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.

1 week old

{Brenna}

So serious with "Mommy time"


feeding time! As soon as she becomes a pro at taking a bottle, then she may be able to go home!!

Big stretch

Do you notice that she's holding onto her tubing!? So funny!

Brenna Mae

Pleased To Introduce " Baby Girl Nelson"

We are pleased to introduce "Baby Girl Nelson". She arrived yesterday, September 23, 2008, weighing an even 5 lbs, and measuring 18.5 inches long. She is a beautiful little girl. She is having a bit of a hard time breathing, she is on some oxygen and an IV. She is being fed through the IV because we want the breathing to get figured out first. We still haven't decided on a name, but we are working on it.

Our baby - another ultrasound update

Well, I just got back from the Dr. again. She did another ultrasound this morning and the fluid level is down to a 5. The crazy news is that she said she would do another nonstress test and if it came back yucky she would take the baby today! Thankfullly the test came back normal!!! So no baby today, but she said I need to go back tomorrow morning and do the same thing. So it's hurry up and wait some more I guess. The baby could come tomorrow or the next day or next week for all I know. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that everything will still be ok - thanks for all your prayers everyone!! We really appreciate them, we'll keep you all posted on how it goes tomorrwo morning!

Our Weekend

We had a crazy weekend! My Dad was here from North Dakota for a Mona Vie conference in Salt Lake Thursday- Saturday and we got together Thursady and Friday night for dinner. It was so fun to be together again!! My sister Serena insisted on taking prego belly pictures so here's me at 33 weeks.

Dad, Lydia and Ethan - the Silly Putty was a hit that night!
Dad with all the grandkids - yeah it's crazy when we're all together! I think Dad was tired!

Here's me and my sister Theresa @ 33 weeks - she's due November 2 (on her birthday and Tyson's sister Megan's birthday) I'm due the 3rd - but my due date doesn't matter anymore - who know's when we'll have this baby!

On Saturday, Tyson and I drove down to Provo for my friend Lisa's temple sealing. She's the one standing by me and she's also due November 3rd! They've been married for almost a year. It was really fun to see old friends again - sorry it was so short!

Baby ball

So I went over to my sister Heidi's house the other day to give her some zucchini. Her son Ethan (who will be 2 in November) is obsessed with playing with balls or anything that even resembles one. Well, he came up to me to say hi, noticed by round belly, pointed to it and said, "Ball!" Then he got really mad at me because he thought I was hiding one of his balls in my shirt! He started crying and kept trying to pull up my shirt to get it out! It was so funny, poor kid. You'll have to work on that one with him Heidi!!

Our Garden

Here are some pictures of our garden. It's a tiny area and half of it is our neighbors, but at least we have one! I bought the plants in June and we kept them in the little pots they came in for about two weeks. Then we, well Tyson, actually planted it the day we moved in to our house in July. So after them waiting so long to be planted and for starting so late, we didn't have much hope for anything to grow. Well - Holy Cow! We're going to have enough cantaloupe to feed the world if we needed to and our zucchini is out of control! We also have tomato, peppers, & cucumber plants. The cherry tomatoes are doing great, but the bigger ones are taking a little longer to turn red, but we've really enjoyed the "fruits" of our first garden. Maybe we need to plan a little better for next year!

I have a wonderful husband!

So Tyson knew that my Dr's appointment/shot was kind of stressful and hard for me, so he thought he would do something special for me. He usually gets off earlier than me, so he stopped at Target, bought this ladybug crib set for me and came home and made a yummy dinner! SO sweet!! I have been wanting this crib set for a long time, and it finally went on sale. It only comes with the quilt, bumper, and sheet (these pictures show their whole collection). ANYWAY - little did he know that I also stopped at Target earlier that day and I bought another crib set! It wasn't the same one, it was another cute one with birds, trees, hearts and flowers on it. I don't know why I got that one instead because I had wanted the lady bug one for so long. Well, I got home and Tyson was like "What is that!!??" Well, he waited until after dinner to pull out HIS crib set and another blanket he had bought - I felt so bad! Anyway, Tyson got to see pregnancy hormones come out again - I was so shocked I cried! I guess the emotions of the day just spilled out as I saw this sweet gesture from my husband and I felt like I had ruined it! He was so good about it though and said I could keep either one. So we set them both out on the floor and even sent pictures to my sisters to get other opinions:) Well, we decided on the lady bug one after all - it's cute and cheery. We took the other one back yesterday and ended up getting a dust ruffle for the set as well. I just wanted Tyson to know how much I love him and sorry that I make things so crazy sometimes!! Love you!

This was the picture I took with my phone to text to my sisters - they all said they liked the lady bug one too.

Ultrasound update - What next!!

I just thought I'd give another update on how things are going with this interesting pregnancy - since I feel like I'm living at the Dr's office. So far, I've had 4 non stress tests (NST's) this past week to monitor the baby's heartbeat as it moves to see how well it handles stress - the baby passed with flying colors each time, but my Dr. wants to make sure the baby's environment continues to be safe with the low fluid, so she is going to make me do these twice a week.
I had my fourth one today, which was fine, then she did another ultrasound to check the fluid level - it dropped back down inbetween a 6 and 7! (They say 10-25 or something like that is normal). She said me drinking tons of water now won't do as much as it did before since it's normal for the fluid to decrease from here on and you can't really make more this late in the game. SO, Dr. Fillerup, being the super cautious Dr. that she is, started talking about how she's not sure that I'll be able to make it to 37 weeks (full term) because she doesn't know if the fluid will last. WHAT??!! AND since the baby is still breach (head up) and the ever decreasing fluid level, we'll probably have to do a c-section because she doesn't know how well the baby will take the labor :(
OK, now I was freaked out and of course started crying - she has a tendency to make me to that lately. She still said she was just letting me know that she was still being cautious and letting me know what she was thinking. She also said that since I'm 32 weeks now, she would suggest that I get a steroid shot twice this week to help the baby's lungs develop sooner just in case we have to go early (I guess you have to do it before you're 34 weeks or it won't help). OK - freaked out more!! (sorry by the way if I'm not explaining this very well, you can call me for a better version of the story since I feel like I'm rambling here). Anyway, we had a long discussion on the benefits and risks of the shot, which made me feel a ton better and more willing to get it if she said I needed it. She said after 14 years of doing her job, she has not seen any bad things happen because of it - she said she's actually noticed that it ends up being better for the baby's health in the long run. Basically, she's doing everything she can to keep the baby out of intensive care if it comes early. She said her goal is for the baby to come home with me - which I agree with! Anyway, I called Tyson and we talked about it and both felt pretty good about getting it and I actually think I'd feel guilty not getting it. So I went back to the clinic and got a really Painful shot in my bottom - and I have to get another one in the morning - now I know why kids cry when they get their shots - ouch!!
So, we're praying that this helps - we're willing to do whatever it takes for her to come healthy. Some really random news is that girl babies usually handle situations like this better than boys - who knew? I guess we're lucky it's a girl! I actually feel better now too that I ran into a random lady in Target's baby section that said she got the shot with all 5 of her kids because they came early and they're all healthy - she said the shot saved their lives and her girls always did better than her boys. That was so good to hear - it's amazing how I felt more comforted by having talked to a totally random stranger.
So, the plan as of now is one more shot tomorrow and NST's twice a week with ultrasounds. Then probably go early (hopefully not before 37 weeks) with a c-section - fun huh? I'm so thankful that we're double covered with our insurance!! I'm also so thankful for our Dr. and how she's watching out for us - I guess I'd rather her be as honest as possible. Also, I'm thankful for our loving Heavenly Father helping comfort us and keeping our baby so safe.