Our new niece!

As of early Friday morning, we have a new niece! Joel's brother Brett and his wife, Ashley, had their 2nd girl! Brynn is Tessa's buddy and they are 6 weeks apart, so I was curious to see how Tessa and Brynn would interact with the new baby.

Kiernan Reagan was born early in the morning on Friday. We made a trip down to Des Moines Friday after work to see them and boy, she's cute! Ashley and I went through our first pregnancies together and also, this one, so it's fun to see what my life will be like in a few months.

Tessa was instantly smitten. She just wanted to hug and kiss the baby the whole time. We let her rocky-bye (rock in the rocking chair) and then we let her hold her. I was very unsure about this, since I had no idea how'd she would treat a newborn. She has a couple babies at home, but they sometimes get drug around by the hair and usually end up being put "nigh-night" in the couch, face down, covered in a blanket.

 She was listening very carefully to Uncle Brett's instructions. She takes her cousin role very seriously sometimes. She just wanted to give hugs and kisses the whole time and was very gentle with little Kiernan. I was very grateful for that.

 After a few minutes, she decided that this was pretty cool! Granted, Kiernan didn't come home with us. I can only hope she reacts this well when Baby Delaney comes home! August 30th, we'll know!

In other news, we've decided on names. We opted not to find out the sex this time, since I've got a c-section scheduled for August 30. But, we've chosen names. If it's a boy: Colton James. If it's a girl: Norah Ann.

Names

We have had a more difficult time with names this pregnancy. Last time, we agreed almost immediately on Tessa's name.

This time is a battle. We have narrowed it down to 2 boys names and 2 girls names, and are now at a deadlock.

Boys:
Drake
Miles

Girls:
Piper
Norah

Who will prevail?!

Baby Murph

We are at the halfway point for Baby Murphy. We have decided for this pregnancy to not find out the sex, which I have found incredibly difficult. I like to plan things, so not knowing what kind of baby we'll be bringing home is a little overwhelming. We have everything we need if it is a girl, but what if it is a boy?! What will we do?

The hubs has decided to name this baby Murphy, because of Murphy's law. So far, everything that can go wrong, does. Except of course, we do still have a healthy fetus growing. It's been hiccup after hiccup though.

At 6 weeks, I had intense cramping on my left side. They wanted to rule out an ectopic pregnancy, so I had a transvaginal ultrasound with my date LaWanda. (Side note, for anyone interested, I am a huge proponent of NOT forcing women to have this test done. They are uncomfortable, painful, and awkward.) They found a healthy fetus with no reason for cramping. They also mentioned that the baby's heart rate was low, and that I should prepare for a possible miscarriage. I had  repeat ultrasound a week later, expecting there to be no heart beat, but hoping for the best. The heart beat was still there. Great! However, we know the odds were still against us, because 70% of all pregnancies with a 6week heartrate of below 100 ends in miscarriage. Murphy's was 89 at 6 weeks, and 126 at 7 weeks.

At 9 weeks, I was at work and experienced very severe abdominal pain and cramping. So bad, in fact, that I almost made myself a patient at work. I was able to hide out in one of the rooms and one of the oh-so-kind docs did a quick pelvic exam to find my cervix was still closed and paged the OB on call. I found out the next day that I had a cyst that ruptured. While they'd normally do a CT to confirm, that wasn't an option so they did another ultrasound which showed some fluid, consistent with a burst cyst.

At 12 weeks, the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat via doppler. It took the ultrasound machine to see that the baby was doing flips, literally. Even then, it was hard to get a number so we knew a heart rate.

At 19 weeks, I tried to electrocute myself unplugging a light in the basement.

Yesterday, I found out that I have a low lying placenta which will have to be monitored to make sure it moves up away from the cervix before delivery. 

I keep expecting the worst, because besides morning sickness, I had no problems with Tessa when I was pregnant. There are tons of little things that keep popping up.

But, on or before August 30, we will have Baby Murphy here!