I decided to use my creative bean last night and created this collage of Braleigh. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I took this yesterday morning.   She is getting to be a little chubby gal.   Totally love it!!!! 

Grocery Shopping

So yesterday was our first family outing, other than the doctor.  We went grocery shopping.   Okay I know I probably should have just stayed home with Braleigh, but I have not really left the house since she was born and I have had some MAJOR cabin fever!! After this experience I have discovered that motherhood is the main cause of paranoia!  When we first walked in, I could not help except look at every person in there and think about the germs they were carrying!  Lucky for us, our little princess slept the entire time :)  I did get over being so paranoid and we finished our shopping just in time for Braleigh to wake up to be fed. I am starting to realize how difficult mothers have it.  You have to plan everything around your baby and when they get fed or sleep and its never the same each day, but I am getting used to it and to tell you the truth, I don't mind it so much.  I know I keep saying it, but I really do love being "mommy", even if it is really hard sometimes. 

2 weeks ago...

Two weeks ago our sweet Braleigh was born!  Its hard to believe that it has only been 2 weeks.  I can't imagine what our lives would be with out her.   I am so glad this little blessing has come into our lives and each day she makes me realize how blessed our little family is!  

Happy Girl

I took this picture yesterday of Braleigh.  I finally was able to get a picture of her cute smile, even if it may have been caused by gas.  haha.  She is such a good baby.  The first couple nights we had her home were kind of rough because it seemed everytime I would finally get her back down after eating she would wake up again, but now I am actually able to sleep for a couple hours at a time.  She is becoming more awake and alert during the day, but still she still sleeps for most of it, which I don't mind because then I can nap too.   I love being a mom, it is so different than I imagined.  I look at her and it is seems crazy that this perfect little angel was growing inside me for 9 months kicking and punching me!   She is so cute and every day I love her even more. Now, I can't imagine what our lives would be like with out her!!!  

Braleigh Lloyal Bentley - DOB 9/5/10

I have a spare moment so I thought I would update you if you didn't already know.... we finally have a baby! Braleigh Lloyal Bentley was born on Sunday September 5, 2010 around 3:30 p.m. She was 20 inches long and 8 lbs 1 oz.   Unfortunatly her birth didn't go as planned, well kind of like everything else during this pregnancy. lol.   So here's a short summary.

Saturday September 4, I started having some contractions around 1p.m.  When I finally started timing them they were 4 minutes appart, which is when my doctor (who was on vacation) said to head to the hospial.   It was about 4:30 when we got to UVRMC.    The nurse checked me and I was 90% effaced and only dialated to a 1 (still.... after 3 weeks! ) They kept me there at the hospital for 3 hours and checked me every hour and nothing had changed, so guess what, they gave me a shot of morphine to ease the pain and SENT ME HOME!  Thats right, so we drove the hour back home and got back home about 10:30.   It was only a few hours later the contractions were back but even more severe.  I was squeezing Brad's hand so tight that he seriously though I was going to break it.   When we got back up at the hospital about 4:30 a.m. The nurse checked me again, and I was dialated to 3 cm! (again I can't believe they sent me home!!!)  They admitted me and called in the Anesthesiologist.  Even though I could hardly understand his accent I could have kissed that man!   After recieving my epidural, most of the labor process for me was spent sleeping.   I did start to get a fever and so by the time I had reached 10 cm, I needed to start pushing, which lasted for 2 hours.  Here's where everything started to get complicated for us. When Braleigh was born, she was struggling breathing well on her own because she had ingested meconium during the birthing process.  They were also worried about her catching an infection due to the fact I had a fever.   I barely got to hold my little  girl before they wisked her off to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).   We then spent the following 6 days with Braleigh in the NICU until she was well enough to come home with us.  Talk about a crazy, intense and emotional beginning to parenthood.  I know things could have been much worse for our little gal, but spending your first few days as a mom in the NICU is not what you would expect, nor want.   She recovered more quickly than we had originally expected, and now we are finally home with her. 

She is 8 days old today and its crazy to think that we never had her in our lives until now.   I am so thankful that everything turned out well and feel so blessed to have her in our lives.   I can't wait to see how she grows and changes our lives from now on.  

Here are some pictures : 

Braleigh Lloyal Bentley

Our sweet bundle of joy finally decided to come yesterday.   It started on Saturday September 4th at about 1 pm when I started having some contractions.    After they started to progressively get more intense and closer together we decided to head to the hospital at about 3 p.m just to be on the safe side.    We arrived at UVRMC just about 4:30 PM, we were then checked into "labor & delivey" and a nurse checked me and I was still about 90% effaced & dialted to a 1, the same numbers we've had for the past 3 weeks but they kept us at the hospital to montior us and see if anything changed or progressed.   After about 4 hours, nothing had changed, so then we were left with no choice other than to book a hotel here in Provo or go home...after grabbing some dinner, we just decided to head back to Helper. We got back home about 10:30 and I was able to sleep for what seemed like a couple hours, but soon thereafter the morphine they gave me seemed to have worn off and I started having contractions again, but they were much worse than before. It was about 3 a.m when I had enough and we headed back up to Provo to the hospital. Our nurse check me again and said that my contractions apparently had been doing some good because I was almost all the way effaced and almost 3 c.m. dialated!   It seemed like I couldn't get my epidural fast enough, even though it was probably less than 30 minutes waiting to get the go ahead.    After I was given that amazing stuff everything seemed like a blur.  I was able to sleep FINALLY, and probably slept most of the remaining 10 hours or so.   The actual labor/pushing lasted for about 2 hours and just around 3:35 our Braleigh was born!  Our excitement didn't last long because she started having trouble breathing.   I got to hold her for what seemed like only seconds before they wisked her off to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit.   Apparently she has respitory problems due to some type of infection which we aren't sure what it is because her lab results haven't came back.  The doctor has high hopes for her and that she'll recover nicely, but we still have to wait 7-10 days until we can take her home because they have to administer the antibiotics through an IV.  Its still hard to believe that I'm a mom even though I have been one for 24 hours.    I can't want to finally get to hold her in my arms and take her home. 

Keeping busy

I've been trying to stay busy.   I inherited my Grandma Browns rocker but the cushions were a little "outdated" so I decided to recover them.    I don't think Grandma would have minded since I'm pretty sure the covers were ones she made and she was always about changing things up.  The wood is kind of beat up so maybe one day I'll sand it down and re-stain it, but I didn't have THAT much ambition.  I do think the end result looks pretty good and will look awesome in the babys room. Here's a before and after picture: