Introducing...

Caleb Byron Broderick

One Week Old

We had a little surprise join our family on September 13th!  Well, I guess it wasn't too much of a surprise.  We knew we were having a baby, and we knew it would be a boy - but we weren't expecting him until October 9th!  So when my water broke at midnight on the 13th - I was more than thrilled to be done with the pregnancy!!

Here is the story, if you care to read, if not just look at his cute pictures!  This pregnancy really was a fast one for me.  When I originally went to the doctor, I only thought I was about 6 weeks along.  I had a hemorrhage that bled for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which is why I was shocked to find a positive home pregnancy test.  Anyway, when the doctor took a look at what I thought was 6 weeks, he said, "That baby is much too big for six weeks!"  They measured and sure enough, he was 10 weeks along, which matched another "start date".  Baby measured exactly on with the October 9th date throughout the rest of the pregnancy until August....then we both started getting big.

Regardless, baby came when he was ready.  The doctor's have been/were treating him as 36 weeks gestational age, even though he weighed in at 8lbs. 1oz. and 21 inches long.  He is doing great and so is mom.  So, here are some fun pictures.

This is a picture of my practice run.  On Saturday, September 8th, I had a great morning and not so great afternoon and evening.  I started off the morning with a surprise baby shower!  My friend had offered to have her daughter come and babysit and take me out to breakfast for my birthday (which was in July, but we we both on vacation.)  I thought, "Sure, Shawn is out of town, free babysitter and free breakfast, why not?"  Well, the joke was on me - she took me to another friends house which was full of many, many more friends.  We had breakfast, played a few games and baby and I were spoiled to death by many gifts.  It was such a fun surprise and I appreciated it so much!!

Later that morning, I started to not feel well and by 3pm that afternoon, I called up my friend and told her I needed help with the girls.  She came and picked them up, cleaned up my house and left me to sleep in peace and quiet.  With Shawn out of town, I was very grateful for her willingness to help.  The girls ended up sleeping over that night and I called her about 10:30pm and said, "It's probably not good that I'm alone, I've been having contractions."  So, she came over and we started timing contractions.  They were every minute and a half for about 5-6 hours.  We ended up going to the hospital at 1:00 in the morning.  I received IV fluids for dehydration and the contractions finally stopped.  We came home at 3:30am.

I was then waiting around for Thursday, the 13th, my next OB appointment.  I was anxious to try and pin down an induction date, so that my mom could buy an airplane ticket to come visit.  We had a pretty good week, but it was long and slow.  Wednesday night, I was excited because I had been invited over to a craft night and was ready to get out of the house.  I decided I would make baby a binky clip and the girls a bracelet.  We had a good time and I got home around 10pm.  I wasn't tired, so I stayed up until just before midnight and thought, "I better go to bed so I can get up with the girls for school."  As I was preparing for bed, I went to the bathroom and that's where my water broke.  Nice and easy!  I woke Shawn up, which is always fun.  He gets much more nervous then I do when it's time for babies to come.  Me, I was just walking around, gathering things, called and arranged with neighbors to come sleep with the girls, etc.  We made it to the hospital just after 12:30am and got all registered and settled in by 1:00am.

This is the 2nd time my water broke (before with Andie) and I don't have contractions when it does. They started me on the pectocin to help induce labor.  I received my epidural around 3:30am, which I told Shawn was kind of disappointing and non-dramatic.  Usually, I am so excited to receive and epidural and be put out of my misery!  This time, the contractions had just started to feel a little intense.  She nurse laid me back and they backed off big time - I was comfortable and feeling great.  However, she was anxious and had already ordered the epidural.  So, they came, inserted and I was numb.  I maybe endured 10 minutes of pain with this labor.  It was great.  I didn't get much sleep, off and on and around 7:15am, I asked to be checked again and I was near a 10 and so the nurse said, "Let's start pushing."  She asked me to push, I started and she said, "Stop, stop, stop!"  She saw baby's head and said, "let's call the doctor."  So, we waited about 20-25 minutes for them to get all set up and for the doctor to come in.  Caleb was born at 7:43am after only pushing twice.  :)

 His blood sugar levels were really low, so they had to give him a bottle to try and boost them.  It didn't work, so he was on IV fluids to help level his glucose out.  He had to get above 50 three times in a row, then they would slowly ween him off.  It failed the first test and finally made the next three.  They tested his blood every 3 hours and he finally got off the IV at 3:30am on Saturday morning, about 12 hours before we came home.

 The girls first visit to meet their baby brother. 

 Andie was in heaven.  She would be content if she could sit and hold him all day long, every day!

 Ali was pretty excited too!  When we finally got a name for him, she would forget it and say, "Goodbye...Mom, what's his name again?"  It was so cute.

 Adalyn didn't care to hold him for a week.  She got jealous quickly.  When my mom came into town on Sunday, she was taking pictures of all the kids, then showing them on her phone.  Adalyn would get mad if there was a picture of Caleb and not her.  She would say, "No, don't want baby...ADALYN!"  So, grandma was good enough to take lots of pictures of Adalyn too.

Ali was so cute. Friday afternoon they came to the hospital after school.  She said, "Mom, I look like you."  She had made her own hospital band.  I loved it!!

Here we are, ready to go home.  Don't I look lovely for hanging out in a hospital bed for 3 days!  I loved the peace and quiet and would stay another week if they'd let me. 

We got home and the girls and Shawn had bought me flowers.  Thanks guys!

We went to the Doctor on Monday and I guess Caleb had decided he missed the peace and quiet of the hospital as well.  His bilirubin levels were high (for Jaundice) and so we got to go spend another night in the hospital so that he could go tanning.  I loved all of his different positions! 

