Dear Vienna

First and foremost, we love you. More than you know and more than words can ever express. Before you have a baby people warn you about the negatives - the pain of childbirth, the sleepless nights, the diaper blowouts, etc. What they don't warn you about is how much love you are going to feel for your child. It's a literal physical feeling in my body that I can't control. I would do anything for you, no question. 

With that said, our love for you isn't going to keep us from making mistakes. We will make them as parents. We will probably forget important events, lose our tempers, give you bad advice, and any number of mistakes. We are human. So please, forgive us.

If I can offer you some advice...

In your life there will always be people who have their opinions of you. The good, bad, & ugly. Don't be so worried about what those opinions are. Be you, unapologetically. Have confidence. With that said though, follow our Savior's example in how you think of and treat other people. Always be kind. Try to see people through His eyes. We all have faults, but Christ loves us and everyone else regardless. Do as He would do.

Sometimes people say all you have to do to succeed in life is work really, really hard. While I agree that success takes hard work, I think opportunity plays a large role as well. I was more than blessed with my upbringing, given every opportunity to succeed in this world. I want you to know that we are going to work to give you everything we had and hopefully more. Not just physical things, but experiences, memories, and opportunity. I want you to take these things and run with them. Dream big. Don't let anyone ever tell you you can't do something. You get what you want out of this life. Make it what you want it to be.

As much as we love you and want to protect you, we are not always going to be able to do so. Without a doubt, you are going to go through trials in this life. It breaks my heart to even think about you hurting, but it's going to happen. It's how we learn and grow on this earth. The Lord is never going to allow you to pass through a trial that you can't handle though. Remember that. Ask yourself what you can learn from the hard times and use that to progress and improve. 

And sweet Vienna, remember, you are never alone. You have so many people in this world who already love you more than you realize -- especially your father and I. Friends and family are a gift from our Father in heaven. I hope you will value and cultivate these relationships and turn to us when you are in need of support. More importantly, always know you can turn to your Savior. He will never leave you. 

Your sweet spirit has already blessed our lives infinitely. We can't wait to watch you learn, grow, and succeed in this world.  We love you Little V.

Love,

Your Mama

*Photos taken by Olivia Russell*

Baby V & Baby Refuge

Our lives have been CRAZY for the past few weeks... 

1) We welcomed our sweet baby girl into this world! (We think she's adorable. Not biased at all...)

2) We launched our business - Baby Refuge. 

We are aware the timing of the launch wasn't exactly optimal, but we're making it work. 

I want to share with you a little about our business and the motivation behind it. 

We sell handmade, leather pacifier clips. Offering up limited addition styles, with new styles coming all the time. 

The best part is a portion of every purchase goes to non-profits who are dedicated to helping children refugees. If you haven't heard about the refugee crisis by this point, you probably have been living under a rock. 

A little background... 

A refugee is someone who has been forcibly displaced from their home due to war, drought, famine, natural disasters, and other horrific life changing events. They are calling this the world's largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. WW II, people! Can you believe that? There are currently more than 60 million refugees and displaced people worldwide, with half of them being children. Heartbreaking, right? 

Having been born, raised, and educated in the USA, Austin and I feel that we have won the lottery of life. We owe it to others less fortunate than us to serve and lift where we can. 

Like we were, you may be wondering...

'What can I possibly do about this massive problem?' 

There are things everyone can do to help, you just have to act. We're starting small, but hope to keep growing and increasing our impact. We want to help these people get their lives back on track by bringing them comfort, peace, education, and economic self-reliance so they can get back to focusing on their goals and dreams.

                                                                                   This is why we started Baby Refuge. 

As mentioned before, every purchase made from our shop will go to helping fulfill the dreams of children refugees. If you are looking for a way to help, head to our website. Get a great product while simultaneously bringing awareness and change to the millions of refugees around the globe.

