Week 36 (and 37 - post baby!)

Little did I know, but the week 36 pic was taken only a couple of hours before my water broke. I gained just about 25 pounds up to that point; everyone kept telling me you gain the most and are the most uncomfortable in the last month - since Brynn is completely healthy I can't say I'm sorry to have missed those weeks!

Brynn Elise is here!

Brynn surprised us by coming four weeks early, at 36 weeks!

Last Sunday, my friend Rachel went into labor a week before her scheduled C-section and had her baby Keely on Sunday afternoon. I was feeling really uncomfortable all day and was complaining to my mom that it wasn't fair and I hoped my baby came early too. Around 8:30 pm, Dwayne and I went for a drive and I ate a huge Friendly's sundae. Then out of nowhere, at around 10:30, my water broke! We called my doctor and he told us to head over to the hospital. They confirmed that my water had indeed broken and I went to one of the labor/delivery rooms. My contractions weren't bad overnight, but I didn't sleep really at all because of being hooked up to the monitors (and excitement.)

Early Monday morning, the on-call doctor checked me and I was 4 cm dilated, and about this time my mom arrived at the hospital. I didn't make much more progress the next hour or so, so my doctor put me on Pitocin. By then, the contractions were starting to hurt, but not too horrible. I went ahead and got the epidural then since they warned me it might take a while to get it and for it to take effect. After the epidural, I was feeling great - no pain! Soon I was fully dilated and that's when the pain began - the nurses kept telling me it was normal to feel "pressure", but this felt horrible! My doctor just made it back when it was time to start pushing and within 20 minutes, Brynn was here. Since she was so early, she was a tiny 6 lbs, 1 oz and 18.5 inches long, but still adorable and perfect.

I stayed in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon - Dwayne's last nursing school final was on Wednesday morning, but thankfully he did well even though Brynn's arrival cramped his studying plans!

Just born -


First family picture -


So cute -

Cankles

About 3 weeks ago, I started getting swelling in my feet and ankles and it has gotten progressively worse. I have a chair with two pillows at work and try to keep my feet propped up when I can, but it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference.

My doctor said he's not worried as long as my blood pressure isn't high, but I'm pretty sure I could scare small children with these monstrosities!

Week 32 and 34

As you can see, I am getting pretty enormous now! At the rate I'm going, I'm scared to see what I'll look like if I make it until 40 weeks...

3D ultrasound

While Dwayne's family was here, we thought it would be a good time to get the 3D ultrasound that I'd been wanting. We had quite a crowd - Rachel made an appointment at the same time, so me, Dwayne and his family, my mom, Rachel, Peter, Josh and Rachel's mom all got to watch.

We ended up getting some really good still shots and a DVD as well. It definitely made it more really to be able to tell what the baby looks like when I still have 10 weeks to go. I think she looks just like her daddy and we can't wait to meet her!

Baby shower

I had my baby shower two weekends ago, and it was great! It was at Rachel's mom's house - Dwayne's Mom, sister, step-dad, niece and nephew all came down for the weekend, and Erin was able to fly down too! We got some great gifts - diapers, clothes, books, a convertible carseat, our pack and play and more.

There was great food, including a really cool lamb cake and my all-time favorite - cookie cake


Dwayne was a good sport and came to help me open gifts


My niece Savannah approved of a lot of the gifts


And my best friend Rachel is awesome for planning the shower when she was seven and a half months pregnant herself!

Bump pic catch -up

Yikes, I'm getting way behind on posting already.

Here are weeks 26, 28, and 30!