Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Poinsettia Show at the Gardens

We decided to get all bundled up and head to our neighbor's, the Botanical Gardens, on Monday to check out the beautiful Poinsettia Show they had inside. It was so incredible. Thousands of poinsettias plants and trees of all colors (ok, not all colors, but lots of shades of red, pink, white and speckled.) There was even a giant Christmas tree built out of poinsettia plants. Isabel kept saying wow and running all over the place. They had these cute model trains that were running in and out of the plants. It was nice to get out and enjoy some beauty indoors while it is so bitter out here in Omaha.









Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas 2008

Even though we were missing family terribly, we had a wonderful Christmas with our little family. It was so relaxing and enjoyable, we made great memories. It literally took us all day to open presents. We started about 7am and in between naps, a nice big aebleskiever breakfast and yummy lunch and feeding Brigham and playing with the toys, Isabel opened her last present around 5pm. After each present, she would play for the longest time with the toys or books. She LOVES Elmo so she really enjoyed this elmo doll and elmo books that she got. In fact, she really loved all of her toys and continues to play with all of them, trying to do it all at once, which makes a nice mess in our living room. She loved to open presents, but we would have to talk her into opening another one because she was so involved in her current toy. It was really fun to just have no schedule or worries. We spent all day in our pjs and just enjoyed the heck out of our kids. Brigham just slept the day away.

Further proof that you can just give kids some boxes for Christmas and they are just as happy!

I think she put about 5 miles on this stroller the first day. She loves doing laps in between the kitchen and living room.


Cuddle buddies.

Enjoying his great Christmas present. Thanks Grandma! It looks so comfy that Isabel keeps trying to crawl in and try it out.

Opening a present, I don't know if she looks so tired because she just woke up from a nap or if she is exhausted from all her presents:)


Santa's little helper. He got this outfit from Grandma G and it only lasted about an hour before his diaper leaked all over it. So he has worn it a few more times cause he looks so dang cute in it.
Baby got back!

Daddy helping Isabel get her Little Einsteins piano open. She loves little Einsteins and pounds on the keyboard. "tinestines" is what she calls 'em.



Here are some pretty flowers David bought for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve Eve, we headed up to the trail center to check out the gingerbread display. It was so fun! There was hundreds of gingerbread creations from all over the area that people had submitted. Some of them were so awesome, I couldn't believe the detail and creativity that was put in to them. Here are some pictures of our favorites. our ward did one, but we couldn't find it.








We helped Isabel act out the Nativity story. (She was Mary and a wise man, I was Joseph, the innkeeper and some wise men. David was a donkey, shepard and camel carrying the wise man to see Jesus, and little Brigham was Jesus.) It was so cute, she was pretty reverent and curious about it all, I think she knew it was a special story.

Here is our cute little wise man bringing baby Jesus a gift.

On Christmas Eve, we cooked a delicious prime rib dinner (from the prime rib that we got from the 12 days of Christmas). We had so much food, we wanted to invite our neighbors over for dinner. We had a great time with them and ate till we couldn't move (we were all contemplating unbuttoning our pants to give us some more room, but didn't do it). Then we watched a beautiful video that we received from the 12 days as well. It was a picture slide show set to beautiful music that showed all sorts of paintings about Jesus' life. It was so moving and brought the tears flowing. It was a great way to feel the true spirit of Christmas.

We had so much fun receiving the 12 days of Christmas. We are pretty sure we know who it was, but since they wish to stay annonymous, we just want them to know how much we love and appreciate them. It was so overwhelming to see the time, effort and money that was put into it. We felt so loved and blessed to be the recipients. We just want to say thank you for all you have done, you'll never know how much we appreciate this and cherish the memories we have made because of it.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Happy 1 week Brigham!

A week has already flown by with our little guy and I can't believe how we got along without him. Isabel has been so great with him, I can even run to the bathroom really quick without fearing for his life. He is such a content little guy, he cries even less than Isabel did, which I didn't think was possible. David says he sleeps way too much, he wants to play with him more:)

Here are the roses David brought me at the hospital. They are so beautiful and had tons of greenery that looked like they grew in the mountains. He said he was going to get me red roses, but then thought they were too girly for Brigham, so he got these instead!


Can you tell that she is smitten with him?


If it is possible, his beatiful complexion has made me look even more white!


His first bath. He was pretty mad that we woke him up and made him get in the tub. But the second we took him out he was content again.


We have gotten a few inches of snow (on top of 2 inches of solid ice) on Friday, so David took Isabel out to sled down the hill behind our building. It was pretty cold, so they only lasted about 15 minutes, but she had a blast!)




She loves to give Brigham kisses and hugs



We took a picture of Isabel like this when we brought her home from the hospital and now David says we have to get a picture with his deer when we bring all our kids home. Notice the size difference between Isabel and Brigham. He may catch up to her pretty quick!

After we bathed Brigham again last night, Isabel wanted to get in (the whole "I have to be involved in everything that Brigham is"), so David bathed her in the kitchen sink. She had so much fun.