This one was my favorite - arms behind his head, totally relaxing!  He was on the bed all except for eating.  He was not a big fan of his cool glasses, but he came from an 18.8 down to a 13.7 in 24 hours.  I was ready to go home this time, not having planned to stay so long - we were glad to be back.

I was especailly thankful and glad my mom was in town.  She definitely had her energy wiped that day, getting up to get the girls off from school and watching Adalyn all day.  Thanks Mom!

We're now home and getting adjusted.  Caleb is such a great baby.  He only cries when I pull out a washrag and wipe his down.  Adalyn is getting used to him and finally help him!  I thought this picture was too cute.  He is a great, handsome little man and we are so excited he is part of our family.  I've had an easy recovery and am feeling great.  I always do after delivery - I feel myself again!  I guess the real adjustment will come when grandma leaves.  We'll have a few weeks by ourselves before Shawn's parents come into town to visit.  Until then - we couldn't be more happy!

And of course....one more picture of Adalyn, just to play it safe!  :)

Welcome Home Mom & Dad (part 1)

As I mentioned in my previous post, we went to Utah to welcome my parents home from the Vladivostok Russia Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They served an honorable and dedicated mission for 3 years. We were fortunate enough to meet some of the couples and missionaries they served with and know that Mom and Dad were taken care of, loved, and did an awesome job. It was such a blessing for our family, to have them serve....but we are so excited they are home too! Here we are, in two spread out groups, waiting for them to come off the plane. It was a long wait!!

They had barely stepped off the escalator when someone yelled, "Ok kids - go get 'em!"  That was so fun to watch most of the grand-kids run as fast as they could to get a hug from Grandma and Grandpa!

My mom is hiding in all the pictures - but she is there, being tacked with hugs!!

We had such a crazy and fun-filled first 10 days.  Most of my mom's side of the family came into town.  We were able to get lots of pictures and play with lots of cousins!  Here are the Pratt Family Pictures we took.  I think they turned out great!

Mom and Dad!

Pratt Family - July 2012.  We are all here - 28 total, with two on the way. 

Pratt Grandchildren.  The girls used to outnumber the boys.  Summer and I are both having boys - so the numbers will almost be even 9 vs. 8.

The Siblings

The Siblings with our spouses.  We need a good girl for Tyson....any takers?

We spent the first week together with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins.  Enjoying family picnics, the forth of July parade and fireworks, playing games and just being together.  Here is most of the Nicholls Family together at the park.  Unfortunately, my mom and dad had walked across the street and missed out on the photo.  We're also missing a cousin from Arizona, Texas, and California - as well as 2 missionaries.  But hey - it's the best we could do!  It's was great!

Here are all of my cousins with my grandma (minus the 5 I mentioned!)

We had such a great time.  The girls had so much fun playing with all of their cousins.  More pictures and details to come.  I am so grateful for my family!!  At moments, it's so hard to live so far away, but when we get together, it's as if we've always been around.  (Yes Jared, we've been gone for 4 years, not 2!)  I'm so grateful for everyone for hosting us and being so awesome!  We love you all!!

Utah Trip with the Broderick's

I guess it's time to post about our summer vacation this year!! My parents were returning from serving a mission for our church. They had been in Russia for 3 years and we were so excited to see them!  We had a blast, flying across the country to UTAH to visit grandma's and grandpa's and many of our cousins!

We had a great trip. Flying with three kids is always an adventure. I had the luxury of having Shawn with us for just one of three flights. It was definitely cute to watch the girls pull their suit cases along! They each felt so important!

Ahh....if only this seating arrangement lasted!  Love my girls.

and I love my husband!  Unfortunately for us girls, Shawn was coming back to GA on a different day and so he had different flights than us.  We all made it together from Atlanta to Dallas.  Then he got to get on a plane about 10 minutes after we landed, while the girls and I got to hang out at the airport for two extra hours.  If you remember our trip from last year, I'm not a huge fan of the Dallas airport.  (look how little the girls were!)  But, we survived and made it safely to Utah!

Shawn's parents now live in Salt Lake City!  It's great that we could visit both families in one trip!  We got to spend the first week with them and had so much fun. The girls loved riding TRAX downtown to Temple Square.  I think it was the highlight of their day!

 Although they are a silhouette, I'm glad I have a picture of each of them in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

 Here is the crew in front of the assembly hall.

 I loved going with my family to listen to the Christus message.  This holds such a special place in my heart.  I served a mission in the Los Angeles California mission, at the visitors center there at the temple.  I listen to this message many times each day - and taught many people more about the church.  Although I tried to explain it to my kids, I can't wait until they are older and really understand the significance of our Savior and the message that He shares with us!  (and although we were not in LA, it was still great to be near the Christus Statue!)

 They girls had SO MUCH FUN swimming in grandma and grandpa Broderick's backyard.  I think they could have done that everyday, all day and been completely satisfied with the trip!

 Adalyn enjoying a book in Deseret Book. 

We were a little rushed by the time we made it to the conference center.  So we quickly peeked in to see inside.  You forget how massive it is.  Then we made it on the last tour to the top - which is always so breath taking!

On top of the conference center!

We were able to go back up a few times after we left.  The girls got to meet their "great" grandma and grandpa Broderick - which was such a treat.  I'm glad we were able to see them!  They live in Tucson and came up, just to visit us!  Not really, it just happened that our trips overlapped - so we were grateful to see them!  The girls had a fun night at the Broderick Family bbq.  They ended up getting in a BIG water fight with grandpa and loved it!

Chuck, Cindy and Angela, our great hosts!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Broderick! 

Grandma and Grandpa Broderick who are also GREAT!!

We had such a fun time!  Thanks again, to grandma and grandpa Broderick for taking good care of us!