No More Animals in the Crib

So I just got off the phone with my Mom and during our conversation she told me that she ran into a friend of mine at church last night. The friend was going on and on about how cute BR is and how much she likes following our blog. Then she told my mom to tell me to take all the animals out of BR's crib. So, Allison, I did it and took these pictures just to show you. haha! 

I knew I wasn't suppose to have the animals in there but I really don't think they were gonna hurt right now since she really can't move at all when she's swaddled. But I understand, the bear could have fallen over on her.

 

So now BR is sleeping soundly in her crib all alone. No furry animals to keep her company! She doesn't seem to mind. hehe!!

Her cute dimple is showing just a little bit in this picture. So darn cute!!

Oh, BR is 2 weeks old today!! She is a happy, healthy, sleepy baby girl and we love her!!!!!

Play Time & Rest Time

Last night was ROUGH!!! But thankfully today has been SO much better!! This morning BR and I took a long nap in Mommy & Daddy's bed. It was GREAT and much needed after a night of not much sleep. After our nap it was time for me to get up and get us ready to go to the Breastfeeding support group that Brookwood has every Monday morning at Gold's Gym in Vestavia. I went because I had a couple of questions for the lactation consultants and also I got to weigh BR and see how much she's grown since we left the hospital. When we left the hospital she weighed 7lbs 4oz and today she weighed 7lbs 11.5oz. Yay! She is above her birth weight already which means that she is eating well and getting the nutrition she needs. I was so relieved and happy!! We then ran to Target to pick up a few things before heading back home for the afternoon.

 

 This afternoon BR and I played in the living room with her activity center. Well she laid there and I took pictures of her and talked to her a lot. It was pretty fun!! I love her so much!! 

She's SO cute!!!

 

I finally got good pictures of her with her eyes open. Her Nana will be happy about that!!

  

 Beautiful!! The quilt Brantley Rae is laying on was made by her talented GrannyB, or Bebe as she prefers to be called. ha!  The quilt is beautiful and we love it.

 

After playing for a while it was time for a nap. BR slept in her crib for about an hour and a half. It was great! I was such a proud mommy. I got to take a shower and do some other things around the house which was wonderful. She looked SO cute it there!! I'm hoping that she'll sleep in her crib tonight because her sleeping in her bouncy seat next to our bed isn't really working that well.

Anyways, my Monday night shows are on so I'm gonna finish up. I hope everyone is having a good week!!

Brantley Sleeps

Sadly I don't have too much to share but these pictures of BR sleeping. She has been doing LOTS of sleeping during the day and her night time sleeping is getting better. Last night she slept in her bouncy chair and tonight she'll probably do the same. I know it's not the best place for her to sleep but for now it works and Chase and I get some rest.

 

This is BR napping in her crib for the first time yesterday. She did so good! I put her in there asleep but she woke up about 20 minutes later, "played" (aka looked around and squirmed) for a little while and then went back to sleep. So cute!!

 

This is how she sleeps pretty much all the time. I think she's dreaming about Auburn football already. hehe! Touchdown Auburn!!

We had a good night last night and we've had a great day. She and I are starting to figure out the breastfeeding thing which makes me very happy because I really want her to have the best nutritional start. She is healthy as a horse right now so we're thankful! We go to the doctor for the first time on the 16th. I can't wait to see how much she will have grown by then. Funfun!!

We had lots of sweet visitors today and we're all very sleepy so hopefully tonight will be a good night again and we'll get lots of rest. Okay, mommy duty calls!!

Have a good Saturday night!!

Newborn Photos

This afternoon Chase and I took Brantley Rae's Newborn photos. Today she is 6 days old. I can't believe that tomorrow she will already be ONE WEEK old. Tomorrow is also my original due date and boy am I happy she didn't stay inside me until then. ha!

 

  

  

FAVORITE!!!!!!!

 

  

Look at that sweet smile!!!!

  

So I had to take a picture with our sweet little angel!! See we're already getting better at taking pictures of her.

  

 I'm such a happy Mommy and I'm in love with my daughter more than I ever thought possible. Big smile!!!

We'll have to take more pictures over the next few weeks so we can see how much she changes. I know I've said it before but I'm so in love with her. Chase and I are so happy that the Lord has blessed us with Brantley Rae and is trusting us to take good care of her. We're so thankful!!

First Few Days at Home

I don't have that much time but I wanted to post some pictures of our sweet BR. She is so amazing and we are totally in LOVE with her. She is so precious!!! Being a mommy is more awesome than I thought. I'm SO happy!! We have the cutest little family now!!

Our first few days at home have been pretty great!! I'm tired but not exhausted!! BR is doing really well but she hasn't figured out that she's suppose to sleep in her pack-n-play at night. She likes to sleep in Mommy's, Nana's or Daddy's arms. Any suggestions????

I took this picture at the hospital but it was the day we went home.

I love her sweet face!! She makes the funniest expressions and they change constantly. Adorable!!
I don't have a 4 day picture- Oops!

I took this picture yesterday before my mom and I took BR to Publix to do some grocery shopping. She is such a trooper. She's already been to Target too!! Mommy's little shopper! Ha!

