The word “busy” might just be an understatement when describing what the last few weeks have been like for TODAY meteorologist Dylan Dreyer.
After her water broke six weeks early at the end of September, she and her husband, Brian Fichera, welcomed their third child together, a son named Russell “Rusty” James on Sept. 29.
Rusty went home from the hospital on Oct. 7, just days before the release of her debut children’s book, “Misty the Cloud: A Very Stormy Day.”
Dylan joined Weekend TODAY Saturday to talk about how Rusty has been doing at home and what life's been like for her as she juggles being a mom of three and supporting the release of her book.
"Rusty's doing good. ... He kind of sleeps all day," Dylan told Kristen Welker and Hallie Jackson about Rusty. "He's doing awesome. To have spent a week in the NICU and to now be home and thriving? We are so, so blessed. I can’t believe I was going to wait till November to meet him and he’s already here.”
With Rusty’s arrival, Dylan is now surrounded by boys at home, including her eldest sons, Calvin, 4, and Oliver, 1. When asked how she was handling having three boys (four, if you include Brian), she replied, “Yeah, let’s include Brian and let’s include Bosco too because the house is just chaos right now.
“I never expected to be promoting the book and the baby kind of at the same time,” she explained. “He wasn’t due till November, the book was due in September and that got delayed so, I’m just embracing the chaos of this week right now and hope to get some sleep next week.”
Luckily, Cal and Ollie have been doing a great job as big brothers to baby Rusty.
“I was a little worried about Ollie. He’s my curveball, but he’s adjusted so well,” she said. “I think getting to see Calvin and how much of a sweet big brother Calvin is, I think, has calmed Ollie down. There was some tears at first, when he actually realized what a baby is, but Calvin couldn’t be sweeter. Even our pediatrician says, ‘He doesn’t need to kiss him so much.’”
In addition to being a loving big brother, Cal has also been flexing his editing skills, creating the perfect version of his mom's book.
“Anything he didn’t understand, we changed it,” Dylan explained on TODAY Tuesday. “Anything he thought was funny, we kept in the book. He was kind of my co-editor on this whole thing.”
Dylan said "Misty the Cloud: A Very Stormy Day" teaches children how to handle emotions and recognize that it’s OK to not be OK all the time. It uses Dylan’s extensive weather knowledge to draw parallels between the weather and our emotions as it follows Misty through the highs and lows of one day.
The book also includes some experiments and breaks down some of the science behind a thunderstorm, helping ease the fear many kids might have about the common weather event.
“Misty the Cloud: A Very Stormy Day” has been a work in progress over the last ten years for Dylan, so having it get released this week was a special treat.
“I’ve always imagined this world up in the clouds and these cloud characters never existed except in my brain,” she said. “Rosie Butcher, our illustrator, managed to bring it to life. ... I’m so excited that its finally out there.”