Christmas 2014

This Christmas season was a bit different with our tiny baby in the mix.  But it was kind of lovely. There was not the pressure to do-all-the-things and we were able to relax and just enjoy the days a bit more (all be it bleary eyed from a typical newborn sleep schedule).

Looking back, we really did quite a bit of celebrating.  Miss Julia's first Christmas was quite special for her and the rest of us.

We kicked off the Christmas events with the first of the extended family parties. I love how the cousins always have a good time together.


We took Walker and Eli to the Behold the Lamb of God concert for the first time.  It is one of my favorite Christmas traditions and we loved being able to share it with them. Julia snoozed through the entire thing, which is no reflection on how wonderful the concert was this year.


We had an early celebration with Pops and Grandma Jayne. Maybe my favorite present this year was giving them pictures we had made with all the Brown grandchildren when Elaine (my sister -in-law) was in town with my nieces and nephew. My brother and his family moved to Japan on Thanksgiving for several years with the Navy and it is a treasure to have a picture with the kids together (sans Julia, since she wasn't quite here yet).


Julia was shocked to learn she wasn't represented, but Grandma Jayne assured her she would have her fair share of pictures.


Also, when all the presents started getting passed out ole LJ made some observations and then sat herself right down in the middle.  She was so on the present game this year.


We made it to the candlelight service at church. It was raining buckets, but it was completely worth it. The older boys really paid attention and even though I had to slip to the back of the room to nurse Julia during the actual candlelight part, it was lovely to be "together" as we focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

(not my choice for church outfits, but we were there and I'll be satisfied with that)

We were able to do our Christmas Eve tradition of dropping off the kids with Gammy and Grin to make cookies for Santa while mommy and daddy have a quiet date morning of wrapping up some loose ends. We got off to a late start (shocking, I know). Our usual Cracker Barrel was packed, so we headed to Waffle House.  Which was surprisingly nice in it's own right.


That afternoon we celebrated with Gammy and Grin and the cousins.  Again Lydia was on the present game. Never do the kids sit so still and listen so attentively as when waiting for the open command.



The final night of our advent readings.  It really is so nice to have something with just the boys.  Well, and the baby who can't talk or grab markers and run.


It got me thinking that our days of doing things with "the big boys" are fading. So here is to one more year of sharing the lego calendar three ways.


There were showers and Christmas pajamas and then the tucking in for the evening.


And the quiet wait in anticipation of the next day's celebration. After last year's 2 am wake up call we set up several rules and barriers that made it clear there would be no coming down stairs until after 7:00am.  They made good and in fact I was up and ready and busting with excitement before Eli finally got the party going around 7:45.

The boys had a bit of time to explore their gifts before Lydia woke up and joined the fun.


They were eager to help her find her presents.


Can we talk about the fact that our Christmas now involves baby dolls and dress up jewelry. {love}


A pause for a picture.  Well the toddler never pauses, but I'll take what I can get.


There were sausage spins and sausage balls, because of course their were.


Julia seemed thrilled with her playmat and enjoyed the buzz of happiness going all around.


Julia's part of the matching pajamas were way to big, but I did manage to get one picture of them together before she spit up all over them and I got her in something more her size.

(because you know I don't want to miss the first in what will clearly be an annual event)

Julia is such a smiley baby.  Or gassy.  Whichever, it isn't like you can tell in a picture anyway.


We spent Christmas Day at home.  It felt like this wonderful pause we had been waiting on the whole year.  The boys got a WiiU and this is pretty much the scene for most of the day.
Christmas Morning 2014 from jason.mccay on Vimeo.

Jason and I made The Pioneer Woman's Fancy Mac and Cheese for Christmas dinner.  It was really fun to do it together and Walker kept calling it "the bacon mac and cheese."  So you know, it's awesome.


The Saturday after Christmas we had the last family party.  The family graciously agreed to come to us and it was lovely having it in our home.


Julia with her great-grandmother.


The kids being outrageously gifted by the aunts, uncles and cousins.


Aunt Ally even got some Julia and Lydia loving.  It was a special day indeed.


