it too.

Next, we went to Sundance and rode the tram up the mountain.  It was fun, but I was also pretty scared on the actual tram.  Being on top of the mountain was beautiful!  John was laughing at me when my 'protective mother' kicked in.  If the kids got within 5 feet of an edge or slope, I was either holding their hands or telling them to back away.  What can I say?  I want to keep my babies safe!

To end off our first day, we stopped at the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.