Happy 3rd Birthday, Brinley!

Our feisty little firecracker is not a tiny, wobbly toddler anymore. She made her fierce debut into our lives 3 years ago today. It feels like so much longer when I picture that day. But I look at her, and it seems like just yesterday she was a precious newborn causing us grief and worry. :-)

5 lbs 7 oz. 8:47am

She was born without the lubricating stuff in her lungs, I forgot the name of it. So every breath she took was as difficult as the first...trying to get her lungs to expand. I was still in surgery. They couldn't get the bleeding to stop after she was delivered via C-section so worked on me 6 hours, with transfusions during the ordeal, before they finally had to perform a hysterectomy.

Earl said no one noticed anything off about Brinley until another nurse happened to walk by her and notice her color was off and had her checked for that. They determined she had pulmonary hypertension. They didn't know the reasoning until she got to New Hanover. They had to transport her there, in Wilmington, to the NICU for care. 

They brought her to the ICU so I could see her and touch her before transport.

I had to stay in the ICU overnight. Then they sent me to the mother/baby unit the next day, in hopes of getting me released early so I could go be with Brinley in Wilmington. So I had to be alone in my room, listening to all the newborns on the hall. Depressing. Tanner and Joey were so upset they didn't get to see Brinley after she was born. The boys visited me there. Boy did they light up the room.

The doctors were able to get me released 2 days after she was born, I believe. One night in ICU, one night in mother/baby unit. 

Earl was updating me from NICU, of course. Sending me messages like "This girl is on fire!" She was already known in her unit for her amazingly loud lungs. She didn't like anybody messing with her. Earl got to do kangaroo care with her. She was happy in his arms.

She spent 8 days there, but the whole time was just waiting. Waiting to see her if her lungs improved. They really had no idea how long it would take. The doctors could just say she needed time. There were a set of twins a few doors down that had been there like 100 days or something. We didn't know what to expect. They were gradually trying to wean her off the oxygen. Turning it down a little at a time, but then her alarms would go off and they'd have to turn it back up again. Once she was at a certain level of oxygen, she had to remain there for a certain amount of time before she would be released. It was so stressful. Me and Earl would take turns staying with her and going home to stay with the boys. We lived an hour from the NICU. The boys had my mom taking care of them, but we wanted to try to bring a little normalcy to them. My friend and neighbor Jehn transported me back and forth since I was on painkillers and just had all that abdominal surgery. I don't know what we would have done without my mom and Jehn there. We also had people from all over praying for us (friends and family in NC and GA and everywhere else thanks to Facebook.)

Brinley was on a feeding tube along with her oxygen tubes. I was pumping breast milk from Lejeune and sending it to her for her feeding tube. And when I arrived at the NICU, they gave me everything I needed to keep pumping and keep her on breast milk. She tried to nurse, but with the tubes in her nose and on her upper lip, she just couldn't. After a few days, they removed her feeding tube and we got to feed her from bottles. She was a great eater! 

Mom got to visit finally and see her first (and only) granddaughter on the 25th (3 days after Brinley was born).

Her brothers, too:

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I finally got my turn to do kangaroo care with her!

 The staff hung this picture of Earl and Brinley up on the wall in Brinley's NICU room.

We got to bring her home the day before Easter. Earl got her dressed in her going home outfit.

She was so tiny. She had lost weight there, but gained it back well once she got to start bottle feeding.

At home, her brothers were very loving and attentive.

We dedicated her at church soon after.

And the rest is history. 

She filled out quite nicely.

By 7 months, she was wearing size 18 month clothes.

2nd birthday^

We are so blessed to have her in our lives. She is crazy and loud and funny and feisty, so feisty, and supportive. She adores her big brothers, she calls them "my boys." She loves her princesses and pretending to be a princess and painting her nails and wearing tutus, and playing super heroes and digging in the dirt and climbing rocks and examining worms. She is tough and dramatic and nurturing. Sometimes when I pick her up at her church class after service, she says, "Mommy! I was so worried about you." This morning, she got a boo boo playing Legos with Joey and Tanner. After I put her band aid on, she ran downstairs yelling, "Oh booooooys, I'm baaaaack." She is amazed by all things Little Mermaid and Doc McStuffins and Playdough. She already has her opinions on her clothes and hair. She talks. So. Much. She has a great vocabulary. She's outgoing and likes to introduce her whole family to everyone she meets, "This is my boys and this is my mom and this is my dad and my Thor Z is at home..." She loves carrots and broccoli and steak. And she spends way too much time on YouTube watching toy review videos. 

