Baby Larson - March 8, 2011

Well since I am VERY far behind in updating our blog, I'm going to try to do a few short posts to catch myself up, mostly so I have a record of everything that has happened up to this point. Things have just been so crazy that I haven't had time when I have felt like updating.

My OB's office was fantastic. They were checking me very regularly and monitoring everything just to make sure everything was going smoothly and that the baby was behaving. I was having a lot of contractions so the doctor wasn't sure if I would make it to my scheduled c-section, but for the last few weeks, I took it very easy and laid in bed a lot to try and make things as easy as possible. I wasn't really worried about the baby coming early because by this point, she was full term, but I was worried about Conner and having someone available to help out with him..and my very good friends were coming for the big date and I didn't want to mess anything up!

On March 8, we headed to the hospital as scheduled. It was so calm and so different than the first time around. My friend, Laurie, got to our house a few days before (so we could go get manicures and pedicures so my nails would look decent!!) to spend time with us (and Conner was in love!). Richard got to our house the night before, so the two of them got Conner all ready for school and dropped him off. I knew he was in good hands, so there was really no worries at all. So everything went totally as planned. My c-section went great. I had some itching like the last time, but not too bad, and I had a little hyperventilating and anxiety during the surgery...but nothing a little oxygen couldn't take care of. The doctor was happy. She checked out my ovaries (because my mom had ovarian cancer) and said they looked very healthy and everything was good. The baby came out crying and she was wide awake and very alert. She didn't have a name at this point...we wanted to see her first. To be honest, I was worried about my emotions up to this point. Because of my previous traumatic experience, I think I was just nervous about getting attached to this new baby until I knew that she was going to be okay (there was never a time when the doctor's thought anything was wrong, I was just nervous and worried all the time). I didn't know how I felt about the whole thing...it was such a surprise that I was having a baby at all and even having 9 months to prepare, I still just didn't know if I would be able to bond with this new baby. Well, when she came out crying, I lost it. They held her up, I was crying hysterically. David got to hold her for a few minutes before they took her to clean her up and check her out. This was such a world of difference from my first c-section. They don't let cameras in the delivery room, so we had to wait for photos...but she was so beautiful, full head of hair, alert with big eyes. We were both in love right away. All the worry washed away. We went in to recovery and got to hold the baby and started breastfeeding right away. Unfortunately, her first blood sugar was low, so they had to give her a bit of formula, but after that every sugar they checked was fine. So, after getting a good look and talking it over (and David telling me we had to come up with a name because my Dad was waiting patiently!), our newest addition had a name.

Brennan Faith Larson was born on March 8 at 9:17 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She is perfect and we loved her right away. She is named in loving memory of my mom and David's grandmother, two women who we loved very much.

We had fabulous nursing care in recovery and were quickly moved up to the postpartum unit. Everything went great. I was ready to get moving (but still couldn't feel my legs!). As soon as I was able (about 4 hours after my c-section), I was out of bed and happy about that. The pain was not that bad and my recovery seemed to be going great. No infection this time around...I was very careful about keeping my incision clean and dry. I did not want a repeat of the last time. My blood pressure was fine. No problems. The baby did great. There were a ton of people who wanted to meet her in the hospital.

She was a natural at breastfeeding. She lost a little weight but was eating great. When we came home on Friday, she was 7 lbs, 6 oz and about 2 weeks later was back to her birth weight. The pediatrician had some concern about her hips, but we had an ultrasound when she turned 5 weeks and so far, everything looks good, thank goodness. The doctors were all pleased. I wasn't having much pain and was getting around great. We were happy to go home all at the same time on Friday, April 11.

Two days after we came home, we went to visit the pediatrician for the first time. She had to go back every two days until she started gaining weight...which didn't take long! Within about 10 days, she was back to her birth weight. 

Conner has loved having a new baby in the house. He doesn't quite understand how small she is and that she isn't going to talk to him or play with him just yet, but he is a great big brother. It was a little challenging at first because Conner had a cold, runny nose, fever, strep throat and then sinus infection for the first month of her life so we tried to keep them separated, but he seems to finally be getting better and can get up close to his sister!

Brennan is a miracle in our lives in so many ways. After having such a difficult time getting pregnant and having a difficult pregnancy the first time, losing one child and having a child with a lot of extra needs, we didn't think we would have more kids and we were okay with that. We had come to terms with it and were happy with Conner and how well he is doing. Having a normal full term pregnancy was such a change and I'm glad I got to experience it. Brennan was quite the surprise in our lives and we couldn't be happier.