Sunday

3 weeks!

Not too long ago i was posting how many weeks i was and counting down until my son was born...Now i am posting the same "weeks" but in the sense of how old my son is getting and so fast! He is 3 weeks old now and he is only getting more and more cuter everyday. Tonight mom and dad crandell came over for dinner and alice was holding Brighton at the table, I was over her shoulder and he was looking at me and as i walked away he literally followed me and cranked his neck to see me until i was out of view. It was so cute and I was told that 3 week olds dont do that because they dont have the "motor" skills to do so... but my son does:) I have been told by almost every mother who has held him that he is the most alert baby for his age and even the nurses told me that:) at least i can say that my son probably wont have ADD. HAHA! Everything in this Crandell home is so turned upside down. I sleep at odd hours of the day and oh today i was able to vacuum 4 of my 13 steps! Yesterday i was able to sweep and mop the floor in one shot and START the laundry but i am pretty sure that is as far as i got. Now the baby just woke up so i am not finishing this post with cute pictures until later:)

Brighton's Birthday

Since May, I can not tell you how many crazy things i have heard about birth and having a baby and all that goes with it. I have heard from some crazy crazy people and some who think that they have pregnancy figured out for every other woman. I remember what one of my friends said though, she told me that my story would be different from how any other womans goes down and I just thought of that for the rest of my pregnancy...How will my story be...well now i know:)

For the sake of my blog not being private I am not going to explain in detail too much of this day. The only thing that holds a candle to it is the day Andrew and I were sealed in the temple, but today was so very different and special. I created a life... well technically andrew and I had already created it, but birthing it was just serene! They started me on pitocin around 430 or 5. I was already to a 4 and about 50-60% effaced, but the nurse checked me anyway to see where i was at. She told me that because of a certain few factors that i might end up in a C-section so just be prepared if so. Brighton never "dropped" which means the rest of the "stuff" that is supposed to be lower was pretty high up still.... I didn't start REALLY feeling the contractions until they turned it up to about an 18. Andrew and his mom were there sitting on the couch beside the bed and i would talk to them in between a little. The funniest part was when i started to laugh when i was having contractions, all three of us were laughing... until the next contraction:) They finally got bad enough to where i fell silent. :) The nurse came in to turn up the dosage every 30 minutes and then to check me every 2 hours, for the first 2 checks i had made no progress at all. Since the contractions were really bad I decided to get the epidural and see if i could relax and let this little guy come down. To my surprise the next time she checked me before the epidural i was to a 6, yes! around 1030 i got the needle in the back! I was scared for this, more scared then having the baby even, but it turned out ok:) For the next few hours the nurse tried positions and things that would help Brighton come down into place but still with no luck:( at 130 in the morning and an exhausted husband i asked the nurse realistically how long she thinks i had so andrew could go home and check on our dogs and sleep, she said until at least 5 or 6 so off alice and Andrew went to leave me to sleep. I woke up at about 230 feeling contractions like i had before getting the needle in the back so i pushed the button for more medication and went back to sleep. I woke up at 330 this time, one hour later in bad pain and called the nurse to tell her that i think my water had broke and that the epidural had stopped working. Although it was not time to check me she did anyhow and who would have ever guessed! I was to a ten! 100% effaced, but my water had not broke. I got so excited! I even forgot about the pain, i hurried and called Andrew to tell him to hurry but he didnt answer:( haha, it was funny..., but he called me right then and asked me if i was feeling okay, this is what the convo was like...
Me.." Hey you need to come."
Andrew... "but why?
me... "because im ready!"
Andrew... "are you sure? okay ill be right there"
:)
Andrew was to my side in about 25 minutes, my water broke I told the nurse i need to push she let me 3 times and stopped me to call the dr... I kept insisting that i needed to push and she kept telling me no that i had to wait for the doc.... ugghh!!!!
15 minutes later Dr. Matthews came in, 3 pushed later Brighton was born:)
Truly amazing! The feeling was heavenly once it was all over! like in one instant all the pain is gone and I have my son laying on my chest. He was calm, just like i knew him to be in my belly. He barely cried and never cried when they gave him shots or drew his blood. He did SCREAM when he got his bath though:)

That's my first birth story! Brighton was born at 5:11am, he weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces and was 21 inches long, the best part about him is that he is beautiful and has big blue eyes like his mom and long toes like his dad:) After all was over and Andrew and I had our time with him Grandma Crandell and Grandma Starkes got to come in and meet their new grandson.

The whole few days from check in to check out was wonderful. I had the best nurses in L&D and I was even able to have my own Doctor deliver Brighton. I am so blessed and grateful that i was able to have him without having to go under the knife:)I had a great pregnancy. In fact I loved it. Despite the usual few months of nausea in the beginning I loved learning about how Brighton was constanly changing and developing inside me on a daily basis. I LOVED feeling him, simply LOVED that feeling above most things in life. I am still amazed at how heavenly father did all of this. I am looking forward to the next time we get to do this again:)

Wednesday

But wait!!! The room is not done...and where will my son sleep???

