A quick update

I'm truly the worst at updating this blog. I had all of these great intentions about blogging along the way of Brooklynn's life. Sadly I have failed miserably. Nevertheless. I wanted to post  a quick picture of the princess and to let you all know how truly smitten we are with her. She is a little ray of sunshine.

Everyone talked about how babies have their own personalities and that I would see hers come though. No. Truer. Words. Without speaking a single word, our little baby has let us know so much. She loves singing songs. Loves to stand up on her strong little legs. Loves to be where the action is. Loves to suck her thumb with one hand and softly pinch the skin of your neck with her others hand while resting her head on your left shoulder when she's tired.  Her favorite toys aren't toys at all. They are hairbrushes, measuring spoons, water bottles, and remote controls.

She will giggle uncontrollably when she's tired and she hates being put down for a nap. She wriggles like a monkey when I'm changing her diaper, and she's making more and more sounds. We love her sweet voice.

I'm not trying to brag about her too much, but people stop me every day to tell me how beautiful she is and that she should be on commercials. And while I do think she is the prettiest thing that I have ever made, it's her sweet soul that I'm in love with. It's her inner joy that makes her beautiful. I'm glad other people can see that too.

I love seeing her face light up when Josh comes home from work. I love seeing her reach out her little arms toward him for a hug.

Sigh. Sometimes it's all so perfect. These are the times that it makes all the tears and the sleep deprivation worth it. We love our little valentine!

Grammy Val love

First week at home

The first few days

Brooklynn May Foster

I’m delighted to be updating the blog with the heartwarming news of the birth of our baby girl.

Meet Brooklynn May Foster. Born on February 14, 2015. 8 lbs. 8 oz. 20 inches

We are absolutely in love with our little valentine.

Birth story

On Thursday, February 12 I had an OBGYN appointment to have a sweep done to see if we could get this little munchkin to evacuate the premises. I was huge and uncomfortable and overdue (due date was Feb. 10). Appointment went well. I had been dilated 1 cm for weeks and nothing had changed. Doctor said that if the sweep worked then I would go into labor within 24-48 hours.

That evening, around 6 p.m. while preparing dinner, I started getting contractions. I started timing them and realized that they were coming about every 2-3 minutes and lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Josh got home, we had dinner and debated going to the hospital, but I decided that I wanted to labor a while within the comfort of my own home. Plus, I could still talk through the contractions so I knew they weren’t strong enough yet. Around 11, I sent Josh to bed and told him I would wake him up if I needed him. I figured that one of us should get some sleep. The contractions continued and started increasing in intensity. I tried going to sleep to see if they would stop, but they were painful enough that I knew that sleep wasn’t going to be an option.

Finally, around 4 a.m. I woke up Josh and told him that I was ready to head to the hospital. We got there and headed to triage. The nurse told me that I didn’t look like I was in enough pain to be in labor (eye roll). They took my vitals and finally hooked me up to a monitor and checked my cervix. I was only dilated to 2 cm, but the nurse was surprised at the strength and frequency of the contractions. They gave me some fluids and told me that I wasn’t dilated enough to admit me, but that I could try walking around for an hour to try and get dilated more. So Josh and I walked around for 2 hours.

When I went back to triage, basically nothing had changed. I was still at a 2 and the contractions were still the same. They called my doctor and she told me that they could either induce me or they could give me some morphine to ease the pain of the contractions and send me home.

I hadn’t wanted to be induced, but by this time I had been awake all night and was extremely tired and ready to be done with the pain, so I opted to be induced. It was about 10 a.m. when I got moved to labor and delivery and immediately met with the anesthesiologist. I opted for a walking epidural initially so I could move around to help with the dilation. Once the epidural was in place Josh and I walk the halls again and I was given a birth ball to bounce on to help move things along. During this time I was feeling pretty good. I threw up a couple of times, but things were manageable. Well, the Pitocin, fluids, blood pressure dance began and day turned to evening and evening turned to night. At some point the contractions got too painful for just the walking epidural so I got the full epidural and was bed bound from that point forward. My body was taking forever to dilate. The nurses kept telling me to sleep, but they had the pressure cuff thing on me that kept waking me up every 10 minute to take my blood pressure, so no sleep for me sadly.

Around 1 a.m. I had finally dilated to a 10 and was at a point where I could start pushing. I’ll spare you some of the gory details here, but suffice it to say that I pushed for over three hours and it was undoubtedly the most physically demanding things I have ever done. I was so tired that I could hardly open my eyes. At 4:21 a.m. Josh and I finally got to meet our baby girl. She was a whopping 8 lbs. 8 oz (well, large for a Morley baby…I blame Josh on how big she was, haha). Holding her for the first time was one of the best feelings in the world. I’m so glad she chose Josh and me to be her parents.

I wanted to give a huge shout-out to my incredible husband, Josh. He was my rock, my cheerleader, and my advocate. He was so strong for me. I love him so much!!

Here are a few pictures of our valentine.

Roses are red

For the few that only read my blog and aren't on Facebook, our family of 2 is going to be a family of three! Clearly Josh and I like to do major life changes and events on top of each other. First the move, Josh has a new job, and soon we'll have a baby! I guess that's just how we roll.

Florida is awesome! We're all settled in a cute little town home in the lovely town of Windermere. We're both still adjusting the the heat, but I'll take it over the cold any day. It has been fun to see some friendly faces from our time here before. Josh and I both hope that Orlando will be home for a long time. We are both tired of moving across the country.

