Catching Up

Hi everybody!

I have been pretty slow at updating our blog ever since lil' Brandon came into our lives. Everything has become more hectic, busy and completely amazing. We love him more than we could have ever imagined! So bear with my slow updating :)

On Tuesday (Dec. 1st) Brandon will already be 6 weeks old! The time has gone by so fast I can hardly believe it. Here are a list of things our little boy has started to do or has already done in his first 6 weeks:
-He is starting to hold his head up
-He can now take actual baths in his little whale bathtub instead of a sponge bath
-He is SMILING!! It melts my heart
-He is starting to grow out of his Newborn clothes (his legs and arms still fit but his big belly does not :)
-He is starting to sleeping for longer periods of time during the night (knock on wood!)
-He has been to Target more times than most people MY age
-He is starting to eat 3 oz of formula after nursing instead of 2
-He had his first Thanksgiving
-He has been to his first Casino in Deadwood
-He had his first Face Time experience with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Madison on his Grandpa's Ipad
-He helped put up his first Christmas Tree at Grandma Marcia's house

Brandon his been a busy little bug the past 6 weeks! He grows so much every single day. Its sad to see my little boy growing up yet it is so exciting at the same time. He is the perfect most beautiful baby anyone could have asked for. I thank God every single day for him.

I promise I will post more pictures soon!

October 18, 2011 "Are you ready for a birthday party?"

The big day! It started off as normal as any other day. I just hung out at home most of the day, waiting for my weekly doctor appointment that afternoon. I was feeling tired and swollen but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

I went to my appointment that day at 3:20 and met Mitch there. Dr. Bernhard was running WAY behind because she was busy delivering babies all day long. We were told it was a CRAZY day :)When I finally got in, my blood pressure was 147/90. It was higher than what they would have liked to see it, but she said it wasn't preeclampsia and didn't think it was anything to worry about just yet. I hadn't dialated any either that day, so she was just going to send me home. But she decided to check my blood pressure one last time before heading home. By that time it had jumped to 153/92, so my doctor wanted to get some blood samples and sent us to labor and delivery.

As we sat and waited in labor and delivery, there were 4 other women in the small room with us and the nurses were all telling us how busy it had been that day, with so many births happening. They came to draw some blood from me and Mitch and I were talking about what we wanted to do for dinner since we were going home in a few minutes. WRONG. 5 minutes after my blood was drawn, the phone next to the hospital bed I was laying in started ringing. It was Dr. Bernhard. She asked me "Are you ready for a birthday party?" Ummm...what? She said my platelets were dangerously low-they should have been at 120,000 and they were at 70,000. She told me that since I wasn't dialated at all, it wasn't safe to induce me because that could take 8-12 hours for me to have the baby and by then my platelets would much lower. She explained to me that platelets are what clot the blood and if they're too low, I could potentially bleed out and put the baby and great risk. So we had to do an emergency C-section and had to be put completely under, which means Mitch couldn't be with me. She wanted him out by 7:30 that night. SCARY! It all happened so fast. With in 2 minutes, I had 4 nurses in my little room area and I was preped and ready for surgery in less than 10 minutes. There was so much going though my head in that short amout of time. I was just supposed to go to a routine appointment! Little did I know that 4 hours later, I would have a baby.

They wheeled me to the enterance of the surgery room and had me say goodbye to Mitch and my mom. I was FREAKING OUT. I went into a cold room, where I saw my doctor. They all explained to me what was going to happen and they would have the baby out in less than a minute. They next thing I remember was waking up in recovery asking the nurse if my baby was OK and how much he weighed. They started putting pictures in my face of Mitch holding our beautiful baby boy and I just remember smiling :) It was a bitter sweet moment for me because I was happy to see that everything turned out wonderfully but I was sad that I couldn't be there to share this happy moment with Mitch. I made myself realize that everything could have been worse than it was, so I needed to be greatful. Here are a few pictures from the greatest day of our life:

Baby Linster's New Room!

One of the most exciting parts of anticipating the arrival of our lil man, has been getting his room ready. Everytime a new piece of furniture got put together, another load of his laundry got washed or a new item was added to his room, it reminded me of how soon it is that he will be using this room! Making this spare bedroom become our first baby's room has been such a fun experience for Mitch and I :) Here is the finished product:

Well he has more clothes than his dad anyway:)

Our pile of hospital goodies ready to go.

His stroller and car seat are ready to go!

So are his Pack n' Play (which will go up in our room, where he will sleep for the first few weeks) and Swing! As Grandma Marcia said, "It's really too bad this child seems to be deprived."

