This made my day!!!!

i like to sleep.

Yes, I do like to sleep....but lately I don't get much. Brynn eats about every 3 hours (and sometimes every 2 hours). I feel like I am just constantly feeding this child! At night she is pretty good she usually sleeps for about 3 hours at a time (and she has slept 5 hours 3 times). But during the day lately (and especially in the mornings) She has been eating like every 2 hours. I try and stall her and get her to the 3 hour mark but she usually spends most of her mornings fussing.

For those of you who breast feed.....help me!

I feel like I am not making enough milk to keep up with this girl.

I have started pumping and feeding her from a bottle to give her the most that I can.

How can you make more milk?

Is there a trick to this?

I end up supplementing her with formula almost once a day now. I may not be drinking enough liquids....would that stunt your milk supply? All I know is that she is a hungry girl lately (maybe she is growing) but I need to figure out how to make more milk! Any suggestions!?!?

I just got Brynn's blessing outfit today. It's adorable! But everything seems so big on her still! Grow Brynn Grow!! ( I say that now but I will probably miss her sweet small self....)

I haven't been taking too many pictures of her lately but I do love to take pictures of her when she is sleeping. (Probably because I can actually slow down and stare at her and she look so peaceful.) haha. Here are some fun sleeping pictures of her!

I love these faces she makes when she is sleeping....silly girl!

As some of you know, she sleep in bed with us the first week or 2 she was home. It was the only way she would sleep good.

This is where Brynn sleeps now. She loves her bouncer (with the vibration ON and her night light and sound maker....)

I love this picture of her. She looks so relaxed!

She fell asleep in my office while I worked on the computer....Do you love my new canvas?! My grandpa is in that picture! Cool huh?!

This was the first time she EVER fell asleep on a flat surface. (she likes to be elevated). She must have been SO TIRED. (don't mind my messy house.....)

She likes to fall asleep with daddy.

One month old!

I realize that I have not posted a picture of russ and I for a while. Well I lost the charger to my point and shoot camera and misplaced the SD card as well. I finally have a new charger and a new card so hopefully I will start taking pictures of us again. We love Brynn but we want to keep you updated with us too. (although we are not doing too much these days.....)

I did Brynn's one month pictures today! She was grumpy all morning but finally fell asleep and gave me just enough time to take some cute pictures of her. I have so much on my "to do list" right now but her pictures were about all I got done today. (I didn't even pick up the photoshoot mess yet) It's just one of those days. But this picture makes it all worth it! (special thanks to Brooke....she made the headband, tutu, bough me the cradle and redid the fabric on it! What a talented sister I have!)

I'm too sexy for my diaper

Well everyone asked me "why are you getting your newborn pictures taken? Why aren't you doing them yourself?" Well I am taking plenty of pictures of Brynn myself but a week after you have a baby you are not in the greatest shape to be doing a 4 hour newborn session. It is nice to sit back and relax and not have to worry about taking photos all the time. Plus I wanted some photos with Russ and I and her. I found Melissa Bailey and loved her newborn stuff. She did a fabulous job and I am very happy with them. Go check out her website! I'm pretty sure Brynn is a born model. I mean she is going to have to be right? haha. I will stalk her with a camera for the rest of her life! Hope she likes to pose! So far so good!

3 weeks old!

Taking pictures every week is proving to be quite a challenge for me. It's not that easy to take pictures of this girl all by myself! Well parenthood has been a whirlwind of emotion.

Joy, excitement, exhaustion, cluelessness, happiness.......

She is the cutest little girl ever! I have mixed emotion about the "newborn stage." I love how petite and small she is, I love to stare at all her little features, I love to watch her silly expressions, I love to snuggle with her, I love how much she sleeps (I can get things done around the house) I love seeing her in a "milk coma" with her glossy eyes when she is full, and so much more. But I do get tired of the sleepless nights and sore breasts. I can't wait for her to recognise me as her mother and give me a cute smile. I can't wait to see her expressions and hear her talk. I can't wait for her to sit up and to fit into some of her older cute outfits. I know that most people are going to tell me to treasure the moment because they are gone so fast. Don't worry, I am doing that. The newborn stage is not for everyone. I love my baby and can't wait to watch her grow!

