Three Months Old

My sweet baby is getting so big! We just LOVE him!!

Maverick Blaine – 3 Months Old

• Loves to stand! My arms get a serious workout everyday because all he wants is for you to hold him so he can stand and see everything!
• Loves to suck on his hands All. Day. Long. If your hand even kind of grazes past his face, he will immediately grab your fingers and starting eating them!
• Is a great sleeper!
• Has the BEST smile!!
• Has the cutest cheeks! It always seems to be one of the first things people mention about him!
• Is the happiest baby in the mornings! When he wakes up he just sits in his little bed talking to himself until I wake up!
• Is very social and loves to look at people! He loves all the smiles and attention he gets from it 😂
• Would stare at the TV all day long if we’d let him! We usually try to block the TV from him, but we let him watch Baby Einstein and General Conference with us 😂🤷🏻‍♀️
• Always falls asleep in his car seat! This will definitely come in handy when we drive down to Arizona for Thanksgiving! 🙌🏻
• Is maybe starting to look like a Kornegay??? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sooo many people have said that he looks like my brother Michael, but with my nose!
• Weighs over 13 pounds! And is sooo tall!
• Still in Size 1 diapers, and wears 3-6 month clothes! His legs are still a little small, so sometimes he wears his 0-3 month pants 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

We love our sweet Mav and can’t wait to celebrate all of his first holidays with him!!

Two Months Old

My Maverick Blaine is 2 months old! I swear just yesterday I was miserably huge and pregnant, but that was actually months ago now! 😭🙈

Maverick Blaine – 2 Months Old

• Got his 2 month shots today and handled it like a champ!
• Fits in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes!
• Is getting so so good at holding his head up!
• Loves to kick, especially while taking a bath. 
• Looooves bath time, but almost always cries the moment we take him out of the tub!
• Sleeps anywhere from 5-7.5 hours straight at night! Most people tell me that I’m just “so lucky” to have a baby that sleeps so well at night, but little do they know that I am exclusively pumping, so I have to pump every 3-4 hours day or night. That means I typically wake up at 3 am to quickly pump, and then Mav wakes up at 4:30 to eat, and by the time I get him back to sleep it’s time for me to pump again. 😭 It’s definitely not easy, but totally worth it to me!
• Is tall and skinny! This little guy is 23.5″ tall, and weighs 11.5 pounds!!
• Is starting to smile and make cute baby sounds and it is literally the BEST thing ever!!
• Has the best blue eyes! 😍
• Is a total flirt!! We can’t go anywhere without people going crazy about him, like church and the doctors office, but especially the old ladies at Target! (Can you blame them?! 😂) Today he was totally flirting with his nurse and she turned to Seth and I and said, “Maverick?! You should have named him Rico Suave!!” 😂

These pictures KILL me!! 😍😍😍😍

One Month Old

My baby is one month old! 😭😭😭
I’ve never been more physically or emotionally exhausted in my life. Holy cow! Day and night, having to wake up and feed a little tiny person every 3 hours is not for the weak. 

Also, days go by a thousand times faster once the baby is born compared to when you’re pregnant. Like, to any and all of my pregnant friends, I pray for you and your soul. Because that’s about to be the longest 9 freakin’ months of your life. And, spoiler alert, you wouldn’t think it was possible, but the last month is 47,639 times worse. It’s just the way it is. God speed 🙏🏻

In talking to a few people recently, I don’t think people who haven’t had a baby realize just HOW difficult the first month is. It’s like people expect you to bounce back and just get up and get back to normal life. But like, your downstairs is all KINDS of messed up. You literally wear giant mesh underwear diaper pad things for a few days with ice packs put in there. Yes, it’s as fun as it sounds. 🙃 You’re bleeding a ton. You feel the MOST unattractive that you’ve ever probably felt in your entire life. Hello loose, flabby tummy and new stretch marks that you hadn’t seen before! 👋🏻 If you had to get stitches (I got two sets of ’em 😅) there’s even more pain and swelling of things and difficulty of sitting. Going to the bathroom suddenly becomes a real struggle/absolutely horrifying. Never taking that for granted again. 😭 If you’re like us, you have to take your baby in for Jaundice checks multiple times a week. (Luckily, he’s all cleared up now! 🙌🏻) You haven’t slept in DAYS and you have to feed your crying baby every 3 hours while trying to not feel guilty about letting your visitors hold the baby while you try and take a nap but you can’t sleep because you miss your baby. It’s a freakin’ mess man. 

