family – Page 4 – Being Brickner

Three weeks into having three kids and I still cannot believe that they are all mine! So excited to document our girls meeting each other for the first time ever today, I was easily just as excited to meet our newest baby girl as I was for her to meet her big sisters. It was a moment I thought about for ten months and also one that got me through those last hard weeks of being so overdue. I can still remember all the sweet details of a tiny Waverly coming to see Avalon for the first time, it was everything and this time around was just as special — if I could relive both moments a thousand times over I would.

Remerie was born in the early afternoon, and I kind of wanted to wait a little while to rest & recuperate before the girls came, but once they knew she had arrived there was exactly 0% chance of that happening. After talking with them on the phone and hearing their excited little voices, there was no way I wasn’t going to have them come. My mom, sister & mother-in-law brought them when Remie was just a few hours old and I will never forget their happy (& nervous!) faces coming through the door and seeing their baby sister for the first time.

A trio of sisters, I hope they always know how very lucky they are to have each other for life.

At this point, sweet girl actually had no name — we didn’t end up naming her until the following day when she was right at 24 hours old! Long story short, we went back & forth on names fooooorever throughout my pregnancy, we struggled to agree on one and to find one that we thought flowed with the other girls names. We found one that we both really loved and agreed on it around 30 weeks, but for whatever reason I still kept thinking of other names. Remington was our boy name even before Avalon, Remie for short, and my husband still loved it for a girl (he would call her Remie!) — and even though I loved Remie and kept coming back to it, I just didn’t love Remington for our daughter since I had always pictured it for a boy. And then one night, literally in the middle of the night when I was SEVEN DAYS OVERDUE and too uncomfortable to sleep, I was searching online and found the name Remerie, a surname & city in France. And loved it.

I had already ordered a name banner and an initial pillow in her other name, but the next morning I messaged the shop to see if I could get a second possibly by the time she was born, and my husband & I decided to wait to meet her and then decide between the two names. I knew the minute I saw her that she was our Remerie, it took us some time to officially agree, but by the time we did ironically my mom had run to our house and her “Remie” name banner had arrived the day she was born.

Our Remie Rue, it was meant to be all along! So funny to think that if she had been born on time that she would have a different name, but now I could never, ever imagine her anything else. To our three sweet girls, we are forever thankful for each & every one of you!!!!!!!!

Happiest OCTOBER, stopping in today to share a list of activities we hope to check off the list over the next few weeks! Last year’s can be found here, this time around our expectations are not so high with a newborn in tow, but we are so excited to bring Remerie along for all the fun. Both Waverly & Avalon were born in the summer and middle of the heat, so I am already loving having a tiny babe this time of year! Strolling her around for walks around the neighborhood in the cooler weather has just been the best, such a welcome change from walking around overdue and with a huge belly in the heat just a month ago.

Pumpkin carving party with friends.

Decorate our downstairs with lots of bats and pumpkins.

Smores and a bonfire in the yard.

Read all our favorite Halloween & Fall books.

Go on a family hike.

Make treats for our new neighbors, pumpkin bread and chocolate-covered pretzels.

Annual pumpkin patch trip, one of my favorite activities of the year!

Fall festivals at both Waverly & Avalon’s schools.

And of course we couldn’t kick off the new month without some festive jams, Remie couldn’t fit in a pair quite yet but you know I am getting all kinds of excited for matching the three of them soon!

Wishing you the best October ahead! XO

Aaaah, the day our sweet Remie Rue was born — along with my other girls birthdays, forever one of the happiest days of my life! Her labor was probably the one I was most nervous and anxious about, plus also the one we thought would possibly end up in a C-section, and it actually ended up being my quickest, easiest, most-laid back of all three and the days since then have been the easiest transition as well!

I was induced with both Waverly & Avalon and both times had really long labors (48 hours for the first and 24 for the second), I took forever to dilate both times which was extremely frustrating. Avalon’s delivery was also super scary, her shoulders got stuck on the way out and I didn’t even get to hold her as the NICU team was working with her for the first minutes of her life. Because of all this, I was offered an induction at 39 weeks, mainly because my doctor wanted to avoid a C-section (as did I) and she thought the best way to do that was to make sure she didn’t get too big. I REALLY did not want another induction after my first two experiences, of course I was going to do whatever was best for the baby but she was moving around a ton, my fluid levels looked great and she had been measuring small my whole pregnancy, so I felt confident waiting. My doctor agreed to let me wait until 40 weeks, and scheduled an induction for the following Tuesday, the girls first day of school. The day before the induction I just didn’t feel right about it, I was showing signs of labor (that I had never had in either of my first two pregnancies) so I still wanted to give my body time and also really hated the idea of missing the girls first day of school for a scheduled induction. I texted my doctor and instead of the induction, the next day I went to labor & delivery for a non-stress test to check on the baby. She still looked great, her heart rate was perfect and the fluid levels still looked good so the nurses there agreed, I could wait it out some more. I was so uncomfortable and over it at this point — and SO READY to meet her! — but kept reminding myself of how far I had made it and that I was so close.