Most people want to know how I've been feeling--not bad! I had a rough 1st trimester, but my nausea has finally subsided. Aside from a never-ending backache and getting used to being more round, I feel like I'm doing pretty darn good. The other question we get asked is if we have decided on a name for baby girl. Truth be told, no we haven't. We are narrowing it down to a few names that we really like and then we'll decide on one once we meet her. Our lips are sealed until she's here and named!

Migrating south

Sometimes there's a change in the wind, and you have to adjust your sails because you know you are about to be blown in a different direction. Josh and I were taking a walk a couple of months ago, and I told him that I felt that our time in Idaho was coming to a close. Sure enough, a much-desired position with a great company popped up a couple of weeks later. Josh is thrilled about his job offer, and we are looking forward to moving back to Orlando -- a place that holds many happy memories and dear friends.

Yes, I'm sure there will be some eye-rolling as people realize that this is my fourth move to Orlando. I guess that's just how life goes sometimes. Perhaps fourth time's a charm.

We'll be heading out the last week of August and are in the midst of packing our lives up here and getting details worked out for our life down there. Moving is such madness!

We've had a wonderful two years in Rexburg, and I will be sad to say my farewells. My heart always tugs a little bit for Idaho when I'm not here. Luckily, I can always hop on a plane when I miss the people and the mountains a little too much.

Here's to a bright new adventure!

I hope that April snow showers bring May flowers

I figured I'd write a quick update about what we've been up to since our trip to Hawaii.

We've been cold! January-March is one of the toughest times of the year 'round these parts. It's cold with a side of freezing! Luckily, I think we're almost to spring. The Rexburg wind is picking up and hopefully it will blow winter away without blowing us away! Skirts are dangerous to wear during this time of year.

Josh has been his usual charming self. He works hard and occasionally let's me beat him in rummy and Monopoly Deal. He's been doing some very impressive work at the BYU-Idaho Center. He wouldn't want me to brag too much, but he's really contributed a lot to the university. He continues to impress me with his cooking skills.

I'm mostly just trying to stay out of trouble. I'm enjoying my job and always finding ways to spend our money (haha, kidding - mostly). I've unsuccessfully tried out for two musicals and was only offered choral parts in both which has been disappointing. I'm counting down the days until it's warm enough for us to spend some time outside!

We have a couple of fun trips planned for the upcoming months. My brother, Tim, is coming home from his mission in just over a week! After spending a couple of weeks in Florida, he'll be heading to Boise for a couple of months to see family and try to make some money. So Josh and I will be driving up to Boise to spend time with my family.

In early May, my parents will be coming to visit us in Rexburg! We are so excited to have them come. Let's hope the weather behaves for them!

As soon as my parents leave, we'll be heading to Houston for a few days to spend time with Josh's family. It has been way too long since we've seen the Foster family, so we are really looking forward to our time with them.

Life is great!

Aloha!

Sometimes really cool things happen to me. Cool like a free trip to Hawaii. Yep, that happened to us thanks to a very good friend and her generous family. I'm not going to go into the details of why we were there, but it was some work and some play. Mostly I was just happy because it was WARM! And we saw the ocean every. single. day. In fact, this was the view from our condo

We ate delicious food. And met really nice people. And drank coconut juice. And wore flower leis. And let the humidity heal our cracked lips and skin.

In some ways it made me miss Florida. We were there for 10 days, and it was long enough to start feeling a little Polynesian (minus my blindingly pale skin).

Anyway, I figured I'd tell most by sharing some pictures.

 Amy and her family were so kind to greet us with traditional Hawaiian leis. Mine smelled amazing!

Here's Josh with his lei. He is standing at the balcony of our condo. AMAZING VIEW! 

We are so happy to be in Hawaii 

The beach at Turtle Bay 

Check out those waves 

We went to a fresh fruit stand. Yum! 

Here's the group (minus me because I'm the photographer). The Keelers, Amy and her Dad, Les and Josh (I'm sure his eyes were with us in spirit). 

We went to the Dole plantation and had a Dole whip with fresh pineapple. Delicious! 

You could get fish feed for 50 cents, so me and Amy decided to try it and the fish went crazy! 

 

Our first time at the Polynesian Cultural Center 

Aloha! 

Learning the hula 

Clearly I was born for this type of dance 

As was Josh

 Awesome entertainment

Hawaii is pretty incredible because you have the ocean on one side... 

And mountains on the other !

Cracking macadamia nuts 

Our tour of the macadamia nut farm 

Our tour guide was great 

blowing the conch

So cool! 

We had so many delicious coconut flavored things! 

 Flower goes on the left for someone who is married!

Our tour included a boat ride where we saw beautiful scenery and saw when Gilligan's Island and parts of LOST were filmed 

 That mountain was so beautiful!

Pearl Harbor 

We did the audio tour; you can see the memorial in the background 

USS Arizona. Such a sad part of American history. It is neat to see how the ship has turned into a reef and is full of aquatic life. 

Hawaii is breathtaking 

Hanauma Bay

The shaved ice was one of the best things I have ever tasted in my life!

This pineapple smoothie was also a little slice of heaven.

Sorry for the picture overload, but it seemed like the easiest way to share a 10 day trip. We'd love to make it back to Hawaii someday! Mahalo