10-23-08 One month old!!

I can't believe Brenna is one month old already! Time has sure flown by with all everything going on here - we're so happy to have her in our lives!!

JOKES THAT CAN BE TOLD IN CHURCH

These got emailed to me a while back and I just read them again. I thought they were worth sharing.

Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, 'Why is the bride dressed in white?'' The mother replied, 'Because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life.' The child thought about this for a moment then said, 'So why is the groom wearing black?' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Bible class. As she ran she prayed, 'Dear Lord, please don't let me be late! Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!' While she was running and praying, she tripped on a curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress. She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again! As she ran she once again began to pray, 'Dear Lord, please don't let me be late...But please don't shove me either!' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three boys are in the school yard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, 'My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50.' The second boy says, 'That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100.' The third boy says, 'I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes eight people to collect all the money!' ~~~~~~~~~~
An elderly woman died last month. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote, 'They wouldn't take me out while I was alive, I don't want them to take me out when I'm dead.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
A police recruit was asked during the exam, 'What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?' He answered, 'Call for backup.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Sunday School teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. A small child replied, 'They couldn't get a baby-sitter.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' she asked, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?' Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, 'Thou shall not kill.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and she said, 'Johnny, what is the matter?' Little Johnny responded, 'I have pain in my side. I think I'm going to have a wife.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil. One said to the other, 'What do you think about all this Satan stuff?' The other boy replied, 'Well, you know how Santa Claus turned out. It's probably just your Dad.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing!

Brenna's Baby Shower

I didn't have addresses for everyone - so here's the invite for Brenna's shower if anyone wants to come this Saturday!!

Brenna's Home!! For real this time!

Our Sweet Little Brenna was able to come home today!! We got up this morning and as usual called the NICU to see how she was doing. Her nurse said she had done really well during the night with her feedings and we could come in around noon for the next time she would eat. About an hour later, she called again and said the Dr. had just seen her and said she could come home!! I was shocked because yesterday wasn't one of her best days - she had been so tired and didn't eat very well so I didn't think we would have any hope of bringing her home today. But the nurse said she was serious (I asked her if she really was!) and we could come to the hospital around 1:00 with her clothes and our car seat. I guess the Dr. said that he thought her weight loss the day before was probably due to her being a little cold and having to use her energy to try to warm herself up. So we went to pick her up on the coldest day we've had so far - we woke up to about three inches of snow!! The nurses were so cute when we were dressing her and one of them actually picked her up to go show the other nurses her cute outfit! We have been so impressed with the nurses at the hospital - every one of them has been so wonderful. We feel so lucky that she was able to be taken care of by such great people that loved her while we couldn't be there. It was kind of a different feeling when we drove away from the hospital with her with us - I kind of felt like we were stealing her:) She has been so good for us here at home - she's eating and sleeping really well. It really hasn't hit us yet that she's here to stay. It's kind of like we've been like a child at Christmas having been given the perfect gift and having it taken away everyday and now that we have it we don't know what to think! We are so happy though to finally have her here - now for the fun part - we hope this first night goes well!!! Thanks again to everyone of you who have been praying for us - we can't even begin to express the gratitude we feel for the support we've been given - we love you all!!


Brenna got to come home on the first day it snowed!

Hey does anyone think our garden is still ok??!! We tried to save the tomatoes but I think they're gone!

We spoke to soon :(

After waiting all morning for the Dr. to call to tell us when to come get our baby, we finally got a call from him saying it's a no go for today. Talk about getting our hopes up and having them come crashing down! He said she lost over an ounce and he wasn't comfortable sending her out today because she's so little and because it's RSV season. He said if she eats well today and maybe gains weight she might be able to come home tomorrow. So keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Coming Home

Well on Friday October 10th at about noon I got a call from Alycia. We "chit chatted" for a bit and then in a somewhat serious voice Alycia asked me if I wanted to sleep over at the hosital that night. I knew that the night before a baby comes home from the NICU that the parents usually get to stay over night just incase there are any questions or any problems. I was hesistant about asking if that was the reason or if there was a set back in Brenna's progress that they wanted us there for. As it turns out the reason was great. Brenna is coming home today, Saturday the 11th. We opted not to stay at the hospital, in order to get one good night of sleep in. As it turns out that was the right choice since at about 4 am I had to go out and recover the tomatoe plants that we have to keep them from freezing in these cold temps. So much for a good nights sleep. We will post some pictures once we gt her home and settled in. Thanks for all the help, prayers, calls, well wishes, and great friendships that we have.