LITERALLY, the first day home from the hospital, we got home and got everything situated and I went and laid down for a little while and woke up and walked straight into the kitchen to eat dinner with my family, and started crying during the dinner prayer because I missed my baby and I hadn’t held him in a while. You can’t make this stuff up. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve cried in the last month!

Also, there was one point where I literally hadn’t left the house for 4 straight days. I had zero desire to get out and do anything because, whenever Maverick was taking a nap all I wanted to do was catch up on sleep or try and put my house back in order. Luckily, in these past 2 weeks, we have started getting into a better daily routine and it has helped a TON!

BUT

I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world!! Seriously, I didn’t know you could be so exhausted and gross and sore but so happy and full of joy at the same time!! I love my cute little family of 3. 💙

Maverick Blaine Brimley

One Month

• Loves his swing (until the music stops and then he’s no longer a fan)
• Can lift his head up really good and is a fan of tummy time
• Rolled over yesterday during tummy time. UMMM WHAT?! 
• Has the sweetest little smile!!
• LOVES to have at least one of his hands up by his face when he’s sleeping
• Loves to be swaddled but we can almost always guarantee he’ll sneak one of his hands out to put by his cute lil face!
• Is a GREAT sleeper (especially during the first 2 weeks! We had to undress him and tickle him to keep him awake long enough to eat!)
• Weighs a little over 8 pounds, and about 21.5″ long
• Still wears newborn sized clothes
• Hair color is turning lighter and lighter every day!
• Answers to the nicknames of Little Burrito Baby, Scrunchers, Little Man, and Mav
• Is just the sweetest, happiest, easiest baby EVER!

Meet Maverick Blaine

Warning! This blog post talks about things dialating and being swept, my water breaking, and other things that may be considered TMI…read with caution. 😊

June 29 (37 weeks)

Just got my first stretch marks this morning. Seriously, I woke up to 6 or 7 marks on my stomach. Slightly bitter about it. 🙃

July 12 (38 weeks 6 days)

Went to my OB appointment today and since I’ll be 39 weeks tomorrow, my doctor offered to do a membrane sweep! Fingers crossed!! We pick up Mom from the airport tonight around 5:30. She was supposed to go to girls camp this weekend but decide to not go because we think this sweep might actually work! This babe could literally be here ANY DAY! Still at 3 cm, 80%, and a -2 as of this morning. 

July 13 (39 weeks)

Moms here! Went on a good long walk this morning! Fingers crossed!!

July 14 (39 weeks 1 day)

Aaaaaaand there goes the 48 hour mark since I’ve had the sweep done. Woke up crying and super frustrated. Bought a giant exercise ball and have been bouncing on it for hours. Mav still hasn’t dropped and is sitting super high up in my ribs. I’ve been googling “natural ways to induce labor” all day, so we went to the store and bought a pineapple and I ate like half of it tonight. 

July 15 (39 weeks 2 days)

Kept super busy today running errands with mom while Seth was at work. More pineapple and walking and bouncing!

July 16 (39 weeks 3 days)

Church and naps and more boucing on my excercise ball.

July 17 (39 weeks 4 days)

Feeling excited and looking forward to my appointment tomorrow! Feeling good and motivated! The plan is to ask my doctor if he can induce me on my due date. 

July 18 (39 weeks 5 days)

Woke up at 3:50 this morning. I just couldn’t sleep. Seth went to work, and mom and I got ready for my 10:40 am appointment. We walked to the back for blood pressure testing and I was 148/89. Definitely high with a fast pulse but I felt fine and totally calm. Doctor Clark came into my room and saw my blood pressure and mentioned that because it’s been so high on and off for the past 4 or so visits, he would have no problem inducing me. Then he says, “we could even do that today if you wanted”! I’m pretty sure I let out a massive sigh of relief and I said “oh absolutely, let’s do this”! He finished the appointment by doing a check (still 3cm, 80%, and -2….da** exercise ball didn’t do a thing), and he told me he would have a nurse call the hospital to see what time I should check in, and told me he would see me later that night. IT WAS REALLY HAPPENING! I walked out of the appointment on cloud freakin 9! As we were walking out my mom was texting my dad telling him to hurry and book a flight to Utah, and I called Seth at work to let him know this baby was coming TODAY! We drove home and got my hospital bag, and quickly received a call from a nurse at the hospital telling me to come in at 11:30 am and to eat beforehand because I wouldn’t be eating again until after I delivered. I hurried and ate some food at the house, Seth got home from work, and we headed to the hospital!