With being so busy with work since its the month of January I did not have too much time to get Brighton's nursery done. I had bought the cribbing way back in October and was excited to get the rest of the room put together but my other half... aka Andrew wanted to keep the walls white:) He is such a simple guy and for that I love him.,... BUT i wanted a little color in the little man's room. I picked out just a vanilla color for the walls to match whats in his crib and then i stenciled the one complete wall behind his crib with a chocolate brown, teal blue and greenish color stencil design. I am really happy with the way it turned out! This Picture is so cute... While i was downstairs "resting" Andrew was making Brighton's bed, when i came up this is they way he had it made.



I made this the last week as well. I went to Hobby Lobby with my sister to get the stuff but i could not figure out what i wanted to decorate it with, boys are hard! After a few days and a little bit of help from Andrew it was hung up on the wall.


Those two little pictures in the corner that you cant see very well, my very good friend (Natalie) got them for me! I love them, my two favorite animals are giraffes and elephants... they just so happen to be the matching colors of my nursery so i threw them in the mix. I love it!

Polka dots...damask...and plaid, what a perfect combo...right?



And here is the crib. My aunt got this for us around the time we found out we were pregnant! We absolutely love it!...oh yeah and then there is the wall me and my other good friend (Heather) stenciled... I did it the day before my due date and she would not let me get on the ladder so we tag teamed it and got it done in about 3 or 4 hours... Im gonna say 4 because I am pretty sure we went to taco bell and got a chicken burrito and a coke:)))

My due date, Monday January 30th-40 weeks

Monday was my due date. The 30th of January and the day that i had been talking about for aprox 36 weeks since i found out when i was 4 weeks... by no means did i think this would be THE day that my son would enter the world, but i knew it would be "around" this date. My doctor in the 4 weeks leading up to this date had told me i was making little progress but not to worry... at 37 weeks i was dialated to a 1, by 39 weeks i was dialated to a 1.5 and still not effaced at all, on top of that she talked about me being super high...with this being my first baby i had no idea what she was talking about but i accepted it and allowed her to call the hospital to try a gel induction. Andrew had asked some people in his family and his feedback was that it worked for one of his sisters, in a way we were prepared to have Brighton that day. We got to the hospital that day at 430 and started the process. By the end of the process i was dialated to a 3 and about 50-60 effaced and baby Brighton did not want to come. I was a little bummed but knew that I did not want to get fully induced at this point so i went home and waited....
Tuesday January 31st.....
I followed up with my doctor this morning after my gel induction to see if there was any more progress, to my surprise i was to a 4 but i was digressing with the thinness of my cervix so the doctor said this time we will try pitocin. They scheduled me to go to the hospital Thursday morning at 430 am. Andrew and I took the whole next day, (Wednesday) to do some last minute things and some shopping as well at cabelas. We met up with my grandma and dad for lunch while we were over on the west side and got some time in with Sara and Jesse:) I was excited to be going to the hospital and this time with a better chance of having Brighton....until.... at about 8 pm i got a call from labor and delivery that they had an influx of patients deliver and I would have to wait for a call before i could go in... All of Thursday i literally waited... It was killer... Friday morning i called the hospital and my doctor to be put on at the other hospital as well but with no luck. Andrew went to work instead of just waiting around the house with me though which on this day would have been nice for him to be there:) the hospital called at 11:30 to tell me to be there by 1..... I am so excited! The journey of childbirth is coming soon! Today I am 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant and I am ready to meet my little Brighton.

Tuesday

Brighton Jay Crandell



He has come! Brighton came on his own terms, 5 days late! Actually i guess he would not have come yet had i not tried a few things which included a hospital and modern medicine to get him here:) I am so overjoyed that he is here and although he is already 3 days old i have yet found time to get on my blog and put up a picture of his absolute perfectness! I want to blog my story, so i will get to that... in the mean time here is a picture just to show how precious he is.

Thursday

40 weeks and 4 days!

So i did not update my blog since my last post... I went to the doctor after the whole gel induction thing that did not work... I am at a 4! but my "thinning" is digressing! from 80% to 50!.. no no no! this child is stubborn:) or maybe it is me... not sure. Well this was Tuesday i found this info out... my doctor again scheduled me to go to the hospital Thursday morning at 4:30 am.... Wednesday i am getting my house in order, like literally going through everything and making sure i dont have an ugly house when I get home from the hospital, this time WITH a baby... I get a call from the labor and delivery telling me they have had an influx in patients and they wont be ready for me by 430 so to not come and they will call me.... It now is 6:52 pm.... and they said 1 o clock so i waited and waited and still nothing! I have called a few times, trying to not be annoying, just asking them if they know a time frame-ish... Nope... and there are 2 patient inductions ahead of me... did i mention that the doctors at this hospital deliver at 2 different hospitals??? eh... good news i found out is that MY doctor... Dr. Matthews will be at the hospital tomorrow starting at 7 am... so i am hoping i will be in there and she can deliver me! At the moment Andrew is watching transformers and I snuck out real quick to come update and pay a few bills... he said he would only watch 5 minutes of the movie then we can go walk but ijust heard him say... Mandy... I hungry! haha. He is such a nerd! but i do love him... anyway, so that is the update. I am having contractions... consistant even but they wont get stronger! I need to jump on the tramp or something... if only i had one. The positive side to it is this... everythign happens for a reason:) and im not miserable at all, thats the cool part:) but i am getting so excited to just meet my son! I will just have to be patient and wait.. in the mean time, when my phone rings my heart does skip a beat... :) then i get mad at whoever it is besides the hospital:) hahahaha,,, just kidding, just kidding.