Vienna's Birth Story

At 12:45am on Thursday morning I woke up to cramping. I had experienced cramping like that before so I didn't think much of it until it woke me up again a short time after. At that point I thought they actually may be real contractions so I started to time them - 12 minutes apart, 10, 11, 12, 11... This went on for about an hour or so before I decided to wake up Austin. We had our hospital bag packed with the basics but I thought we should get the last odds and ends packed, because we would probably have this baby today! We were getting all excited as the contractions gradually got longer and closer together. TMI coming your way.... I threw up at some point that morning and it was awful. Once I did I knew it was actually happening. Poor Austin had to clean out the sink for me. But hey, at least I made it that far. It could have been the carpet haha.

Around 4:30am we called the hospital to see if we should come in. My contractions were only a few minutes apart at that point, but only lasting 30-45 seconds. They told us to wait until they were lasting a minute or so. When they got to be 2ish minutes apart we decided, beep it, let's just go in (even though they weren't consistently a minute long).

We got to the hospital around 5:30am and they checked me in. I was only dilated to a 2. I had been dilated to a 1 ever since week 36 of my pregnancy, so that was a little disappointing. They got me on monitors and said they would check me again in an hour. If I had progressed at least to a 3, they would keep me at the hospital. If not, they send you away to labor at home. I wanted nothing more than to stay at the hospital and have that baby, but when the hour was up I had only progressed half a cm and they sent me home. I was a little grouchy about it because the nurse kind of seemed like she was on the fence about discharging or keeping us. She said we would probably have the baby today but she needed to send us home still. The upside was they gave me a shot of morphine for the pain! They told me if I wasn't in official active labor that the morphine may settle the contractions down. It did and I was able to take little naps between the contractions. I didn't really want to sleep because I knew if I was able to sleep I probably wasn't in active labor.

As the day went on I needed a distraction so I started to work on some things around the house. By mid afternoon the contractions started to pick up again. This time I was feeling them in my back. They started to get more and more debilitating and gradually closer together. The nurse at the hospital told us the "411 rule" for when to come back. Having contractions every 4 minutes, lasting at least a minute long, and have this going on for at least an hour. This was one of the worst parts of the whole experience. There isn't much anyone can do while you're laboring and having contractions. You're kind of on your own! Luckily, Austin was there to rub my back and support me when needed. Around 4, he had to take a phone call and told me to come get him if we needed to go to the hospital. During his phone call, the contractions got pretty bad. I was on all fours just trying to keep it together haha. An hour or so later I found myself in the hallway laying down and crying during contractions. I knew my body, and felt like it was time. We decided to head back to the hospital... They were 2 minutes apart and lasting almost a minute each. 

The drive to the hospital took 30 minutes because at that point it was rush hour. Greaaaaat timing. Once we got to the hospital I was a dang mess. They got me all checked in, checked me - dilated to a 4.5/5! Wahoo! They said they would keep me. Thank my lucky stars... Haha. I was asking for my epidural and they said it was coming right up. But first, I needed to get my IV in. It took 5 jabs up and down my arms and hands, lots of blood squirts, and 45 minutes to get it in. Talk about frustrating! For me and the nurses. My contractions were like 1 minute apart at this point. Once they FINALLY got it in the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. I was nervous for that for a number of reasons: the possible complications, the pain of putting it in, the possibility of it not working, etc. But it barely hurt at all and kicked in within 10 minutes. Finally! Relief! At that point it was 6:30/7pm and we were so excited about our little girl arriving hopefully that day. The doctor came in to see me at some point in all of this and I honestly can't remember if he broke my water before or after I got the epidural.  After I got it though, we turned on the TV and tried to distract ourselves for the next few hours while I progressed. We wanted to have the baby that day because the date was 8/4/16. 8/5/16 just didn't sound as cool. I kept watching the clock and began to doubt it would happen that evening. The epidural numbed my lower half completely and gave me the shakes pretty bad. I really didn't like how it made me feel but it was way better than the contractions.

