Melanie & Tyler Brown

We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family

Parker Kent Brown

Born: December 8, 2011 at 5:57

5lbs 14 oz 19.5 inches long

For those of you who would like to read the story, here it is.  If not hopefully you enjoyed the pictures of our cute little boy.

It started out like a normal day.  I woke up and went to work.  I ended up working about an hour later because we were short handed.  After work I headed over to target to get Tyler a few last Christmas presents.  Then I met Tyler over at the doctor’s for a normal check up.  It was my 38 week check up. They took my vitals and my blood pressure was 146/95.  They normally are able to wait a while and take it again and it goes down, but this time it only went down just a little bit.  As we met with the doctor he checked me and then told us to head over to the hospital for monitoring.  We didn’t think twice about this because we had been to the hospital for monitoring a month before.  We went over and they monitored for about two hours when the doctor came back in and told us it would be our baby’s birthday tonight or tomorrow.  Needless to say Tyler and I were both terrified and excited about this.

The next 20 hours are a little bit of a blur for me.  The nurse came in to put in the IV.  After trying in both arms, I told them to wait because I was going to pass out.  Third times the charm I guess.  She got the IV in and started me on pitocin, fluids, and magnesium sulfate (a drug used to help with the blood pressure, which has fun side effects like nausea, blurred vision, and other flu-like symptoms.) They came in around 10 pm and broke my water.  About an hour and a half later they came in and gave me the epidural.  Amazingly enough, getting the IV was worse than the epidural.  Which if you know me, you would know that was the most terrifying idea ever to me- I didn’t want an epidural because it terrified me that bad.  I was so glad I got it though.  Anyhow, they came and checked me periodically and things were not progressing.  I came in dilated to a 2 and by the morning I was barely a 3.  They decided to take me off the pitocin for a while to get it out of my system.  So an hour and a half later around 8:30 AM they put the pitocin back on.  From there it took me until about noon to get dilated to a 5.  It was slow progress but there was some progress.  I had an excellent nurse.  She had me lay on my side with the opposite leg in the stirrup.  It looked super awkward but from what the nurse could figure is that the baby’s head wasn’t quite in the right place meaning turned a little bit so he wouldn’t have been coming down straight.  But after a while in that position it helped.  By 2 that afternoon I finally got to a 6.  From there things began to speed up for sure.  around 3:30 I started having really bad pains.  The epidural wasn’t working right.  It was still numb to an extent, but not as much as it should have been.  Around 4 the anethesiologist had to come in to give me a booster and again about 15 mins later.  It was in the time that I could feel the pain that i scared Tyler really bad.  I would forget to breathe during the contractions and the baby’s heartbeat dropped.  After they gave me the two boosters things were great.  I actually almost fell asleep.  I was in my own little world and could hear everyone talking, but I was too tired to respond. They had to remind me to keep breathing again, but at least this time I wasn’t in pain.  Around 4 is when I was finally dilated to an 8.  Just before 5 the nurse decided to have me push a little bit.  I pushed about 4 times and he was crowning.  That’s when the nurse told me she would get the doctor but when she came back in she told us that the doctor was just leaving the Orem hospital.  Half an hour later I didn’t think I could wait anymore.  Luckily the doctor walked in around 5:40.  I pushed for about 15 mins and the baby came! The doctor said I  was a champ.  He kept telling me throughout the day that patience is all it takes. He did have to cut me about half an inch, but hey, it’s better that he cut me a little bit rather than push longer than I did.  By the end though, the epidural had begun to wear off just a little bit though because I could slightly feel the doctor stitching me up.  Weird.  But as soon as they got the baby cleaned up they put him on my chest.

 I was so happy to have this sweet boy in my arms.  Both Parker and I were so exhausted.  Every muscle in his body was limp.  His back was like a wet noodle.  Thinking back now it makes me sad to realize just how big of an effect the magnesium had on him, but he was alright.  He was just really tired.  Tyler and Parker went down to the nursery.  I was left upstairs to clean up and order some food.  I hadn’t eaten anything since 1 the day before and I had eaten a frozen burrito.  I was super hungry.  After I ate they took me downstairs to be with my family. Tyler and Parker were still in the nursery, but I was able to visit a little with the Browns, Nolan, Grandpa Walker, Deanna and Trent, and my mom.  They finally brought my baby in and he was in a stocking, it was cute.  It had been a long 24 hours and we had a super cute baby to show for it.

We are so glad this sweet little boy has joined us and can’t wait for all the happiness he will bring in our lives.