Russ and I are getting into more of a regular routine now. I usually let Russ sleep most nights and take care of her (unless I am so tired or I'm just not having a good night with her). She is starting to be a little more awake during the day especially in the mornings (which makes it hard for mama to take a nap). She is eating good and we went to the doctor yesterday and she is already 7 lbs and 7 oz! (When we went to the doctor a few days after she was born she was 6 lbs and 4 oz. So she is putting on weights and she already grew an inch!

Being a mom is so much fun but pretty tiring right now. I apologize to my friends and family for not visiting much lately. We have been keeping her home to avoid getting her sick and I am just so tired sometimes to thing about packing her up and going somewhere. You have to pack SO MUCH just to get out of the house with a baby! So I prefer to stay home most of the time although I go a little crazy being home all the time by myself. It gets boring. But we have taken her out a few times now with us and she is really good.

I love this picture of her. She is too sweet.

My first Halloween

Well As most of you know Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!

I absolutely love it!

We just relaxed this Halloween for obvious reasons. Brynn was only 5 days old on Halloween and I had a cute little "My 1st halloween" onesie for her to wear for the occasion. We decorated the porch, put some scary music on and passed out Halloween candy to the neighbor kids. I LOVE our neighborhood by the way. There are so many young families over here and lots of trick or treaters! My parents and Lacey stopped by and we had pizza. Mom and dad went tick or treating with the Mullaly's around the neighborhood. They all came to stop by as well as Doug and Dawn who came by to see her for the first time! (They were out of town when she as born.) It was a nice Halloween with our new family. I'm glad I had an October baby! She can have costume parties for her birthdays! Whoo hoo!

Fighting the nap

One thing to know about Brynn....she is a sleepy baby.

Everytime I feed her it is a fight to keep her awake before she is finished. She falls asleep so easily! Of course she has her wide awake moments (usually in the middle of the night of course) but overall she sleeps pretty good. Today I saw her fighting to fall asleep. I thought it was so funny so I grabbed my video camera to document it. Here is sleepy Brynn. =-)

First Bath

Well I am blogging right now with Brynn in my lap so we will see how long she wants to sit here with me. She takes a binkie which is fabulous. It keeps her quiet and comfortable even though it could be feeding time right now. =-) I am trying to get her to eat a little less frequently (longer than every 2 hours) and I'm trying not to feed her every time she cries. So we are just hanging out right now. Just me and her. Like always. Not trying to say she is boring but lets just say I have been watching a little too much TV lately. I am waiting to feel a little better and more confident to take her out by myself.

I have only left the house like 3 times in 2 weeks. It's pathetic.

She has been such a mellow baby. She still getting used to life with and we are getting used to her and trying to find some routine in all this craziness. But all and all she is a great baby. She is pretty content most of the time and doesn't cry much, she just grunts and wines a lot. For such a small baby she poops sooooo much! She is a poop machine! I feel like as soon as I change her I have to change her again! She still is too small for a lot of her "newborn" clothes but she is starting to fill in a little bit.

The past 2 nights she has slept pretty well and I hope this will be a normal thing soon. She slept for a good 4.5 hours and then another 3 hours. It's getting much better. She sleeps in a swing/bouncer these days and that seems to work well for her. We kicked her out of our bed! =-) Although I love to snuggle I want my bed to myself. =-)

We cut her fingernails the other day so she would not claw her eyes out.

Russ and I still haven't gotten in the hang of changing diapers FAST before she pees all over. It happens quite often. Russ especially...I think he is too slow and uses too many wipes (he wants her EXTRA clean). The other night I was a little sluggish and she peed on me and the couch. It was very lovely. I was so tired I didn't even bother changing my shorts. I know.....it's gross.

