Today Brennan really played with us for the first time. He was awake and calm, and Blair and I had him lying on the bed between us after an outfit change. He was watching our faces so we started making funny faces to prompt him to imitate them. Not only did he imitate us, he also gave us big almost-smiles and made really excited cooing noises. ( Read more... )

Brennan had his one month visit to the pediatrician last Monday. Everything is going very well with him. He's gained almost two pounds over and above his birth weight, bringing him up to 8 pounds 13 1/2 ounces. He's also two inches longer, 22 inches, and almost two inches bigger around his head. According to the baby version of height/weight ( Read more... )

I have to brag about what Brennan just did (I'm sure this is the first of many such posts). Every time I'm holding him and he's awake and alert I've been making three faces in succession to try and get him to imitate them: a wide open "ahh" face, a puckered "ooh" face, and a stuck-out-tongue face. So far he's best at the stuck-out-tongue one, ( Read more... )

Oh dear lord, has Brennan ever been going through a growth spurt. For four days straight he nursed like it was going out of style. Every twenty minutes for a three hour block he'd nurse, and he'd be wide awake in between. Then he'd sleep for two hours or so, then the cycle would repeat. Except sometimes he'd only sleep for an hour in between ( Read more... )

Brennan and I went on an outing all by ourselves for the first time today! This is a big deal... for the first time ever, without Blair's help, I got Brennan situated in the carseat, attached the carseat to the base in the car, drove somewhere, detached the carseat from the base, and went inside. Then I did it all in reverse a couple hours later ( Read more... )

Ok! The "you can't put me down" phase seems to have ended, so back to the story. Brennan got cleaned up and checked out and declared awesomely healthy. He started pulling his little hat down over his eyes, which excited the hell out of Lauren and Kelly, who took loads of pictures. Blair had already been taking pictures right and left of him on ( Read more... )

I have to take another break from the birth story to mention the new trick Brennan tried out yesterday. For approximately 20 hours straight he would NOT let us put him down. He woke up at 7am yesterday seeming all normal, nursed just fine and got a clean diaper, and fell asleep in my arms. When I went to put him down so I could make myself some ( Read more... )

WARNING: Bloody and graphic ( Read more... )

Back to the story. A short time after they informed me that the doctor had ordered an epidural, the anesthesiologist showed up. He was a younger guy with absolutely no bedside manner or sympathy for what I was going through. He immediately ordered everyone but Blair to leave the room, and he wasn't polite about it. Kelly and Lauren went into ( Read more... )

Ok, I had to take a brief break from Brennan's birth story to say: My pre-pregnancy jeans fit! I think they actually fit better than before! Ha hahahahahahah! GodDAMN I love life!