Brooke's first weeks (and Thanksgiving)

We've really been enjoying this newborn stage with Brooke. It's amazing how much more relaxed you feel about parenting with the second baby. We just love to hold her and have her sleep snuggled up on one of us (which works out well because she would prefer to be held 100% of the time).

Brandon has been adjusting well to having a baby around too. He showed some jealousy signs initially, but lately he's been going up to her randomly and kissing her head, and he'll say "What's the matter Baby Brooke?" when she's crying in a really sweet voice, and he'll try to rock the swing or bouncer if she's crying in it.

We've had lots of friends visit us since Brooke has been born, and we remembered to get pictures with some of them.

Andy and Erica were the first friends to meet Brooke. This was 2 days after she was born. We were kind of jealous of how this picture turned out because it looks like it could be a family photo of them...

So we got one too. We shouldn't have. It looks like we can barely open our eyes. You think you can hide sleep deprivation, but you can't!

Brooke got her first bath at home in the kitchen sink. She pretty much hated it.

My mom got a baby doll for Brandon and gave it to him while we were in the hospital. I wish I had a picture to post of Brandon with his doll. He loves to feed it a bottle and hold it. Sometimes when I'm nursing he'll go get his doll and hold it in his lap. I bought Brandon a little baby doll stroller for his baby because he loves any kind of push toy. One of the first days he had the stroller the above happened. Can you see it? He buckled himself in the stroller and then got stuck with it hanging around his waist!

I love this silly expression on Brandon. It looks like Brooke likes it too. This is the face he will make after saying "Funny baby!"

Krzysztof nicknamed Brooke the "lizard" right after she was born because she instantly started sticking her tongue in and out. She still sticks it out sometimes, but not quite as much.

Some of you might remember how we weighed Brandon in this bowl on our kitchen scale. We did it with Brooke, and she liked being in the bowl as much as Brandon did! I guess it feels kind of womb like. I'm pretty sure that's what Brooke is remembering because only in the womb should anyone's leg and foot be in that position. Brooke lost a couple of ounces in the few days after birth but not nearly as much as Brandon did because this girl loves to eat!

Our sweet sleepy girl.

This is the first time Brooke was held by her Papa! Papa (my dad) got here the day before Thanksgiving.

Brooke loves her Papa so much she decided to sing about it!

Brandon has been doing a great job entertaining himself by reading books and playing with his toys for short periods of time during the day, which is so helpful. I love to hear him read his books. He has an unbelievable memory.

Krzysztof's college friend Paul (who currently lives in Arizona) was in town for Thanksgiving.

Paul came over for a visit with his wife Megan and their daughter Katie.

On Thanksgiving Day, Krzysztof brewed 15 gallons of beer. He took advantage of having my parents here to help with the kids and cooking to do some things he wanted to do like brewing and house projects.

Brandon spent a lot of time doing this over Thanksgiving weekend. This is his Papa's iPad. It's amazing how toddler friendly those devices are. There are so many cool apps for kids, and Brandon would have been happy playing them all day.

This little ball pit is an early Christmas present from my parents, and Brandon has loved playing in it.

Note the "I'm Thankful for my Family" bib. Funny story: Brandon wore that bib when he was 5 months old for his first Thanksgiving. He didn't wear it last year, and he wouldn't have remembered it. I pulled it out to put on Brooke for a picture, and as I went to put it on her neck, Brandon said, "No bib on baby. Brandon's bib." He threw a fit until I put the bib on him. He didn't take it off the whole rest of the evening. I took it off of him before he got ready for bed, and he said, "No bib on baby." That was the first time he actually verbalized some jealousy towards his sister, and we found it very amusing that it was over a bib. I wonder what's going to happen when she can start grabbing his toys!

Brooke has definitely gotten cuter and cuter as the days go by.

Our friends Brandon and Stephanie came by to meet Brooke and bring us a meal.

After they got pictures with Brooke, Brandon said he wanted his picture with them too.

Here is Krzysztof's brother Stefan holding Brooke for the first time.

My big Spartan and my little Spartan dressed up for the game.

