Brklacich Party of 5!

We found out today that our twins are both boys! We were excited and stunned to say the least. We thought one of them would be a girl. On the immediate side of my family, I am the last girl. However, much to our surprise today our twins are boys! We have already started talking names and now it is the planning. Lucky for us we have enough clothes!

A Long Time No Talk

Tonight I decided to get back on here and revitalize my efforts to keep up with this blog. Tony and I have seen lots of changes in 2011, with many new ones to come in 2012 (more to come later). The greatest love of our lives, Brady, is now 2o months old. He started trying to walk at 9 months, but a short stint in the hospital, with an IV in his foot, stopped him from putting his foot back on the ground for a while. However, in true manly form at 11 months, when a 3.5 year old gave him a kiss and said I love you, he took off after her. Thanks Kyndal!. Brady enjoyed the summer at the pool. We put him in swim lessons starting at 6 months and kept them up through the summer, so he took the pool very well. Sadly he has no fear.

Tony and I sold our house this summer, moved into an apartment, and then built our new house. We moved into this new house the week of Thanksgiving. In true fashion we hosted our family Christmas here, followed by our annual New Years Eve Party. We had a blast.

We lost our dog Toby in November 2011. It was the hardest thing Tony and I have ever had to do. Toby had Congestive Heart Failure and COPD. It got to the point where Toby's life was impaired, so we had to make a decision. However, God had a plan to make that easier. We had began rescuing and fostering dogs again about a month before Toby passed away. With that, we found a Shih Tzu, that we eventually kept, and named Mariyo. We are back to being a 2 dog house again.Yoty our oldest dog, turned 12 this year and he has welcomed Mariyo in true older brother fashion.

Brady is now in enrolled in Soccer. He absolutely loves it. We love taking him. Tony is in true Dad form. He is such a proud father and is probably the best father in the world. Those two are true peas in a pod. As for me, I love watching those two together. Nothing warms my heart more than those two.

We have a surprise for everyone coming soon. I will post when I know more.

Life as we know it

It has been a while since I have posted on here. Brady was born on April 16 and I only took 4 weeks off. At 6 weeks, Brady went on his first business trip with mom. We took him to Chicago. His next trip was to San Francisco at 9 weeks. Then we went back to Chicago @ 12 weeks. He has been to Arkansas 4 times already. He is quite the traveling little dude, just like his parents.
Tony and I feel like we haven't missed a beat. Granted it takes us a little more time to leave the house, but we love it. He is a happy little guy and sleeps 12 hours. What could be better? We are truly blessed.
All of this comes, at a very trying time in our marriage. God puts challenges in our paths on a daily basis. Some of them are small and some of them are huge. So, my life, as I thought it would be when Brady got here, is not quite what I had planned. We have some really great friends who have offered support, haven't judged, and just been there to listen. It is times like this where God's amazing grace and infinite wisdom are shown. I am not sure how I could have dealt with some of this without knowing such a loving God and knowing he put some really amazing people in our lives. Then I have to remember that life in general is not going to happen the way I plan it out. It is going to happen on God's plan and there is a reason for everything. No matter how bad the hurt there is a reason. We may not be able to see it or understand it now, but in the end we will be able to see it. For me personally, I have had to grow in many areas, but the two most important are anger and forgiveness. No matter how bad we hurt and get mad, remember that Jesus died on the cross for us and I have no doubt that hurt a lot worse. Thru that action, he forgave. He died to show forgiveness. I sit and think what would I do to show forgiveness. He made it easy for us, we don't have to die to show it, we just have to live and show it to others. That is a hard lesson in life to learn, especially when sometimes you want to be angry or hurt. From the words of one of my favorite songs "some things are the way things are and words just can't explain." I am not sure what he has planned for us, but I know there is a reason and I know we will survive everything brought our way. Thank you Jesus for loving us and making us stronger on a daily basis.

My 1st Mother's Day

My 1st Mother's Day was absolutely perfect. Part of it felt like it wasn't real. Tony and I went to church. I had fed Brady right before the service started so he was asleep. As I was sitting in the pews, I couldn't believe I was sitting there holding my 3 week old son. Our journey to have a family started almost 4 years earlier. It was such a long and winding road, with hurt, pain, tears, laughter, and finally joy. During the worship time, I could hardly keep my emotions from showing. It meant everything in the world to me to have my son in my arms. The 4 years of wait came to end in my head as I sat there holding him.

Tony and I were finally diagnosed "infertile" in August of 2008. When we got this news, I remember calling my friend Becki who had struggled with the same issues, and she said to me that everything would be okay and that Jesus had a plan. She reminded me that even though it took a long time she had the child that God wanted her to have. So, there I sat on Sunday morning of Mother's Day, in church, worshiping God, and holding the child he wanted me to have after all these years. Nothing could have been more perfect. It wasn't an easy journey by any means. However, it was a nice reminder that God does have a plan and I was holding in my arms Jesus' love for me. I am blessed.

In the throws of Motherhood

Brady Lawrence Brklacich was born on April 16, 2010 @ 4:22pm by Emergency C-Section. He weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz and was 20 inches long. Yes, he was big, but that was expected. All the babies on my side of the family are big babies. The fact he was under 9 lbs I was greatful! I was 9lbs 4 oz myself.

The labor process itself was very dramatic and has been a little emotional to deal with. Not quite ready to talk about all of it yet. I think it scared a few people in my family who were present. The finale of the labor started with me pushing and ended with an emergency c-section where I was knocked out and Brady was delivered 41 seconds later.

I am sad it ended this way. I really wanted Tony to witness the birth of his son, but he did not get to see it and neither did I. Tony tells me that he is okay with not seeing Brady being born because if he had witnessed the birth he would have also witnessed the funeral. Logically I know this is true. However, I spent 9 months building the moment up in my head and it turned out completely different. I really didn't feel bonded with my little guy the first few days because I felt I missed the most important moment in his life-his birth. Lucky for me, Tony really pushed me to breast feed and Brady and I have had some fun moments during the process. Needless to say I haven't allowed Tony to bottle feed Brady yet, because I am being selfish and holding onto those bonding moments. I told him to give me some time and we will gradually transition there.

Brady has been home for 9 days now. He is a great baby. He feeds every 3.5- 4 hours. He has had only 3 fussy nights where we wanted to pull our hair out. (Lucky for me those were on Tony's nights, all I had to do was feed). Tony and I are balancing chores and Brady very well. We are communicating better than we ever have. AND I believe our marriage has become stronger having gone through the rough delivery and feeling the emotions around it.

The only thing we are suprised at so far is what we call DPD (diapers per day). Holy cow, we burn through diapers like the world is ending. Our friends have been very gracious with bringing meals and setting up a 742-Dine account for us. We couldn't have asked for better support. Thanks to all of you!

Baby Brk's Room

For those who haven't had a change to see Baby Brk's room, here it is. He will be here in 6 weeks!

Baby is going to be big!

We went for an ultrasound today. I was told that even though I am at 29.5 weeks my baby is measuring at 32 weeks. He is estimated to weigh a little over 4lbs. I have a feeling he is going to be big. The first of my showers is this weekend. I am excited. I am more excited because the day is getting closer. I am also excited because Tony is really getting into this dad thing. We went to our first breastfeeding class and we have also been to our first birthing class. Still not into the breastfeeding thing yet. They weren't making it easier for me either telling me how hard it is. Then telling me that the 2 hours between feedings means from start time to start time. When do you sleep? However, I did enjoy day one of the birthing class. Tony was the class clown, making jokes, so I am glad he was into it. Now the big debate is do we bank the cord blood or not. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Did you do it? Why or why not?