Introducing Anna Inez Brash.....

She's here! Anna Inez arrived on June 1st!!!! The labor was relatively easy (as labors go) - they broke my water at 7:30 a.m. and started the pitocin at about 8:00. I was told that my contractions were between 2 1/2 - 3 minutes apart so things got moving quickly. I had an epidural at about 9:45. They came in to check in on me at 10:05 and by that time my contractions were really painful so I was wondering if the epidural worked - turned out I was dilated to 9 cm and I started pushing at 10:30!

At 11:58 a.m. Anna Inez was born, weighing in at 8 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 inches long! It still hasn't sunk in that she's here - my sleep-deprived state might have something to do with it too! She is named after our maternal grandmothers, Anna Bymoen and Inez Bergeson. Here's some pictures of our beautiful daughter.....

39 weeks and 2 days....

Baby Brash's due date is only 5 days away! When I went to the doctor last Tuesday she said she wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor before my next appointment on the 26th but so far, not much has happened (but it's only Saturday night). Martin said that if the baby is like him, it'll show up early but if it's like me, it will come whenever it wants feels like it :) The countdown is definately here and we are ready to meet the little one!!!! Here's a picture from last Thursday at 39 weeks.

I'm a little hesitant to put this one up here but here goes anyways:

35 weeks!

Here I am at 35 weeks! Martin and I had our birthing class this weekend. If anything, it was certainly eye-opening. A few times during the class that Martin got a little light-headed, especially when they talked about the epidural needle and when he saw the video of women giving birth. On a funny note, they said that when a guy passes out in the delivery room and if its really busy, they get to him when they can but the mothers and babies are the first priority. I had visions of me in the end stages of labor with Martin passed out cold on the floor next to my bed.

My mom made two valances for Baby Brash's room - I love them!

A few weeks ago I went to Bemidji to visit my parents - here's some pictures of my dad making misutaki. We prepped enough food for an army and I definately ate enough for two! It was fantastic :)

Bismarck Blizzard

Sunday evening it started to snow quite a bit and by the time we woke up this morning, we'd gotten 10 1/2 inches! It kept on snowing all day long and I think we ended up with about 18 inches. Our deck was cleared off yesterday afternoon but this is what the railing looked like at 9 a.m. this morning.

All the schools in Bismarck called off classes today so Martin and I spent the day at home. Of course, he had to take the diesel out to drive through all the snow drifts. It's hard to believe that we could see our lawn on Sunday morning - it'll be awhile before we see it again!

Here's a picture of Buck and Meiko enjoying an afternoon nap. Buck has realized that Meiko is a warm cuddle-buddy in the cold winter months.

Meiko? Separation anxiety? No.......

31 Weeks and Counting.....

Well, there's less than nine weeks to go before Baby Brash's due date! Here's a picture of me on March 27, 2009 - 31 weeks and 1 day.

One of my best friends, Lisa, made this beautiful quilt for Baby Brash! Although you can't see it in the picture, she stitched an outline of a rubber ducky in all the yellow pentagons. I can't wait to start using it!

On Saturday we went to a craft fair and Martin found this burp cloth/bib set - of course he had to buy it!

Nursery!

The nursery is starting to come together! The Jacobsons were kind enough to let us borrow their crib so we picked that up last night when we went to their house for dinner to celebrate both my and Travis' birthday.

I couldn't find a crib set that only has sheep (it has chickens and cows on it too) but I like this one a lot.
I bet you "Bemidjians" out there can guess where the sheep on the picture above came from.....it was mine when I was a baby!

I love the crib that Beth and Travis used for Sarah and Thomas - it works really well in our nursery!

29 Week Update

Yesterday I went in for my gestational diabetes test and monthly check-up. All went well and Baby Brash is doing great. His/her heart rate was 148 bpm this time, so a little lower than in months past. For the next 6 weeks I'll be going in every 3 weeks, then down to every other week/every week as the due date approaches.

Martin painted the nursery last weekend, the new blinds have been ordered, the crib set arrived today, and we're picking up the crib from Beth and Travis this weekend so it is starting to all come together! We'll start to put together everything in the nursery this weekend so I'll post pictures soon.