3 Weeks!

Three weeks old today!

Andi is growing like a weed - a very cute weed - :)
According to Debbie's scale (Thanks Debbie!), which is probably precise, but not necessarily accurate, she weighs about 7 lbs 7 oz! That is such an increase from her lowest weight of 5 lbs 12 oz, and then to think that most people bring their babies home at a weight of 7-8 lbs!
She has recently become a queen of spitting up, and I'm hoping that that might have a little bit to do with the antibiotics that I'm still taking (it can effect your and your babies digestive system), otherwise we might have to change our gas bill budget, as laundry piles up every day (we have a gas dryer).

Here's a three week picture with Slungel the Rabbit:

Besides her first bath, we had some other firsts over the weekend: We took our first trip to Grandma and Grandpa Bryan's house (where Andi also showed off her laundry generating skills), and Andi attended her first church service! It was a special service, as Andi's future husband Weston Ennist (Yes, arrangements have been made between the parents. Now we just have to convince these little ones of it about 20 yrs from now - haha) was dedicated to the Lord. Mom was very proud we made it there in time, and without any messes!

Andi at Grandma and Grandpa's house - "Getting changed here - Can I have some privacy?"

My cutie - :)

Behold the Belly Button!

Yesterday, 17 days after she was born, Andi decided to unveil her belly button, as her umbilical cord stump finally decided to fall off!
Indeed, this means mommy has been very patient not to tinker with it while it was attached with one thread :)
Either way, this meant that today was "First Bath" at home day!! Luckily Dad was also there to help with a slippery, soapy Andi, and to take pictures of course!

Here, take a look at that beautiful belly button: :)

Going in - "Wait, I don't know if I like this ...."

.....

"This isn't so bad... Warm, Floaty... I think I like this! "

And the reward - smelling good, dry, clean clothes and my pacifier!

I love my giant pacifier :)

And poor Sage - again watching in from the outside .... awww ... We really do give her attention as well!

Bryan Family Movie Night

Last night, we all crashed on the couch to watch a movie.
Andi: "Mom, it was a long day, I'm too tired to stay up for a movie ... "

And with Dad:

My favorite one:

Poor Sage feels a little left out sometimes these days...

So Mom tries to make time to cuddle both the girls :)

Two weeks!

Andi is two weeks old today!

I can't believe it! Things are still going well - we are learning more about her every day. And even though the whole process takes at least an hour still, we are figuring out what works for her when it comes to feeding/burping/spitting/diapers. She spits up a lot, and as new parents this worried us a little, but I read in my trusty "What to expect, the first year" book that doctors tend to laugh internally when parents worry about spit up, because apparently according to them "Spit up is a laundry problem, not a health problem." Well said I guess :)

So here's Andi's two week picture with Slungel the rabbit :)
(P.S. Yes, two different outfits - you guess what happened in between)

We also had her two week appointment this afternoon, and she weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs 12 oz (10th percentile, though some of that I think was because her belly was so full!), measured 19 inches (~7th percentile), and her head 35 cm (25th percentile).

She's grown half an inch, and 11 oz!!
Still waiting for her umbilical stump to fall off though ...

My parents left for their camping adventure last Sunday, and while they left us a fridge full of food, Andi and I are now on our own for a bit, while Ben goes to work.

I on the other hand am having another little starter hiccup - yay for me, I've got mastitis! (borstontsteking) I was feeling pretty miserable on Sunday, so I went to the doctor on Monday and he gave me a round of antibiotics. I'm feeling better already, but I hope it disappears soon!

Mom and Dad Comparison

My sister scanned and emailed me some pictures of me when I was a baby, so now we can do the comparison of Andi to her mom and dad. First picture is Andi, second is Ben, third and fourth are of me. I weighed about 7 lbs 9 oz at birth, and was 20.5 inches tall. Don't know about Ben - I'll have to come back with an update. Andi is much smaller then either of us two were though, but I think she has my hair color, chin and lips, and a little bit more of Ben's nose and eyes/eyebrows. What do you think?

Andi

Ben

Wiesje

Wiesje. Look at those cheeks!

Also - today was a beautiful spring day, and since I was home alone and time alowed it, I figured I try to take Andi out on her first walk. After about 2 hrs of trying to get ready, putsing around with nursing, spit up, diapers and fussiness, she was finally calmed down, so I got out my uber fancy stroller, and strapped in Andi. All cozy and good to go. Seemingly. However, I open the door and screaming starts. Screaming also meant the whole process of feeding, spit up and diapers had to be repeated. Ahh, my new life :)

Either way, about 1.5 hrs later, I decide to try again, this time in my ring sling! Those African women know what they're doing! Andi and I loved our little walk! So much fun!