Sweet angel sleeping in her bouncy seat this morning. She's sitting next to me in it or rather, I'm sitting in the floor next to her. She's AWESOME!!!

This was pretty funny! She's so little and the swing was going kinda high and she kept putting her arms out like she was flying.  Ha! It was pretty cute!!

  

Chase bought BR her first Teddy Bear while we were in the hospital and this is their first picture together. He is such a wonderful daddy. Brantley Rae is so lucky to have such an awesome daddy. He loves her to death!!!!

Sunday night the Bachofer's came over to visit us and BR had on this really cute outfit. There is a bear on the bottom on the pants. So cute!!

Unfortunately we haven't been as good at taking pictures as I wish we had been. Chase is actually home today so we're going to try and take some  newborn photos of BR later this afternoon. Hopefully they'll turn out okay and she'll stay asleep. 

Okay,  for now BR is still sleeping so I'm gonna take this chance to go get a shower. Sorry this isn't the greatest post. I'll get better! I promise!!!

Headed to the House

 

 Her outfit was really big but it was still really cute and warm. It was such a yucky day outside on Saturday but I didn't care because we were getting to take our baby girl home.

We bundled her up and headed to the house! She did a great job in the car!

It was such an awesome/scary feeling to know that we were getting to take her home and we were on our own to take care of her without help from the nurses. Wow! It was awesome!!!

I'll post about the delivery and such later.

Labor & Delivery

I'm writing this post so that I will have it written down before I forget. You may or may not be interested in reading about my labor and Brantley Rae's delivery, but here it goes.

Wednesday night, Chase and I had gone to eat dinner with his parents. I had been having contractions on and off for a few days by then but they started to get stronger. We left his parents house and headed to Target and the mall to walk. Once we got to Target I had a feeling that my water had broken a little bit. I was slowly leaking fluid of some sort. After walking at the mall for about an hour and timing my contractions. They were 5 minutes apart and I decided it was time to call the doctor and ask him about the possibility of my water being broken. So the doctor finally called me back and told me that we needed to head to the hospital so that they could check me. We finished packing our bags and headed to Labor & Delivery at the hospital.

Once at the hospital they put the monitors on my belly and started to measure my contractions. They were still every 5 minutes apart and the nurse said that she thought I was in Early Labor. Yay! My water had not broken but I was maybe 2cm and since I was in Early Labor they let me stay the night and see how I had progressed in the morning. The nurse gave me a shot of morphine for pain and an Ambien to help me sleep and then I tried to rest for the night. Surprisingly, I didn't get much sleep but I was feeling pretty loopy. Ha!

Thursday morning at about 6:30 or 7:00am, the nurse checked me and I was almost 3cm. Yay! I had made progress so that meant I was really in labor and they weren't going to send me home. I was so relieved!!

At about 8:30am, my doctor came in a confirmed that I was 3cm dilated and told me that he would come back in an hour or so to break my water and really get things going.

Around 10:00, Dr. S came in and broke my water and they started me on Pitocin. My contractions started to pick up and get stronger quickly. Once I reached 4cm, I asked for my Epidural. By the time the anesthesiologist came in to give me the Epidural I was in more pain than I could have imagined. It was horrible!! Kudos to women who are about to have natural childbirth. I don't know how you could take it.

After my Epidural, I progressed from 4cm to 7cm in an hour. I had the most wonderful nurse EVER and she put me in her special "Fulmer Pretzel" position (Fulmer is her last name) and it helped my pelvis open, which helped my cervix dilate so quickly. I then dilated from 7cm to 10cm in 45 minutes. FAST!! I was SO glad I had the Epidural!! I actually slept a lot of my labor because my Epidural made me sleepy and I hadn't slept much that night. A little after 1:00, Dr. S came in and told me I was 10cm and it was time to start pushing so I had to make myself wake up. It was a very surreal moment. The time had actually come and I was gonna get to meet my baby girl very soon.

I started to push and couldn't feel ANYTHING because my Epidural had made me so very numb. So I had them turn it off so that it would start to ware off and I would be able to feel how to push. I ended up pushing for 30 minutes and then the nurse told me to stop pushing because I had figured out how to push and BR was really close to crowning. It was time to deliver BR and Dr. S was called back to the room. Once he got all geared up and ready I pushed for another 10-15 minutes and she was finally here. When she came out, Dr. S gave her a big "War Eagle, Brantley!!!" It was SO cool!!
I of course cried like a baby because I was so happy that she was finally out of me and I could hold her. They dried her off and put her straight on my chest for Skin-to-Skin time. She was very alert!! Her eyes were wide open and she was really calm. I loved every second of it!!!

Another nurse came in and weighed, cleaned Brantley up and gave her back to me. She was so beautiful!! Chase and I were SOOO happy to finally see her little face and have her here with us instead of inside me.
After an hour, I got to head up to our postpartum room and that is when our parents and Chase's grandparent finally got to come in and meet her. It was a great hour!!

Overall, the labor and delivery was a quick and easy experience for me. I will hopefully get to do it again in a few years. I love being a Mommy and Chase is loving being a Daddy.

Brantley Rae is waking up from her nap and ready to eat so that's all for now.