We took Brigham in for his weight and jaundice check on Friday and he looks great. The doctor said he didn't really have any jaundice and he was already an ounce over his birth weight (7 lbs, 14 oz. now). We are so happy he is healthy and eating great. He is such a sweetheart and we feel so blessed to have these two munchkins in our family. They make it all worth it!

12 Days of Christmas

Santa's little elves have been working overtime for our family this year. Someone is doing the 12 days of Christmas on us and it has been so much fun waiting to see what gets left at our house each day. We feel so blessed and a little embarrassed that someone is doing so much for us. Each day, they have wrapped something up and snuck it in between our door and screen door and knocked REALLY fast and hard and then took off running away. David has even tried to catch them a few times, but they are too fast! I wish I would have taken a picture of what we got each day, but it didn't even occur to me since it started the day before I had Brigham. There is a cute little note with a poem for each day. Someone has really put a lot of time and effort and love into this and we are just overcome with gratitude. Some of the things we have received so far are: a box of chocolates, lots of different cans of nuts cause they said we are "nutty" (I guess they must know us pretty good), some cute ornaments and mormon bubbly for Christmas. We even got a delicious prime rib roast for Christmas Eve dinner. I got a picture of a few more things.

We got these remote control helicopters a few nights ago. It has been so much fun to see David fly these things around the house and get so happy when he does a cool trick with them. They have been a great stress reliever now that finals are over and he is like a little kid flying them around. I haven't had much time to hone my skills, but when I do, we will have some great battles with them. He is flying one right now as we speak. He is too cute!

We also got this beautiful nativity set. It is carved out of this cool black wood and it is amazing the detail and skill that was used in carving it. I told David last year that I want to start collecting nativity sets, and this is definitely a great way to start that off.

Last night we got this cute velour outfit for Isabel along with really cute black sweaters for us. She saw it this morning and got a big smile on her face and wanted to wear it right away. She looks so cute in it!
We don't know who is doing this but feel so blessed and are grateful to our little "elf" friends. We love you!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Brigham's Labor

I thought I should journal how my labor went while it is fresh in my mind so Brigham can read about it someday. Sorry it is so long, but I want to remember as much as I can

