Lydia Marie Brown

Introducing our adorable new addition: Lydia Marie! 

Born July 29th at 3:57 am

6 pounds 9 ounces

19.5 inches

32 cm head

She is a very calm sweet baby so far! She has a very distinct high pitch cry (at least compared to my boys). But she seems to have inherited her daddy's weak voice because after crying for not long it turns from loud to hoarse sounding. She is a typical baby who doesn't know dat from night and seems to think that the hours from 12-6 in the morning are perfect for cluster feeding. The last two nights she woke up every hour acting famished :) 

She has the same lips and chin Brayden has, but the same eyes and face shape as Zander. Her hair looks like it will be light blonde vas her eyes blue. She is very strong and tries to lift and turn her head and can roll onto her side from her back. She likes to sleep that way :) we love her so much!!

Here's some pictures from my phone. There's lots more on the camera too!

Newborn:

 

1 Day:

2 Days:

3 Days:

4 Days:

BIRTH STORY (with boring details I want to remember!)

It felt like we had just been waiting for our girl to come for about a week. I got to my due date for the first time and it came and went. But, in all fairness, with both my boys they moved the due date back a week after the first ultrasound. This time they didn't even though it showed it as being a week later. Anyway, at my doctor appointment the next day, dr walker stripped my membranes again. 

That night, Preston helped get the boys to bed then headed out to the Riverton house we're buying to finish taking care of everything that needed to happen for the appraisal. Mom, Dad, Julianna and Mikayla went to the Hale theatre performance of Mary Poppins and left Ethan behind with me. While I was feeding him his bottle, I had my first contraction. Although, I had been having real contractions throughout the week, so I didn't know it was my first at the time. That was about 8:00pm. Then I came down and started cleaning dishes and had another contraction that was painful enough for me to lean against the sink for a couple seconds, but not bad enough for me to be sure it was labor. It only lasted about 20 seconds and was ten minutes apart. I decided I ought to warn Preston I may be in labor just incase. When I had two more that we're 10 minutes apart, I told him he should probably come home. I found dmsomeone willing to come house sit with the sleeping kids if we needed and then the contractions were getting irregular- 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 8 minutes, 15 minutes, etc. that has never happened to me before so I started thinking maybe it was just false. Although the strength of the contractions was growing, they were still short and irregular. About 11 we decided to just go to bed and see what happens. 

At 12:57am I woke up from a really strong contraction. I had 6 in a row 10 minutes appart and woke Preston up at 2 to take me to the hospital. It took a few minutes for him to get up and us to be ready, so we got to the hospital about 230 and Preston gave me a blessing. At this point, a friend had suggested that maybe the baby was posterior (head down, but facing forward instead of backwards) which could cause the irregular and longer contractions. I looked it up and it sounded like it probably was the case which could mean more tearing, longer labor, etc. I was a little worried about it and thought maybe I should get an epidural if it was going to be a while, but I was at about an 8 when they checked me so I decided I'd just go natural and hope it was quick from here. Preston had given me a blessing when we first got there and I had said a prayer that things would go smoothly without extra tearing or other damage to me or baby. I was still nervous but knew our prayers were heard. 

The doctor came just a little after 3 and broke my water. The doctor and nurses were amazed at my lack of complaining during labor (as usual) but thankfully were  

responsive to my needs if I'd express them. After thinking I was waiting for them to tell me I was ready, I finally asked if I could push yet. They asked if I was feeling pressure during contractions and I has been so they looked and said I could go ahead. One nurse held my right leg. Preston held my left and the nurse was great at walking me through calmly when to push and to take deep breaths. I probably didn't NEED the directions, but I found it nice. Three big pushing contractions later, Lydia Marie was born. The moment before she came out the pain gets to a level that makes you wonder if you can bear it any more and then suddenly she was out! It stills burned for a while, but I was SO relieved to hear that there was no tearing! It really was an answer to prayer. And Lydia was indeed posterior because Doctor Walker had to twist her as she came out, but there were no issues there either!

So even though Lydia, my third child, was the "latest" and by far the longest labor, she has been the easiest to recover from. She is a beautiful little angel child!

I suppose if you're like Preston and don't consider the irregular pre-labor as part of the labor, then it was only 3 hours of the real intense labor. But, I will assure you that I count every minute from 8:00pm Monday as my labor. Apparently my calm coping fooled even Preston to the fact that I was in pain. But it was definitely there!