Krzysztof watched the game holding Brooke like this for a long time, and when he put her down, Brandon climbed up in his lap and sat there for about 20 minutes. This is unheard of behavior for our busy toddler. He is not a snuggler and never sits in our lap for that long. Yet another example of his adjusting to having a baby sister, but we'll take some extra snuggles from our boy any day!

Brooke!

Brooke Helena Zaryczny finally arrived on November 17, 2011! Here are some details and pictures from around the time of her birth.

This was taken about a week before Brooke was born back when life was still all about Brandon. He liked it that way!

Here is Brandon giving his baby sister a kiss and a hug. Although he could point to my belly and say "baby!" we really don't think he knew that his whole life was about to be turned upside down by that baby!

Here I am in Brooke's room, which was all ready for her a couple weeks before she arrived! We really thought she would be early, but she had her own plans for when she wanted to show her little face.

Luckily I only had to wait 2 days past my "due" date. About 1:30am on November 17th I went into very early labor with regular contractions 6 minutes apart and leaking fluid. I couldn't sleep so I spent the rest of the night walking around the house and doing gentle bouncing on this trampoline to try to get things moving along more quickly.

At 6:00am, I still wasn't in very hard labor yet (contractions about 5 minutes apart), but we've always heard that things can start moving very quickly with 2nd births, and we were scared about getting stuck in rush hour traffic because the hospital is a 30 minute drive away without traffic, but that can easily be doubled later in the morning. The midwife suggested we go ahead and come in to the Alternative Birthing Center (which is inside Providence Hospital in Southfield). We shouldn't have left then. My Bradley classes taught us not to leave for the hospital until you are well into hard labor, but we let fear of traffic and fear of a quick birth get in the way of that knowledge! We got there around 7:00 am and so did our Doula Erin. As is often the case, labor slowed down when we got to the hospital. We spent several hours walking all over the hospital and climbing flights of stairs trying to get labor to pick back up, but I seemed to be stuck at contractions around 4-5 minutes apart. The nurse tried to get me to take castor oil, but I really didn't want to. At 11:30 the midwife found that I was still only 3 cm. My main bag of waters hadn't broken, so she went ahead and broke it. Things picked up after that.

By 2:00 I was really having to work hard through contractions, so I got in the great tub in my room. I was in there for 2 hours. It's amazing how much better contractions feel when you are in hot water. At 4:00, I felt like I must be so close to 10 cm because the contractions were so awful. The midwife checked me and I was only a 5. We were all devastated. They talked me into getting out of the tub at that point, and the next 30 minutes were kind of a blur because it was so difficult. All of the sudden I had the uncontrollable urge to push (which I never got as strongly with Brandon), and Brooke was almost born in the bathroom. After the nurse made me get on the bed, the midwife came in (she almost didn't make it. She didn't think she'd be the one to deliver my baby because her shift was over at 5:00), and Brooke was born at 4:40pm after about 3 pushes.

This is about an hour after Brooke was born. She was born with really dark hair like Brandon, and she was completely covered with vernix, which was so strange because usually only early babies have that much.

She weighed 8 lb. 8 oz. (Brandon was 8 lb. 5 oz.) and she was 21 inches long. We were surprised again that I had such a big baby in there!

Krzysztof was amazed at the whole process just like he was with Brandon

I couldn't have done it without the support and encouragement of Krzysztof and Erin.

Krzysztof gave Brooke her first bath in our room. Even though she was under the warmer, she pretty much hated having her body washed.

She loved having her hair washed, though!

The next morning Brandon and my mom (called Mimi) came to visit. We kept Brandon in the stroller for most of the time because he cannot control himself around things with buttons and switches, and there is way too much of that in a hospital room. When we showed Brooke to him, he said, "Funny baby!"

He got to eat fruit loops, which he was really excited about.

Krzysztof took Brandon out for a while so my mom could visit with Brooke and me. Brooke loves her Mimi already.

We think she's pretty cute, squished nose and all!

We got one quick family picture before Brandon and Mimi left.

We left the hospital at 7 pm that night. It looks like Brooke didn't want to leave!

She stopped crying the instant we put her in the car seat, and she slept the whole way home.

We are so blessed by this new little one, and we are so excited to start our life as a family of four!