Imperfect Perfection : May 2015

Spring 2015

Spring has been much different for us this year, as we now have a baby in the mix. Not only does it make it more fun to celebrate traditions with baby Brooklyn, but also tough because I am a new mom that is just getting in the swing of things and have a lot less time. Either way, we had a wonderful Easter with several family members in town and also a fantastic first Mother's Day! Enjoy the photo dump:)

Three generations:)

My first Mother's Day!

Not only was it Mother's Day, but it was also the day Brooklyn took her first swim! She loves the water and I could not be more excited about it:)

1:30 PM
0 Comments

Brooklyn's Nursery

DIY

With Pinterest how does one ever decide on a nursery theme?!?! This is our first child and a girl, so I felt a little overwhelmed with all my options. I ultimately decided on a white, pink and gold theme. I love owls, but didn't want to overwhelm the room with all owl everything, so we mixed in some feathers and other animals. I absolutely love how it came out, I think it is my favorite room in the house!

The night stand has been in my family for several generations, we just sanded it down, painted it white and put on a new drawer pull:)

I made the wall art with some cheap frames that I spray painted gold and traced baby animals onto

gold craft paper.

The saying above Brooklyn's crib is from a the book "I Love You Forever", which was a book my mom read to my sisters and I and then gifted to me. The curtains were hand made by my Aunt Shelly. I found the idea on Etsy, but they were almost $80 a panel. Luckily, my aunt is a wiz with the sewing machine and she took care of them for me:) They make the room, in my opinion! I found this gold bin at Target, which holds her blankets, on sale $11 off of $30!

I was originally looking for gold polka dot wall decals but didn't want to spend that much on them. So, AJ found a living social to Wallums and they had these fabulous feathers, which I like so much more than the dots. We put them throughout the room and I am so in love with them!

We added some floating shelves for her video monitor and some fun details. The giraffe mom and baby below were in mine and my sister's room when we were little. A fresh coat of gold spray paint on them and the owl and we were set! My sister-in-law gave me the two lambs which were in her childhood room and the care bare was given to me by Brooklyn's namesake (my sister)...I love having so many sentimental items in her nursery and I am sure down the road Brooklyn will appreciate the history:)

The below gold tree was actually décor from one of our baby showers and at first, I just had it sitting on the floor. While I was searching Pinterest for head band storage ideas, it hit me that I could use the limbs and it is perfect!!

12:46 PM
0 Comments

Welcome to the World Brooklyn Nichole Copeland!

baby

Ahhhhh! It is all so scary, even though it is a planned pregnancy, the life change is unknown and scary. AJ and I were very excited to welcome our little girl to our family on March 2, 2015 (on her due date)! I always tell people that if AJ could have had babies with me five years ago, he would have, so I am very happy he is getting this experience.

Welcome to the world Brooklyn Nichole Copeland - March 2, 2015 - 7lbs - 20 inches long :)

The name: we named Brooklyn's middle name after my older sister, who passed away from Leukemia in 2006. Her name was Ashley Nichole Skidmore. After we knew her middle name, AJ came up with Brookyn, it is a mix of my middle name (Brooke), my mom's middle name (Lynn) and my little sister's nick name (Lin/Linny).

The Birth Story:

On March 1st, (one day before my due date) I woke up feeling like I had a urinary tract infection and overall wasn't feeling very well. I called my mom (crying) about not feeling well and of course, being over the whole pregnancy thing. She came over and brought us lunch around 1 pm. I let her know I was having Braxton Hicks (which I had been having since week 35) all morning. Around 1 pm, she was like "ummm we need to time this, because I think you may be in labor." Low and behold, they were 10 minutes apart and then 9 and then 5 and then 3...time to go to the hospital. But, before we went (when my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, I decided I had to paint my nails pink. SO here I am, in labor, sitting on a yoga ball, painting my nails!!!

We arrived at the hospital at 6:30pm and got admitted and hooked up very fast. By this time, the contractions were in full swing, I mean 1 minute apart and PAINFUL! My mom and sister and step father arrived shortly after that, to witness the worst part of labor. I was throwing up with every contractions and probably wasn't very nice (but, I don't really remember). All I was doing was focusing on the pain and of course I forgot my breathing, so the nurse is like "just relax when they hit"...um...ok, if feels like my entire torso is in a meat grinder and that is her advice! Although, of course she was right, it is just hard to believe in that minute. So around 9:30pm, I asked for my epidural and got it about an hour later when we moved in the birthing suite.

After that...it was easy peasy, seriously, I slept better than all my family in the room! My water had not broken at this point, so they waited all through the night to see if it would break on its own, which it never did. So, first thing in the morning (around 6:20am) my doctor came in and was like, "ok, it is time, I am going to break your water and you are going to start pushing." The pushing was the most exhausting thing I have ever done. I pushed for about and hour and a half and then she was there :) Since the had meconium, she had to be "resuscitated" so they threw her on my chest for about 2 seconds, rushed AJ through cutting the cord and then the neonatologist started to clear her lungs. Watching this process was so hard, I mean they were literally beating my brand new baby so hard! But, this is what had to be done and she was ok. Once I finally heard her first breath, I was able to relax a bit.

After that, they took my epidural out and an hour later I was walking to the bathroom (with some assistance). I have to say, that out of the pregnancy, labor and the recovery, the labor was the easiest, least painful part, in my opinion.

11:15 AM
0 Comments

A Special Addition to the Copeland's :)

baby belly photos

AJ and I had been trying to get pregnant for about four months when we found out we were pregnant. I knew I wanted to document my ever growing baby belly and other fun details, so at 15 weeks (this is when I felt I was showing), I set out to take a photo every week, which was kind of a lot of work, but I did it and only missed week 16! It is so cool to have these photos to look at the progression. The very last photo before baby, was actually when I was in active labor, right before we left the house to go to the hospital. I actually made AJ get the camera out of the car and come back in to take the photo and I am so glad we got it! For those of you wondering, I used Fotoflexer to add the words to each picture.