Target Practice

The kids got out their b.b. guns a couple weeks ago and shot at some targets they made, along with some milk jugs and balloons.

 

 Brinley had to get in on the action, too, of course.

Back to Blogging

I am determined to get back to blogging. I have lost so many funny stories and memories in the back of my mind because I don't write them down or record them. So let me just start with some ramblings and maybe I will get to add some photos to them today before me and Angie leave for our concert (Winter Jam! Whoowhoo!) Either way, I will be back more often now. There is so much to say!

Josiah is 9 now, 4th grade. He loves his new school here in Fairfax. He loves having recess every day (shame on you NC! This poor boy didn't know daily recess was even possible.) He hates hair cuts, so he normally grows it out long till I can't take it anymore and have to force him to the barber shop. He is doing awesome in school, and is part of the gifted program. He is semi-obsessed with xBox (Minecraft mostly) and PC games that I can't keep up with. He is still a devoted reader. He is almost done with the Harry Potter series and is a new fan of the Rick Riordan books based on mythology.  He is getting so tall! Everyday I am amazed at how soon he will be taller than me. He performed at his school's Colonial Day performance last week and I was so impressed. He is so shy. He does not like dancing or singing or doing anything publicly, but in his performance he sang proudly, he played his recorder in 3 songs (by memory), and he danced! He danced with girls! And he looked like he was having fun during it all. My baby is growing up. He is clever and brilliant. He is easy going and kind. He is as forgetful as me. He likes creating his own games, like a recent Star Wars lego game he created for he and Tanner (which apparently requires the pieces to remain out in the basement floor instead of going back into the lego bin.) If he were to turn into the food that he eats the most of, I would be the proud mom of ravioli or cereal.

Tanner is in Kindergarten. He is 5 and is the pefect playmate for both Joey and Brinley. He also loves school. He gets funnier and more fun everyday. He loves any excuse to celebrate. When he found out Valentine's Day was coming up, he demanded to know when I was going to be decorating the house. I had to break it to him that I didn't have valentine decorations. He immediately started rectifying that. He also created Valentine's for the whole family, a week in advance. He asks what all we get to do to celebrate. I gave him the usual ways but that wasn't enough. He created his own work out video to perform for me today  as one of my gifts from him. He cracks me up. (He and Brinley often do a work out video with  me at home.) He loves helping the kitchen. Bummer for him that he is stuck with a mom that doesn't do much in that area. But we make do. He has recently informed me of a girl in his class that he would like to marry. But there is competition: Evan wants to marry her, too. So Tanner has decided whichever boy finds her first after they grow up, gets to marry her. I asked him if this girl knows all this. Tanner says she knows he wants to marry her, but she doesn't know he was on a big crush with her. If he were to turn into the food he eats most, I would be raising a peanut butter sandwich.

Brinley is 2, going on 16. She is loud. So loud. And is still cutting teeth. She is potty trained. She mostly enjoys food off my plate, but will occassionally eat out of her own plate, too.  She likes to be a princess, while she fights crime. I though I would have more crudeness in my life with the boys, but this girl is the one we worry about what she is saying at Church (the toot talk is non-stop!) She is affectionate and completely adorable. She is getting opinions on her clothes and which PJs she will wear on which night. She has odd play ideas...we often have to pretend I am the baby and she is Gail. Or that I am Grandma and she is Mommy, When she goes #2 on the toilet, she insists on books to read to help. She loves playing with playdough and taking baths and still loves playing with her Paw Patrol toys. She also loves painting her nails. I used to have to paint them 5 times a day. She got some kid polish from Joey for Christmas and I let her use that by herself because it washes off things so easily. She is getting much better at painting  her nails. She is so ready for her own school...she does not like the boys having a school and her not having one. We recently had a winter blizzard and her main reason for wanting to go out in the snow was to stick her face in snow and eat it.  She occassionally salutes me and says Yes Ma'am when I ask her to do something that she doesn't mind doing. She loves helping me with dishes. If she were to turn into the food/drink that she wants the most, she would be hot chocolate.