I will give my stroller another try though ;)

One week old!

[two posts today]

Andi is one week old today!
We've had such an awesome week, adjusting to our new life at home. I absolutely love being a mommy :) Ben took last week off, so that was great. My parents have been coming every day to help me out in and around the house - they're cleaning, cooking meals, and getting groceries, so it is so nice to be able to devote all my time to my little one.
On friday, we had Andi's first doctors appointment - she weighed 5 lbs 12 oz, and Dr. Horst noticed she was a little yellow, so we had her heel pricked to check her billirubin levels. Her level was 16.5, and they like to treat a baby when levels are above 15, so even though hers weren't all that high, she still had to go on a billi bed for a few days. Dr. Horst also told me to nurse her every 2 hrs, day and night, to make sure the billirubin comes out of her system, and because she is still pretty small.
A nurse came by every day to check her weight and billi level, and by Sunday evening her level was down to 12. This is right on the border line to come off the bed, so she got a 24 hr trial period off the bed - it was so fun to be able to cuddle with her again! Monday night, the nurse was back, and Andi's level was 11.4, so she is now officially done with her little blue tanning bed! Her weight was also 6 lbs 2 oz yesterday, so she just surpassed her birth weight already! Guess all that nursing is paying off!

Some other thoughts and observations from my first week:
- Never knew the first days of nursing could be that painful :) - I cringed everytime she latched on! Why did I not know about this? haha
- Little girls can also pee all over you when you are not quick enough changing their diaper :)
- I love my little girl, and cannot stare at her enough
- When we are up in the middle of the night nursing, it makes me laugh that when a little 6 lbs human yawns, it makes me yawn too, or that when I yawn she starts yawning in return :)
- This little tiny girl is able to produce an entire load of laundry in one day!
- Oh, and I didn't know either that babies can have a favorite side when it comes to nursing! Andi truly doesn't like my left, so I've resorted in to tricking her into thinking it is also the right side, by holding her as a football :) - haha - you can't outsmart me yet, little one!

One week old, with "Slungel" the rabbit.

(The rabbit came from my parents, and translated in English, "slungel" means something like gangly dude.)

One week ago - birth story

A little over one week ago, Monday evening, we took my last belly pictures, and Ben and I checked into the hospital to get induced. We got there at 5 pm, then waited for 4.5 hrs for Dr. Bragg to show up, who incerted Cervadil to start things up slowly. During the night, I noticed some contractions were starting up, and by 4 am I could definitely feel them.

At 9:30 am on Tuesday morning the 10th, Dr. Klingler came in and started me on Pitocin. I didn't need very much of it, since contractions were already starting to come on their own from the Cervadil. Dr. Klingler also checked me, and I was 85 % effaced (10% more than the week before) and still only 1.5 cm dilated. I took a little bit of a power nap, and after that Ben and I started pacing the halls. Ben even counted how many circles around we had to do to make it to one mile - I don't know if we made it :)

At 12:30 pm Dr. Klingler came back to check me again: fully effaced and 3 cm dilated. He then broke my water, which really got things going! Ouch contractions are painful! The nurse kept asking me how much the pain was on a scale from one to ten, but I thought this was an impossible question to answer, because I had no clue what pain a ten would be like!!

I never got an epidural or anything, but I am not embarrassed to say that that was the worst pain I have ever been in - I didn't know such a pain scale existed - now I know what level ten is! I guess they really don't label it "labor" for nothing. Luckily I had Ben there with me the whole time, who was the best coach a girl could ask for. I pretty much bounced around on the labor ball for the next few hours, with Ben sitting behind me telling me to focus on the pine trees in the field outside :) - I will never look at those pine trees the same way again, haha.