As you can see, we are ready for Bean's arrival, whenever he decides that will be! I'm really nervous that it's already October and he is due in exactly one month. However, I'm also starting to feel a little more prepared than I did a month ago. I know it will take time to get a routine down and for the three of us to fully understand eachother. But we are very excited to meet our baby boy and Oakley is too!

Getting Down to the Wire!

Hey everybody!!

I can't believe I'm already 35 weeks along! This pregnancy has flown by so incredibly fast but it has been such an amazing experience. I haven't taken any recent belly pictures for a few reasons:

A. I haven't been feeling tip top 100% the past few weeks so getting off the couch or out of my bed is about the equivelant of running a marathon. My feet, ankles and hands are swelling so bad they hurt. And this has risen me to "sweet to live with" status :)

B. I feel like I am the size of my garage. Therefore taking any pictures of me isn't on the top of my list.

So instead of burning your retinas with the elephant pictures of me, I will give you some updates! I went to see my Dr last month during a routine check up and she immediately started laughing when she measured me. I looked at her and was like "Now what??" She tells me that I have a BIG baby in my belly and that he is measuring 3 weeks ahead of schedule. So she wants to give me an ulstrasound just to see what is going on.

I go to my ultrasound on Sept 19th and the tech tells me that based on his measurements, he is a little over 6 lbs already! Im not supposed to have this baby for another month and a half. Great. She also tells us that he has quite a bit of hair (if the heartburn tale is true then I knew that already. Ive been living off of Tums for 6 months now) and he is facing head down. I was glad to hear that! He has the cutest, chubbiest cheeks (just like his Auntie Amy did) and I think he has Mitch's nose :) He is the sweetest little baby and just melts my heart :)

I went back to see my Dr the next day and she tells me that she isn't going to change my due date because that is what I measured from the very beginning but will keep a close watch on us to see how big he is getting. If I go to full term he could be about 10 lbs. Amy and I were both big babies, 9 lbs and 10 lbs. Mitch wasn't even 8 lbs. So I can't even blame Mitch for this one - it comes from Mommy's side :)

My next appt is next week Oct 4th and I will begin to go see her once a week until I have him. So that makes me feel a little better :) I personally think I will have him before Halloween but only time will tell!

His room is just getting the finishing touches on it and I willl post pictures of that soon! Until then I will continue to grow a very large little boy in my belly and will update you all on more news as it comes!

32 weeks!

I can't even believe that I am already 8 months pregnant! To say time has gone by fast is an understatement in my opinion. Here is my 32 week pic!

Bean is growing and growing and kicking and kicking. He's running out of room in there so he either get frustrated and just sleeps all day (I've noticed he sleeps alot more now these past few weeks) or he gets bored and decides to kick and punch me all day :) I'll look down at my stomach during dinner and see the right side of it is completely buldged out. It's fun! I love him so much.

We still haven't picked out a name yet. We think we have it picked out or at least have 2 narrowed down, then one of us changes our mind. It's not easy to pick out the name of your child! I never thought it would be this stressful. But in the end, we are just so excited to meet him and his name will come around eventually :)

Mitch and I have our birthing class in 2 weeks. I'm not sure how that is going to go but I am already preparing myself that I will have a meltdown :) I will let you all know how it goes-whether you want to know or not!

Family Fun Day!

Mitch, Oakley, Bean and I decided to take a last family lake day/camping trip before Bean makes his arrival. We went into Custer State Park and camped at Stockade Lake-the day was hotter than hell but it made it perfect for the Lake! Here are some pictures of us at the lake. It wasn't a typical lake day however, I wasn't about to squeeze my preggo booty into a swimsuit :)

Not too sure about this lake thing....

Haha...look at his ears! He got his stomach wet-not cool apparently.

Mister!!!

Started to venture out on his own a little :)

Started to play fetch with Dad-he loved it!

We didn't take any other camping pictures because it turns out my allergies in the hills SUCK. So I spent the rest of the time with a box of Kleenex :) But we still had a great time! We made hotdogs, PB&J's and the best S'mores ever! We had quite a storm roll through at about 3 am as well, so that added a little extra adventure to our trip.

Bean, mom and dad can't wait to go camping with you someday, although it probably wont be for a few years yet. You can help dad set up the pop-up camper while Oak and mom sit and watch while drinking a Mojito :)

Baby Shower!

My sister threw me a wonderful baby shower this past weekend! Many family and friends came to celebrate Bean and he got so many wonderful things :)

Diaper Cake made by his aunt Madison :)

He's such a cute daddy :)

The shower was a great success! Thank you to everyone who came and to everyone who helped make it so wonderful! And thank you to my mom and sister for making it happen!

Now Bean and I have alot of work to do organizing his room and washing all of his new clothes :)