The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Homecoming!

After 3 long nights and 2 days in the hospital, we finally got to bring Samantha home on Thursday! While we were getting ready to hit the road at the hospital…

home

home

home

the boys were at home baking up a treat for Samantha with GJ’s help!

cake

There was a lot of taste-testing involved for sure! Had to make sure it was juuuust right for baby sister!

cake

cake

When we got home, I had to wait in the garage…

home

until I could bring Samantha in to see her surprise birthday cake!  yay!

cake

So much to love about this picture…home with my THREE babies, Spencey’s chocolate mouth, Maxwell’s face in his hands…love.

cake

Even though it was only 10:00 am, we all enjoyed a piece right away because, hey, you only turn 0 once, right?! 🙂

cake

The rest of the day was spent letting everyone hold the baby…

samantha home

and just getting used to having her around!

baby home

home

home

My parents and Susu packed up and headed back to Florida the next day but not before we snapped this picture of the 4 generations of GIRLS!  Me, Samantha Keath, Jan Keath, and Martha Keath!

keath generations

Finally, as always, the BIGGEST thank you in the world to the one and only GJ. She’s the one that keeps our ship sailing in the right direction! The boys didn’t miss me one bit because they were so happy and entertained with GJ. Not sure how any of us would make it without her. We love you GJ!

gj

I’m just so happy I could give you another little girl to spoil!  You’re welcome.  🙂

A fantastic homecoming indeed!

Hospital Day 2

I woke up on my second day in the hospital so happy to find out that Samantha was indeed real and was indeed a girl!  🙂  and let’s get serious, it’s not like I just woke up that morning – I was up all night sleeping in about hour long stretches. I didn’t care though. I might have been tired but I had a baby girl and nothing was going to take me off that high!

samantha

The boys came up that day and brought Samantha a little treat – a tiger stuffed animal rattle picked out by Maxwell especially for her!  Perfect!

rattle

Samantha also had a treat for her brothers – these cool Boogie Board writing tablets.

boogie boards

The boys were so excited to check out their baby sister and, this time, even Spencey wanted to get up there and see her…and touch her!

baby

sam and brothers

checking her out

spencey

spencey

Everyone took turns holding her…

holding

and kissing on her.

kissing

Soon the boys settled into their iPads and Robert held the baby and I just had to laugh and smile at this image…

full house

We’ve got a full house now!

That night I also gave Samantha her first manicure!  🙂 Her nails were really long when she was born so I took some baby emery boards to her little nails so she wouldn’t scratch her face…

nails

and look at her scaly skin! eek! That’s what a full term 40 week baby’s hands look like!

It was a great day 2 with this sweet baby girl!

samantha

Tomorrow? Home! See you then.

The big day!

So, here goes the story…. On Monday night, 1/26, I was really ready to have this baby and Spencer was having a great time decorating my big belly with stickers!

belly

That night I was lying in bed watching The Apprentice (somehow got hooked this season) texting with Hannah about how I was dreading going to the doctor the next day and having to discuss possibly getting induced. At 9:00, those fears went away when my water broke! GJ and Daddo came over to keep the boys and Robert and I headed to the hospital!

hospital

My doctor wasn’t on call but Dr. Sharp met me up there. Because it was so late – around 10pm – they didn’t start pitocin to really get labor going but instead gave me an Ambien and told me to try and get some sleep! Ha and ugh.

hospital

The next morning when Dr. Stone was there, they started pitocin around 6am. From there, things progressed almost exactly like they did with Maxwell and Spencer – although I do think she took about 2 hours longer overall to make her appearance. Samantha Keath Brown was born at 1:04pm and it was the most joyous moment ever. The entire delivery room was on a high. Because there had been some meconium in her fluid, they brought in some NICU nurses as a precaution so I think there were 6 or 7 nurses in there plus Dr. Stone and Robert. A full room! Everyone was so excited to see what the baby was. Dr. Stone pulled her out and actually had his hand over the private parts – waiting for him to pull his hand away was maybe the longest and most intense 2 seconds of my life! But, when he did and I saw GIRL, I just lost it. LOST IT. Tears immediately. Everyone cheered. It was just incredible. They tried to put her on my chest but I couldn’t even really do anything except cry. While they were getting her cleaned up I immediately called my mom. a GIRL! a dream come true. She was perfect – crying immediately, no issues at all. Yay!!

brand new

weight skb

skb

The nurse made a bow out of gauze and the celebrations of this little girl began!

bow

footprint

skb

Robert’s parents were already there and came in to meet her. My parents were home with the boys and brought them up around 4:00.  What fun to see them meet their little sister. Spencer didn’t want anything to do with her – or me really – but Maxwell couldn’t wait to get up on the bed with me and check her out.

family of 5

They also got cookies at the hospital so they were pretty happy campers!

brothers

gj, susu, samantha

Samantha also got to meet Dr. Walley…

dr walley

and get her first bath. Not a fan!

bath

Here’s a few other pictures from the day…

birth day

1/27 – the happiest of happy days!!!

skb birth day

More tomorrow!

Day 2

Day 2 of a dream come true!

samantha day 2

All is going great. She’s been super sleepy but a good eater when I can wake her up!

sleepy

She’s passed all of her various hospital tests with flying colors. Most importantly, I think I’ve spotted two dimples on those squeezable cheeks!

dimples

Her hair looks fairly dark right now but has some light shades too so I’m sure it will end up much lighter. I’m not seeing red in there yet but I’m not giving up on that!

samantha

Getting to leave the hospital today and can’t wait to be home as a family of 5!!