Friday, May 17, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
First Two Weeks
Here I am blogging four months late about her first two weeks. Isn't she ridiculously precious??
Oh how I wish she could stay this small longer.
Oh how I wish she could stay this small longer.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Family Pictures
Although Brooklyn looks like a two month old, these were taken when she was 12 days old. She was about 10 lbs at this point. :)
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Reorganizing
It took a lot of effort to reorganize the house to get ready for a fifth member of our family. We needed to sell some furniture and get some organizational furniture to help.
Sadie got this pretty sweet tool kit from her daddy. It even comes with a real power drill. She got the hang of it well enough to put these frames together!
There is now a lot more space in their room for play with their cool new bunk beds and toy bins.
Sadie got this pretty sweet tool kit from her daddy. It even comes with a real power drill. She got the hang of it well enough to put these frames together!
There is now a lot more space in their room for play with their cool new bunk beds and toy bins.
Brooklyn Hinckley Alkema
The morning of the delivery:
My labor story:
I was told over the phone that I was low on the list for induction, and that they would call me late morning to tell me when to come in. At 6:30 am I got a call for me to be there in an hour. I called my mom right away to come tend the kids so we could go to the hospital. She hopped in the car right away and we were off. I arrived at the hospital around 7:40 and was all hooked up to the pitocin by 8:15 and they broke my water around 8:30. On average, an induction takes about 10 hours. They figure one centimeter per hour is best. So I was intending to have the baby around dinnertime. I wanted to have the epidural in the afternoon sometime when the contractions got bad, but I didn’t want to have it too early because then you can’t walk around or go to the bathroom.
Ryan was hoping to go to the gym while we were waiting all day, but I asked him to stay because I was feeling a little needy. So he put on his exercise clothes and did a work out right there in the hospital room. (It’s quite spacious in labor and delivery.) Anyway, around 11 am the contractions were super uncomfortable. I didn’t really want the epidural so soon, but I was suffering. Ryan also recommended it sooner than later. I was SO glad I listened to him. The guy came in at about 11:30 to give me the epidural. It took a while for it to kick in as well. I ended up needing an extra dose just to get the numbness up to my abdomen. The nurse was in there with me for almost a whole hour trying to get my pain under control. Finally, she went to go get some lunch around 12:30. Everything was numb from the epidural except a softball size portion on my lower right quadrant. It was the weirdest feeling. It almost made the pain more acute because it was so localized. I seriously thought I was just being a pansy, but I was really suffering. For about a half hour I was enduring this very localized pain through sweat and gritting my teeth. Finally I sent Ryan out to get the nurse. I just felt like, this pain wasn’t right and they needed to do something about it stat!!
The nurse came back in after a couple minutes at almost exactly 1 pm. I could tell she was there to give me bad news; like I was just going to have to ‘deal’ with it. She warned me that people sometimes had ‘hot spots’ and that there wasn’t much they could do about it. I was quite distressed that I might have to endure this for several more hours. She said she would check my progression to give us an idea about how long that would be. She checked me and immediately said, “Oh honey! You’re having this baby!”
Right away she asked, “Can you just wait about 5 minutes? Don’t push! I’m going to go get the doctor right now. I am NOT delivering this baby!” She said it all so fast that I’m not sure I even responded to any of her questions. She was out the door in no time and back in with two other nurses setting everything up. The doctor came in within a couple minutes and I started pushing. I only pushed about 6 or 7 times and our baby was born at 1:15 pm. It was seriously a furious few minutes!
I remember pushing and feeling the relief of that horrible localized pain and knew the baby was all the way out. I tried to look over my legs to see what the gender was. I couldn’t see and Ryan didn’t say anything. I asked, “What is it?” and there was no response. It was probably only about 5 seconds, but it seemed like forever and I asked again, “what is it?” and the doctor said, “It’s a girl!” It was quite an overwhelming feeling. I literally laughed and cried at the same time. I was so happy, but so confused too. I was just sure I was going to have a boy!! It was such a paradigm shift that I still couldn’t believe it was a girl for a few days.
The nurses immediately started making guesses on the baby’s weight. They knew I had big babies, so one of the guess that this might be my 10-pounder. Another one thought a little less. The doctor chimed in that there was no way she was 10 pounds. It was funny to hear them banter as they cleaned her up. They weighed her and she was 8 lbs. 15 oz. Just one ounce shy of 9 lbs. I was SO glad I was induced at 38 weeks when the doctor thought I was 39 weeks. She would have been HUGE! Right after they weighed her and the doctor finished fixing me up, they put her skin to skin with me. The nurses cleaned up and everyone was out of the room within minutes, leaving us with our precious baby girl. It was so calm and peaceful.
It was a bit of a struggle to name this beautiful baby girl. She had a perfect little round head, chubby cheeks, and sweet little luscious lips. We had the names Gracie or Lindsay picked out. The problem was that she did not look like either one of those names. We brainstormed a ton and once we brought up the name Brooklyn it just felt so right. It was an instant feeling between both of us. We knew she was a Brooklyn, but we didn’t have a middle name for her. We didn’t actually come up with her middle name until we brought her home. That night we discussed a variety of options and again, we couldn’t agree upon anything because it didn’t feel right. Once we discussed the middle name Hinckley, it was the same feeling. It was right. We called family right away to tell them our newest angel was Brooklyn Hinckley Alkema.
