I'm New Here

Apologies

To those of you who read this blog, I will apologize in advance for the posts that seem like boring posts about my children's milestones.  I'm keeping this blog and turning it into a book for them and I refer back to it from time to time for memories.

Brynn at 6-7 weeks:

Wakes up between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. each morning
Diaper change and play for about an hour in the swing while Ava eats her breakfast
Eats and is down for nap again in the swing by 11 a.m. and will nap for a few hours before wanting to eat again. 
This week sleeping most of the day and usually only stays awake for an hour or two here and there. 
If she's up for longer than 2 hours she gets very cranky and fussy. 
She is ready to go down for the night by 9 or 10 pm and you have to get her down before she gets overtired or we will have a fight on our hands and she'll fight sleep for a few hours. 
She sleeps the first part of the night in her co-sleeper/nap nanny and then ends up in bed with me for her nightly feedings.  She still wakes up about every 3 hours to eat and occassionally will give me a good 5-6 hour stretch of sleep.
She LOVES her changing table and just smiles and coo's whenever we lay her down on it.  She loves looking out the window.
She is having some skin issues right now that we are trying to figure out and will talk to the pediatrician about on her next visit.  At first it was baby acne and a little bit of heat rash.  Now we are thinking she may have really sensitive skin and a possible sensitivity to a food that I'm eating.  I am now washing EVERYTHING in free and clear, I've taken her off of her reflux medicine (she's doing fine without it), not eating peanuts and going easy on the dairy until we figure out what she's reacting to.  She is definitely a hotbox and breaks out into a heat rash when she gets sweaty.  A few days ago I had a peanut butter sandwich and snacked on some peanut trail mix before bed.  The next morning I woke up and Brynn's face was one Giant red rash and she was super fussy all day long.  Her arms, legs and tummy were also breaking out.  We think my eating peanuts may have caused a reaction in her so I cut it out completely and her skin seems to be better although still a little bumpy.  I pray to God that she doesn't end up with a peanut allergy. 

Ava at 2 yrs 10 months:

• Obsessed with Tea partys and playing with tea sets
• reminds us to put her vitamins in her milk every day
• testing her boundaries with tantrums-threw her first screaming tantrum
• Takes her night diaper off every morning and puts her panties on or brings them to me to put on
• loves Gnomeo and Juliet
• Worships her Daddy
• Remembers exactly who got her just about everything she owns or who "brought this for me"
• Would live on Pediasure if you let her
• Asks "why" about a million times a day
• LOVES to help cook
• Loves nail polish and make up
• Thinks it's hilarious when she toots
• Thinks she is Steve's baby and Brynn is my baby
• Tells Steve "Daddy you MY baby"

Congrats to my Big Sis!

UNM Nursing School Graduate!!

5 - 6 weeks

Just hangin with the girls

My first date with Wyatt.  Can you tell he's an older man?

Sweet Sisters

The Hendrickson Girls

We got our first smile from Brynn just after she turned 4 weeks old!  She is just smiling away and always smiles when she see's her big sister.  I love it when she smiles and coo's like she's communicating.  It's just so precious.  She's also doing a really good job of holding her head up on her own. 

Her evening fussiness definitely peaked just like everything tells you it will at 5-6 weeks.  She was cluster feeding like crazy getting ready for her growth spurt.  Then yesterday on her 6 week birthday she slept ALL day long.  Since babies grow while they sleep, she must have been doing a LOT of growing.  She's already in 3 month clothes! 

Last week Ava figured out how to open doors by herself and we aren't used to this!!  The other day I didn't even realize that she had opened the back door by herself and was outside in the driveway!  She was looking for her daddy but he was inside.  She's also getting up early in the mornings and coming downstairs to get in our bed.  I've been enjoying my mornings in bed with my girls :)

One thing she says that makes me laugh is instead of saying "not today" she says "not for day".  So yesterday I asked her if she wanted a snack and she said "not for day but maybe for soon"

A few more Ava sayings that made us laugh:

• Everyone knows how Ava likes to play with her belly button while she drinks her milk.  She's done it since she was just an infant.  Today after gymnastics she got her before nap "milky" and said "I don't want this leotard on any more, we need to take it off.  I want to pick my belly"  She couldn't get to her belly button with the leotard on so she had to have it off immediately.
• Yesterday the girls and I went to the grocery store and Ava was telling everyone that would listen "my daddy is big, he's strong, I have a big daddy"   This reminds me of when I was little and I thought my daddy was the best looking, strongest man with the biggest muscles out there. Just the beginnings of the Electra complex for Ava :) 
• Today Steve was a little grumpy before he left for the gym and when he walked out the door Ava said "bye grumpy ole daddy"
• One night at dinner the baby was fussy and Ava said "mommy that baby needs your milk.  Daddy your boos don't have any milk.  My boos don't have milk either.  Daddy you need to get some milk in your boos"
• Instead of saying "sheets" she says "sheeps" She'll tell us she tee tee'd in the bed and we need to change her sheeps.
• Yesterday we were at Carters and Ava apparently had bad gas because she started crop dusting.  Only she wasn't shy about it.  Everytime she tooted she would yell "toot toot!" and laugh.  I think she gets this from her Aunt Courtney.

On another note, yesterday would have been my dad's 58th birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad.

My little Diva

This is what happens when it gets too quiet and doodle is in mommy's bathroom.  She ran out and instead of saying "ta-daa!"  she said "Make-up!!" (picture mary katherine gallagher's superstar pose) Very proud of her work. 

