Brilee Grace

Brilee has been home with us now for about 5 weeks, and it has been wonderful. She is almost as good of a baby as Brennar was (I'm not sure you could find one better than him). We have been having so much fun adjusting to our new life as a family of four. Brennar is finally warming up to her, and I actually think he likes her now:) While driving in the car the other day, he reached into her carseat and held her hand, for about 5 minutes!

We haven't got into a schedule yet, which is my own fault, but hopefully soon we will, that will hopefully make the couple times a day when they both need something immediately, a little easier.

But mostly we, ok me, are having a good time dressing her up.

The week of Brennar Matthew!!

The week before my mom left, tear:( we took Brennar to do LOTS of fun things: The Denver Children's Musem, The Denver Zoo, and a Day out with Thomas! I wanted to take him to do some things that were just for him, and I think it was a huge sucess!

The Children's Museum, was right up his alley. He is obsessed with trains and firetrucks right now, and low and behold, they had both! Score!

Here he is all dressed up and ready to go fight some fires:) He thought it was super cool!

Next up: Train Station

I'm not quite sure who liked it best, Brennar or Grama Honey!

They also had a vet office, so he got all dressed up, took some X-rays, gave the dogs a few shots, and scheduled a couple appointments.

Good thing he has his own puppy at home to practice his new skills on:)

We tried a bubble room, too, Brennar had fun, but it was a little too messy for daddy, so we didn't stay in it very long

The art room was pretty fun. Here is my little Picasso

On a side note, you should here him say "Picasso" it is so cute!

Against my better judgement, my mom made me put this on, but don't we look cute together????

Neither of us are crossed-eyed, just fyi, its only the masks:)

We went to the zoo again, too, but of course, the camera stayed in my purse. But, he did have a great time, we met his friends, Zac and Eli there, so he thought that was great!

Then we also took him to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine. He had an absolute blast. It really is so amazing to see things through his eyes.

This is the first glimpse of Thomas he had (while riding a bus, another favorite of his)

It was so much fun.We went for about a 20 min ride on Thomas, they had a miniature train set that I am pretty sure Brennar could have watched for hours, and they even had a real fire truck that he got to sit in!

We all had a fantastic time!!

Just Photos, Photos, and more Photos

Introducing: Brilee Grace Stapp

So, after all the "issues" during the end of my pregnancy, our little princess decided to stay in my belly until she was forced out:) So, at my 37 week appt, my doctor said we could be induced the night of the 23 rd, making me 38 weeks 5 days; exactly 1 week farther along than I was when Brennar Matthew made his appearance. Since I hadn't been that pregnant before, I was READY to have my little girl here.

We went along our day as usual, it was a little strange, I kept feeling really guilty every time I looked at Brennar. I felt so bad thinking that he wasn't going to be the center of our universe anymore

:( Clint came home early so he could make sure we had everything we needed and to spend a little extra time with Brennar, it was really nice to have that extra time with our little man. Then at 8 pm, we got the phone call from the hospital asking if we were ready to come on in and have a baby! We got in the car and off we went.

On our way to the hospital to have our baby girl!

Our last photo as a family of 3!

I finally got checked in about 9:30 or so and they got us set up in the delivery room. At 10, the on-call doctor came in and checked me and did an ultrasound, I was 3-4 cm and baby was still head down, yay!! They called my doctor and he said to get my IV started and just let me sleep ultil about 3 am and then start my pitocin. Yeah right, how are you supposed to sleep when you are just laying there waiting to see your baby?? About 3:30 the nurse came in and checked me again, still 3-4, so she started my pitocin. She said that my doctor would be in about 6:30 am to break my water and that I could get my epidural anytime I wanted. Yay!!!! So, about 5:30 the nurse came to check on me and asked me if I was ready to get it, I was a little nervous about having to have my water broke, and feeling it, so I said yes. Now, here is the best part, I was still in absolutely no pain, got my epidural and never felt a single contraction!! At 5:45 the doctor came in, got my epidural going, it took about 20 minutes to feel numb and then about 6:45 my OB came in and broke my water. At this point I was about 5-6 cm and the fluid was clear, so again I was told to try to get some rest and they would keep checking in on me. As my OB was walking out the door, he said " I bet she will be here at 9:22". :) (Before we left for the hospital we all made predictions of when I would have her, Clint said 9:30, I said 10, my mom said 10:30 and Debbi said 11.) Well, I was feeling pretty good now, Clint and I were just kind of hanging out, watching a little HGTV and talking, and at 8:30 the new nurse (shift change is at 7) came to see how I was. I told her I still felt good, she checked me and said I was ready to start pushing! It seemed like it happened so fast, I couldn't believe it! She called my doctor to come over and got everything set up while we waited for him. 15 minutes later, my doctor walked in, put his gown on and said I could start pushing as soon as I was ready. I pushed through 3 contractions, about 5 minutes and out came my baby girl!!! It was absolutely amazing! As I was pushing and just her head was out, Clint said she had a lot of hair, I didn't believe him, well, I thought he was probably exaggerating a bit, so I tried to look down to see for myself, she was out far enough now that I could see her head, and...

This is what I saw, I couldn't believe it!! So much hair, and it was dark! If I wouldn't have seen her being delivered, I wouldn't have thought it was my baby!

It was the perfect delivery. I really do know how lucky I am, to have had 2, dare I say it, "easy" births. So, needless to say, there will be a number 3:)

At 9:02am Brilee Grace Stapp arrived perfectly healthy and absolutely beautiful measuring 20 1/4 inches and 7 pounds 6 onces.

Brennar wasn't interested in his sister at all, seriously, at all, but he did give me a kiss when he came to visit:)And baby makes 4!

August

Well, as you can tell, I have been very bad about keeping this updated, once again, I promise to do better!

The month flew by here in the Stapp house, seriously, I can't believe we're almost to October. So, to begin, when I was about 32 weeks along, I got put on "semi" bed rest, whatever that is, with a toddler. Anyways, the reasons were because baby girl Stapp wasn't measuring accurately, I hadn't gained any weight for about 6 weeks and at 28 weeks, I starting having very regular contractions. So, at my 32 week appt we had another ultrasound and baby girl was still a little small, so I was told I need to take it easy. So, I tried, again, how is that possible with a child like Brennar???? I did my best, went back to the doctor at 34 weeks, still hadn't gained any weight, was starting to thin out and baby's head was what doctor called "in the pushing postion" which basically meant she was ready to come. I still was told to take it much easier and put on more weight, it was then that I called my mom and begged her to come down!!! At my next appt the following week, I was starting to dilate and all previous factors were the same, so my doctor told me I would probably be having her before 36 weeks. Well, we really didn't want this to happen, so I finally convinced my dad that I needed my mom, and he gave in and let her come. My goal was to make it to August 12th, which was 37 weeks/full term (my due date was September 2nd), my mom came down on the 7th, I took it VERY easy that week, and I made it! I was able to get off bed rest at that point and baby girl could come any time, well.... she then decided she wasn't ready to come! Figures! So, I did my best to go into labor on my own; took Brennar to the zoo, went on walks, cleaned the house, made some dinners to freeze, but she still didn't come. Life just went on as usual then.

Here are pictures of the zoo and my big belly....

Brennar really had a great time, I am so glad I was able to take him to do something fun, before his baby sister came

37 weeks

This is Brennar in the ice cream truck inside the Babies R Us on our last run before 1 became 2