Emeri Jade Brown

She finally came! Our little angel was welcomed into the world on Wednesday, October 17th at 8:41am. She weighed 7 lb 4 oz and is 19 inches long. She is perfect and we can't believe she is ours.

I want to give all the details of the labor and delivery, but am limited on time (my life now consists of nursing, pumping, changing diapers, eating, sleeping if I am lucky and then repeat :)). I want to get all the pictures up for family and friends and will post the dets later on.

Thank you to everyone for your support, love and help. Emeri is so blessed to have each of you in her life.

 Holding her for the first time was the best feeling ever! 

 This is a face of joy, not pain as some might interpret. 

 She was bigger than we thought she would be :)

 Already the best dad in the world.

 Auntie Brittany

 Isla Jane meeting Emeri Jade....precious!

 Grandma & Grandpa Brown

 Uncle Andrew

Patience

Yes, it is October 16th. Yes, my original due date was October 11th. And yes, I am going crazy!

I have always considered myself a patient person, but I have learned how very impatient I truly am. Waiting on our baby girl to come has been quite the roller coaster, especially for an already hormonal, sleep deprived version of Shailynn. Here is the condensed scoop on what has been happening.

10/8: Around 9:30-10:00pm I started to have contractions that began to become consistent and more powerful as time went on (they were coming and 3-4 minutes). My mom was on her way as soon as she heard. She stopped in Vegas to pick up Shannon and Isla. They drove all night and arrived a before 6am. Around 4:00am I was able to drift off to sleep (thanks to hypnobabies tracks). I woke around 5:30 and they contractions were gone!

10/9: Still no more contractions.Walked and ate spicy foods and tried "other means" of inducing labor with no avail.

10/10: Went on a "hike" as my mom kept calling it :). It really was just a walk up the canyon. I did however run a bit, hoping this would spark something...but nothing. Mini meltdown.

10/11: Had a doctor's appointment. Dilated to 3+ (almost a 4) and 90% effaced. She also stripped/sweeped my membranes (separating the placenta from the cervix). This wasn't very painful at all...the doc said it is because my cervix was very ready. She said that sweeping the membranes works to induce some woman and not for others.  After this appointment I thought for sure the baby would come that day or the next. I contracted a little after the appointment. We walked around the mall to keep me moving but as the day went on so did my baby girl's chance of having the awesome birthday of 10/11/12. Oh well.

10/12: My mom scheduled me and appointment with an acupuncturist...she had too much time on her hands to research methods of inducing labor. Don't ask me why I just went along with this. Ok, well it was probably because I was getting desperate to get baby girl out of my body. And besides my mom did/does acupuncture all the time and believes in it. However, I knew it was a mistake after the acupuncturist put some needles in and then hooked them up to cables that resembled mini car jumper cables and my mom said "Oh I've never seen this before." Anxiety set in. It did not lessen when he turned on the machine and my hands started twitching uncomfortably. I made it through 15 minutes of this "current" running from my hands to my feet. The acupuncturist was full Chinese and spoke broken English. It was difficult to understand how he said it would help induce labor...all I understood is that "it will make baby strong, strong baby." This was also very unsettling. Lesson learned....no acupuncture for me, at least in regards to labor induction.

10/13: Walked all day. Went to SLC farmers market and City Creek. After a meltdown at the end of the day, I settled in my mind that baby isn't coming until November.

10/14: Not a thing. More stressed about mom and Shannon being here without the baby here. We did take some pictures on the Provo River trail. See below. We also had a great Sunday dinner with Brittany and Andrew over.

10/15: Woke up with resolve. Walked 3 miles with my mom. Felt the baby lower, but nothing more than this. Just tried not to stress. We went to the movies and saw Pitch Perfect. Felt great to laugh a lot.

Today: Learning to accept the baby and my body's time table is increasing my patience ten fold. I have accepted that I had to be at least 1 week off my due date calculation. I know I am not 2 weeks off though. I realize that I have been so focused on wanting the baby girl here for me and my family's convenience instead of focusing on her what she might need. I am planning on going to the chiropractor today and maybe get a prenatal massage (advice from a friend's sister that went into labor shortly after doing so). Just trying what I can and mostly focusing on relaxing. I am so grateful for the time I have gotten to spend with my mom, Shannon and Isla, it has been wonderful!

 The stripped shirt makes me look even bigger.

 My hubby is such a stud!

 Look as this lil angel!

 Isla loves Mimi!

P.s. Sorry I still haven't posted pics of the nursery. It is next on my list.

11 Days

38 Weeks Baby!

11 days until my due date...at least the due date I am going by :). Because baby girl has been measuring small, the doc pushed the due date back to October 26. No thank you! Shannon says that Isla always measured 2-3 weeks off plus she delivered a week early. So, I am definitely sticking with the October 11th due date.

During my appointment on Thursday, I was measuring 2 cm and 80% effaced. Not quite sure what this means as far as timeframe of baby girl's arrival. The only words the doc said when I inquired is that it doesn't necessarily mean that I will be early, just that I have a "prime cervix" in case they need to induce me. Hoping that never needs to become needed. Btw, she mean't early according to the Oct. 26 due date..psh. Doc did mention that she will be out of town October 10th-14 or maybe it was the 16th, not sure. However, I am sure that this little girl is coming before or during that time. Figures. Since I am not too attached to my doctor at all, I am not worried about it.

As far as when she will get her, I have in my mind that it would be ok to have her next weekend. We shall see.

