Brighten up your day!

I just LOVE this little girl!! She is the best baby ever! She is just so happy and hardly ever cries! She loves her daddy! When he is around she just smiles at him and follows him when he moves. She totally loves her sisters. If she fussy and I can’t get to her right away I’ll ask the girls to go to her and she just watches and listens to them. Its super cute and sweet! I can’t believe that she has only been with us for 2 months! I’m so glad we have her I can’t imagine life without her!

Enjoy this little bit of heaven!

How can you NOT smile when you see that little smile! Just love her!

Emilia’s birth story…

At the beginning of my pregnancy I was fully prepared and thought that I would be pregnant the full 40 weeks and that I would probably go past 40 weeks…Well, around 35 weeks I started having these contractions that I could not get to go away… I was really worried that she was going to come then… but they finally went away. That was when I started to think feel that she was going to come early.

So, Tuesday the 28th, I woke up with some contractions that were NOT Braxton hicks and I had some bloody show. There was no pattern so I was sure this was going to be just like Sienna’s birth… several days of labor before she came. So, I texted my midwife and told her I was having some contractions and that I had some bloody show but that I didn’t think it was anything…

That day I had planned to go to a friends house b/c we were going to freezer cook that day. By the time I got to her house the contractions were gone and I had maybe one or two while I was there. So, at this point I was SURE I was going to have several days of labor… As, I was leaving my friends house she says to me, “now you have a freezer full of food so she can come any time now!”

Oh, funny story… the Sunday before, I gave a talk in church. I mentioned how I was close to my due date and I figured that now that I have given my talk she is allowed to come any day now…

Anyways…

So, I left my friends house and had to get dinner and take Tessa to soccer practice. Then I came home and put the girls to bed. After I put them in bed I went to relax on the couch. I was going to do some work on the computer. Then I started having some contractions. Nothing to much just a few here and there. No pattern and they weren’t painful. Then they started to get annoying… not painful just annoying… When I had a contraction they stopped me. I would walk around, lean over the couch or lean over the bed to try to make them more bearable. I kept saying, “Man! I feel like I’m starting my period! Man! These are annoying!” At around 1am something told me to call Andrew and tell him to come home. I called him and said that “I was having contractions but that I didn’t think I’m in labor. I think you should come home, don’t rush b/c I don’t think its labor but just get home. I’m going to get in the shower to see if they go away.” 

So, I got in the shower and they started to slow down so I thought for sure they would go away and that this wasn’t labor. I got out and they started back up and again. So, I started timing them with an app on my phone. There was NO pattern… they would go from 1 minute, 6 minutes, 3 minutes… NO pattern… I was SURE I wasn’t in labor. At some point I got out my childbirth class book to see the “signs” and stages of labor so I could figure out if I was in labor. Andrew got home a little after 2am. I threw the book at him and during the contractions yelled at him to time it on my phone… This probably should have clued me in that I was in labor but it didn’t I NEVER once thought I was in labor! Then, I started to get the chills, I was freezing! So, I grabbed a blanket and wrapped myself up. Then I kept feeling like I need to go potty. I kept going to the bathroom but when I would have a contraction I had to stand up. It was UNBEARABLE to sit during a contraction. Around this time Andrew is trying to get me to call Sarah and Tonya (our midwife and doula) to tell them what's going on. But I was so sure I wasn’t in labor and it was the middle of the night I didn’t want to bother anyone. I thought maybe if I laid down they will go away. So we laid down and that was the biggest mistake EVER! I was in SO much pain during that contraction. Andrew had gone into the kitchen to grab something to eat and this is when I really yelled at him… again should have clued me in but it didn’t…

Andrew finally convinces me to let Sarah and Tonya know. So I text them saying, “Irregular painful low contractions. Feeling like I have to pee a lot. Cold. Bloody show and blood.” Tonya responds telling us to just let her know when we want her to come over.  

Andrew asks me if I want him to make me a bath. I said, “I don’t know, I guess so. They will probably go away if I take a bath.” Again, still never thinking I was in labor! I was so convinced that I sent Tonya a text saying, “I don’t know if this is labor?'” I got into the bath and Tonya called to talked to Andrew. This is at 2:37am. She was asking questions about how I was behaving trying to see if I was in labor. She was thinking that it was labor and then my water broke! I yelled out, “my water broke!” Tonya said it was labor and was going to jump in the shower and then she would be right over. Now, I STILL at this point don’t really think I’m in full labor. In my mind I still had plenty of time and that she wouldn’t be born for several more hours. She told us to call Sarah and let her know what was going on. I told Andrew to call our friend from church who was going to stay with the girls. So that way she would be there so we could go to the birth center.