HOSPITAL

We checked into the hospital at 11:30, and they immediately started hooking me up to my IV’s and getting everything prepped so that I could start my pitocin. They did one more check before starting the pitocin and I was at 4 cm and 100%! That was more progress in a single hour then I had had in WEEKS!

They started my pitocin (stimulates contractions until they become natural and more frequent) and I felt nothing other than slight abdominal tightening, which I had been feeling for weeks. About 2 hours later I got checked again, and this time I was at 5 cm. Slow, but steady progress I guess. They can only go up by encriments of 4 every 30 minutes for the pitocin, so they started me at a 4, and within 3 hours I was up to a level 20 (the highest it can go) for my pitocin. Within 15 or so minutes of the nurse kicking it up to a level 20 I was having some gooood contractions. One of them was so bad that I started to push the button on my bed to sit up and instantly my water broke. There’s a 100% chance I said a bad word because it scared the crap out of me. It felt like my stomach burst and suddenly was falling/leaking out of my body and I started panic laughing 😂 Seriously one of the strangest feelings ever!

We called my nurse in and she checked to make sure that my water actually did break, and then I asked for my epidural. They had to pump a full bag of fluids in me before I could get my epidural, so I knew I had a good 30 minute wait before my medicine came. I sat there for 30 minutes going through some way strong contractions before my anesthesiologist came in. He hooked me all up (it made me SUPER shakey and gittery which I reallyyyy didn’t like but other than that an epidural is 🙌🏻), and I got my catheter put in. 

My dad arrived at the hospital as I was getting my epidural, and Seth stayed in the room with me while my mom took my dad to drop his stuff off at our apartment. They waited a little while longer for my epidural to fully kick in, and then my nurse checked me again. I went from a 5 to a 9 in like an hour and a half! No wonder those contractions were starting to get more painful!! They started getting the room prepped for delivery and I felt so ready to go! This. Was. It. This is what I had been waiting for for months!!! Within 30 minutes I was at 10 cm and +2!! My nurse got my bed all set up and was talking me through how I’m going to push (it’s really difficult to feel where you’re supposed to focus on and push when you can’t feel a thing down there!!) while multiple other nurses were getting the baby station set up and my doctors delivery gear ready to go. 

I pushed for 15 minutes and wasn’t getting anywhere anytime soon. With every contraction Mavericks heart rate would drop, and then it would slowly come back up again. They gave me an oxygen mask to put on to help both me and Mav out. Mav was in distress because of the contractions so they called in a NICU nurse to have in the room just in case. Seeing that NICU nurse come in didn’t freak me out (I’m pretty sure I was the calmest person in the room!), but it motivated me to push even harder. I didn’t like the fact that my baby was in distress. My doctor had me pushing on every other contraction so that Mavericks heart rate had a little more time to get back up to normal before pushing again. 30 minutes later (about 15 minutes of that was pushing, and the other half was resting and focusing on my breathing) and my baby was here! And I sat there and cried and cried because I’d never been so physical tired (I’d been up since 4 that morning, I hadn’t eaten anything since 11 that morning, and just pushed a baby out of my body!!) and happy in my entire life!

Maverick Blaine Brimley born July 18, 2017 at 9:38 pm // 7 lbs, 4.7 ounces // 19.5″

1 day old

Hospital pictures at 2 days old

Coming home from the hospital

Shopping at City Creek at 7 days old 

16 days old

My recovery has been great! I ended up needing stitches in 2 places after I delivered which definitely isn’t fun but now it’s not so bad, and as of this morning, I only have 8 more pounds to lose to reach my pre-baby weight! 🙌🏻

Gratitude.

About a month ago I was sitting at work feeling super frustrated. I am so SO grateful for my job, but I just felt stuck in a super annoying routine. Everyday I wake up at 7:45 and am heading out the door by 8:30. I would go to work, get home by 5:30, and get dinner ready, clean the house, fold laundry, etc. until Seth gets off of work at around 7:40. We would finally eat dinner, and by the time the dishes were cleaned up it would be like 8:15 and we would both be exhausted. We typically will just turn on a movie, until it is time for bed, or if Seth has homework he will hurry and eat and do homework for the rest of the night. We try and go to bed by 10:30/11, and then we wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

SO!