Another update: we finally got a dresser! Thanks to some of my awesome family that chipped in to pay for it; you are all amazing and we are so very grateful. I had planned on finding a decent one off of ksl.com or craigslist but after searching non stop for the past 3 week with no luck, I gave up. My search also included RC Willey, target, walmart, overstock.com & outlet (any store, you name it). I was suprized at the lack of selection and/or prices at all these places. We ended up getting it from Ikea and I love it! I know there are mixed feeling about Ikea furniture, but I did my research and weighed cost with other features that were important to us. We are happy with it.

I will post a picture of the chosen dresser once we put it all together. In the meantime, here are some pics of Bri and I having fun with the bellies :).

Nursery Ideas

For family and friends that have been asking me what my nursery theme is:

I love the whites, gray and natural tones accented with an aqua and hints of the dark magenta. I love the somewhat rustic feel of using wood, branches and twigs. I also love the bird cage and bird theme. Thus far, I have decorated using items I already have. I have a feeling her room is going to be fairly eclectic. I will post pictures of the room soon. 

Our Baby Girl

I never got around to adding these. This is baby girl....I am actually growing a little human being in my body! 

Hypnobabies

Once the horrible nausea and heightened sense of smell has passed, time has flown. It is hard to believe I am already 34 weeks....6 more weeks to go if not sooner!

A wonderful woman in the neighborhood has let me barrow her Hypnobabies home study kit. It has been such a blessing...hopefully I am still saying that when in labor :). I heard about hypnobirthing and hypnobabies through friends of friends (Here is one that almost has me convinced). I was very skeptical at first but the more I have learned about it the more I believe or at least have a desire to believe it can work for me.

I am not against epidurals. However, the closer I get to my guess date (due date), the more I have felt the desire to experience the miracle of birthing on my own. I have wanted some tools to help me do so and hypnobabies has been a good options so far. To appease my husband as well as the lurking fear in the back of my mind, I have told myself that I want to do as much as I can without any intervention, but if I really need to I will get an epidural. We will see how that goes.

Before receiving the hypnobabies materials I checked out a book by Marie Mongan, the woman who originated the idea of hypnobirthing- painless childbirth through deep relaxation and self hypnosis. The newer versions of her books were not available so I checked out her first book I believe. I took everything I read with a grain of salt (there was some strong feminist hues), however I really appreciated her stance that childbirth is nothing to be feared and that it is naturally painless...or at least can be.

The gist of what I got out of the first few chapters is that our western view of labor and delivery has been tainted. We have grown up with the belief and expectation that giving birth is a huge ordeal of insane pain and that it is something to be dreaded. She noted women of other countries that are in the rice fields one minute, deliver their baby by themselves the next minute and then are back in the fields working. They have never been taught to associate birthing with pain. How we perceive birthing is deterministic of how we experience it.

After a few days of tossing this idea around in my head and heart, I concluded that I agree even despite my obvious inexperience with birthing (It passed the D&C 50: 23-24 and 9:8 test). Ever since I accepted this belief, I have been at peace. And even if after giving birth I change my mind, the peace, comfort and empowerment it has brought me thus far has been well worth it.

Anyways, after researching hypnobirthing and hypnobabies more, I leaned toward doing a hypnobabies course because I read that some women preferred it and that it took hypnobirthing a step further. Luckly, the woman in my ward had the materials was willing to lend them to me (Thank you Cherl).

I will have to post my birth story and let you know how it goes.

We are Prego!

I have so much to catch up on but will just start from the latest and greatest news: we are pregnant! I reached the 20 week half way point last week! I can hardly believe it. My mom and Shannon, Ronnie and Isla and Brit came to my ultrasound on May 22nd. I will try to get the video from Brit to post. Much to Brian's relief, we are having a girl! I shouldn't say it was a relief for him, but although he would never admit it to others,  I know he really wanted a baby girl (on more than one occasion, he would talk to my belly about how she needed to be a girl, ha). Way to go Shan, Uncle Tony and Perry for predicting the correct gender. I was way off. My pinterest board is evidence that I though it was going to be a boy. I really had no preference except I did kind of want a girl so that her and Isla could be super close like Shan and I were...most of the time :). 

I love my hubby. He has been so precious during the whole process. He has taken the greatest care of me during the times I have wanted to die. He has been so patient when I have been so preoccupied with feeling like crap that I never would pay him any attention. He has been so good about running all over town to help find me exactly what I am craving. The other day we went to a couple different places trying to track down some mexican powdered chile lucus with no avail (don't judge, my baby gets plenty of healthy food too). Anyways, I am so very excited for Brian to be a dad! In fact, that is one of the things I am most anticipating. He has had a great example from his dad growing up.  I know he will be one of the most amazing dads alive!

I am so grateful to be done with the 1st and beginning of the 2nd trimester. It was quite the roller coaster. I thought the first 3 months were bad until I hit the 4th month--longest month of my entire life! Of course sickness is relative and I am sure in comparison to many other expecting woman, my morning sickness stage was a breeze. However, to me...it got pretty horrible. Melissa, if you are reading this, I can't hold a candle to your pregnancy...you are a hero in my book! Anyways, things have been on the up since week 19. I am hoping they stay that way. 

As I mentioned above, my wonderful family came to Utah for the ultrasound. We barbecued, shopped, went to "This is the Place" and enjoyed time with cute baby Isla! here are some pics.