Brynn's BIRTH-day!

Finally! I have been working up to this post for a few months now, just trying to catch-up. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing really exciting so don't be expecting some suspenseful post, but it was one of the greatest days of my life; a post that makes me happy to think about. This is a post that I'm a little bit nervous to write about since I don't want to be going into too much detail for my own sake, for my children, and for anyone who may stumble upon this post. Well I guess I'll begin!

It all began on Thursday, September 25th. I had a routine doctor's appointment to make sure the baby and I were both doing well and progressing. At this point, I was 39 weeks and 1 day along. During the part when I was getting my vital signs checked, I noticed that my blood pressure was a bit higher at 129/90. According to my doctor, your diastolic pressure (bottom number) shouldn't be over 90 as that could indicate preeclampsia or high blood pressure in pregnancy. I was told that this could mean a placental disease that, if serious enough and not treated, could result in the placenta trying to eject itself and causing distress to the baby. I mentioned this to my doctor and he decided to send me to get some blood work done just to be sure that all was fine. I headed to the lab immediately after to get it out of the way for the rest of the day. At this point, I wasn't concerned. I was just on the cusp of my blood pressure being too high and I felt fine.

The following morning, the 26th, I got a phone call from my doctor's office asking me to go to the Labour & Delivery Unit at the Peter Lougheed Centre where I had planned to deliver. They were a little concerned about some of my lab values, nothing emergent, but also not within the normal values that they should have been. Jared and I took our time getting ready and then headed to the hospital. Luckily, we already had my hospital bag and diaper bag in the back of the car so we didn't have to stress about that.

We arrived at the hospital around 11:30am and got ourselves checked in. They sent us to a stretcher that was separated from the others by a curtain. They attached me to a fetal monitor and monitored me for a while to make sure the baby was doing fine. She was a champ and had a nice strong heartbeat for us with no abnormalities. I had some repeat blood work done so we waited as that was completed. When that was finished, a doctor came in to talk to us about the results. She stated that the values had increased since the day before and that, it still was not emergent, but had jumped a considerable amount. She sent us for one last ultrasound downstairs and then advised us that it was probably a good idea to induce labour so as not to risk anything happening to myself or the baby. We were on board since, really, I was only 5 days away from my due date at this point. She gave me a medication called Cervadil to help induce labour. This medication required me to be monitored so they sent us to an antepartum unit (the place before Labour & Delivery when you would usually be at home labouring). They started my medication at 4:30pm and then sent us to the antepartum unit.

When we first arrived on the L&D Unit.

 As we arrived on the unit, we found out that we were fortunate enough to get a private room. We didn't even ask for it which made it that much more amazing! However, our stomachs were angrily rumbling as we hadn't eaten since that morning. Incredibly hungry, Jared and I called Jared's mom who wanted to come visit and asked her to bring us some food. She arrived and brought us some A&W which we devoured as we visited with her. She brought us some treats as well as some clothes for the baby when she arrived. At the same time, my parents were on the way to the hospital. They had anticipated that they might need to be in Calgary that weekend just in case I went into labour so they were camping in Okotoks not far from Calgary. They arrived just as Jared's mom was leaving. My mom had brought some receiving blankets that she had finished making which came in handy later on. We visited with my mom and dad for a bit and then my dad ran out to Sunridge Mall right next door to do some shopping. When he returned, they went back out to the campground and told us to call them if we needed them in the night. I was feeling completely fine at this point, so Jared and I settled down for the evening and even had time to watch a movie on Jared's iPad. That night, Jared slept in a reclining chair in the room and I slept in the bed obviously.

At about 02:30am, I woke up as I was starting to get regular contractions that were getting increasingly painful. I tried to for an hour or so to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful. Around 04:00, Jared and I started to walk around the unit as I definitely was not going to get back to sleep at this point. After a while, we noticed the contractions were getting to about 4 minutes apart, so we went back to our room and called the nurse. A doctor checked me at about 04:30 and sent us to Labour & Delivery! We texted my mom to let her know our status and she said she would come as fast as she could.