I was due on Wednesday, Dec. 10th. That day came and went and I was pretty depressed that I hadn't gone into labor yet. I was sure I was gonna go early, so everyday was so long when nothing would happen. I even tried to talk the doctor into inducing me on Saturday, but he wasn't going to be on call and the partners won't induce each other's patients. He just didn't want to work that day, so he gave me some excuse that he would be out of town. I spent all day Friday and Saturday walking the malls while Isabel was with Grandma Bailey, shopping. I would have lots of contractions while I was walking, but nothing painful. Saturday there were a few where I had to slow down cause I was uncomfortable, but when I stopped walking, so did the stronger contractions. Towards the end of my 3 hour stint at the mall on Saturday afternoon, I ran into a friend out there and she told me to try Castor oil, because her mom used it for all four of her babies. I thought, I dunno if I am that desperate, and I don't know if David will think that is a good idea to try something like that. So he called us and I talked to him about it. Lo and behold, he sounded interested in it and said, why not try it? So we stopped at Walmart on the way home and bought some of the stuff. I was kinda nervous about the thought of really going into labor that night. I took it at 8pm. It was pretty gross, mostly just cause of the thickness and oiliness of it. I went to bed and woke up at 1am, thinking that it hadn't worked since I didn't have any contractions earlier. Well I tried to go back to sleep and wouldn't you know, I felt a contraction that made my heart skip a beat cause it actually hurt. Oh I was so excited and nervous. I started watching the clock. After I couldn't go back to sleep, I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and they were really uncomfortable. David got really excited and kept asking me what was wrong when I would let out a deep breath. He would ask me how far apart they were after each one, hoping that they kept up intensity. Since I knew I wasn't going to get back to sleep, I got up and came down on the computer. I didn't know if they would keep up if I was moving around, but the time I was on it, they were still pretty uncomfortable. By 4am, they were still pretty frequent. So we called the hospital and let them know. They said I could come in and get checked out, but since I was going natural, they said to stay home until they were consistently 3 minutes apart, or my water broke. So I timed them for an hour more. They were 3 to 4 minutes apart and 60 seconds long. By now I was having to concentrate and relax through each one, I couldn't talk through them anymore. So I thought I better start getting ready. I got in the shower and started getting all ready. I worked on my bag some and had David help me get all situated. They were starting to get painful, especially if I was standing up during one. So showering and getting ready was a slow process. At 5:30am, I was in my room and had one that I needed to lay down for. So I laid on the bed and practiced my relaxation. At the end of the contraction, I thought I felt the baby kick my cervix, but it was so much stronger than any baby can kick. I swear I heard the pop from my water breaking. It felt like I had a water balloon in my stomach and someone stepped on it. That is the pressure I felt. I didn't gush or anything, so I was really confused about what happened. David was downstairs talking to his mom, so I started walking to the bedroom door and felt the water come. I hurried and ran to the top of the stairs, yelled down to them that my water broke and ran to the bathroom. Luckily there was no mess (sorry if this is too graphic!) anywhere. I got really excited again, thinking that this was it and there was no turning back. I finished putting on my makeup and David started getting really nervous and excited. Isabel woke up at 5:45, really sad and crying out for me, she seemed to know that something was up. I tried to comfort her, work through my contractions and finish getting everything together. I was pretty slow going since I was immobile every 3 minutes for a minute at a time. I tried to eat some breakfast since I hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before. I ate some cereal, but it made me a little nauseous. After I had a contraction at the table, I told David that I think we needed to get going soon. That sent him into overdrive. He ran out to start the car and take the bags out there and kept telling me to hurry. It is pretty funny when I think back to seeing him running all around. He was still very calm, but he definitely had urgency in his voice. So we kissed Isabel bye and left her with Grandma Bailey (we are so glad it worked out how it did, it was so nice to just be able to leave her at home with family and know she would be great and happy). The car ride was pretty uncomfortable, but David drove great and got us there safe.
I was so scared I would get to the hospital and they would tell me I was on dilated to a 3 or something. I did not want to have as long of a labor as I did with Isabel. I got to the hospital around 6:45am and got checked in. Good thing we didn't wait any longer, because I got the last room in labor and delivery (it was a full moon weekend)!
David and I told ourselves to expect to only be to a 3 or 4 and then anything past that would be a bonus. Well, they checked me a little after 7am and I was already to a 7! Hallelujah! Seriously, that is what I mumbled when I found out. I was hoping I would transition fast like I did with Isabel. They wouldn't let me get in the tub since I was so dilated. So I labored in the bed and David was a great coach. He kept me calm and as relaxed as I could get. There were a few contractions that made me think I was gonna lose it, but he knew just what to say to keep me level headed. Around 7:45 I knew my body was going to start pushing in the next few contractions, so I told David to let them know. I was pretty scared, but David was so excited. So the nurse checked me again and said I was an 8. She said I could let my body push a little bit, but not to push with it. That is so hard to do! I got really scared when after 10 minutes, I could hardly breathe through the contractions and it was taking everything in me NOT to push. I was still only a 9 so I had to try really, really hard not to push. I made it a few more contractions and then I couldn't stop it anymore, I was pushing and pushing HARD. She checked me around 8:15am and I was fully dilated, 100% effaced and a +3 (I could feel that the baby was right there). The doctor had just gotten in for the morning (not even my doctor, his partner who was on call, but he was awesome!) , so he rushed in and got all set up. We had 3 nurses scrambling to get everything set up. The doctor joked that the risk of delivering a baby that was from a natural childbirth is that he sometimes gets kneed in the head cause the women don't have any pain medicine. After the first contraction, he said, okay we should have this baby out in an hour or so (in a joking manner). I then informed him that he may get kicked in the head after all. It was nice to have some comic relief in such an intense situation. I pushed through 3 insane contractions and he was out. David shouted it was a boy, and we lost it. It was so special and I couldn't believe what had just happened. I still can't believe he is so perfect and so great. I am in complete amazement that we have been blessed with these 2 special spirits in our family. Brigham is such a sweet little baby. He hardly makes any fuss and loves to snuggle. He has a great big sister who loves him so much, sometimes a little too much:)
We stayed at the hospital until Monday around 11am. We were anxious to get home to Isabel and get settled before we had to take David's mom to the airport that night. Plus I can't get any sleep in the hospital. Everytime I doze off, a nurse comes in to mess with me or Brigham. So we had to put a little fire under them to get things taken care of that morning to get us discharged.
Here's a funny story. David went with Brigham to do the circumcision. It was 2 nurses and a female doctor that were doing it. David was behind them watching. He said they had their backs turned to Brigham and were prepping things after they strapped his legs down. David said he looked up and say a stream of pee coming up over their shoulders and shooting all over the place. He told them and they turned around and got sprayed all over the front of them too. He told them that Brigham knew what was coming and was trying to retaliate. He sounds like he is going to be a jokester just like his daddy.
We feel so blessed and are amazed and how Heavenly Father has been watching out for us. Everything worked out great and now we have the greatest Christmas present ever!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

INTRODUCING.....

Brigham David Bailey - December 14th, 2008 @ 8:24am
7 lbs. 13 oz. 21 inches
It's a boy! We are so happy Brigham is here! I will give the long story later when I can get a little bit more sleep. I went into labor Sunday morning around 1am and had him at 8:30am. Everything went great and we are all doing well. He has a head full of thick, long blond hair. He is such a sweet little guy. Isabel is in love and is very curious about him. She is wondering where she stands in the family now and won't let you give him attention without giving her plenty as well.
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. We feel so lucky to have 2 great kids that are healthy and bring us so much joy. David is done with his finals on Thursday, so we are looking forward to having him to ourselves for a few weeks!