Memory challenge

Beth Moore is doing a challenge for memorizing scripture. The challenge is to memorize two scriptures a month- a very doable goal! Myself, my mom, two sisters and grandma are all participating and doing the same scriptures. We take turns choosing the scripture. So twice a month I will post the verse on here as another form of accountability!

Verse #1: Deut. 1:31
“…the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

Verse #2: James 1:2-4
"Consider it pure joy my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds because you know that trials produces perserverance. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything."

I chose the verses from James... my dad started a series at church this week called Faith Works- a study through the book of James. So it seemed like an appropriate way to get started.

Sleepless in Owass0 {just had to do it...}

When we had Brynlee {and the weeks leading up to her birth} everyone kept saying, "the first two weeks are the harderst, "just get through the first two weeks and you will be fine." Maybe for most people this is the case- but not so for us! Of course the first two weeks weren't easy, but compared to the last three, it was a breeze.

The first two weeks Brynlee slept great {in my opinion}. It may have only been two hours at a time, but it was 20 hours of the day. Through the night she would sleep, wake up to nurse and go immediately back to sleep. Now, it was hard getting up all the time {and we stayed up later so that we didn't get up as much "through the night"} but we were still able to sleep through the night. She also ate great {which is still the case}. Luckily we really didn't have too many issues with breast feeding.

Once we hit the three week mark- things changed dramatically. First off, Brynlee was having a growth spurt. This meant she wanted to eat every hour or hour and a half- if we were lucky. Imagine you are eating each hour and it takes you at least 30 minutes to eat. By the time she was done and would fall asleep- it was time to eat again. So for a solid four days this was our life. I basically did not get up off the couch!

I don't know if it's because she wasn't sleeping because she was always eating, or something else, but when this was over Brynlee was no longer sleeping. She would nurse, fall asleep and twenty minutes after we put her down she would be wide awake again. We would get her back asleep and twenty minutes later- awake. Super frustrating. That lasted about a week. Then this glorious week she just decided to not sleep at all. I could get her to sleep maybe 3-4 hours throughout the day {only in my arms} but that was it. She wasn't going to bed until 4-6 A.M. 

All week we tried different things
- sleeping on her back, side and stomach
- swaddling her in blankets, swaddlers, putting a blanket over her or leaving her without anything
- we moved her into her crib, used the swing, car seat, driving in the car and  the bassinet
- we tried music, static noise, a noise maker and ocean waves
- we tried rocking her, walking around, standing next to running water, laying on the couch with her
- we tried letting her sleep all day whenever she wanted and keeping her awake as much as possible 

I am pretty sure there were other things that I can't even remember.

All this to say: last night for the first time in three weeks... she slept!! She was asleep from 10:30-2:30 and 3:15-7:45. Let's just say it was AMAZING. Now we didn't sleep all that great {keep thinking she was going to wake up- couldn't relax}. 

Grace loves baby cousin Brynlee!

maybe a little jealous about mommy holding the baby!

BUT here is the problem. Now we need to recreate whatever we did last night so that she will sleep again! Not really even sure about what we did differently {if there was anything}. Or maybe she just decided it was time. Either way we are just praying she will sleep again tonight {not a good track record for Saturday nights}.

Most of the pictures are from Christmas... but since I didn't get around to post about it- here they are!

1 month

Brynlee- today you are one month old!

I am not sure about your weight or height {based on the clothes you are outgrowing... you are def. growing!} We will get the official stats in our next appointment in a month.

You wear mostly newborn clothes {much to my surprise with how big you were} ... a few 0-3 months, and are about to move up to a size 1 diaper {once this box of newborn is gone}. We still don't really have a schedule. We were starting to get there but then you hit a growth spurt... and for the last three days you have been eating every 1-1 1/2 hours. But I think it may be over now seeing as how you have been asleep for two hours already! At night you mostly sleep for 3 hours at a time. A couple of times you have stretched to 4 hours- and it was amazing! You are very alert and great at holding your head up. When laying on our chest you like to push up with your forearms to look around. You still love to be swaddled or wrapped in a blanket at almost all times! You don't exactly love the car seat- and you definitely DO NOT love the sling. We will be revisiting the sling issue in the near future because I could really use the extra hands! At night you sleep in our room in the bassinet. When you wake up we change your diaper, swaddle you, nurse, burp and go back to sleep.

Your first month of life has been very busy. You went to Christmas Eve services at church. Christmas day was spent at Grandma and Grandpa Curran's, Aunt Linda and Uncle Duane's for lunch and back home for dinner with the rest of the family. You have been out to Target shopping with the girls {grandma and aunt Elizabeth}, one trip to Sam's and even made your first appearance at Bueno for lunch. New Year's Eve was spent at the Aberle's. This week will be your first Sunday at church... and we are ready to be back in church after a month away! You even had newborn pictures taken!

We are so excited to have you here with us! We pray for you daily that you would grow up to love God and love people! You are precious baby girl and a joy to our lives!

To say the last month has been a bit crazy would be an understatement.

Here are some of the pictures we had taken by a wonderful photographer! She's pretty cute!