While in Labour & Delivery, they asked me if I would like an epidural. I wasn't in excruciating pain at the time but knew that the pain certainly wasn't going to get better so I requested one. Best decision ever! After that, I was basically pain free and actually able to sleep for a few hours which was heavenly. At about 06:30 my mom showed up and she spent some time with us in our room while we tried to get some sleep. When I woke up, they broke my water to get things going which seemed to help.

At 10:00, I was fully dilated and ready to go but we were all really relaxed. Jared and my mom hadn't had breakfast so they were able to go downstairs to the cafeteria and grab a quick muffin and some juice while I continued eating my ice chips. Yummy!

At 10:30, I started pushing. They had some difficulty so they had to use a vacuum once. All was well though and our baby girl was born at 11:42!

Brynn May Rasmussen

Born Saturday, September 27th, 2014

11:42am

7lbs 6oz

20 inches long

After she was born, and after I got some feeling back to my legs, they sent us to the postpartum unit for recovery. My dad visited us once we were settled and he brought me some Subway! So much better than the hospital food! He got to hold little Brynn and he was sure a proud Papa!

Jared's parents visited later in the day as well. They were SO excited to meet their first grandchild! You could tell how happy they were, they glowed with pride.

After visits from the grandparents, they decided it was time to go home and let us get some rest. We took the rest of the evening pretty easy. I tried to get some rest from time to time which wasn't always easy as I was either feeding Brynn or having a nurse check on me. It was nice having some time to snuggle our new baby girl. Brynn was also able to have her first bath which Jared attended with the nurse responsible for bathing the newborns.

That night, I sent Jared home to get some sleep in our comfortable bed at home while the baby and I spent the night. It was HARD! In total I think I got about 2 hours of sleep since Brynn just wouldn't settle when I'd put her down to go to sleep. Not that I blame her, she was experiencing a whole new, traumatizing world.

After a while, Brynn started developing a rash from the hospital linens and the harsh chemicals they use so we wrapped her up in the receiving blankets my mom gave us. Brynn was able to open her eyes for little bits of time and see what was happening. She seemed to be very curious about all the new, strange surroundings she was seeing!

The next morning, I was very grateful when Jared came back. I was very tired so I had him take Brynn for a while so I could nap. When I woke up from my nap, which unfortunately wasn't very long, we had quite a bit of paperwork to do including choosing the middle name. It took some debate as we wanted to use a family name, but not one that had already been used by my siblings...one of the hard things about being the baby of the family. Eventually we agreed on the middle name "May" as it is my mom's maiden name and also the middle name of Jared's maternal grandmother. I liked the way Brynn May Rasmussen sounded!

Basically as soon as we were able to get the paperwork done and pack up our stuff, we were able to be discharged. Brynn had a little bit of jaundice but not enough that she needed to stay in the hospital. We were told we would get a call from a Community Health Nurse where we would go in to see them for a check-up. We dressed up Brynn in a cute little bunny sleeper that Jared's mom had given us for Brynn. It was a little big on her at the time, but she was adorable. We also had a princess crown hat for her to wear and some mittens to keep her hands warm. She sure looked small in her big carseat. 

We celebrated Brynn's one day birthday as we drove home from the hospital that Sunday. Just Mom, Dad, and baby. A day we will always remember! We love you, little Brynn!

2014: Baby Bump Edition

Throughout my pregnancy, my friend, Laura, and I (expecting our babes a week apart) decided to take weekly photos of our baby bumps. Although I didn't get every week, even with my amateur "in-front-of-the-mirror" shots, I feel like I still got quite a few to show the progress I made.

          

Catch-up: September 2014

This will be a short post...and by short, I do mean short this time haha.

Basically, this month I finished up work and continued to prepare for the arrival of our baby girl. My official last day of work was September 21st and then I continued to do last minute things around the house.

