Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Mimi & Papa's Visit

Mimi and Papa made it out to see Molly in the hospital and enjoy the first few days home with her. They were a huge help with Macklin and Macy as we spent three days in the hospital. 
Here are some photos of their visit. 


Super bear hugs from Macy...aka choking :)



Molly's First Walk 
 


We also were blessed to celebrate Papa's birthday while they were in town! 
Happy Sixty - One(durful!) We love you Papa! 



Monday, March 30, 2015

Molly Goes Home


After getting all cleaned up and checked out yesterday afternoon, Molly was ready to go home! Justin was ready to fly out of that hospital room after being cooped up for the weekend. Mimi and Papa were doing a great job with the big kids and welcomed us home with a great little sign! Mack and Macy were ready to have their mommy and daddy home and to play with Molly! 



 


Molly Meets the Family

Family of Five

That moment when your two big kids meet their new baby sister....

We waited until Saturday morning to have the kids come meet each other. I honestly couldn't wait for the moment! Seriously one of the best gift you can give your kids is siblings. I am over-the-moon excited for Macy to have a sister, since I didn't. I am pumped for Macklin to watch over two precious girls as they grow up together. 

I had these super cute Big Brother/Big Sister shirts ordered from Etsy (I didn't give them a good review due to timing, but the shirts are cute), but with the early arrival of little Miss Molly, and the shop's super late shipping, they did not arrive in time. Family pics in these shirts to come! 

On to the meeting....it was so fun to watch the kids come into the room with Daniel (whom we are so grateful to have in our life!). You can see the video of the meeting above. It is hard to hear, but Macy's first question was "Is this MY baby?" It was awesome! They both thought she was awesome, but it didn't take Mack long to notice the construction vehicles outside our window :)

Macy was the first one that wanted to hold Molly! She did a great job and was beaming! 


Then Macklin wanted to get in on the action. 


They loved looking at all of her tiny parts. 
My favorite line of the day was...
Macy: "Macklin, stop poking her....I LOVE her!" 

Daniel got his snuggle time in! 


Then, about 45 minutes later, Mimi and Papa arrived from St. Louis! They have seen every grand baby in the hospital...kinda an impressive feat for being 14 hours away! 


After Mimi and Papa and the kids had been contained in the room enough, we had lunch and they took the kids home for the afternoon. After dinner, they came back for more baby time! We wanted to visit with mom and dad, but they were watching M&M. So we promised the kids a movie night when they came back! 

More snuggles and family pictures.  

Molly's First Movie Night

The kids totally dug it and it gave us a calm time to visit! 

Yay for everyone getting a chance to meet - this is what I was waiting for over the past nine months! 

Welcoming Molly Kathleen

Introducing...

Molly Kathleen Brandt 
Born on March 27, 2015 at 3:56pm
Weighing in at 6lb 7oz
Measuring 19.5in


We are so happy to finally meet our little girl! Throughout 9 months of pregnancy, I kept saying, "I just want to meet her. I want to see what she looks like and who she will resemble. I want I hold her and just stare at her. I am just excited to meet her." I think there are so many other anxieties that come with your first kid that you can't think of the pure joy of just enjoying your child. With baby 3, it has been so much fun to just enjoy little Molly! 


The Birth Story
Here is the list of details leading to Molly's arrival:

Wednesday
8pm - Contractions start during family worship

Evening -  Nothing picks up and I sleep through the night, mostly 

Thursday
Morning - Contractions are still coming every 9-12 minutes, but I send Justin to school and tell him to have his phone close by.

Mid Day - While having contractions all day long, we proceed with our normal day (story time, walk to the park, hang out, etc). Justin was anxious to hear from me and said the day was hard on him because he was not prepared to teach :)

Afternoon - I went to practice while having contractions. After getting through warm ups and seeing the kids off to their workouts, I did sit down and work on some computer projects. 

Evening - Justin had his basketball banquet at EVHS, so he brought the kids to school to set up after my practice was over. When I started chasing the kids around, my contractions intensified and I didn't know if we would make it through the evening. After Justin presented his awards, I walked the kids home and the contractions picked up even more. I was able to get the kids in bed and then rest some more. 

Late Evening - A little Melinda-ism...Since this baby was for sure coming, I took a couple of   hours at my computer and completed every little track project that was lingering...and I am so glad that I did! 

Bed Time - Contractions are still coming, less than 10 minutes apart, but not getting closer. I go to bed, expecting to wake up at any moment to head to the hospital. While I did wake up and the contractions were getting stronger, they were not getting closer together. I had a rough night of sleep, waking multiple times an hour to contractions that I had to focus and breath through. 

Friday 
5am - After 33 hours of contractions, I woke up and called my doctor's on-call help line. After sharing what was going on, she suggested that I come into the hospital to see how I was doing. 

5:30am - I woke up Justin with the idea that we would go to the hospital and likely be sent home. Justin had to call in his sub and getting things gathered (slightly slowly I might add :)

6:45am - Arrive at hospital, contractions are still about the same (painful, breathing through, yet not getting closer together). 

7:30am - All checked in and brought to our room. 

7:40am - Nurse checks my progress and we find out that I am dilated 4cm! We are here to stay!

10am - Anesthesiologist gives me my epidural. She actually missed twice, digging around in my back (an unpleasant experience). But once she got it all in, I was feeling much better! 

10:30am - Dr. Kohn comes back to check on me and says I am progressing nicely. She is super sweet and decides to spend her off day wandering around Vail Village while I progress in labor

1pm - Still progressing, but Dr. Kohn breaks my water. 

3pm - Progressing but not quite getting there. Dr Kohn gives me 1ml of pitocin. 

10:30-3:45pm - The most calm five hours of my past year....seriously! Justin and I napped, read our Bibles, read magazines, didn't really leave the room, and it was amazing! The nurses kept asking me if I needed anything and I said, "Nope, this is so peaceful!" It was truly a blessing, kinda the calm before the storm. I was reading in Psalm 23 and the second verse says "he leads me besides quiet waters, he refreshes my soul..." This could not have been more true of those five hours - who would have thought you would have experienced that in labor! It was refreshing!!!

3:50pm - I asked the nurses to check me because I was feeling some pressure. They saw little Molly's head and told me to hold tight. Dr. Kohn got dressed really quick and they all came back in. 

3:56pm - Three pushes later, Molly took her first breaths! Praise God! She did a great job nursing right away and we enjoyed our skin-to-skin time until it was time to clean her up and take her measurements. What a perfect little baby! So good to meet you! 








First Bath 
Molly's first bath took place the night she was born. Our nurse Katie did all the work for us, but it was fun to watch! She didn't like getting in or out, but she actually settled while she was soaking. 


All cleaned up! 






The Hospital
Vail Valley Medical Center prevailed again. We were so happy with our care. We loved our nurses. We had a wonderful, clean room with a great view of the mountains! 



The Name
After much debate and many wonderful choices, Molly's name was chosen on the way to the hospital.  We had decided a while ago to stick with the M theme going on in our home. Molly was a name that I had loved for a while. It has lots of great nicknames. It is a classic. I liked the sound with the big kids names. So essentially, we just liked the name! Her middle name was decided many years ago. Macy's middle name is Elizabeth after my mom and now Molly gets to share a name with Justin's mom. I love the family middle names. 


Brandt Babies 
I didn't get quite the same picture as the other kids, but I think Molly fits in with the family! Molly, Macy, and Macklin below. What do you think? Everyone asks who she looks like. We say that she looks like Molly! We see glimpses of family members in her and sometimes she looks just like Macy, but most of the time, she is just Molly!