Letter to Blair - 1 Month Old

Beautiful Blair,

My sweet, sweet Blair.  I am so happy that you are part of our family.  I feel so lucky to have a daughter.  You have been so much fun.  You are so calm and chill -- and with your hyper brother -- I really appreciate that.  You are a good eater and you have been a fairly good sleeper (we are still working on this).  It has been so nice having a summer baby, we have been able to get out a bit and enjoy summer.  Mia and her family were in town this month, so we have been on the go.  I have recently started to lay low and let you nap and get on a schedule.

Your father has turned into quite the 'Papa Bear'.  He loves you so much and is so protective of you.  We were able to bless you a couple of weeks ago.  We blessed you on a Monday night at Momo & Papa's house.  Our whole family was there - which is a bit of a miracle in itself.  Your dad blessed you with beauty, confidence, intelligence, health, mental health, that you would be active, guidance by the spirit, that you could make a decision and stick with it, that you would look to your grandmas as examples, that you would have the power of prayer, that you would meet a good man, that you would have a close relationship with your heavenly father and that you are a choice daughter of your Father in Heaven.  It was a really neat blessing and afterwards we had a big party with a taco truck to celebrate.

My transition as a mother of two has been much easier than becoming a mom for the first time.  I am very tired and busy, but other than that it hasn't been too bad.  Davis still calls you 'bayybeee seeester'.  He loves to dance and I always laugh when he says 'Dance baby sister'.

This first month you have already been on a couple family getaways.  We rented a cabin in Alta for Oliver's 30 birthday and we stayed at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird so that Oliver could do a bike race.  We are excited to take you more places (once you start sleeping more).

Everyone in the family loves you so much.  My sisters can't get enough of you, your grandparents love you, and especially your parents and brother.  Thank you for coming to our family...we can't wait to take you on many adventures.

Love,

Mom.

Blair Young

This pregnancy was quite a bit different than my pregnancy with Davis.  I was lucky in that there wasn't nausea or morning sickness, but I was unlucky in that I dealt with an extreme case of pregnancy insomnia.  From about 14 weeks to about 35 weeks I didn't sleep.  I would wake up at 2am and wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night.  It was terrible.  We still went about our normal life, but I was exhausted and I was unable to keep up my normal active lifestyle.

At the beginning of my pregnancy I was convinced that I was going to have another boy.  In fact I was so convinced that I started buying decor for another boy nursery.  When we went to our 16 week appointment and the doctor decided to give us an early ultrasound.  It was still a little early to tell the gender, but during our ultrasound she told us it was a girl.  I responded saying 'no it isn't, it's a boy'.  She said, 'no...I'm pretty sure it is a girl'... and I proceeded to not believe her.  Oliver asked her how many times she had been wrong and she said she had been wrong once.  He then asked her how many times she had done this and she said thousands.  Needless to say she was correct and the results were confirmed in our 20 week ultrasound.  My mother's intuition was completely off.  I was in shock for a few weeks and had all sorts of emotions.  I don't know if fathers feel this way, but it seems like a lot more pressure to raise a child of your same gender.  Maybe I was so nervous because I knew what I would be getting into with a little girl (whereas little boys are such a mysterious adventure to me) or maybe I was nervous because I knew I would be the biggest example in her life (that is a lot of pressure)?  Either way I was nervous for a couple of months and then those nerves grew into excitement.

We had fun putting the nursery together, and buying baby girl items.  Our favorite store was Cath Kidston in Ireland, even Oliver couldn't resist.  We prepared Davis as much as possible with books and TV shows.  He would walk around talking about 'baybee seeester'.  It was so darling.

I thought for sure that baby girl would come early, because Davis had been a week early.  With Davis I never got to that totally uncomfortable and miserably pregnant stage, like I did with Blair.  My doctor was out of town the week before my due date, so I was unable to get induced at 39 weeks like a lot of women do.  At all my previous appointments I had not progressed and I was hoping to have a shorter labor than what I had gone through with Davis -- so I decided to give it a few extra days.  Still nothing happened, so on Friday, June 26 I went into Mckay Dee Hospital to be induced.  

The morning of my induction, they kept calling me and delaying my start time.  It was a busy morning in Labor and Delivery.  Finally they told me to come in at 11am.  Oliver and I dropped Davis off at my parents house and headed to the hospital.  The plan was that my parents would nap Davis at our house and then take him into Maeve's to stay for the weekend.

We got to Mckay Dee and I got hooked up to the IV and pitocin right away.  A few hours into my labor my parents called to tell us that Davis woke up from his nap with a fever of 104...not what you want to hear when you are about to have another child.  We were stressed out about Davis, but we face timed him and kept in contact with him the entire time.

I still had not progressed when I was admitted to the hospital, so I knew I was in for a long labor.  After the pitocin things progressed slowly but surely.  After a long day of taking care of Davis, my mom was able to put him to bed and run up to the hospital.  She made it there by 9:30p.  My doctor was delivering another patient at a different hospital and was running back and forth between the two of us.  We had been progressing at the same time and same rate.  At the very end she went to deliver the other patient and had me wait.  When she came running back I was at a 10 and ready to deliver.  I pushed for 10 minutes and Blair was here.  She came out wide eyed and beautiful at 11:02pm.  7 pounds 11 ounces.  It was love at first sight.

We named her after my grandfather.  We had a list of names that we were thinking about, but during my pregnancy Oliver started calling her Blair and it just felt right.

Those first couple of days in the hospital I must have had an extreme drop in hormones, because they were hard.  I do not enjoy the hospital like a lot of women do.  I think it is uncomfortable and I don't like being bothered by hospital staff every 30 mins.  I was so stressed out about taking Blair home when Davis had a fever, but I couldn't handle being at the hospital anymore.  In the middle of the night one night I wasn't able to sleep, I was up worried about Davis and about being a mother of two.  I was also upset that I was still suffering from insomnia even though I was exhausted from just having a baby.  Oliver had gone home that night to be with Davis, so I was alone.  I had already called my mom crying at 1am.  One of the nurses came in to check on me I told her I thought I was having a swing with my hormones.  She was the sweetest nurse and totally listened and gave me advice.  She told me to do skin to skin and that it would help regulate my hormones.  Holding Blair that night in the dark hospital room was the only thing that made me feel better.  Blair was such a calm and sweet newborn.  I felt so lucky to have this baby girl.  

We ended up taking baby girl home even though Davis was sick.  We made him wear hospital masks and washed his hands one million times per day.  It all worked out and I immediately felt better just being at home.  Blair is a blessing.  She was the perfect newborn and everyone commented on how calm and wonderful she was.  I hope she always knows how much I love her and how special she is to me and her father.