I got a few crafty things accomplished this month such as making more headbands and boot cuffs for my online shop, Stephanie Ann Boutique. On top of that, I also finished crocheting a tiny baby bonnet for baby girl Rasmussen to wear for photos and on her blessing day. I'm quite proud of it and think it turned out great!

Other than that, I got a haircut and did last minute preparations for the baby such as getting a diaper bag ready. Luckily, I got a free one in the mail from Nestle so I only had to add a few onesies and some odds and ends.

Again, this post won't be long because I am saving the best part of this month for another post: When Brynn was born! Stay tuned!

Catch-up: August 2014

I'm not going to lie, I am not a fan of doing catch-up posts. Maybe that's why it's January and I'm just doing August now. Please bear with me, this might be shorter than it should be but I will try to remember what happened. It was 5 months ago!

The end of the Olsen Family Reunion began our August. I already wrote about that in my July catch-up so I will skip that.

Besides working, we did a few fun things during August. First of all, one of Jared's most anticipated movies of 2014 came out in August- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! He has loved these characters since he was a kid but was a little disappointed with how the characters looked and the director...(Michael Bay). We went with our friends, Josiah and Lyndy Cook who we actually met at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in April. We bonded over, you guessed it, TMNT. We had fun seeing it with them and Jared and Josiah discussed it after. Lyndy and I didn't care as much. All-in-all, we went to the movie with pretty low expectations but I think we were able to enjoy ourselves anyway! Plus we got these sweet Ninja Turtle 3D glasses that we wore during the movie that made us look super cool haha. Nerd alert!

On the 15th, we went to see one of our favorite stand-up comedians, Brian Regan at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in downtown Calgary. We went with Jared's brother Jason and our friend Nathan Maret. The show was a lot of fun with lots of laughs. As we were leaving the show afterwards, we bumped into some friends of ours, Josh and Nicole Tagg. It had been a while since we had seen then so we all decided to go out for a late dinner. It was good seeing them and catching up. They were also expecting a baby and were due at the end of August (They ended up having a baby girl and naming her Lucy).

On our way to see Brian Regan!

The next day, the 16th, was Jared's birthday. His birthday wish was to have a low-key birthday and to stay home and play his new Nintendo Wii U so that is what we did. While he played for a while, I stepped out to go to my friend, Laura's baby shower. She is my running buddy friend who was due exactly a week before me. We had a fun time visiting with all her friends. It was a cute tea party theme so we had it outside and finished up just as it began to rain. Perfect timing. On my way home from the baby shower, I bought a birthday cake from Dairy Queen and Jared and I enjoyed it at home.  We went out for dinner at Booker's Crab Shack and Jared was able to eat some delicious crab (not my choice of a delicious meal since I don't like seafood but Jared devoured it). I see nothing wrong with a low-key birthday, do you? Video games and icecream cake? Perfection.

Happy 27th Birthday, Jared!

The 21st was our 4th anniversary and I honestly don't remember most of it. I worked a night shift the Eve of our anniversary and also on our anniversary. Fun times. What I do know is that we went out for dinner...maybe at Montanas? That sounds about right haha.

One last fun thing we did in August was going to see a re-run of a movie called The Goonies at The Scotiabank Theatre at Chinook Mall. It's a classic movie about a boy and his friends who find an old map in his attic that leads to burried treasure. It was fun to see it in theaters because it was released in 1985 before I was even born. Definitely a great, nostalgic movie to watch from my childhood. 

In August, I also started my own home-based business of selling my own handmade crochet headbands and boot cuffs. I named it Stephanie Ann Boutique. Since then, I've made a fair amount of profit which has been nice although in no means enough to pay the bills. 

Other than that, August was a blur. I basically worked and tried to get as much overtime pay as I could manage. I can say I do enjoy my job though so it wasn't awful. Look how positive I am haha. 

Hope you all had a fun August!