*FYI- the birth center is like less than 10 minutes from my house. This was one of the main reasons that I choose gentle beginnings birth center. Sienna’s labor was so fast (less than 3 hours from start to finish) that I was worried (rightfully so) that I would have another fast labor.

So, Andrew calls our friend and she heads over.Then he calls Sarah and stays on the phone with her. She wanted him to put the phone on speaker so she could listen to me and try to figure out how far along I was…(Something to know about women who birth naturally your care provider can often tell how far along a women is by the sounds/tones she makes) Well, at this point, I keeping saying (maybe yelling) I need to go to the bathroom and making very low sounds… Each time I felt the urge to go to the bathroom I pushed so that I could “Just got to the bathroom.” Sarah tells, us that she is on her way and that she doesn’t think that we will make it to the birth center. She said that she was going to come to us and tries to reassure Andrew that all will be fine and that she will be at our place soon. Andrew then says, “don’t do this to me Sarah you get here.” HA!!

Anyways… Again at this point, I STILL didn’t think that I was getting ready to have the baby I REALLY only thought I needed to go to the bathroom. Yeah, I’m clueless I guess…

Anyways…Sarah starts telling me not to push… I don’t even try to listen to her. It felt a million times better to push there was NO way I was going to just breath through them! Plus, I really only thought I needed to go to the bathroom. In my mind I kept saying just leave me alone I just need to go to the bathroom!

Then I started having this crazy leg/hip pain. It would shoot down my leg and it was AWFUL!! This is the only time where I feel like I lost it during labor. There was nothing I could do to get it to stop and or feel better. I was flopping around in the tub like a fish out of water… It was HORRIBLE!! I was stuck b/c I wanted to push but every position that I tried hurt SO bad b/c of the leg thing. But then I remembered Sarah saying something about hands and knees and so I turned over and got on my hands and knees and it stopped!! I was finally able to push again. So, I started pushing while I was on my hands and knees and then the coolest thing ever! All of a sudden I felt and saw her coming out. It was so cool! And then I yelled to Andrew, “She’s coming now!! Andrew you have to catch her!” I just listened to my body and pushed and then her head came out and I waited for the next contraction and pushed her all the way out. Andrew pushed through to me and I pulled her out of the water and held her close to me. She was so calm she looked right up at me. It was so wonderful! Sarah walked Andrew through the delivery and everything. She wanted to hear her cry so she told us tickle her feet and rub her back. She let out a little whimper but was happy and looking around. Andrew leaned down to me and said, “you did it!” Yes, I did do it! I was one of the best experiences that I have ever experienced! That WE ever experienced!

Emilia was born at 2:58. That was about 50 minutes after Andrew got home and 18 minutes after I talked to Tonya and my water broke!

About five minutes after I delivered her Gina showed up (Sarah’s student midwife) and right after she did Sarah walked in. They came in and checked on baby girl and then I felt another contraction. I freaked out! I said, “what was that there was only one right!?!?” Gina reassured me there was only one and that it was the placenta. Then Tonya walks in and see Sarah and Gina and looked completely puzzled like I missed it?!?! Sarah turned around and quickly said don’t worry we all missed it! Andrew delivered her! They got me to the bed and checked us both out. We both got a clean bill of health!

It was such a wonderful experience! I wish that I would have been able to have this experience with Tessa and Sienna. But I loved it and would totally do it again!! So, that is how we welcomed our newest little princess!

Background to Emilia’s birth…

I kind of feel like a little information is important to understanding Emilia’s birth… so to prevent her birth story post being a small novel, I thought I would write a separate post…

A little bit about me… I LOVE birth stories! As in, when I was in high school I spent hours watching A Birth Story. As in, when friends would have their babies one of the first things I would say is “oh, cute baby… so how was your labor?!?!” And when they give the short version I feel totally gypped! I want the whole story, dang it! I just have always loved everything about birth and pregnancy.