I was sitting there and I decided to go home and write a GRATITUDE JOURNAL! Now, I don’t write in it everyday, but I try. There are some days where I am just totally busy and completely space it for the day, and there are other days where I write a ton of things! I’m not going to share everything that I have written in there, but here are just a few things, word for word, straight from my journal (in no particular order). I think everyone should start a gratitude journal! It really helps put life into perspective…seriously, you can thank me later!

• Relief Society Instructor. I’m grateful for a calling that forces me to get out of my comfort zone…I’m trying to learn to love it!
• The weather. It hasn’t snowed in weeks and that makes me VERY happy. (this has since changed, but I was loving it at the time!!)
• Baby weight. I’ve only gained 4 pounds so far, so jeans still kind of fit. (2/17/17)
• Seth. SO grateful I married that guy. Gosh dang he’s great. SO crazy obsessed with him and grateful for how hardworking and dedicated he is.
• Mom. That woman is always down to talk to me on the phone. I could talk to her all day! Love her!
• Dad. I text him yesterday (on his day off) a computer question for work and he called and helped walk me through it for 30 minutes. Love him.
• Being Pregnant and Baby Kicks. Although I feel tired and not 100% all of the time, I’m so excited for the day I get to be a mom. And those kicks!! SO fun! And so grateful that Heavenly Father is blessing us with this sweet boy.
• Cows. Seriously, recently I eat (CRAVE!) at least 1 cheeseburger a week. In-N-Out and Smashburger are my jam. I hardly ever used to eat cheeseburgers before and now I can’t get enough! Ha!
• Soccer Wednesdays. Seth joined an indoor soccer league, and it’s so fun to go watch him play every week. And it’s a good break up of my every day routine!
• Dr. Pepper. Just…yes.
• Hair Ties. Because I can no longer button (or even freakin’ zip up!) my jeans. LOL @ 2/17 me. #pregnancyprobs

One Year

It’s super crazy to me that as of August 16th of this year, Seth and I will have only been “together”, “dating”, or whatever you want to call it for a year. I feel like, in the nicest way (hahah) that we’ve been dating forever!! I have people ask me all the time how we met and started dating, and it just makes me laugh, and I give them the super short version which is “we met at church!” I was bored, and feeling sentimental, so here’s the long, gushy version. You’ve been warned.

 

So actually, Seth and I met like a week after he got home from his mission. Bless his little heart, he was so awkward. Seth, Kyle, and Justin (some of Seths best friends) had all just gotten home from their missions, and I had just moved back home from school, so none of us really knew anyone in the singles ward. There was a group of people from our singles ward hanging out that night, and that is where we met. Long story short, a few weeks later our Bishops wife set me up on a blind date with some kid named Justin (Seths friend) and we went ice skating on a triple date, and Seth was one of the people there with another date. I asked him recently if he remembered that date, and if he remembered me being there that night and all he said was that he remembered Justins date being “chubby and boring because all she does is blog”……yep, you read that right. #seeya

ANYWAY

Later within that same year (2014 and 2015), Seth and his same friends, plus a few more that had returned home from their missions in that time, and my group of friends, all started hanging out all of the time. Seth started dating someone, and I dated someone for a little while, but we still continued to hang out in the same group of friends. I broke up with my boyfriend, and Seth broke up with his girlfriend, and I kind of just did my thing for awhile and so did he. After a few months I remember always telling my mom and Ali that I thought Seth was super cute and a super good guy, but I always just assumed nothing was going to happen and that we were just friends.

During this time though, our group of friends always hung out at Seths house and played this super fun pool table game called Skunk. We would play so often that we created a giant scored board in Seths loft and would keep track of who would get first and second place every game we played. Out of the like 12 or 15 people that were up on the board, Seth had the most wins, and I had the second most. We’re both super competitive hahah. Anyway, during this time Seth and I would Snapchat randomly, and at some point during the spring (2015) we started texting and Snapchatting way more. Seth was planning a big Skunk Tournament at his house and since he and I were both the highest “ranked” players, we had both assumed one of us was going to win, so we made bets. If I won, he had to take me on a paddle boarding/hot chocolate date and (he had just bought a brand new paddle board and I wanted to be the first girl he took out on a paddle boarding date hahaha), and if he won I had to buy him a corndog and slushie from Sonic. Hahahha, seemed fair to me. The day of the Skunk Tournament came and we both lost to some random kid that had never played before in his life. but at the end of that night, Seth said that even though we both lost he would still take me on that paddle boarding date. HOLLA!