Grin got a turn before the evening was out.


Feeling pretty grateful and a little solemn as we close the book on Christmas 2014.  It really was quite magical.

Doing What We Need (️Christmas Cookies)

Cookie making is not the best use of my time these days. There are a million other things I should have done with quiet baby napping time. 

I should have showered and put on some under eye concealer. I adore the snuggly newborn stage but no amount of experience gets you out of the newborn tired. 

We should have had some focused instruction time. We have definitely been schooling "light" these days. I should have done some phonics or language arts. 

We should have wrapped presents to be gifted tonight. I really dislike the wrapping on the way out the door thing, but alas we are here again. 

We should have cleaned or washed any or everything in the house. Keeping up with housework isn't my strong suit when I'm well rested. So currently, well,  I'm sure thankful for my husband keeping things somewhat put together. 

But the truth is I needed to makes some cookies. I needed to make my mom's cookies. 

Nothing makes me miss my mom like nursing a new baby. Babies were her thing. I don't have many memories of her, but her love of tiny babies is firmly in my heart. And right next to that, is memories of baking these cookies. 

I had also promised Colin the weekend before Julia came that I would make him some allergy safe cookies we could take to all the Christmas parties this year (we usually rely on Oreos, but the poor kid deserves something special this time of year, too). Then this weekend there was not one dessert he could have at the family party. Giant mommy fail. Colin is now firmly the middle child. I plan on way over compensating so he knows he is never forgotten. You know, except for last weekend. So momma needed to make good on her promise. 

And everyone else enjoyed helping make the cookies, and the eating part as well. 

As an aside Eli now tells people he only likes cookies and cake without eggs. Ha! I don't believe he can actually tell the difference, but it is nice he stands with his brother. 

So while there were a thousand things I should have done today, what I needed to do was make cookies. So we did.

 

Julia's First Week or So...

The first few weeks of babies lives zip by so quickly in a blur of tiredness, busyness, and adjustments, but there is still so much joy in these tiny moments. I don't want them to slip from my memory.

All of my people on one sofa = heart explosions


Grandparents Adoring








Friends visiting


Cousin Snuggling


Aunt and Uncle Greeting

Uncle Matthew (my brother) and Aunt Elaine and their little crew (Evie, Nora and Emmett) headed to Japan on Thanksgiving Day.  There was quite literally a 12 hour window of time when it would be possible for her to be born and my brother be in Birmingham.  So so, glad they were able to meet our little Julia before flying out.  Their time was super stretched and valuable, but still they made this moment happen.

There was sunshine bathing for the bit of jaundice she developed.

She recovered pretty quickly without the need to go on the bili lights.

We were released on Thanksgiving Day. So this year's Thanksgiving dinner was a simple one at home with just the seven of us.  Jason did some serious grocery shopping on Wednesday night (oh yes he did), and a dear friend brought over several yummy dishes.

A few bites in to the meal I was nursing Julia and Jason's on call alerts were going off.  But we still  had a few moments of sharing our thankfuls over turkey and mac and cheese.

So of course the next day their were dishes to be done, but it isn't quite as daunting with a tiny little one tucked in my new sling.


There was Thanksgiving dinner and football watching on Saturday with the family.


And a disappointing ending to the game, but still so grateful to be watching it with family.


And there has been much brother snuggling




And even some sister loving

Lydia is adjusting to not being the baby and sharing mommy, but even in all the trauma of that she is super sweet to Julia.





And really too many naked baby pics because I just can't get over her tininess.

Julia's Arrival 11.24.14

Here is Julia's labor and delivery story.

Over the past few weeks I have found that waiting for a baby to arrive around the holidays feels very different than any other time for me.  While I was quite done being pregnant and getting ridiculously uncomfortable, I really needed another week or two to finish up the very long to do list before Julia's arrival. Julia, however, had other ideas.

On Sunday night I had a wonderful evening with my very best friends.  It was a fantastic time of sweet momma conversations I needed.  On the drive home I had a few contractions, but nothing too intense.  I came home and crawled into bed, really not expecting anything to happen.  At 12:30am I was woken by a painful contraction.  My general labor trajectory is to have nothing serious happen before the big show, so anything with real pain gives me pause.  Through the evening I had several groups of strong contractions, but then then would stop for 45 minutes or so. Giving me just long enough to doze off before they would crank back up.