Brynlee's Birth Story

Wednesday, December 8th:
 40 weeks pregnant exactly- as of Monday I had not made any more progress towards having our baby! James decided to come home around lunch to just hang out for the afternoon. So we headed off to lunch. While eating I started having mild contractions that were anywhere from 5-7 minutes apart. These continued throughout the afternoon. Sometime around five, they started getting more regular at five minutes and a little more intense. Even though they still didn't hurt that bad, we decided to go to the hospital just to check things out.

We arrive at the hospital at 6:30. The nurse checks everything and hooks me up to the monitor to watch contractions for an hour. After an hour I was still dilated the same as when we came in {4cm}. Since we only live two miles from the hospital the doctor said we could go home- but the nurse told us we would be back that night {her guess was around midnight}.

Leaving for the hospital the first time.

So we leave the hospital and immediately the contractions are much more intense and closer together. By the time we got home at 9:00, I could not talk through the contractions and the pain had at least doubled. I tried to relax like the nurse said to, but that wasn't happening. So at about 10:30 we headed back to the hospital.

Once again the nurse checked everything and I was now 5cm dilated- so we were staying. We moved rooms and an hour later had progressed to 7cm dilated. The nurse called the anesthesiologist {who was 35 minutes away in South Tulsa} hoping he would get there in time. {They did give me "pain" medicine in the meantime. It didn't really take away any pain but allowed me to at least breath through the contractions.} Within the next hour I was 9 cm dilated. The anesthesiologist arrived to give me the epidural- which let me say, was not nearly as scary as I had imagined, and was even more wonderful than I had imagined.

Apparently I kept the room super cold- James decided to warm up while waiting for Brynlee

Just hanging- post epidural!

Although labor had been moving along very quickly, at this point everything kind of changed. Sometime in between being checked the previous time and getting the epidural, Brynlee had flipped and was now face up. Since this happened, she basically stopped making any more progress. So now we were waiting.

The nurses had me do a couple of things to try to get her to flip or at least labor down so that I could still push her out. So this whole time we had the on-call doctor. By this time, it was about 4:00 in the morning. The doctor was scheduled to have his own surgery that morning at 7:00, so he had to leave. This meant he could call my doctor in for the actual delivery! I was pretty excited to hear this... the whole time I was pretty nervous about not being able to deliver with my doctor. So yea. By 5:30 the nurses and my doctor felt like Brynlee was finally in the position that I could push. So I did- and Brynlee was born at 5:59 A.M. December 9th.

first family photo

I can't say enough about the nurses that we had. One nurse was even the mom of one of our good friends from church. They were all wonderful and really worked for us. {Later we found out that the had the on-call doctor stayed through the morning, he probably would have made us do a C-section} Overall, it really was a good experience!

Brynlee

She has arrived...

Brynlee Anne Summers was born at 5:59 A.M. Thursday, December 9th. 

And of course she is perfect and amazing- currently taking a small nap in her swing!

There is much more to come about her birth and arrival, but for now a few pictures...

There is plenty more to come... later!

still no baby...

So we went to the doctor again today. Everything is the same as last week- nothing has changed. I have to say, I was pretty surprised. I thought she would be here already. Oh well, she will come when she is good and ready! 

Last week a friend of mine took some pictures for us! They are super awesome... aside from me looking giant! Anyways- she is really talented and took a half hour and did some awesome work. SO here are a few of my favorites! Thanks Trisha!!

28 years later...

28 years ago the most amazing man was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma- James Thomas Summers. You were special from the beginning. Not only were you made in God's image, but you were made to bring glory to him, something you have taken joy in doing for 28 years.

There are many things you loved growing up {most of which you still}. Let's be honest, anything that has to do with fixing things or getting dirty! You were all boy growing up and are still a kid in many ways. You enjoy taking risks and give everything 120%.

7 years ago, God brought you into my life. Little did we know that riding in the same van to Colorado would turn into so much. Of course, it took a while- which was good since I was 17! Plus I thought you were old and so had no interest in anything more than a friendship!

But over the course of the next year- things changed for both of us! After getting to know you over the course of that year and the next 6 years here is what I have learned about you-

1. You love God with all of your heart and desire to live your life for him- following His plan for your life

2. You love me... more than I could ever ask someone too- and let's be honest we all know I have changed quite a bit in the last 6 years and you choose to grow and change with me and continue to love me

3. You relish your role as a husband- being the head of the house. You take this job seriously and truly understand that in order for our marriage to be successful, God is at the center of everything- and our family is ultimately your responsibility

4. You are SO excited to become a dad. I have no doubt that you will be AMAZING

5. After God, me, our family... comes our immediate and extended family. You love being around people- especially our siblings, parents, and nieces and nephews!

6. You love all kids and desire for each one of them to know Jesus and experience God's love in their life- you truly LOVE what you do each day! 

7. You love working outside or fixing things. Even on your day off, you choose to work!

8. You are one of the most understanding people I have ever met {this only being exemplified through my constant schooling and now pregnancy... I have always had your support in doing whatever I need to do!}

9. You are slowly but surely turning into a sports fan. While my family would wish it wasn't because of OU- we all love that you now enjoy watching football and sometimes basketball!

10. Everything you do and who you are brings glory to God each day!

I am beyond blessed to have you in my life! Happy birthday! I love you more today than I did yesterday!