So, the day of the date comes and I was super excited, up until like an hour before!! Another guy that I had really liked text me like minutes before Seth was supposed to pick me up and I was SO confused hahah I didn’t know what to do. But obviously I wasn’t going to cancel the date, so I went. Fun Fact: Seth and I had been on one date before this and it was easily one of the worst dates I’ve ever been on, so I was kind of super anxious on how this one was going to go hahah (I did get a super awesome video of Seth singing Taylor Swift on that date though….)

Seth picked me up and we went and picked up dinner at Cafe Zupas and drove out to Lake Pleasant and had a little picnic. So cute, right? Then we got the paddle boards ready and went out on the lake for hours! I was super nervous because I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but it was literally so perfect. Because it was like totally cute and romantic to just paddle out in the middle of the lake and then tie our boards together and sit and hang  out and talk the entire time! I remember it was like 10:30 and we were just sitting out on the paddle boards and thinking about how well the date was going. I remember being so super nervous that Seth was going to kiss me, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do because I really wanted to give this other guy that I had just met and really liked a chance too. Ugh, the struggle. 😉

SO, we paddled back in at like 11:30, packed all of our stuff up and started heading back for my house. On the drive home from the lake, Seth asked me if I wanted to go to the Pre-Season Cardinals game with him on Saturday (mind you, it was only Wednesday…this guy wanted 2 dates in 1 week!), and I told him that I might have other plans….WHO DOES THAT?! (again, I was waiting for this other guy!) Seth totally took that rejection like a champ and just said to “let him know” haha. So, we get to my house, we talk for a minute, and he gives me this huge hug good-bye and that was it. I go inside and start spilling everything to my mom about how that was one of the best (if not THE best) date I had ever been on! Literally, like 4 minutes pass by and I got a text from Seth saying that he felt bad that we didn’t go get any hot chocolate like he had promised. I quickly responded and said he can take me to get hot chocolate on our next date, and he responded and said “or I can just pick you back up and we can go to Dennys now? I’m just around the corner anyway” Hahahha WHO IS THIS GUY?! Instantly I started laughing and told my mom Seth was picking me back up any second and that we were going to get hot chocolate and she just instantly died (it was 12:30 in the morning!)!! I’m pretty sure she knew right then and there that he was the one, because, literally who does that?! Two dates in one night!

So, he picks me up, we head to Dennys, and we sat there and talked for literally 2 hours! I was 182% nervous about him kissing me at the lake, but if he was going to go for it now, I was all in. And to think I was so nervous about this date just hours ago! Long story short, he totally kissed me goodnight and by Sunday night we were officially dating, and i’ve never looked back since!

 

Meet The Brimleys

I’m Mo,

I have worked at J.Crew for the past 3 years, so I love shopping and clothes. (I’m actually watching Dior & I as I type this post) You will almost never see me without my large, pink handbag. It is my first (real) designer bag and I think it’s just too fantastic to ever leave at home. I almost literally cannot eat chocolate ice cream without spilling it on myself. Or really just any food. But mostly chocolate ice cream. It’s actually embarrassing. And I am married to my best friend.

And this is Seth,

My dashingly attractive J.Crew model husband, who loves soccer, is dedicated to his church callings and schooling, and is one of the hardest workers I know.

Seth and I have been married for almost two months now, and it has just been the best, most fun, two months ever. A lot of people don’t know this yet, but we now live in Orem Utah, and will be here for the next six years or so. Yay school!

Currently, Seth works for US Bank as a full time Banker, and I work at J.Crew one day a week. Ha. I sound lame. That discount though. (insert heart eye emojis) BUT, fingers crossed, I have an interview on Friday for a Marketing/Social Media Assistant position that I am very excited for. #prayers

We live in the cutest two bedroom apartment, and are loving every minute on living in Utah. Other then the drivers. They’re kind of the worst. 

Seth has the entire day off tomorrow, so we will spend it eating waffles and going to the Provo City Center Temple. The day before Seth proposed, he and I had the opportunity to go through the Temple Open House and it was so beautiful. It is very old-school, antique-ish style inside. I know my Mom would just love it! Since we are going to be in Utah for so many years, I am hoping to be able to do (at least) 1 session in every Temple! How fun would that be?! I’ve only ever been through the Phoenix Temple, and the Gilbert Temple (obviously), so I can’t wait to add more to the list!