She like to stretch a lot more now and she is pretty good at tummy time already. She is a strong girl and can already lift her head for a little bit! THe first time we gave her tummy time she lifted one leg all the way in the air! It was hilarious!

She is an acrobat!

Her first bath was fun She didn't seem to like it much. I don't think she likes being naked anyways so she wined and cried through the whole thing. And yes we tried putting a warm cloth on her tummy and head too but she still was not a happy camper. We had to get into all her crevasses and rolls to make sure se was super clean. We got her in the bath and set her on the counter in the kitchen and bathed her there. (the 3rd time we gave her a bath she had a poo explosion in the bathtub....ew)

Having Brynn is so fun and so exhausting all at the same time. we love her!

I'm 2 weeks!

Time is flying by!

Brynn is now 2 weeks old!

Taking care of a newborn is tough work!

We are officially zombies all the time catching some sleep whenever and wherever we can. I haven't really ventured out of the house much with her yet but I am starting to get a little ansty. It gets kind of boring when all you do is eat, sleep, feed the baby, change diapers and watch 30 rock all day long.

I'm lucky if I can get a shower everyday.

We are working with her on sleeping better at nights. She has good and bad nights and has not gotten into a schedule yet. Mom and baby are doing good with breast feeding. I will see at our next Doctors appointment if she is gaining enough weight.

My recovery has gone great! I feel pretty good these days! Still can't fit into any of my clothes. It's pretty depressing but I know it will take time to get all the weight off.

Russ comes home and is a super helpful daddy!

He basically does anything I ask him to (I mean I DID BIRTH this baby. He owes me....hahaha) But he really is a great help around the house, a master swaddler and not afraid to change gross poopy diapers. He helps put her back to sleep in the middle of the night when she is WIDE AWAKE and I am just DONE with her and will go downstairs on the recliner and sleep with her to get her to go back to bed. He is such a sweet daddy!

We are getting the hang of this mommy and daddy thing and I think we are starting to really enjoy all of it....(except for when she starts wining in the middle of the night and wakes us up.....we sit there wondering if she will go back to sleep or if the wine is going to turn into a scream....it gives us anxiety...hahaha)

The definition or our lives

How's life with a baby you ask?

This picture says it all.

D day.

Our baby girl is here!

It has been a blur since we have gotten home from the hospital (mainly because of lack of sleep) but we love are little Brynn so so much!

She is just over a week old now and has been a great baby.

I delivered Brynn Ashley Sorensen on

October 26th, 2011 at 1:02pm.

Russ and I decided to get her induced early (a few days before her due date) because our doctor was going to be out of town on her due date and over the weekend and I did not want to go OVER my due date. I was READY for her to come! So for first time moms it is standard procedure that they will admit you to the hospital the night before (to labor through the night and deliver the next day) since it usually take first time moms longer to labor and give birth. So on Tues (October 25th) we checked into the hospital at 9:00pm.

We got a room and settled in. Since I was dilated to a 4 on my own when I came into the hospital they didn't want to start the induction until a little later. My family came to see me before we started the induction. It was nice to see them all so excited for me!

So Russ and I got to sit and relax. I tried to sleep but with all the excitement, nervousness, anxiety and everything it was hard for me to sleep at all so I just watched a little TV. At 2:30am the nurse came in (my FAVORITE NURSE) and she started my pitocin at a low dose to start the induction process. My nervousness started to fade and my excitement started to grow!

Now it was a waiting game.

We sat for a few hours and I started to feel the contractions around 4:30am. Russ stared at the monitor and saw when I started having a contraction. He would see my face and my body tense up, look over at the monitor and say "looks like your having a contraction....oh, your at your peak now...breath, just breath!"

Easy for him to say huh?

