Sweet Dimpled Dreams

One of my favorite features about our baby girl is that she inherited her Daddy's dimples. You can see them best when she smiles or if she's PISSED OFF! These two pics happen to be of her smiling in her sleep, we have yet to catch a smile while she's awake- I'll be so excited when that happens!!

Cuddling with Grandpa Mark while Mom and Dad went to Erik and Ashley's wedding reception in Des Moines. My dad sent me this pic while we were out- I missed her so much!

This was early in the AM after a long night of a bright eyed, bushy tailed baby girl and one sleepy new mom- I considered it my reward for my lack of sleep :)

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Learning something new every day

Well, Cailyn is one week already- where does this time go? We learn more about her with each passing day. So far, we know:

-She hates being naked
-She loves sleeping snuggled up on mom or dad's chest
-She loves to drag out nursing sessions (but it's okay because I love the time to cuddle with her)
-When she wants to eat- she wants to eat NOW
-She doesn't like to sleep in her crib or play pen- but she'll zonk out in her car seat (so we brought one inside for naps and bedtime)
-Sponge baths are not her favorite past time- as for real baths, we shall find out soon since her umbilical cord stump fell off today!
-She is the sweetest most beautiful thing we could have ever hoped for and we couldn't love her more

Awake and kicking after a feeding, I wish I could get a better picture of her eyes open, they're such a pretty blue and they get so wide :)

Doing what she does best: sleeping on Daddy's chest

She is always bunching her hands around her face when she sleeps or eats. Here she's sporting a headband from the Burdorfs and she's so cute, cute, cute!

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Welcome Home Baby Cailyn!

We were able to bring Cailyn home on Wednesday afternoon. On the way home we had to stop at Target so that I could pick out some girly clothes, of course! She was such a great traveler and slept the whole way, that was also the case on Friday when we had to go back for a meeting with a lactation consultant. Breast feeding has been kind of a painful adventure for this mommy but the LC was very helpful in providing some methods for soothing and healing. Cailyn is latching on well, but apparently couldn't get quite a good enough hold and so I've endured a little damage. But it's nothing some ointment and a shield can"t improve so that we can get back to nursing as usual. Cailyn is doing great, gained almost 3 ounces after coming home and is pink as can be :) Here's some pics from our first days at home:

First time in the car seat and such a good sport!

First sponge bath at home- this chick HATES to be naked (let's hope that trend continues)

She sleeps just like her Daddy

She has her eyes open with Jerod in this one, but you can't tell very well. I think she has his eyes, and I can't wait until she smiles consistently because she definitely got his dimples!

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As I update our blog tonight, I'm also listening to our baby girl sucking away on her pacifier as she sleeps in her nursery cart. Welcome to the world Cailyn Marie! She was born on Monday July 11, 2011 at 4:25pm weighing 8 lbs 10 oz at a length of 21 inches with blue-gray eyes and brown fuzzy hair. Everything happened so fast!

We went in Monday morning to have labor induced because we were going on almost 42 weeks and the doctor was concerned about her safety in the womb since the placenta was getting older and stuff. So we got to the hospital at about 7:45am, the doctor broke my water at around 8:20am and by noon I was having strong contractions- the ones that take your breath away. We had been up since about 4:00 in the morning because of the storms and tornado warnings Monday morning so we were super tired and spent most of the afternoon trying to sleep, which I found is a little difficult when your uterus is contracting- doesn't feel so great. Anyway, at one point I had a contraction and felt this overwhelming urge to push- but I didn't! However, the next contraction I felt the same urge and began frantically searching for my nurse call button and sure enough she said I was complete, called the doctor over from the clinic, and about 15 minutes later after 3 sets of 3 big pushes we had a beautiful baby girl!

Fresh out of the "oven" after a little cuddle with Mama. This picture cracks me up because she looks like she has old man hair and her poor little head is all blue and purple from being delivered.