Happy Anniversary!  On November 22nd Tyler and I hit our 3 Years of being married.  I could not ask for a better husband than my best friend.  He is amazing!  We were able to head to dinner and enjoy some time together on our anniversary.  Thank you Tyler for 3 wonderful years.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  This year for some reason I thought a lot about past years.  I thought about one of the strangest Thanksgivings that I have ever experienced.  About five years ago, my friend Mikkel and I went to China for a few months.  We spent thanksgiving together at our apartment.  Luckily, Mikkel’s mom was nice enough to send us a care package.  We had canned turkey, boxed stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a chocolate cream pie.  Everything might sound super lame, but it was amazing!  We were able to enjoy each others company and really enjoy everything about Thanksgiving.  We sat together and talked about the things that meant the most to us.  It was lonely being away from home on a holiday that has so much to do with family, but it was a great day to reflect back on family, friends, the gospel, and so much more that mean so much to me in life.

This year we were able to spend time with my family.  It was just my family (minus my two brothers and sister-in-law, who we missed dearly) and my grandparents.  It was fun to sit and listen to stories from my grandparents and listen t

o them tell us what they were thankful for.  The things they said were so simple, but I know they mean so much to each of us.  The food that was made was great!   Tyler and I attempted (I only say attempt because it did turn out great, but it was a little dry because it cooked a lot faster than expected) to make the turkey.  We had a 24 pound turkey that we started to defrost on tuesday night.  Wednesday night we started brining it.  Then we had to figure out something to put that super big bird into cook.  It said it would take 4 1/2 to 5 hours, we decided to check it at 4 hours.  Well, it was done.  The white meat on top was a little dry but the dark meat was delicious. All the white meat needed was some of our awesome gravy.  Everything turned out great.  We even convinced mom to let us put apples in the stuffing.  So tasty!  Everything was awesome.  It is always so much fun to sit around with the family, talk and enjoy each other’s company.

So I thought I would be a little bit vain and pamper myself a little.  My friend Jessica is going to nail school so she offered to give me glitter toes.  Well how could I say no to that!  Check out my super cute toes!

About two weeks ago we were lucky enough to add a new addition to our family.  It was an exciting evening and a little unexpected, but we were happy about how everything happened.

Isn’t it pretty.  We were planning on getting a less expensive smaller car for Tyler to drive, but we decided at the last minute to run up and look at one more Ford Escape.  It was just what we were looking for.  It drives great, has Sync, 4WD, and is a pretty color.  It’s a 2009 with about 30K miles, not too bad!  The only small complaint we have is that the seats are cloth, not leather.  But we got a great deal so we aren’t complaining too much.  I won’t lie, this was not the ideal time for all this to happen, but the Lord did bless us in so many ways with everything that happened after our accident.  We couldn’t be happier with our new family member.  Now I just have to switch my way of thinking to not call the Suzuki mine.  Now it is the small car and the new car.  Well that’s what we are trying to call them at least. We will see how well that works.  But Welcome to the Family Ford Escape!

 (I hope you enjoyed our mean trick of trying to convince you that I had my baby.  Te he he)

I am 30 weeks along now!  It’s crazy to think that in just two short months this little guy will join our family.  Yesterday, Tyler and I went to the doctors and got to see him again. They weren’t checking on him necessarily so it was just a quick look.  But I found out that I can deliver normally as long as things continue as they have been.  The problem was my placenta was too low, but it moved up and I’m in the clear!  I found out that his head is by my hips, his bum is above my belly button, and his feet… well his feet are bruising my ribs.  I decided something though, I would rather have the pain in my ribs than have him jumping on my bladder. 

Things are going really well too.  Tyler and I have all the big things ready for him.  We have a crib, an awesome red dresser, a bassinet, and a car seat.  I am going to attempt to make the bedding so we will see how that goes.  I just can’t wait to meet this little guy in a few months.  But I thought I would update you all on how things are going.  So that’s that.  I’m getting tired again and my headaches continue to persist because tylenol doesn’t really help much.  Other than that, things are great.  Tyler is always great to help out around the house and to get me my random cravings when I want them, even though he thinks I’m crazy.  I love him for all he does for me and this little baby though.

For those of you who aren’t around, here is a picture of me at 29 weeks!  Enjoy!

Alright… So I’m a little slow to update our blog, so here is a little update. At the beginning of August we found out some really good news. Tyler and I are going to have a boy! I’m really excited because he will have a cousin to play with.

That’s the other good news. My sister, Katie, had a baby boy at the beginning of September. She named him Brennan Lee Phelps. He is a cute sweet little baby and will only be three months older than my little boy.

So that is my good late news! Now I am 29 Weeks along and things are going really well. I’m getting a little uncomfortable, but feeling the baby is so much fun! I’m just excited to see this mini Tyler join our family.

On thurday night Tyler and I decided to do something I consider to be quite dumb.   We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter.  Was it worth it?  Oh ya!  It was such a good end to Harry Potter, done excellently!  And we went with a bunch of people we love.  Nolan bought us tickets, so we went with a bunch of his friends and our friends.  It was so much fun and it was 3D and IMax!  Couldn’t be better.  We only get 3.5 hours of sleep that night before work came the next morning but it was totally worth it!  Thank you Nolan for an awesome night.

Nolan took this picture for us, but it is Bellatrix in the background… awesome!