Finally, at 11:25pm I was dilated to a 10 and it was pushing time!! I felt pretty exhausted and even voiced to the nurse how worried I was about not being able to push. She basically told me I'd get a kick of adrenaline and I didn't have a choice at this point haha. (I think it was a huge blessing the pushing part was relatively easy for me. It was a lot easier than I imagined. I could still tell when I was having a contraction but it wasn't painful at all.) The nurse told the doctor we were about to push and he said to proceed without him. It was just Austin, the nurse, and me pushing for about 15 minutes or so when the nurse said, "I can see her head! She's got lots of dark hair!" That got me pumped. I told the nurse again how I wanted to have the baby that day - mind you it was 11:40ish at that point. Chances were slim since the average first time mom pushes for 1-3 hours. YIKES. I was not having that. Neither was Vienna. Come 11:50 the nurse stopped me and grabbed the doctor, Vienna was coming. When the doctor came in he said I was going to need an episiotomy. I wasn't thrilled about it but at some point in the next few minutes he made the cut and I didn't even notice. Once again, I voiced how much I wanted her to come that day (Haha 10 minutes to go and counting). The doctor and nurse were not convinced. They underestimated me though.

After over 24 hours of labor, at 11:58pm Vienna Brin Cornilles was born! 2 minutes to spare! *fist pump* The doctor was a little surprised I got her out that fast especially because she was posterior. Hence the back labor... I got to hold her right away and Austin was a freaking champ, cutting the cord and all. She had a major cone head but in that moment the world stopped. We couldn't believe it! She was finally here. 6 lbs 8oz and 18 inches of pure perfection. We are completely smitten... and being the first grandchild on both sides, she is going to be one spoiled little girl. We love you Baby V!

39 WEEKS

It's August 1st, which means no matter when she comes it is BABY MONTH! 

I'm 39 weeks today and feeling more than ready to have her here. 

My (hopefully) last pregnancy update follows, along with a nice review to remember this all by! 

(For journaling purposes more than anything). 

UPDATE

How far along? 39 weeks!!!

Baby growth and progress? 20 inches & 7 lbs.

Body/Weight Gain? 23 lbs. Hopefully I won't gain anymore!

Sleep? The worst. Peeing about a billion times a night.

Emotions? So irritable these days! And excited, nervous, anxious. Shall I go on? haha

Food cravings? Still craving sweets. I'm not going to pretend like I haven't eaten an ice cream sandwich a day for the last week.... oops.

Maternity clothes? Do any other type of clothes exist?? 

Stretch marks? NOTHING! I'm shocked as ever. Hopefully they don't appear in the next week or so.

Movement? Yes. All the time still. It's so fun to feel little parts of her body now. Elbow, hand, foot? We are never sure, but we like to guess anyway.

Exercise? Still trying to walk a little bit each day. It's getting harder and harder!

Memorable pregnancy moments? Coming to realize she will be here so soon. We're talking SINGLE DIGIT DAYS SOON! (hopefully...)

Looking forward to: HER ARRIVAL!!

Photo Journal

12.1.16 - Finding out! (It's actually kind of gross but it's also the most exciting thing when you pee on a stick and finally get a plus sign!!)

12.24.16 - Announcing to our family

2.9.16 - Announcing to the world

3.21.16 - 20 weeks & starting to show

4.20.16 - 24 weeks

 5.23.16 - 29 weeks

6.19.16 - 33 weeks

 7.13.16 - 36 weeks

 8.1.16 - 39 weeks

Things I won't miss:

• Going to the bathroom a billion times a night
• Waddling
• Sore feet after walking for approximatley 5 minutes
• Nausea & fatigue (although the fatigue is going to get worse haha)
• PELVIC PAIN
• Everywhere you go... "Oh, when are you due? What are you having? What are you naming her? How much do you weigh? Did you conceive her naturally?" (Okay, the last two are a stretch but sometimes it can get a little too personal...)

Things I will miss:

• The bump. Aka: my shelf
• Feeling her little movements
• Having an excuse to sleep/eat as much as I want
• Random strangers doing nice things for me because I am whale sized

Fears:

• She comes out a he. I mean, you saw her nursery...
• Childbirth
• Breastfeeding
• Can we really do this whole parenting thing??? 
• Adjusting to life changing forever as we know it

Excited about:

• Seeing what our combined genes whipped up 
• Introducing her to family & friends
• Making all of our family aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas for the FIRST time
• Baby cuddles
• Finally getting to use the nursery
• Seeing Austin become a dad
• Learning & growing