Jerod's dad, a proud Grandpa Bret, having a little bonding time with his first grandbaby


Uncle Gabriel, my 9 year old brother, hanging out with his new niece


Daddy and Cailyn taking a little nap this morning



For your viewing pleasure, a couple more photos of our little princess:

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The Waiting Game

So, as of today our little angel is officially one week overdue and seems perfectly content to hang out in there as long as possible. My parents came out to State Center last Thursday evening, and are planning on being here until the baby decides to show up or the doctor says it's time to induce- whichever comes first. To pass the time we have been working on our basement renovation for the "man room" and extra bedroom. The great thing about the tardiness of the baby, is that we have gotten A LOT of work done that we didn't think would happen until after birth. In a week, texture has gone up on the walls and ceilings, doors are being installed into door frames, paint is up on the walls of both rooms, cabinets for the bar have been stained and varnished, and lights/outlets are getting hooked up and plated.

Today, we're hoping to get the tile laid for the bar floor so that it can cure and grout can go in on Friday, and also would like to get casings for the doors and windows stained/varnished and installed by the weekend.

Here are some pics from working and playing the last several days:

Dad installing the door frame for the French doors into the man room- they are going to look SO great!

Mom and Amanda painting in the bedroom where Amanda will keep her stuff while she lives with us. I chose a lighter gray, and I'm not sure what it is about those types of paint colors but they always turn out a little too purple-y. The same thing happened with the gray paint in our bedroom. Hmmm.....

My parents' dog, Guapo (for those not up on Spanish language, it means handsome- he has these ice blue eyes that are so pretty). It was really hot this day that we were working and so we brought the dogs into the basement where it was cooler. He found this pile of rollers and decided it was nap time!

Matt and Mollythe 4th of July- a very grainy picture, my apologies. Jerod says that after he buys his TV with his Biolife money, he'll save up for a new camera for me, YAY!

My littlest brother, Gabriel, hamming it up for the camera as usual. I guess some things will never change :)

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Nursery Additions- Decor not a baby yet

Baby Brown is officially 5 days overdue. Little stinker- I wonder if he/she knows how badly everyone wants to meet him/her and so they're just going to wait everyone out and make sure we're really ready for the big arrival, just taking some sweet time.

So now I figure since the baby doesn't look to be coming anytime super soon, I better bide my time doing something else and I haven't been a very good blogger lately so I thought I'd catch everyone up on what's going on with the nursery and do another post update about the basement.

There is a big wall across from the closet in the nursery and, for my life, I couldn't decide how to decorate it. With wall words? Picture decals? Framed children's art? Family photos? The possibilities seemed endless- but I had NO inspiration. Then I started thinking about how we've already received some keepsake type items, things FOR the baby, but that baby won't actually get to touch until they have their own home and family :) I thought a long shelf would be a nice addition:

We purchased the shelf and the brackets from Lowe's for about $30 total, not bad for such a display in my opinion. The funny part about the shelf (though not at the time) is that I completely misjudged how high it should be on the wall and didn't realize my mistake until after inserting wall anchors of about 3/4 inch diameter, which meant moving the shelf (which I had to- it looked ridiculous) also meant filling in holes, sanding, and painting over the patches.....lesson learned.

Now, obviously there is still a ton of wall space under the shelf, and then I GOT IT! I don't know where the spark came from, but I loved it and this is the result of my short-lived hiatus from pregnancy brain-block:

Do you love it?! I'm always looking for different ways to hang/display photos and frames, and I was thinking of framed art under the shelves when I realized that I didn't just want random art in my baby's room, I wanted things that represent our family, where they came from, and how they are growing. I found the ribbon at Hobby Lobby (I will have to put together a different blog post about my love for that joint) and it was all half off so I go 4 spools for $4. The pictures frames were all Dollar Tree purchases and the best thing about the Dollar Tree is that literally everything is $1. They were different colors, but a nice can of $3.50 metallic silver spray paint jazzed them up and the best part is that if one falls and breaks- whatever, it was only a dollar, and super easy to replace. The rod the frames are hanging from is just a cheap $6 cafe curtain rod from Kmart that I threaded through the shelf brackets.

So far I have displayed a picture from our wedding, pictures of Jerod and I with our respective family members as babies/toddlers, and an ultrasound photo of Baby B. I am very happy with how this project turned out (though JB thinks the bows of the ribbon make it look too girly) and am looking forward to adding photos of my sweet little button!

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