Brenna Bug - she finished her bottle for me!!

Brenna is doing really well - she has been off of the oxygen since October 1st!! She is also getting better each day at eating from the bottle. Tyson and I have been having a contest to see who can get her to eat the most. She usually gets 40 ml in her bottle and we try to get her to eat as much as she can before she conks out and has to be tube fed. Tyson usually wins by getting her to eat about half of it. Today Brenna's nurse put 50ml in the bottle without telling me he added more - I got so excited when she latched on and went to town - then I got even more excited when I noticed she only had 5 left in the bottle thinking she had almost eaten 35 of it - the nurse came over and said - OH I forgot to tell you I put 50 in today - she's done - she finished it!! Brenna ate 45ml for me!! It probably doesn't sound like much to all of you, but for us it was a HUGE step forward!! Her Dr. said they'll continue to watch her progress, take the tube out as soon as she masters it and she can go home a few days after that - so we're shooting for this week sometime - We really hope!! Thanks again for all her prayers!

Also - here's a link to see pictures from Brenna's first photo shoot http://rinkshots.com/gallery/6153386_VQQqt Thanks Uncle Scott!!!


No more Oxygen tubes!!

Give me five - you can really see how tiny she is here huh!

Brenna after eating out of her bottle - she gets SO tired!!

Today when she finally finished a bottle for me!!

More Brenna Pictures/updates

Well - Here are some more updates from last night and today. I Love watching Tyson hold Brenna - the first time he held her, he said to me, "You're still beautiful, but now I'm in love with two women!" I don't mind:) The last couple of posts have been done by other people because we couldn't log into blogger at the hospital and now of all times our computer decided to break and we won't have it back until the 13th!! I'm going crazy not being able to check my email or put stuff on the blog so thanks Heidi and Nikki for doing it for us! Brenna is doing SO much better than a week ago when she was born. We only get to hold her when they feed her (every three hours) which stinks because we can't make it for all of them and I feel so guilty if I'm not there. Some really good news though - when I got there this morning - her oxygen tube was out of her nose and had been for a few hours and she was doing great without it!!! Yeah!! Her Dr. came in and said they are really happy on how well she's doing for being 6 weeks early and once she masters the bottle she can go home! She will suck on her pacifier like crazy but when you give her the bottle she gets this look like what is this thing and why is there stuff coming out of it! Tyson has been able to get her to eat the most so far. He's good at getting her to eat while holding her and I'm good at getting her to mess her pants - she's not shy with that!!! It's pretty hard to be patient and wait for her to master the sucking/swallowing thing, but they say once they figure it out they take off super fast and it's like a night and day difference. So she's still the boss around here - but that's ok, I think she'll be the boss for a lot longer than her hospital stay - she's already wrapped around both of our fingers!! I'm feeling a ton better after my c-section - yikes those first couple of days I thought I was going to die and it took me a good 10 minutes to get out of bed the first time with the nurse and Tyson helping me! But I can pretty much do most things by myself now and so far today I haven't had to take any pain meds - wha hoo!! I'll hopefully get my 32 staples out next Tuesday - fun fun! Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has been praying for us. It means so much to us and it's working! We love you all and we'll try to stay in touch as much as we can with a broken computer!!

He's in Love!


She loves to have her hands by or on her face - she also loves to grab her tubes and pull them out!

This picture is so gross - she puked up almost all of her dinner - her nurse said she was grounded because she had just changed her outfit!!

Trying to eat - hmmmm what is this thing??

No oxygen for me today!!! I'll just stick my tongue out at you instead!!

Sweet Baby Brenna - I don't know if you noticed on the other pictures when you can see the white board behind her crib that the nurses are calling her "Sweet Pickle". Tyson called her the little pickle the whole pregnancy because I added to much vinegar to my cucumbers one day and he said "Don't pickle the baby!" It stuck after that - So the nurses came up with the Sweet Pickle thing because it took us so long to name her.