What is this thing for anyway?

It seems that little Brenna has discovered her tongue. All day long that tongue has been in and out and in and out. She smiles intermittently as she plays with her tongue. Ken and I have been cracking up all afternoon. Ahhh the joys of discovering what you can do. It's been a joy for us to watch her figure it out. And the slobber that comes with her little pleasure is for another post. :)

Four weeks old today!

Time is just flying. It seems like no time ago that we brought Brenna home for the first time. I have taken many photos in the past four weeks. I just took a look at some of them with the thought that I may put all of the photos from Brenna's first month together in a mypublisher photo book. It will be nice to have the photos in one book so one day we can look back on just how tiny she really was.

We had a couple of really playful days that I caught on camera. Thought I might share the many faces of Brenna Claire!







Those are just a few of my favorites. I could sit for hours and just watch her facial expressions. When she wakes up, we have noticed that she runs through all of her expressions before she opens her eyes. I have to get video of that soon before she stops doing it. Must be a newborn thing.

Three Weeks Old Today!

Wow, how quickly time goes by. Brenna was born three weeks ago today. We finally feel like we are settling in and have gotten to know our little peanut quite well. I am so loving the newborn phase as she is so snuggly and makes these little newborn noises that I know she will soon outgrow, leaving mom and dad to remember back to those little things she did when she was soooo very tiny. Newborn gas smiles rock! Yeah, I know they don't smile on demand at her age, but we will take those cute little grins any which way we can get them.

She is growing so quickly! We weighed her last night just for fun and were shocked to find that she is already almost a pound heavier than her birth weight. She loves her bottle! I should have guessed it because some of those newborn sized clothing we had to scramble out to Target to buy when she was a few days old are starting to get snug. I am even thinking she may move on up to size 1 Pampers soon as well. It amazes me how fast they really do grow in these first few weeks.

Going out and about has not been a problem. Just putting little Brenna in the carseat seems to lull her into naptime. She screams when we buckle the seat restraints around her (you should see this contraption....I would be screaming too!), but the minute the seat goes into the car, she is happy as they come. We have been to the Pediatrician, to Papaw's house, out to eat a few times, and to Target for, you guessed it, baby supplies. She has done well every time. Go Brenna!

We had photos made at JC Penney this morning. They are absolutely adorable! I cannot wait for them to come in so I can get them framed. Ken ran wallet control while we were there (thank God). I would have bought every last one of them because it is so hard to pick and choose. I can't wait to get the e pics so I can post some.

Welcome to the world Brenna!

With great joy we announce the arrival of our new daughter!!!!! Brenna Claire arrived at 9:10 AM on Friday, July 25, 2008. She weighed in at 6 lb 10 oz and measured 18.75 inches long. She has a lot of dark brown hair and big gray brown eyes. I created this blog so we can share updates, stories, and photos with our family and friends. Who knew that such a little person could reach out and grab our hearts so quickly? We are really enjoying every minute with her. More photos will be added in the coming days!

Photos from Brenna's Birthday


Brenna's Birth Story:
I was scheduled for a cervidil/pitocin induction at 40w6d on July 24 because they "thought" the baby was going to be big (I am still laughing at them) and they didn't want to risk my placenta not being able to support the baby because I was overdue.

I went in to the hospital at 3:30 pm on the 24th. They placed me on the monitor and the contractions I had been feeling, but were not painful, were 8-10 minutes apart consistently. I was still only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. The cervidil was placed at 4:30. By 4:50pm my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and strong. Woohooo! I went into labor without pitocin!

I labored all evening with contractions 2-3 minutes apart and finally got to 3 cm and 80% effaced. I was excited that my cervix of steel finally gave in a bit and maybe this baby would be out soon. At 7 pm I got some Nubain. Might as well have spit at me because that stuff does nothing for pain relief. They tried another dose of Nubain at 10:30 because the pain was making me shake horribly. I was trying to hold off on the epidural until I got to 4 cm so as not to slow down the little bit of dilation I had going on so far.

At 11 pm they called in the Nurse Anesthetist to place my epidural. I was still at 3 cm but the contractions were coming at 1 to 2 minutes apart and lasting 45 seconds. It took two tries to get the epi placed but within 15 minutes that anesthetist was my best friend.

I labored all night, but was able to rest somewhat off and on. I had intermittant nausea and vomiting all night and my blood pressure kept dropping into the 80's requiring a ton of IV fluid and meds. They tried to start a little pitocin at 4:00 am to augment my contractions because cervix of steel was still refusing to budge. Baby's heartrate started dropping with each contraction so they stopped the pitocin 15 minutes later.

My OB arrived at 6:30 and told me that he would go do another case and would be back to check on me afterward. He said if I had no progress or if baby continued to drop her heartrate we would have to have a c section.

At 8:45 my OB came back and told me that the baby was not handling my contractions well at all. I could hear the heartrate drop on the monitor with every contraction and I was very anxious over it. Next thing I know, they are handing Ken a bunny suit to wear in the OR, the OR nurses are all around me, and the Nurse Anesthetist came back to re-dose my epidural for the OR.

We were in the OR before 9 am and our beautiful daughter Brenna Claire was born at 9:10. The OB allowed Ken to reach over the sterile field and cut the umbilical cord. She cried a beautiful long cry and they held her over the drape for me to see her pretty face. She weighed 6 lb 10 oz and was 18.75 inches long. Her apgars were 9/9. We are so in love!

I am also so thankful that I did not resist when they mentioned induction and later the c section. I wanted nothing to do with either and fully planned on waiting for labor and trying to labor at home as long as I could. The thought of induction made me cry. They told me that the reason for the baby dropping her heartrate with contractions was because my placenta was no longer able to sustain her. I am so glad I just went with what the doc felt was best for baby!