The next morning we asked Uncle Matt to come over and sit with the kids so I could go to doc to get checked.  The bummer was while we were waiting the contractions all but stopped.  He checked me and said there was only a slight change from the previous week, but he didn't have any indication anything would happen soon.  I was disappointed, but not convinced.

Allyson and I had planned to visit the science center with all the cousins and see their Christmas trains that morning.  I decided to go ahead with the plan, even thought I was exhausted. I didn't know when we would get a chance again, and I knew this was the only shot to go with the cousins.



The kids had a blast, but after two hours I decided we had to go home.  Momma was fading fast.  I didn't have any strong contractions, but I knew I had just enough energy to make it home (or rather I was hoping I had enough).

We hit the drive thru, ate lunch and then I put Lydia down for her nap.  Before going to the science museum I made the boys promise to do their school work in the afternoon.  They were more than okay with that turning into a movie afternoon. I never heard a peep out of them. I went and tried to lay down, but could not get comfortable and then the contractions started back up.

I let Jason know things could be heating up, but nothing to run home about just be aware.  By 4 I was breathing through contractions and swaying but able to parent in between contractions. I talked to the nurse and my sister in law, both of who reminded me that this wasn't my first baby and if I thought it was labor, it probably was.

We loaded up the kids, dropped them off at Uncle Matt and Aunt Ally's, who were supposed to be having a chill night at home with one kid, but graciously accepted our four. I called my doc, who has missed all 4 four of the previous kids deliveries and was schedule to leave the country to following Monday, to tell him I was on the way.  He was happy to finally be able to be there for one of my babies.

The hospital ride was the least dramatic of any of the labors (meaning it didn't feel like actual torture), so I was feeling things were not going too fast.  When we arrived I was at 3cm at 6:45pm.  Which confirmed that this was labor, but maybe just the beginnings.



By 8:30 I was 5/6cm and completely thinned out. I asked the grandparents hanging out in the room with us to head to the waiting room.  And for sure things started to move more rapidly at that point.

Once again, Jason was the perfect coach.  Just the exact right amount of massage, encouragement and support. Unfortunately ladies this is a service he only provides to me. Our nurse, Michelle, was great too. She was happy, funny and encouraging while basically letting us do our thing.

At 9:12 I asked her to check me.  I was 7cm and after she checked me I couldn't muster the ability to get back out of the bed, so I continued to labor on my side in the bed. With Lydia it took almost 4 hours to go from 7cm to complete.  Funny story (not funny), after a certain point of labor I am unable to move.  Like can't. I wish I could form words that would express this, but I'm just frozen.  It can throw Jason and the nurses off as to what exactly is happening, but they always manage to make help me out as needed.

Shortly there after my water broke, which it has never done on its own. That is a spectacular sensation.  We were alone at the time and Jason quickly called the nurse.  She rushed in and wanted to confirm Julia was head down.  She asked me if I felt urge to push. To which I replied, yes, followed quickly by the addition that she was in fact coming right now.  Michelle hit a button, called for help and then caught sweet Julia as she came right then.



A swarm of nurses filled the room and we had that amazing moment of meeting our daughter.  It was the perfect unmedicated delivery. It was intense, but I will choose quick and intense over long and slow any day. Aside - so even though my doc was in the building, he still missed the delivery. He arrived shortly there after and finished up, but it is almost comical at this point.  It clearly was never meant to happen.









From delivery I knew she was smaller than the others, but I no idea how much smaller.  Our little one was only 6 pounds 2 ounces.  My other babies were 7lb 13oz, 7lb 14oz, 7lb 15oz, and 9lb 15oz.  So we have three in the middle of the pack and two outliers. I've also had two at 37 weeks, and one at 38, 39, and full term.  Each one has made their own way, and reminded me that momma should hold loosely to my plans.

So happy to be holding our baby girl in our arms today.