My labor story:
I was told over the phone that I was low on the list for induction, and that they would call me late morning to tell me when to come in. At 6:30 am I got a call for me to be there in an hour. I called my mom right away to come tend the kids so we could go to the hospital. She hopped in the car right away and we were off. I arrived at the hospital around 7:40 and was all hooked up to the pitocin by 8:15 and they broke my water around 8:30. On average, an induction takes about 10 hours. They figure one centimeter per hour is best. So I was intending to have the baby around dinnertime. I wanted to have the epidural in the afternoon sometime when the contractions got bad, but I didn’t want to have it too early because then you can’t walk around or go to the bathroom.
Ryan was hoping to go to the gym while we were waiting all day, but I asked him to stay because I was feeling a little needy. So he put on his exercise clothes and did a work out right there in the hospital room. (It’s quite spacious in labor and delivery.) Anyway, around 11 am the contractions were super uncomfortable. I didn’t really want the epidural so soon, but I was suffering. Ryan also recommended it sooner than later. I was SO glad I listened to him. The guy came in at about 11:30 to give me the epidural. It took a while for it to kick in as well. I ended up needing an extra dose just to get the numbness up to my abdomen. The nurse was in there with me for almost a whole hour trying to get my pain under control. Finally, she went to go get some lunch around 12:30. Everything was numb from the epidural except a softball size portion on my lower right quadrant. It was the weirdest feeling. It almost made the pain more acute because it was so localized. I seriously thought I was just being a pansy, but I was really suffering. For about a half hour I was enduring this very localized pain through sweat and gritting my teeth. Finally I sent Ryan out to get the nurse. I just felt like, this pain wasn’t right and they needed to do something about it stat!!
The nurse came back in after a couple minutes at almost exactly 1 pm. I could tell she was there to give me bad news; like I was just going to have to ‘deal’ with it. She warned me that people sometimes had ‘hot spots’ and that there wasn’t much they could do about it. I was quite distressed that I might have to endure this for several more hours. She said she would check my progression to give us an idea about how long that would be. She checked me and immediately said, “Oh honey! You’re having this baby!”
Right away she asked, “Can you just wait about 5 minutes? Don’t push! I’m going to go get the doctor right now. I am NOT delivering this baby!” She said it all so fast that I’m not sure I even responded to any of her questions. She was out the door in no time and back in with two other nurses setting everything up. The doctor came in within a couple minutes and I started pushing. I only pushed about 6 or 7 times and our baby was born at 1:15 pm. It was seriously a furious few minutes!
I remember pushing and feeling the relief of that horrible localized pain and knew the baby was all the way out. I tried to look over my legs to see what the gender was. I couldn’t see and Ryan didn’t say anything. I asked, “What is it?” and there was no response. It was probably only about 5 seconds, but it seemed like forever and I asked again, “what is it?” and the doctor said, “It’s a girl!” It was quite an overwhelming feeling. I literally laughed and cried at the same time. I was so happy, but so confused too. I was just sure I was going to have a boy!! It was such a paradigm shift that I still couldn’t believe it was a girl for a few days.
The nurses immediately started making guesses on the baby’s weight. They knew I had big babies, so one of the guess that this might be my 10-pounder. Another one thought a little less. The doctor chimed in that there was no way she was 10 pounds. It was funny to hear them banter as they cleaned her up. They weighed her and she was 8 lbs. 15 oz. Just one ounce shy of 9 lbs. I was SO glad I was induced at 38 weeks when the doctor thought I was 39 weeks. She would have been HUGE! Right after they weighed her and the doctor finished fixing me up, they put her skin to skin with me. The nurses cleaned up and everyone was out of the room within minutes, leaving us with our precious baby girl. It was so calm and peaceful.
It was a bit of a struggle to name this beautiful baby girl. She had a perfect little round head, chubby cheeks, and sweet little luscious lips. We had the names Gracie or Lindsay picked out. The problem was that she did not look like either one of those names. We brainstormed a ton and once we brought up the name Brooklyn it just felt so right. It was an instant feeling between both of us. We knew she was a Brooklyn, but we didn’t have a middle name for her. We didn’t actually come up with her middle name until we brought her home. That night we discussed a variety of options and again, we couldn’t agree upon anything because it didn’t feel right. Once we discussed the middle name Hinckley, it was the same feeling. It was right. We called family right away to tell them our newest angel was Brooklyn Hinckley Alkema.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Christmas Part 2!
Christmas morning was so fun and so laid back. We were all super spoiled! One of the best gifts was spending time with Ryan's parents. We hadn't seen them in 7 months, so it was so nice to spend the holiday with them.
Again, Boston had little to do with opening presents. But once they were open, he loved playing with the toys!
It was fun to have Aunt Ashley there too!
And of course Uncle Nate!
I got a **gorgeous** crocheted blanket for our upcoming baby. I loved that the colors are gender neutral. So beautiful!!
Another addition to our emergency preparedness that we've been wanting for ages. We are pretty stoked for next year!
Isn't Ryan so handsome? Sometime I just can't get over it. What a hottie.
Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas too!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Temple Square
It was so fun to have most of the Alkemas together for Christmas. (We missed you Stouts!) We went to see the lights on temple square on the Sunday before Christmas. Thousands of people seemed to have the same idea, so it was really crowded. We still had fun!
Sadie and Papa Rich
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