Baby Brynlee

On Saturday, November 24th, at 8:29 a.m., Brynlee Barnum was born. She weighed 6 lbs 11oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. She has a head full of dark of hair.

She came out completely bruised. She was VERY stuck inside of my ribs. They were pushing and pulling and grabbing for quite some time before they were finally able to get her out. (This explains why my ribs were constantly achy and I felt like I couldn't breathe half of the time.) The left side of her face had a nice bruise on it, her back had a complete hand print on it from the Dr. trying to dislodge her, even her little pinky toe came out all black and blue. She came out crying and looking very good. Then after about 1/2 hour decided she didn't want to breathe very well. So, off to the NICU she went. When I found out that they had admitted her to the NICU I cried. We have been here with the first 2 and it is such a long process to get them out of the NICU once they are in there. There is a whole set of steps that have to happen once they get to this point and it becomes a VERY frustrating process.

 My sweet little baby. So sad to see her this way.

 We weren't able to hold her for the first 2 days. I was finally able to hold her at the very end of the 2nd day. Geoff had already left for the night, so he came in the next day and was able to hold her.

 Poor little baby girl.  I still had not been able to feed her at this point. They told me that once her breathing gets to a certain point that I would be able to feed her. So, on the 4th day, I called down to the NICU first thing in the morning and asked them how she had done throughout the night and they said that her breathing had been good, so they were slowly going to take her off of everything. I then asked if I could come and feed her...best question I could have asked ever!!! They said yes...and because I was going to be feeding her, they took her off of everything right away, instead of taking an entire day to do it. YAY!!!

She was eating like a champ and because she was breathing well and eating good, they let her stay in my room that night and I got to feed her and do everything. (Here she is off of everything and in my room.) She did so well, that the Dr. said she could come home. So, on Wednesday, we were able to bring her home. (I Believe that all of this happening so fast is a direct result of prayer. We had so many wonderful people praying for her and I feel as though without this, she would still be there trying to eat and gain weight just as we have gone through with the other 2. I am so thankful for this gospel and for the power of prayer. There was even one of the nurses who was working on me that said that she was praying for me and my baby. It has been a humbling experience having so people praying and helping us out at home through all of this. I know that the Lord is aware of us and our needs and He has taken very good care of our family in a way that is completely overwhelming to think about.)
She was looking really jaundice, so we had to take her the Dr. the next day for a blood check. She was fine and the levels were going down. The conclusion of her yellow looking appearance is all of the bruising is trying to work itself out of her system and this is how it is doing it.

 First time the girls were able to see her. First sister picture!! Crazy that there is 3 girls now!! AHHH!

 Camden doesn't really know what to think. In this picture, Geoff was trying to show him Brynlee and all he wanted to do was attack her and hit her and play with her as if she was a toy.

 Here she is just swinging away. We still can't decide who she looks like. I will have to do a post of all of them as babies and then maybe we will be able to tell.

Her first bath. She didn't even cry. She actually enjoyed it.

 Daddy taking a little break from the chaos and just chilling with his baby. I love this picture.

 I also love this picture. All of the kiddos checking out the new babe.

This is one of Brynlee's favorite things to do. She loves to just sit and stare at the Christmas tree. 

We are so grateful to be home and to be together as a family again. While in the hospital all I wanted was to be home. I longed to be there with my other kids. I love being a mom to these sweet kids and wouldn't trade  it for the world. Welcome home sweet Brynlee!!