During the hours I spent watching A Birth Story I came to the conclusion that I wanted to use a midwife. I would probably go to the hospital but I wanted a midwife that worked in there. I always said that I would go as long as I could without pain meds but that I wouldn’t get mad at myself if I need/wanted them. (Thus, why I endured 7 hours of a Pitocin induced labor with Tessa before I got my epidural) But when I got pregnant with Tessa I just fell into the “norm” and found an OB. I did the same with Sienna. Now, both of my OB’s were great and the births were fine too… Although, both girls were not delivered by my OB. Actually, so far none of my children have been delivered by my care provider! (More to come later)

Anyways…

About a year and a half ago I started making some changes in how I take care of my family. I try to be more holistic/natural. I want my/our bodies to fix themselves instead of just covering up what's wrong. Now, I’m not a crazy nut who doesn’t believe in medicine… I just think that Heavenly Father gave us some pretty amazing bodies and an amazing earth that often can fix what's wrong quickly…That said I feel like he has given us modern medicine as well when its NEEDED… Anyways… So, with all of these changes, when I knew we were going to try to get pregnant I kept going back and forth about getting an epidural. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to handle a natural birth but I also felt like I should practice what I preach. If I didn’t want a bunch of drugs going into my kids why would it be ok for me to get it… Then a friend on Facebook posted something from My Best Birth. This is when the ball started rolling. I really started researching like crazy! I looked into midwives, started reading natural birth blogs and watched several natural birth documentaries. After reading just a few things I KNEW I wanted a midwife! This actually came right around the time I had my miscarriage. I wanted a midwife b/c I wanted her to help me heal my body and get it ready to carry a pregnancy to term.

Anyways… This pregnancy was FULL of miracles! Here we go… I did one Google search and came across Gentle beginning birth center and read the bios of the midwives. I was Immediately drawn to Sarah Jones. So, much so, that I was convinced she would be my midwife. Interviewed her and another and went with Sarah! LOVED her! Then, b/c of finances we needed to have insurance pay…b/c of our insurance company the birth center said good luck that! It wont happen and there is nothing we can do… Well I fought with the insurance and got them to agree to pay/cover the birth! The birth center said they would work with us and see if insurance pays, but that they didn’t think they would. Well, I just deposited the checks from our insurance so I can pay the birth center! I really REALLY wanted a doula for this birth. But they are expensive. I interviewed with Tonya and LOVED her! She is amazing! Just so wonderful! Well, after looking at our budget I had to tell her that I loved her so much but that I couldn’t hire her b/c we just didn’t have the funds. She then tells me that she wants to work with our family and that she would do it if we just coved child care which was pennies to her normal price. Photographer… I wanted a birth photographer even more than I wanted doula! But they were all WAY out of our budget! I was so sad! Lo and behold… a photographer just starting out offered to do our birth for the cost of gas! Oh, and our childbirth classes! The teacher was testing out her own curriculum that she was going to be launching so she discounted the class. Plus, she over filled and we were the “extra” so she discounted us even more! I still can’t believe how everything worked out! Yeah, FULL of AMAZING miracles!

So, that’s a little background on Emilia’s birth… The best part is still come!

Presenting…

The Brannock family is pleased to announce the newest member of our family!

Emilia Bell Brannock

Born: 8/29/12 at 2:58am

Weight: 6lbs. 4 oz.

Height: 19 1/2 in.

She has a very interesting birth story and I will tell that later… I broke a nail. Yeah, I know, sounds cliché, but if you could see my finger you would understand. It hurts super bad and I can hardly type…

Anyways…

3 days after she was born she finally had a name! Yes, Andrew and I couldn’t decide on a name for 3 days. We started talking and Andrew came Amelia on his list. I had played with the idea of the name Amelia before but I didn’t want another “A” name. Since I liked the name but not the starting letter I thought of starting it with E instead. Then I thought If I did “Em” its kind of like Emily. Emily is a close family friend that I just love. We were neighbors in Phoenix. I started babysitting her oldest, Nick, when he was 18 months old, he is now 17! Anyways… we spelt it Emilia because I wanted to her named after Emily. Her middle name is Bell after my great grandmother Delia Bell. After big mama passed away I new if we had another girl that her middle name would be Bell.

Anyways… 

This little girl joined our family and we couldn’t be happier! We just love her! She is seriously the best baby! I can’t imagine life without her!

What’s cookin?!?!

ME!!!!!

That’s what!

Yeah, I know that I haven’t updated in a LONG time! But really I do try and well you will understand her in a minute…

That my friends is why I am COOKING!! Almost literally!! Never in my life have I ever uttered these words, but I am seriously ready for fall and winter!! (Yes, everyone be on the look out for the cow jumping over the moon!) I just can’t cool down! I have all of the fans on full blast and and A/C way lower than normal and I am DYING! I swore after Sienna that I would NEVER NEVER NEVER be pregnant in the summer again! Well, in my desperation for a baby after the miscarriage I failed to count! B/c if I had counted I would have realized that I would be pregnant in the summer and would have reevaluated. Oh, well, I couldn’t be more happy that we are getting ready to welcome a new bundle of joy into our home!

