Super Daddy!

Brielle and I had a first week without daddy! Sean went back to work last Monday. He had 5 weeks off with us, which was AMAZING!! Since Brielle was born December 18th, and the last day of school was December 17th, Sean got the 3 weeks of Christmas Break off and then he took off another 2. It was so awesome having him home. He got to bond so much with Brielle and he was my little servant when I was nursing. He'd bring me food, water, the remote, whatever I needed. We were sad when he went back to work, but we already visited him twice for lunch! We just missed him too much!

I'm so grateful for my awesome husband! When Sean and I first got married, he made it very clear to me that no one was going to "wear the pants" in our family. We were going to "wear shorts" together, be equals. He has proven to me throughout our marriage that we are equals and a team. Not that I doubted his daddy skills, but he has shown me again that we are "wearing shorts" together. We are raising and taking care of Brielle together. None of the, "well your the woman" stuff. I'm sure if he had boobs, he'd nurse right along with me! Ha ha, I know that sounds funny but that's really the only thing he can't do for her and I know he wishes he could help feed her. So, Sean is a super daddy and a super AWESOME husband! Heavenly Father was really looking out for me in the marriage department!

Wish I could stop time....

Can time please stop! Our little girl is one month old today! It hardly seems possible! We feel so blessed to have her in our lives and we are having so much fun! On Sunday, 1/16, Brielle smiled at us for the first time. Not the 'sleeping' smile, but an actual smile! I was talking to her and she smiled at me but I thought I was seeing things. Sean was in the other room. I said, "um Sean, I think Brielle just smiled at me." He came in and preceded to talk animated to her and she then gave him the biggest smile! We both about died!! It was the most precious thing we've ever seen. Needless to say, she stole our hearts yet again! So happy one month birthday Brielle!! And please slow down on the growing up!

snuggling with my love bug on a nice day!

I just love this little face!

Life with Brielle

Christmas day! Her first Christmas and she slept through it!

Snuggling with my lil lady on Christmas!

She loves her some breast milk! Its a good sedative!

In her little Christmas dress on Christmas day

She enjoys her bath...most of the time.

Celebrating New Years with mom and dad.

A photo shoot with mom and dad!

I LOVE baby yawns!

Life has been so wonderful with our new little girl. She is such a good baby. She only cries when she is hungry and sometimes when her diaper is changed. But she is so happy and content. She already had her 2 week check up last week and she turned 3 weeks on Saturday. SO SAD!! I just don't want her to grow up! At her appointment, her weight went from 7 lbs 14 oz to 8 lbs 6 oz! And her height went from 20 1/2 in to 21 3/4 in! She is in the 90th percentile in height! She is tall and lean and apparentely my breast milk is doing her good!!

Sean is the best daddy and so in love with Brielle. I seriously could not ask for a better companion in caring for our daughter. He is 100% about doing his part. Love him for that!

More hospital pictures of Brielle

More hospital pictures of our sweet Brielle. They are not really in order and I would have added more but blogger is only letting me add one at a time. But here is out little lady when she was brand new!

Look at that double chin!

Auntie Olia and her Baba (Ukrainian grandma)

Happy grandparents!

Snuggling with my love bug.

Love our little family.

Auntie Chanel

Grandma is very happy!

First bath=a very unhappy baby!

Just newly entered the world!

A very proud daddy

Brielle Charisse

Vintage Volute Pink Birth Announcement

Turn your favorite photo into a birth announcement.

View the entire collection of cards.

Goodbye 2010...and hello 2011!!

I really can't believe 2010 is over! I must be getting older because the years are starting to fly by and I must admit....it's a little scary! So, I'm really trying to enjoy every moment!

2010 started off with some ups and downs. In January, we found our first home! A month later we got the keys and it's still unreal sometimes that we own a home. In February, we were excited because we found out we were pregnant again! Sean started telling people right away, but for some reason I had a really bad feeling about telling people and I was right. On Valentines Day, we lost another baby. I had almost given up on being a mom anytime soon. In March, we took a much needed vacation to our favorite spot, Cancun. So much healing happened there, spiritually and emotionally. In Cancun, I told our Father in Heaven that I would except any way that my children had to come and at anytime they needed to come. That was really hard for me to do. But if there is one thing I've learned in life, it's to except whatever God has in store for you with a smile. It makes life a lot happier and easier. A few weeks after we got back from Cancun, I suspected I might be pregnant. If I was, it would have happened in Cancun. BUT....I wasn't suppose to ovulate until 2 days after we got back...so could it be possible?? It was!! God had truly blessed us!