The contractions were bad enough that I could not talk through them but I don't think they were as intense as I know they could be. I discussed with my nurse about when I should get my epidural. She told me that there was a shift change in anesthesiologist at 7 so I would either get it at 5:30am or 8am. She told me to remember that it takes about 40 minutes for it to kick in too.

So without hesitation I chose to get my epidural at 5:30.

The anesthesiologist came in and did his thing. Since Russ has a fear of needles (and we didn't want him to pass out) he remained in front of me so he could not see the needle. He gave me a numbing shot first and that wasn't too bad but it was uncomfortable and did hurt. But after that I did not feel anything back there. I only felt contractions for about an hour and a half and then my legs went numb and in went the catheter.

It was great, didn't feel a thing.

Russ and I took a nap and rested until 7:30. At that time the doctor came in and broke my water.

I was getting excited!

I didn't feel any pain and it really made the whole experience so much more enjoyable! I could see when I was having contractions (now about 2 minutes apart) and I felt incredible. =-) From 7:30 to 10:30 I only dilated from a 5 to a 6. So I called my family and told them it was taking longer than expected so we may have her in the evening.

The nurse came in and rolled me onto my side, grabbed a "peanut ball" and stuck it in between my legs to open up my pelvis.

The peanut ball was amazing!

From 10:30-12:00 I dilated from a 6 to a 9.5!!!

I called my family again and said it was going to be sooooooon! At this time the nurse noticed that at every contraction the baby heart rate was dropping because her umbilical cord was getting squished somewhere. She tried to change my position to fix it but her heart rate still dropped. Once she "dropped" a bit more her heart rate wasn't dipping as much, so we were happy she was ok.

Doctor Erickson was in another delivery so my nurse told me that we were going to do a few pushes to get her past my cervix. I pushed through 4 contractions with her and then she says "Whoa, I think we better stop or I will be delivering your baby! Be glad you have an epidural right now...." She turned to Russ and said "Want to see the head?"

So Doctor Erickson came in about 12:30 to deliver our baby Brynn. the nurse told him

"She is going to have this baby

out in one push!"

Doctor Erickson said, "Really? What does she have abs of steal?!" Then the contraction came and I pushed, out came her head. One more half push came her shoulders and then the rest of her body.

That was it?! That was great!

What was I so worried about!? I felt nothing, and she came fast.

I was laughing when I saw her, pure joy. She came out screaming and (the doctor said) "with a quiver lip" Russ was taking pictures and when she came out he froze in his tracks just starring in amazement (it happend so fast!) I turned to him and said "Take some pictures!" haha. ( By the way, he did a great job documenting the whole event. I am very proud!) They placed her on my stomach and I just could not believe that she was just in my tummy a second ago and now here she is! It's such a crazy feeling! SO many emotions, joy, relief, excitement, peace, love........She was so beautiful.

She was 6lbs and 8 oz and 20 in long.

She was so petite and tiny! She had skinny little legs and huge ands and feet with dark hair.

My family came to see me and hold there new addition tot he family! We all adore her!

Are first night in the

hospital was pretty rough.

She had a hard time eating (latching on) and I was getting the hang of breast feeding her. As new clueless parents we took full advantage of the nurse "help" call button. We ended up staying one more night so we could get the hang of it and have one more night of free help. =-) Those nights were a blur. We constantly had nurses popping in and out, doctors and hospital staff.

You don't get much sleep while you are there that is for sure.

She was a little jaundice but not enough to be kept at the hospital. So we packed up the room and put her in her car seat and off we went.

We had a baby! WHOA!

Now we were on our own. The nights at home were much better than the nights in the hospital. But we are still sleep deprived and trying to figure out "schedule" and trying to get her to sleep in her bassinet (not our bed). So much to learn and do but we are so excited about our new life with Brynn! We love her so much and she is such a blessing!

She is a great baby (doesn't cry too much) and loves to snuggle with mom and dad. She loves driving in the car, her swing, and her swaddle. Domino doesn't know what to do with her yet but he is very gentle around her.

We love our little Brynn!