Sunday the 9th, nine days overdue, I woke up and did not feel her move at all, even after drinking two cups of cold apple juice and eating crackers — which was just not like her. She was the busiest of all three girls in my belly, right up until the end and this was the first time my entire pregnancy I couldn’t get her to move by laying on my side and waiting. We headed straight for the hospital, kind of freaking out the entire time, and were given another non-stress test once we got there. She was fine, but not quite as active as she had been, and my fluid levels were getting low. My husband & I both knew it was time, I had waited as long as I could and would never have forgiven myself if something had happened to her because I kept waiting — ultimately our priority was a healthy baby!

I was put straight on pitocin and almost immediately, it felt like both my other labors all over again. The contractions were strong and painful, but my body wasn’t dilating. After hours with little to no progress, we decided to do cervadil instead overnight, to see if it would help me dilate. I hardly slept and was super uncomfortable with contractions all through the night, but just hoped that meant my body was finally doing something. They checked me the next morning, and for the first time ever, I had dilated from the cervadil to a two. Which for me, was huge! I went back on a small dose of pitocin and this time, the contractions were stronger, closer, and were actually making me dilate! I made it a couple hours before the epidural, and once I had that, was able to relax and was getting sooooooo excited to meet her soon.

The next hour or so was actually really laid-back and peaceful (I will never know how anyone ever does it without the epidural), and before I could even process how quickly everything was going I started feeling major pressure — I had dilated to a ten! I pushed for about FIVE MINUTES and there she was — perfect and healthy as can be, in my arms and with no complications. She had a head full of dark hair which was just the craziest thing ever to us, the same bright blue eyes that both her big sisters had, and the sweetest, daintiest little features that were all her own. It honestly felt like a dream, the happiest dream, which was so very fitting after nine months of a surprise, surreal pregnancy with our third baby girl.

I was up, walking and feeling great within a couple hours and have had a really seamless recovery since then. Feeling grateful for that and of course most of all, for our Remie Rue!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you, angel girl and cannot believe that you are ours forever.

PS — I promise to share the story of her name soon, along with some pictures of the big girls meeting her for the first time which was hands down just the BEST! Thank you again for all your support and sweet comments for our little girl gang, we are forever thankful for your support and love!

We welcomed our third baby girl, Remerie Rue Brickner, into the world one week ago today — Monday, September 10th at 1:10pm! Remie weighed 7 pounds & 10 ounces, is 20 inches long, and shocked us all with a head FULL of dark hair. She is precious and perfect, we are all in heaven and just cannot get enough of her!

I ended up going nine days overdue, which kind of felt like ninety, but the labor and delivery was by far my easiest and my recovery has been as well! I will share her birth story soon, but for now, we are just soaking every bit of her newborn sweetness in and cannot believe she is ours. We really can’t decide who she looks like, and keep going back & forth between Waverly and Avalon, but mostly she looks like my husband’s baby pictures. Neither of the girls had the dark hair (or near as much of it!), so it will be fun to see if it falls out or changes color. Her little features are so dainty, and even though she is our biggest baby by a few ounces, she just seems so little.

Right as she was born last Monday, the weather forecast had Hurricane Florence headed straight our way so it turned a crazy week even crazier. Schools were cancelled from Tuesday through Friday, and I was pretty sure I was leaving the hospital with our newborn and headed home for the first time as a family of five to a category four hurricane. Thankfully it weakened, made a turn and ended up sparing us almost entirely which I was SO GRATEFUL for, but of course our thoughts are with those in North & South Carolina who did not get so lucky. Having the girls off school and my husband home from work because of all the cancellations has been the best, we have been able to take long family walks, sleep in some, and adjust to having three kids. So far, Remie is super laid-back and the girls absolutely adore her, so it’s been a really easy transition. But of course the real fun starts tomorrow when my husband heads back to work and I have to get all three girls up, ready and out the door for school and doctor’s appointments. Wish me luck!

Thank you all for your sweet messages and support over the past week, it means so much to all of us! And to our sweet Remie Rue, we could not love you one bit more!!!!! You are the best surprise of our lives and we could already never imagine a life without you in it.

I am fiiiiinally getting around to sharing some favorites from our family photo session taken back in November for our holiday cards! We met our sweet friend Shawna for these, in one of our absolute favorite locations to explore in Virginia Beach, I love how they turned out and am so happy to have another set of beautiful memories to look back on.

Also keeping it real, the girls were not on their best picture-taking game this day. Avalon fought a nap all afternoon and then finally fell asleep on the way there, so we had to wake her up and she was super grouchy (not like her at all) and clingy pretty much the entire time. Waverly Maye, girlfriend was on her own agenda and still in the stage of practicing her own independence as a new kindergartener. Our girls usually enjoy taking pictures and get pretty into it, so it was pretty frustrating that they weren’t the one day of the year we had holiday photos, yet such is motherhood. Through the years I am learning more and more to embrace the good and the not so good, because somehow, I know I will miss it all one day. And when you step back, all of it is beautiful in it’s own way.