Brandon Stewart Poulsen

At the end of August 2017 we found out I was pregnant. I had been going through a lot of physical issues with my birth control. The pregnancy was kind of a surprise. This whole time, things felt different - physically and emotionally. Things didn't seem the same and kind of felt off. A couple weeks later, I start spotting and later that night I knew I had lost the baby. I went to the doctor the next day and they confirmed what I already knew.
About four weeks later, I took a pregnancy test, thinking I might be pregnant again. The test was positive but it was hard to be excited because we just weren't trusting it fully. I took a few different tests and brands and all came back positive. So I called my doctor and they suggested I come in for a blood test check my levels. I went in and took the test. Found out my HCG levels were so high they thought I was pregnant with twins.
At around 16 weeks I took a special blood test that tested a whole bunch of things and one thing it would tell us is the gender. We found out we were having a boy while we were all in the car together. Madison refused to believe she wasn't getting a sister.
I was hardly sick during Brandon's pregnancy and was able to stay pretty active throughout.  He dropped around 36 weeks and I felt it was going to fall out of me every time I bent over. However, I met with my doctor on my due date and we scheduled a day for me to be induced.
I thought it was scheduled for Thursday, June 14th. But, at 7:15am on June 13th I got a call from Labor and Delivery asking if I was still planning on being induced that day!
So I woke Stewart up, got the family fed, Stewart and I were off the hospital in the same 2003 Alero we had taken to the hospital for the other two kids. Memories started flooding my mind of contractions, delivery, and holding a new baby. I was getting really nervous and had no idea what it would be like for me to get induced.
They started Pitocin around 1pm and I honestly didn't feel anything for an hour or so, so they upped it. Hardly anything still. I walked around a lot and was doing dances and squats with Stewart. I was dilating slowly and it was driving me nuts. They broke my water and that didn't make any change. They kept upping it ever so often, but I wasn't feeling anything significant. THEN they upped in around 6:30pm. Holy moly did I start feeling contractions! They were so instant and very sharp. I had to pee so I got up and could hardly make it back to the bed. I kept feeling like I needed to poop and push. The nurse had me get on the bed to check how far I was dilated and I was only at a 7. I was tired and decided to ask for an epidural to see if relaxing would help me. Stewart says he heard so many swear words come out of my mouth and had to keep himself from laughing when I was cussing for the anesthesiologist to get there faster. I was shaking so bad and when the anesthesiologist came he told me I need to breathe deep to try to stop shaking because he couldn't do anything until I stopped. I had Stewart sitting in front of my while I was sitting on the edge of the bed. I was staring him in the eye and concentrating so hard to relax. I was incredibly sweaty and in a terrible mood. The epidural was placed and I was asked to lay on my side. As soon as I laid down I felt Brandon coming. I kept telling the nurse "He's coming! He's coming! I know he's coming!" I knew she didn't believe me and leisurely finished her notes then decided to check me again. As soon as she looked she said, "Oh! There's the head!" My doctor was already at the hospital all suited up and came in right away. Brandon was born less than ten minutes later.
I was terrified during that birth. I kept telling Stewart I thought I was going to die. The pain was unreal since the epidural didn't have time to numb anything. There was one nurse that was holding my right foot that really helped me focus and I am so thankful for her! haha
I was completely exhausted after. They laid Brandon on me and I could hardly hold him. Stewart kept saying I was so in love with the baby I wasn't giving him up so Stewart could hold him. But the truth is, I was so tired I couldn't lift the baby to Stewart.
We had a really hard time deciding on names for him. But we settled on Brandon because it was common and fit with the other two kids' names well. I wanted his middle name to be Stewart the whole time, but Stewart wasn't sure. He decided he wanted Stewart as the middle name after he held him.
Since Brandon was born so fast, he had taken in a lot of amniotic fluid and we had to suction his mouth out at all hours of the day and night so he wouldn't choke.
Stewart's mom was there to help the week prior and my mom came the day after we got out of the hospital.

Brandon is quite the baby. He's been a very quiet boy but is very interested in what other people are doing. He's not afraid to crawl over anything or anyone in order to get what he wants. He's been a thumbsucker since the first minute we saw him. He is a very chill baby and we get comments all the time about how good he is in public. But now that he understands he can get out and play, he hasn't been so happy to just watch! RIP easy sacrament meetings. He is only 9 months and he already has 9 teeth - the first two came through before he was 3 months old. He started crawling when he was 6 months because he wanted to play with our Christmas train and has been trying to walk the last couple months.

We all love this baby so much.

Darell Robert Poulsen

Well, it's been awhile!
I might bore you, but I wanted to start back up by sharing Darell and Brandon's birth stories because I am pretty sure I don't have either them recorded anywhere.

We found out we were pregnant with Darell when Madison wasn't even a year old. We had some issues with the birth control I was using and had to change, but Darell was created before that happened!