Right now I am 36.5 weeks! So, only 3.5 weeks left! I can’t believe that it has gone by so fast!

This by far has been my hardest pregnancy! I was SOO sick in the beginning. I couldn’t keep anything down! Plus, right from the beginning I had horrible hip pain! Around 25+ weeks I was finally passed the throwing up everyday stage and the hip pain was gone. So, I finally was feeling good! Then around 30 weeks I started getting the crazy strange hip/pelvic pain! It was the WORSE! As in by the end of the day I literally could not move. If I did try to move I was tears in b/c it was so painful. Plus, the little gymnast was breech! Which of course was freaking me out! I started going to the chiropractor and that finally got rid of the pain and help to flip my little wiggle worm! So, I have finally been doing a lot better. Well, other than the heartburn! Sheesh! This heartburn and KILLER! But I just have to keep telling myself its only for a few more weeks and then I will be greatly rewarded!

Oh, I guess you are wondering what this little gymnast is… Well, we had a little gender reveal party with our family and friends. One of my closest friends offered to make us cupcakes filled with icing to reveal the gender. She played a little trick on us and only gave a iced filled cupcake to Sienna so as Andrew and I are chowing down try to find out there was NOTHING! ha! Then we finally discovered it in Sienna’s.

Yup, my friends, that is a pink filled cupcake!! 3 girls!! Yes, count them 3 GIRLS!!!! I am in so much trouble! I get so much attitude from the 2 already that who knows what's going to happen when they are teens!!

But, I am so excited about this birth! This time around we are doing things a little different. We are actually using a midwife this time and going to a birth center. So, yes, that means NO pain meds for me! I could not be happier with my decision to use a midwife and go natural. It has been totally different than using a OB. I totally feel and believe that my midwife truly cares for me. She often times has seen that I have been stressed (when baby girl was breech) and prayed for me right there in the office. What OB does that?!?! I just love the feeling that someone is looking out total and complete well being.

Well, there is TONS more I need to update on and I will. I am going to try really hard again to update. But, I figured I need to update this bit of info!

Sienna dear...

Two moments for Sienna tonight that I wanted to share.

We were watching a show and Tessa and Sienna were laying next to each other. Tessa all of a sudden says, "I think Sienna went poopie in her panties." it went as follows:

Me: ugh! "Sienna come here."

Sienna, "MOM! I did not!" Obvisouly very irritated that I thought she did and that I asked her to come here.

She then processed to pull her panties down and stick her bum in my face. "See! I did NOT!" Then pulls her panties up and sits back down.

Yup! That's my life! It just makes me laugh! But this all of that attitude it makes me wonder what in the world am I going to get when she is 16?!?! Good grief!! NOT looking forward to it! 

Next story...

Oh, how I LOVE little miss Sienna! Well, I love her sweet and snugly side. Note... I'm sure someone will say how can she not love all of her child... I DO, okay...

Anyways... so I was laying on the couch because I wasn't feeling so hot. And she came up to me and said, " you not feel good. Say paper." She then put her hands on my head and said "Jesus Christ. Amen" Then gave me the biggest kiss.

Seriously! This girl melts my heart! I was taken aback just to think how sweet that she would think that I needed a blessing. And not only to think I needed one but that SHE would give me the blessing. It really made me sit there and think wow! This little girl really does LOVE me! It was just so sweet! She actually did this like 4-5 times! SO sweet!

The more I laid there and each time she did it I kept feeling more and more love toward Andrew. How grateful I am that I have a husband that holds the priesthood. That he is worthy of it and that he uses it honorably.

As I sit here writing this I can only thank how truly blessed I am to have the gospel in my life. That I have a loving Father in Heaven who knows me. That he sent his son, my Elder brother, to be MY savior. That They together visited a young boy, who later became a prophet. Through this prophet they restored Christ Church on the Earth. Giving us the priesthood. Giving Sienna the chance to gain a testimony of its power. For this I am ever grateful! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Body Painting…

A few days after we got home from San Diego we did a little craft time with the girls. I got out some water colors and the dot paint. The girls LOVED it! Especially Sienna. She had it all over her hands, legs and face! I turned my back for ONE second and that is what I found.