Widler, Party of Four

Our family is now one teeny, tiny person bigger.

 

Breckin Grace Widler came into the world at 10:03 AM on February 9, 2017.

9 pounds. 13 ounces. 21 inches long.

I had good intentions of posting about our newest little girl closer to her arrival, but it just didn’t happen. I’m already off of maternity leave and back to work! But, for your enjoyment – or more likely, my desire to document our family life – I’ve got the scoop on little Breckin.

LABOR WITH BRECKIN

Collins was stubborn. She was 6 days late and came on her own almost exactly 1 hour after our scheduled inducement would have taken place. Breckin was only stubborn by the fact that she was relatively humongous. Didn’t you read the third line of this blog – 9 LBS 13 OZ people. Almost 10 pounds of baby – yeesh. Large for a newborn, but she is still teeny tiny. A perfect little thing that is fragile in every way. And I mean that. It takes laser supervision to make sure Collins doesn’t hurt her on a daily basis. Whether it’s on accident or with purpose changes from moment to moment, but I’ve still had to keep quite the watchful eye on them both. But, Collins is learning to be gentle. Slowly, but surely.

 

I started having contractions with Breckin around 3:30 AM the morning she was born. I’ll do the math real quick for you to spell out that I was only in labor for about 6 hours. It was SO fast! Anywho, my contractions began and were about 20 minutes apart. Then 10. Then 17. Then 12. Then 7. As they consistently started getting closer together I of course was rather uncomfortable and spent a lot of time whining in pain and walking to and from the bathroom, and back to bed. Finally, they were 5 minutes apart for about 3 rounds in a row and I woke Codee up and told him it was time to go to the hospital. Bless his heart he was willing to jump in the car without brushing his teeth, but I knew (felt?) we had enough time for that. Collins woke up right before we left of course – which made leaving much harder. I think she knew something big was about to happen. But I gave her my last “only child hugs” and lots of kisses and finally climbed into the car. FYI riding in a car during labor is about the worst part of the entire charade.

Everything went MUCH smoother this time at the hospital, compared to my experience with Collins. Yes, my baby was larger – that made the pushing part harder – but everything else was much easier. My epidural went well and worked properly. I dilated much quicker, and on my own. And everything after birth was easier and less hectic as well. No hemorrhaging, no threat of an emergency C-Section, no catheters, no uncontrollable bleeding, no forceps. I actually got to relax and take a bath! That was heaven.

 

 

The most stressful thing I dealt with after her arrival was choosing a name! Ha. Nope, we hadn’t decided on a name prior to coming to the hospital. We had a couple ideas (or rather I did, because Codee really was zero help in this department), but I was really tired of worrying about it my entire pregnancy. Finally, we landed on Breckin. Her middle name comes from one of my younger sisters -who will be her Godmother. And is also what Codee wanted to use as Collins’ middle name, so I gave it to him this time 😉

 

GOING HOME WITH BRECKIN

With Collins I was so ready to get out of the hospital. We spent 3 long days there and I was ready to be at home relaxing with my new baby. With Breckin, I was glad to be coming home, but I knew it really meant more work. Two babies to care for now!

 

Of course I have Codee to help me, and it has worked great so far when he is able to distract Collins while I care for Breckin. We are all just separate moving parts (especially Collins whose part runs about 10 times faster than ours) and getting us all in sync is a daily challenge!

COLLINS AND BRECKIN

Collins was a little mortified when she visited and met Breckin at the hospital for the first time, but since then she has shown zero jealousy which I am totally surprised by! She has always been a mama’s girl so I was expecting her to be very clingy with me and upset whenever I had to care for Breckin over her, but she has been great in regards to that. It’s teaching her to be gentle that we have struggled with so far. She likes to poke and pull and point out every body part on Breckin. We’re working on that – ha. She is getting better and loves holding and kissing her. She gives Breckin toys – only her own of course 😉 – and is USUALLY helpful if I ask her to get something for me or hand me an item (diaper, wipe, burpcloth, blanket, etc). She is a very good big sister!

