I know - finally!!
Y'all, you will not believe when I tell you our birth story. It was just like Murphy's Law of birth: everything that could go wrong, did. OK maybe not that bad, but suffice it to say that I was in labor for over 24 hours and we ended up with an epidural, pitocin, and finally a C-section.
It was disappointing but I am really OK with it, and Brynn is totally and 100% healthy, happy, and wonderful!!! That is all I care about. 
Brynn and Mama and Daddy
I checked the link and it should work. You may need an account to sign in, but I am not sure!
She looks so much like her daddy that I can honestly tell you if I hadn't seen her come out of my body, I wouldn't be sure I was here mama!!
(Oh and she loves to suck on her bottom lip, so that's why in some pictures it looks like she doesn't have one, LOL!)
She's beautiful, with a full head of black hair, long eyelashes, blue eyes, rosy chubby cheeks, and adorable cupie-doll lips. She is a big girl, too; 8 pounds 10 ounces at birth, and 20.5 inches long!!! I never would have thought I could grow such a big baby!
She's been absolutely wonderful since she was born at 3:48am on Saturday December 3rd. She only fusses when we take any of her clothing off (she must have a hat on at ALL TIMES or there will be hell to pay!) and she loves to be swaddled and cuddled. She is really a content sweet baby, and we are just so unbelievably blessed.
We just got home a couple of hours ago so I will be posting more later.
I just want to thank you for all of your love and prayers over the past few days (and months)!!
--------------------
Update, 12/10/05
After having had a week to think about it, I've decided not to post my birth story. One reason is simply that it is soooooo long; so many things happened. The other is that after a week, I am still finding myself very much not wanting to talk about it or re-live it. Also, I know posting it would evoke a lot of sympathy and anger from y'all, and I would rather not get everyone's ire up and have to feel a lot of negative feelings. That being said, I am really proud of myself for everything I did during the birth and for how hard I worked to TRY to achieve our goal of a natural birth. I learned *a lot* about myself during that experience.
On the positive side, I do want to share how wonderfully Brynn is doing and how much I am totally loving being a mama!! She's just so gorgeous (I know, whose baby isn't??!!) and soft and cuddly. She's such a little MAMMAL, I absolutely love it! She wants to be cuddled *all the time* and she's already showing a preference for her mama, and I'm so glad DH is evolved enough not to be threatened by that. Speaking of DH, he has been just unbelievably amazing during the entire birth experience and the past week. I mean he has done *everything* around here with a smile on his face and has been telling anyone and everyone how in love he is with his daughter. It just makes me heart want to pop!!
Breastfeeding has been going well, though I did have a couple of days where she was having a really hard time with my nipple because of the combination of my milk coming in plus all of the water retention from the surgery. Good old LLL came through, though, and everything is back on track - and that girl LOVES to nurse! Slinging is also going *really* well. I was a little nervous because I had never practiced, but I just put her in it on like day 3 and she loved it and fell asleep within 10 minutes. I was so happy! Cloth diapering is going great - I am really happy with our Kissaluvs and so happy to have gotten her hiney out of plastic (we used sposies at the hospital). We're also kind of getting started with EC and we've had a couple of catches each day, so that's fun. Overall everything is just great!
Physically I am recovering quickly from the c-section, and taking/applying arnica still (thanks MamaFern for the recommendation!!). My ab muscles still hurt of course, but it's kind of not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm also having after-pains but they are kind of like menstrual cramps, so totally tolerable. I've lost 24 pounds so far (I know, insane) and my belly gets smaller every day which is kind of cool.
So that's about it for now. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all of your concern and love over the past week. I wish I had more time/energy to get back up to speed with everyone but I figure by next week things will be a little more normal. I need to get with the yahoo group and figure out how to do that.
Thanks for reading. I
you mamas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Y'all, you will not believe when I tell you our birth story. It was just like Murphy's Law of birth: everything that could go wrong, did. OK maybe not that bad, but suffice it to say that I was in labor for over 24 hours and we ended up with an epidural, pitocin, and finally a C-section.
It was disappointing but I am really OK with it, and Brynn is totally and 100% healthy, happy, and wonderful!!! That is all I care about. Brynn and Mama and Daddy
I checked the link and it should work. You may need an account to sign in, but I am not sure!
She looks so much like her daddy that I can honestly tell you if I hadn't seen her come out of my body, I wouldn't be sure I was here mama!!
(Oh and she loves to suck on her bottom lip, so that's why in some pictures it looks like she doesn't have one, LOL!)She's beautiful, with a full head of black hair, long eyelashes, blue eyes, rosy chubby cheeks, and adorable cupie-doll lips. She is a big girl, too; 8 pounds 10 ounces at birth, and 20.5 inches long!!! I never would have thought I could grow such a big baby!
She's been absolutely wonderful since she was born at 3:48am on Saturday December 3rd. She only fusses when we take any of her clothing off (she must have a hat on at ALL TIMES or there will be hell to pay!) and she loves to be swaddled and cuddled. She is really a content sweet baby, and we are just so unbelievably blessed.
We just got home a couple of hours ago so I will be posting more later.
I just want to thank you for all of your love and prayers over the past few days (and months)!!
--------------------
Update, 12/10/05
After having had a week to think about it, I've decided not to post my birth story. One reason is simply that it is soooooo long; so many things happened. The other is that after a week, I am still finding myself very much not wanting to talk about it or re-live it. Also, I know posting it would evoke a lot of sympathy and anger from y'all, and I would rather not get everyone's ire up and have to feel a lot of negative feelings. That being said, I am really proud of myself for everything I did during the birth and for how hard I worked to TRY to achieve our goal of a natural birth. I learned *a lot* about myself during that experience.
On the positive side, I do want to share how wonderfully Brynn is doing and how much I am totally loving being a mama!! She's just so gorgeous (I know, whose baby isn't??!!) and soft and cuddly. She's such a little MAMMAL, I absolutely love it!
She wants to be cuddled *all the time* and she's already showing a preference for her mama, and I'm so glad DH is evolved enough not to be threatened by that. Speaking of DH, he has been just unbelievably amazing during the entire birth experience and the past week. I mean he has done *everything* around here with a smile on his face and has been telling anyone and everyone how in love he is with his daughter. It just makes me heart want to pop!!Breastfeeding has been going well, though I did have a couple of days where she was having a really hard time with my nipple because of the combination of my milk coming in plus all of the water retention from the surgery. Good old LLL came through, though, and everything is back on track - and that girl LOVES to nurse! Slinging is also going *really* well. I was a little nervous because I had never practiced, but I just put her in it on like day 3 and she loved it and fell asleep within 10 minutes. I was so happy! Cloth diapering is going great - I am really happy with our Kissaluvs and so happy to have gotten her hiney out of plastic (we used sposies at the hospital). We're also kind of getting started with EC and we've had a couple of catches each day, so that's fun. Overall everything is just great!
Physically I am recovering quickly from the c-section, and taking/applying arnica still (thanks MamaFern for the recommendation!!). My ab muscles still hurt of course, but it's kind of not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm also having after-pains but they are kind of like menstrual cramps, so totally tolerable. I've lost 24 pounds so far (I know, insane) and my belly gets smaller every day which is kind of cool.
So that's about it for now. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all of your concern and love over the past week. I wish I had more time/energy to get back up to speed with everyone but I figure by next week things will be a little more normal. I need to get with the yahoo group and figure out how to do that.
Thanks for reading. I
you mamas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
amy she is beautiful! congrats on your healthy little girl. im sorry your birth didnt go as planned 
). Congratulations - look at all her hair. your family is beautiful!!!
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