At about 3 pm Dr. Klingler came back to check me - 5 cm. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed, but the nurse told me that that was great progress. One thing I didn't really like was that Dr. Klingler then told me that it would probably be about two more hours till I was ready to start pushing - I thought to myself - "how mean for telling me! - there is no way I can do this for two more hours"!! But then there was Ben, and the trusty pine trees :)

At about 4 pm, I noticed more pressure and almost wanted to push along with contractions, so the nurse checked me - 9 cm's!! Only one more to go! I started bouncing on that ball like crazy, I wanted to be done so bad! By about 4:20 Dr. Klinger was back, checked me, and it was time to push!
There are simply no words to describe this process, as many people have said before. It was so amazing. What a miracle. During the whole thing I was all the way hunched over, holding my own legs, so I was able to see everything for myself. After about half an hour of pushing, at 4:49 pm, little Andi came into the world. Again, there are no words.
As she was on my belly, and Ben cut the cord, Ben leaned over to say "hi", and she reacted to his voice immediately!

Andi, just a few seconds old!

The first moments.

Right after her bath.

The first family picture. And yes, that is a fish in the foreground - don't ask - it's a whole other story :)

Mommy to little Andi Mooiweer Bryan!!!

I'm a mommy!! And I'm so happy!
God is good!!
Beautiful little Andi Mooiweer Bryan was born on Tuesday, March 10th at 4:49 pm, and we are so in love with her! She was 6 lbs 1 oz, and is 18.5 inches tall.
I will post a labor story later - I'm having too much fun being with her!
She is doing great, she nurses great, but her billirubin levels were a little bit elevated yesterday, so she has to stay on a little blue bed for a while.
Here are a few pics:

Grab the calendar!

Ben and I got to spend 2.5 hours at the clinic today - mostly waiting :) But, we do have some exciting news!! ... I'm scheduled to be induced next week!!
My ultrasound this morning showed the same thing as before - I still have very low fluid - it was slightly lower even than last time, but she was positioned different, which could have altered the outcome. However, our little girl has grown a bit! That double pan of brownies I've been working on must be doing its job, because according to the ultrasound she's about 5 lbs 10 oz, which I know can still be quite a bit off, but that number sounds much better to me than the 4.5 lbs from two weeks ago!
After that I had another non-stress test, where she wiggled around like a madwoman, and after that Dr. Klingler checked me (OUCH!!): I'm 1.5 cm dialated, 50% effaced - hey at least it's something, right? :)
He then said to think about an induction date: "How does wednesday sound?" Both my and Ben's eyes popped out of their sockets (though Ben described it more as something **** his pants) - as in THIS wednesday???? "Yes."
Though I will go with whatever the doc thinks is best, he did say that next week would be fine as well, he just didn't want to put the baby at risk. He therefore went to ask the other doctors for a second and third opinion, which I thought was pretty awesome. The final decision amongst the doctors was that early next week would probably be fine too, assuming everything continues to go well (I go in again on friday for a check)
Monday night next week (the 9th) we will go in to get started, and on tuesday morning they will start inducing. So exciting!!!

Getting Closer!

I'm passed 37 weeks = Full Term!!

I'm getting so excited, it seems baby stuff is all my brain can handle these days :)
This passed Monday, we had another ultrasound - things looked pretty much the same with our little girl: she measured small, and my amniotic fluid was still very low. She did have a very full bladder though, so if she would have squirted that out, the scores would have been a little better perhaps :) This passed Friday Dr. Klingler measured me again with a tape, and my belly measures 34 cm, so 3 weeks behind. We also had another non-stress test, and our little girl is still performing great, praise God! Monday I go back for yet another ultrasound, and Dr. Klingler will then most likely set a date for an induction - probably in my 38th week.
... !!! ...
That is in less than 1.5 weeks!!! :)
I wish there was a way in that I could "send" all the nutrients I eat directly to my baby, so that she will plump up a little bit more before then! I didn't realize a few months ago that I someday might not enjoy hearing "oh you look so small" all the time. :( Yesterday I had to pick up a car seat base at Walmart, and the ladies behind the counter said: "Stocking up on baby items already huh?" - I was a little surprised by this, and responded - "well yeah, she might be here in two weeks!" They thought I was barely 6 months along - pretty untrained eye if you ask me ;)

Anyway - here some belly shots:

Full frontal 37 weeks, 2 days

Side view 37 weeks, 2 days

And the globe from Ben's perspective :)

Besides taking it easy, I of course still keep busy nesting. Things are coming together pretty nicely: the necessary baby items are stocked, I've sewed 7 more burp cloths, and I've found that shopping online is the best thing on the planet for someone in my condition :)

The nursery is now almost done - newest item on the block? Friday night, Ben came home with the changing station that he and his dad built!! I'm so excited about it - it is absolutely beautiful!!! Home made, from a cherry tree! It has the prettiest colors and details!

Tada!