THE BASTINGS BUZZ: September 2015

Katelyn's First Month

On Katelyn's first day home, Mikayla and Austin were super excited to hold their new baby sister.

Newborns sure do sleep a lot. Within the first few days, Austin was asking me "when is she going to open to her eyes?" I think all the sleeping is a blessing as we try to adjust to being a family of 6!

Remembering back to how difficult it was with Austin when Mikayla was born, I was a little nervous about how Brooklyn would react. But surprisingly it has gone well. Brooklyn doesn't seem to care much about Katelyn's presence and it is very rare that she will ask to hold her. But I am sure these two will be good little playmates as they grow up together.

At one week old, I had a fun time taking newborn pictures of Katelyn while Andrea was taking pictures of Carter. It is always more difficult than it looks but I am learning and am happy with them.

Chubby Cheeks

It didn't take long for Katelyn to get into a predictable schedule at night. There was only a couple nights that first week that she was wide awake in the middle of the night and I found myself watching TV until she was ready to go back to sleep.

At 13 days old, Austin helped me give Katelyn her first full bath. She actually enjoyed it and hung out in the water for a good 10 minutes before she started fussing to get out.

Her serious face

Katelyn sure does spit up a lot. The first couple nights at home I didn't sleep well because she was spitting up so much and I was afraid she was going to choke. She ended up sleeping in her bouncer.

At 4 weeks, I went back to my first night at work and Craig was on daddy duty. I had warned the kids to be good because dad would be all by himself for the first time. When my sister in law was talking to Mikayla about this, Mikayla told her "he is probably scared." Ha! She may have been right on that but it sounded like he had a good night and survived the middle of the night feedings.

Glimpses of her beautiful smile

Everyone always asks "who do you think she looks like?"
I can never really tell but most people say that she looks like Austin.

So I pulled out a couple pictures of Austin at 1 month old.

And another comparison picture

Looks like she might be Austin's sister after all

So now I am a mother of 4!! Wow! It is a lot of work and exhausting at times but so worth it!

My favorite part of this newborn stage is when my baby curls up on my chest and sleeps.

I call it heart-to-heart time!!

Brady

It was 10 years ago we got our dogs Abby and Brady. They were our kids before we had kids. They are the best dogs and we have so many fun memories with them.

On September 2nd, we had to say good-bye to our sweet dog Brady. It was one of the most difficult things we have had to do for a while. Many people probably don't understand that. But he was a member of our family and has been a part of our daily lives for the last 10 years.

This last week, I create a photo book of all our pictures and memories of Brady over the last 10 years. I loved putting it together and can't wait until I get it in the mail. In the book, I chose to focus more on the fun times and not so much the emotions of having to say good-bye. But there are a couple "tender mercies" surrounding the last week of his life that I have come to realize that I want to write down.

First, I had been doing some video taping of Brooklyn recently and so the video camera had been out on the kitchen counter. One night Craig saw it and for some reason thought to video Brady. And I am grateful that he did that because now we have a video of Brady walking around happy and his normal self the last couple days of his life. A tender mercy that we will be reminded of every time we watch that video.

From the day Brady showed signs of being sick to the day we said good-bye was only 9 days. Even more sudden was finding out it was cancer and that we probably only had another month or two with him which in the end only ended up being 2 days. After the initial grief of losing Brady, thoughts of anger tried to creep in. Anger from the idea that we didn't get the time with Brady that we thought we still had. But then Craig's brother said something to him that I have thought about a lot. He mentioned that Heavenly Father knows us so well and only gives us what we can handle. Perhaps there was a reason behind the timing of it all. And that is where the tender mercy comes in. Katelyn was only 2 weeks old when Brady died. How much more difficult it would have been had this whole event happened even just a few weeks earlier. It would have been a damper on the excitement we felt with adding Katelyn to our family. Instead we were able to fully celebrate her birth without having to worry about feelings of loss. So perhaps, Heavenly Father had a hand in allowing Brady to live long enough and symptom free for that reason. And for that I am grateful.

The last week of Brady's life, he got a walk every night. Things have gotten more and more busy as our family has grown and our kids have gotten older. So our dogs haven't always gotten as many walks as they would have probably liked. But when we found out Brady was sick, Craig made it a point to take him out every night for a walk. And the night before he died, I volunteered to take Brady out on his walk. And that is my tender mercy. Brady was happy and excited and pulling me on the walk the whole time like he normally does. I am grateful for the memory of that one last walk that I got to take with him.

The last page of the book I made about Brady said this......

So if the saying is true that "all good dogs go to heaven....then we have do doubt that is where Brady is because he was more than just a good dog. He was a GREAT dog!!