Just the pregnancy and birth of our sweet daughter has made this year the best year so far. We feel SOOOOOO extremely blessed to be her parents. Many people tried to give us so much negative advice and opinions about parenthood before our little girl was born. But Sean and I weren't buying it and we will continue to not buy into the negative mumbo jumbo. Having to struggle to become a parent makes it just a little more special to us. We are eternally grateful to our Heavenly Father for knowing what was best for us and to allow us to have struggles so that we can better appreciate the blessings.

Happy New Year To All!

Love,
Sean, Sierra & Brielle

Brielle's Birth Story

So, I've been slacking on posting this because I've been basked in the love and joy of our new baby girl! Brielle Charisse was born December 18th, at 6:27 am, weighing 7 lbs 14 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. She captured our hearts the second she was born and I can't believe as of yesterday, she is now a week old. Makes me kinda sad. I just love how snuggly she is and I don't want the time to go by too fast. Anyways...on to the birth!!

As mentioned in my last post, I had my membranes stripped on Thursday the 16th, my due date. By the next day, I had kinda given up hope that it worked. It caused some strong contractions, but they had no pattern. So, I just decided to be patient and let it be. That same day, the 17th, Sean and I decided to have a movie night and junk food night. We watched 2 movies, watched 2 CSI's, and ate donuts, popcorn, red vines, fruit snakes. It was quite the evening!! So, we went to bed kinda late, at about 12:30. At 2:30, I woke up to go the bathroom. I noticed that I was having contractions, but I had been getting them a lot at night the past few weeks, so I thought nothing of it and decided to go back to bed. At 3:30, I woke up to use the bathroom again. This time when I got back into bed, I noticed they were stronger, so I decided to time them. My way of timing them would be to look at the clock when one started, fall back asleep when it was over and wake up and look at the clock when one started again. A little after 4, I realized that I had had about 3-4 really strong contractions that were 10 minutes apart. I was suppose to go in at 10 minutes because my first labor with "C" was only 7 hours, so they said this one would be fast. So, I finally decided to wake up Sean. We got up and got dressed and got our things together and I called my mom. We arrived at the hospital at about 4:45.

I got into triage and they started all their procedure stuff, which in my opinion takes way too long. When they finally checked me, I was an 8!! Whoa....I really wasn't expecting that. They asked me if I wanted an epidural. I said yes, then the nurse was like, "You don't need one, you are doing so good." Probably because I was actually talking a lot and not screaming! ha ha. But I was in the transition phase of labor because I started to shake a lot and almost threw up. Finally it was time to move me to delivery.

When we got to the delivery room, I asked for the epidural, so they had to check me again. Well, I only had a rim left, so basically I was a 10. So no epidural. At this point I didn't care. I was already in my own little world and I think my body was just ready to do what it needed to do. They waited for the rim to disappear, which wasn't long and then it was time to push. I did really well up until her head started to come out and then I almost lost it. But one of my awesome doctors, Dr. Baker, gave me a little pep talk. She said,"Sierra stop and look at me. Don't lose it now. You are doing great. The heads right here. Use the pain to push through." Thats all I needed and I got myself together and she was out with just another push and came into the world at 6:27 am! At first all I felt was relief. I almost forgot that I had just had a baby! And apparently my mom said Dr. Baker complimented me on how well I did, but I was so out of it that it took for them to hand me Brielle for me to come back to earth. But when they handed her to me, my heart melted!

The first day was an exhausted blur. Here I am, with only 3 hours of sleep, giving birth and still trying to entertain visitors. We did not sleep at all that first day. And any one who has given birth knows they don't let you sleep in the hospital, so we got outta there the next day.

We love having our little girl. Sean and I are both really in awe of her! We truly feel the blessings of our Heavenly Father in our lives! She is that sweet spirit we were waiting for and we can't wait to continue our journey as her parents!

Just a few pictures from the hospital. Trust me...there will be many more in the future!



Our little chubby cheeks snuggling with daddy!

Getting some love from mommy!

She is such a good snuggler!

Mommy and Brielle meet at last!

Happy Due Date To Me!!!