Please excuse my hair do, I just woke up for the morning and worked on my make up first.

Who can resist this smile???

I'm 1 month old today!

And what a wonderful month it's been :)

Now click here to compare to Ava at 1 month old and tell me they don't look alike

Brynn's birth story

Brynn's due date was Wednesday April 6th, so when that day rolled around and I woke up still pregnant, I was getting discouraged. Then my doctor called that morning to tell me that she would be out of town on Friday and that if I went into labor over the weekend I'd have the on call doctor deliver the baby. This happened last time and I had the on call doctor deliver. Don't get me wrong, he was fabulous, but I also ended up with a couple of interventions that I would have preferred not to have and my recovery was excruciating.

My doctor said that she could bring me in that night and break my water so that she would for sure be there during the delivery. I have been very adamant about not wanting any interventions this time around..no pitocin etc. So I stressed about what the right decision would be all day and prayed about it and talked to my sister (who is about to be a pediatric nurse and spent time in labor and delivery) all day about it.  She was also not in favor of inducing labor in any way especially out of convenience. They scheduled me to come in at 9pm that evening, but the hospital called and said they had no beds available in labor and delivery and would re-schedule me for the next morning. I thought well good that gives the baby a little more time to come on her own. I did a lot of walking that day and Steve and I went out for a nice dinner while Ava stayed with Gigi.

11:30 pm we are laying in bed watching dateline and I felt a contraction and two small pops. I told Steve I thought my water may have just broken. He jumped up and said "Are you serious!" and then I didn't feel a gush or anything so I thought well maybe it was a false alarm and I laid back down. A few seconds later here it came and I realized it did just happen, on it's own just the way I wanted it to!!! A few minutes later the contractions started and they were already 5 mins apart so we got dressed, got our things and headed to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital at 1 a.m. my contractions were already 2 minutes apart and I couldn't walk so Steve had to wheel me in.  Now, let me take a moment to let everyone know that Steve did not speed to the hospital like a bat out of hell like you would all think. In fact he drove like it was a cheery sunday afternoon of sight seeing and we had nowhere special to be. Then instead of pulling in to the valet area in the front of the hospital where they would get me out and wheel me in, he parks in the garage!! I said "seriously, you are going to have me walk all the way from here to labor and delivery in the middle of these contractions and soaking wet?" I could barely stand up at this point! God love him :) Luckily there was a wheel chair near the elevator so he went and got it and wheeled me and all of our luggage into the hospital, dropping shit all along the way. Totally reminded me of the out of towners a movie my Aunt Gloria and I used to watch. When we got to labor and delivery, there was not a delivery room available so they put me in the recovery room to labor while I waited on a room to open up. My doctor was already there and I was already at 4 cm so she said I could go ahead and get my epidural. Of course my dumb self said no I thought I could wait a little longer. She said "are you sure because this is moving really fast" I said I was sure. As soon as she left the contractions became unbearably long and painful and I was begging for the epidural. The nurse came in and told me that she would need to start my IV and get an entire bag of fluid in me before I could get my epidural. I thought "oh shit I'm going to die or kill somebody before then" My entire body was shaking from the amount of pain I was in, but it was still not as overwhelming as the pitocin contractions I'd had with Ava. So two hours later at 3 a.m. the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. Can I just tell you how not fun it is to be getting a needle put into your spine in the middle of a super long excruciating contraction while trying to stay bent over and perfectly still with nothing to hold on to? Maddening!!!

Epidural kicked in much faster than the one I had with Ava and this time I could actually move my legs and still feel pressure. With Ava I couldn't sit up or move my legs on my own. The nurse said they wouldn't really check me anymore because they didn't want to cause an infection so I asked how I would know when to push. She said "oh you'll know, you'll feel the pressure" I told her that with my first delivery I didn't feel a thing so what happens if I don't feel it. She said "you'll know when the baby's laying on the bed between your legs" LOL!!! I love a good sense of humor :)

Around 5:30 or 6 a.m. I felt pressure so when the nurse came in I told her, she checked me and I was already at 8 centimeters! I couldn't believe it, everything was going to smoothly and quickly. When we looked at the monitor I was thanking God for the epidural because by the looks of the contractions on the monitor I would have been in HELL! It was basically one big long contraction with no break. I was nauseous anyway though which they say is normal at that stage. By 6:30 I was complete so we did a few practice pushes, she wasn't quite ready to come yet so they decided to wait a little longer. Around 7:30 a.m. or so the doctor came in and it was go time. This time I could actually feel the pressure and was able to push and feel a little more of what was going on. I heard the doctor saying something to the nurse about her cord being wrapped and of course I panicked!  One of my biggest fears whas the cord being wrapped around her neck.  After the delivery they told me that the cord was actually wrapped around her arm, but that she was fine.

Brynn was born at 7:56 a.m. and everyone was shocked at her size! Although she was bigger than Ava by almost 2 lbs, the delivery and the recovery were so much smoother! I could not have been happier with the way things went. It was exactly the way I wanted it. My doctor, no interventions other than the epidural and best of all no pitocin and no demerol!  When Steve and I saw her face we both instantly said she looked just like Ava when Ava was born.  Nobody else remembers how she looked when she was born but we both did.  We couldn't believe how much Brynn looked like her big sister!  guess we'll have another little mini me for Steve (with my chin and this time with dimples!)