The pregnancy was so different than Madison's. I was only a tiny bit nauseous the first trimester and threw up once after a very weird tasting roast I made. I had the same extreme exhaustion for the first trimester but as soon as the second trimester hit I felt like a new woman. I was taking Madison to the gym everyday and putting Stewart through his Master's at BYU by working from home for the same company I worked for when I got pregnant with Madison. It was the perfect set up because I could work 40 hours a week and not miss out on much family time at all and Stewart could still have ample quiet time to study.

Darell dropped around 38 weeks and I felt like I couldn't walk anywhere. Or sit. Or bend over... I was SOO ready for him to be out. When I was two days shy of my due date I prayed and prayed and prayed for him to come soon because I was SOO done. I had so much pain everywhere in my body and I was so dang exhausted.

The next morning around 5am I started feeling contractions. These made me very excited, but I also started remembering how hard these will freaking hurt. Once I couldn't handle them anymore we dropped Madison off with Javier and headed to Timp. All throughout the pregnancy I kept telling Stewart his job was to keep me moving and not let me get the epidural until I absolutely needed to. With Madison I was laying down for 10 hours and it drove me nuts. When we got to the hospital, Stewart told me, "Alright, we have to walk around the entire parking lot before we go inside." I replied through gritted teeth, "No we aren't. We are walking to that tree then going inside." It felt like daaays walking to that stupid tree. When we were done I walked inside and passed the anesthesiologist that did my epidural with Madison and was reminded how much I appreciated him. About 45 minutes later I saw him again. Darell was out in 15 minutes with 3 pushes. I huge difference than Madison. He didn't have nearly as big of a head thank goodness! His has definitely been the easiest birth.

His first year was very rough. He wasn't a great sleeper and when he was about 6 months old he got RSV. His height and weight started declining on the charts. I realized I wasn't producing nearly enough milk, but I couldn't get Darell to take a bottle - with breastmilk or formula. It wasn't until he was about 10.5 months that I tried cows milk... and BAM. He guzzled it down. We have still been trying to get him to gain weight, but he is developing so well in all other areas. He talks just as well as Madison, can count, and can memorize a song within a couple times of hearing it. He loves the "nice ladies" in nursery and he is definitely the jokester in the family. He has such a happy demeanor and is so innocent in just wanting to have fun all the time. He has learned how to annoy Madison and has no shame doing it. Darell is definitely a little explorer. He loves to play in the dirt, loves dinosaurs and cars, and has told us multiple times he would love to have a snake in his lap during dinner (he saw a picture in a National Geographic magazine where a family in India ate with a snake laying across their laps). Darell is one of my all time favorite people to talk to and joke around with. Man I love him!

Yosemite

Well this cute girl of ours is now 7 month old! Holy cow how time has flown.  She is learning and developing so much and it is so fun to see. She has started to realize that phones are fun and even figured out how to take her own video on my locked phone. Pretty good for a 7 month old, if I do say so myself.  But I might be biased. 

Stewart has loved his increased time with our little girl.  He would watch her most afternoons while I would go to work - I quit my job so now I get to join in on the afternoon naps and cuddles. 

We went up to the temple after church last week.  Madison LOVED the water fountain.  She would get super excited and wave her arms and hands when the fountain would get bigger.  So adorable. She loves water. Any temperature and in any way. 

She definitely has been enjoying tasting new foods. Especially chocolate. It is also fun to have her try new things. She will usually eat at least two or three bites of whatever we give her.  So doing well! 

I made this sign for our apartment. Since we have and will mostly like be moving a couple times, it is a nice reminder that wherever we may physically live, we are home when we are together. 

We went to Yosemite with some of Stewart's family.  We were in charge of desserts... So... we made just under 100 chocolate chip cookies, 60 brownies, and about 30 cinnamon rolls.  It was a long couple days of baking.  Even though we had a little disaster with the brownies they were still a hit. 

Madison did pretty well in the car for the trip.  She gets bored back there by herself so it is a better car ride for everyone if someone is back there with her.  

She was excited to go on vacation.  Or just get out of her car seat for a few minutes. 

She also LOVES water bottles.  Maybe because they are used for water and she loves water...

She figured out how to move the sunshade with her feet and was having a lot of fun with that. 

While in Yosemite we floated the Merced River, hiked Lower Yosemite Falls, played at the beach, had some delicious meals, hung out with the nieces and nephews/their parents/and Ste's parents... and just enjoyed not having school or work. We love camping so it was great. 

This gives you a glimpse of how nasty we were after the trip because none of us showered.... so sticky and sweaty haha Madison also threw up on the way home because we went on a super dippy road.  And she also had an extremely full gross diaper.  So much fun traveling with babies. But honestly- it was a lot of fun.

Here is our happy girl after she got to finally have a bath and sleep in her own crib!

Stewart's professor had his class over for an end of the term BBQ.  Madison was popular, of course.  We decided to have her try out the swing by herself for the first time.  She was unsure about it at first... but that quickly changed. 

Also, I painted her toenails.  It is definitely  a lot more difficult now that she is old enough to try and grab the brushes.