So, today is my official due date! I am actually in shock that I made it to my due date because the theory is with a second child, you go sooner. Well, not me apparently. But I'm perfectly fine with that. I want her to stay as long as she needs to be perfectly healthy. And this little girl let me finish my classes and daddy and grandma (my mom) both go on Christmas break tomorrow from work, so perfect timing. But Sean took tomorrow off JUST in case!

I went in for an appointment today. I'm 4 cm dilated. WHAT?? Thats so crazy. With "C" I was in actual labor when I was 4. But my water broke with him too. So, this experience is way different. I had my membranes stripped today. Now, I've heard some say it's painful and others say it's not. Well I have a pretty high pain tolerance and let me tell you....it HURTS! Holy crap! But once it's done, it's done and the pain is gone. My doc said she always feels bad doing it because she knows how bad it is and she said she can almost feel the pain with the patient. Stripping the membranes is when the seperate your bag of water from your uterus. It's a natural way to start labor. IF it works, I should go into labor within 24 hours. Like I said....IF! I've been telling a lot of people that I was going to get this done and they just assumed I was going to be in the hospital right after I had it done. Nope. Some women, it never works for. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that it does work. If this little girl decides to stay put a little longer, I have an induction date set for the 23rd. BUT....we are hoping it doesn't come to that and she'll show up sooner.

I've been having some pretty strong contractions since my appointment. They are irregular but I'm hoping they will get some sort of pattern soon. I must say that just having your water break is much easier and I kinda wish that would just happen again. But keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we will have our little baby in our arms in the next 24 hours!

One week countdown!

I can't believe this little girl is almost here! This has seriously been the quickest pregnancy. I will be 39 weeks tomorrow! Insane!

Almost 39 weeks!

This pregnancy is way different then my one with "C". Not sure if it's because of age. I was 22 when I had "C" and 27 with this one. Or because it's just a different pregnancy. I know the thing that is the most different is I'm carrying her super high compared to "C" and I can't breathe most days and would die for an oxygen tank! HAHA! Here are some of my stats as of 39 weeks.

* I'm dilated to 2.5 and 80% effaced. I just went to the doctor today and I've been the same for the last week. We are really trying hard to make it to my "new" due date, 12/16, because Sean goes on Christmas break 12/17. So keep your fingers cross that she waits a little longer!

* She moves like crazy and still loves to stick those feet in my ribs! Another thing I did not experience with "C".

*I've gained 27 lbs. I'm actually quite surprised that I haven't gained more because I feel huge! But, I'm not disappointed at all. Maybe if I'm lucky, by the time I have her, I'll be down to 25!

* Doc says she will most likely be a 7-8 lb baby. I don't know how they can tell this by feeling your belly, but that's why he's a doctor and I'm not.

* Doc says I'm not very big outward, but I'm carrying wide. Which I totally agree!

* I've been sleeping A LOT and not nesting at all. I really hope the nesting thing kicks in, but if not....oh well. I'm really trying to relax so I don't put myself in labor. But if I haven't had her by next week....I'm doing everything I can to get the show started!

* Next appointment is my due date, 12/16 and doc says he'll sweep my membranes if I haven't had her by then.

I'm actually kind of sad that the pregnancy is almost over. I feel so womanly when I'm pregnant. Even though I feel huge, I love having a belly! Sean loves my belly too! But we can't wait to meet this little girl. She really could be here any day (even though we are hoping next week).

I am grateful for adoption

In light of National Adoption Month AND Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share some reasons why I'm so grateful for adoption.

*Adoption gave me my family. I have been so blessed. I have a family that loves me more then anything and I have had a wonderful life.

* Adoption allowed me to be sealed that family.

*Adoption taught me that family doesn't mean "flesh and blood". Family means love and support.

*Adoption has made many people love me, including my birth family.

* Adoption made it possible for 2 women to love me very much, my mother and my birth mother.I'm a lucky girl!

* Adoption taught me to put my own sons needs before my own. It was a hard lesson but well worth it.

* Adoption has taught me that I can get through anything. I have had many trials, but none harder then becoming a birth mom.

*Adoption helped me learn how much my Father in Heaven loves me.

* Adoption allowed me to become closer to my Savior.

*Adoption has given me a reason to be an advocate for something. Adoption can be a positive and beautiful option.

*Adoption has made me a better person. I'm more empathetic and have a softer heart.

*Adoption led me to where I am today.

*Adoption helped me see that in the grand scheme of things, we are ALL God's children anyways and we will all be together again someday.

*Adoption is who I am, and for that, I am grateful!