 

I already love watching them interact and grow together. And having a little baby in the house again, although exhausting, is amazing. Codee and I are so blessed to have two healthy, beautiful girls.

Thanks for reading!

I’ll try not to stay away so long next time!

Lots of Love,

Katie

A Room to Grow In

New baby girl is here! Leading up to her birth we were definitely behind the curve in making space for this new little chick, as I had been going through phases of nesting – freaking about time to get everything done, procrastinating, being super productive, and around again. And we were unbelievably busy this entire fall/winter between our big vacation abroad and all of the holidays and family events – not to mention work and Codee’s schooling! As things were finally beginning to calm down and come together we finished the new room!! And just in time to greet Breckin Grace…

So, the first decision that I had to make was if the girls were going to get separate rooms or not. I decided “no” for a couple of reasons.

1. We have 3 bedrooms upstairs and one in the basement. The basement bedroom is currently designated to Codee’s workout equipment, and the other spare room on the main floor is currently a guest room/my craft room. I really like having a guest room and I don’t have another great place to put all of my crafting supplies so nixing that room didn’t seem plausible.

2. Although Collins has had her own room for the past nearly two years, she hasn’t actually slept in it. We’ve been co-sleeping with her and as we are just now beginning to transition her into her own space, I felt giving her an updated “Big Girl Room” was the way to encourage her to sleep on her own. With all that being said, I predict Breckin will co-sleep with us for some period of time as well, so even though all of their things will be in the same room, it will primarily function as “Collins’ Room.”

3. Even though babies have a lot of stuff and our bedrooms are small, having the girls share a room seems a lot more reasonable than designating two entire rooms to diapers, toys, and little girl clothes.

4. I wanted each child to feel like they had a unique space that was theirs. Not changing any of the rooms would mean Collins finally sleeping in her nursery, but Breckin not actually having a space we created just for her. Giving Collins a new room, and sticking Breckin in the existing nursery (no change in décor) felt like she was already receiving  a hand-me-down from Collins. She wouldn’t get that special space I created just for her arrival like I had done for Collins. So, creating a shared room that was new to both of them seemed the fairest and most economical way to go. You know, because they will obviously catch on to what’s going on and be upset in some way if it’s not fair 😉

After deciding that they would share a room I had to figure out which room that was going to be. I landed on switching the rooms that had formerly functioned as guest room and Collins’ nursery. I thought the guest room was configured better for two beds and it already had a coral accent wall, which went with the theme I wanted to create in this new space. On the flip side, I wanted to make the guest room more neutral when I got around to redecorating it, so moving it to the nursery, which had all grey walls, worked great as well.

I kept the coral accent wall like I said, but changed up the other walls by switching from a tan to a cream to brighten the space a bit.

Deciding on a new bed for Collins was a task as well. I didn’t want to buy a tiny toddler bed she would only use for a year or two. But I didn’t have room to incorporate a twin sized bed AND a crib. So I stuck with the toddler sized mattress and had Codee build a simple bed frame for her that was much cheaper than purchasing a new bed set.

We still need to add a railing, but I love that Collins can climb in and out of it by herself. It turned out so cute!

I put Codee to work some more with lots of different shelves/wall décor.

Some floating shelves for toys and knick knacks…

And we replaced the wire shelving in the closet with new wood shelves – so pretty!

Lastly, we tried our hands at building house-shaped shelves. I was going back and forth on painting these white like the floating shelves, but deciding on keeping them the natural wood grain and painting the interior a mint blue color – aren’t they ADORABLE?

One extra special piece of the room is the “mural” I had a friend paint for me on the closet wall. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! Shout out to Ashley – thank you!

And the finishing touches are always the best part. Lots of little accessories, new bedding and pillows, an area rug.

I hope Collins and Breckin love this room as much as I do!

Thanks for Reading! Until next time!

Lots of Love,

Katie