SHE'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Sophia Michelle O'Brien

Born November 23, 2009 11:04 a.m. 6lbs. 7 oz. 19 1/2 in

At my last prenatal appointment my doctor decided that it would be fine to induce labor a couple days early. He said Sophia was definitely ready to make her debut, so we got everything scheduled and started getting ready! Paul and I headed to the hospital at 5 a.m. Monday morning (the 23rd). They wasted no time once I was in a room... IV medication was started by 5:45 a.m. and contractions followed shortly thereafter. The anestesiologist dropped by around 7:30 a.m. and I FINALLY decided there was no reason to pass up the epidural! Epidural was painless (for the most part) and in place by 8:45 a.m....just in time to miss all of the bad contractions :) Thank goodness my labor DID NOT slow down after the epidural...in fact it sped up!! The doctor came in at 9:45a.m. and broke my water and predicted Sophia would be ready to make her debut by early afternoon. Well, much to everyone's surprise, I was fully dialted and ready to push by 10:30 a.m.!! lol the doctor made it in to the room just in time for the final 4 pushes! Our precious baby girl was born at 11:04 a.m....kicking and screaming. I had prepared myself for a horrible, painful and slow recovery, but that has not been the case. We're all doing great and getting better by the day!

The pediartrician at the hospital told us Tuesday, the 24th, that Sophia was a little jaundice. She made sure we knew it was normal, and would go away with time. We had to go back to the hospital the day after we were released for them to do a weight check and draw some blood to check Sophia's bilirubin levels. Unfortunately they were a little higher than when we had left the hospital, so we were sent home yet again with instructions to return the next day for the same thing. Once again, her levels were higher Friday than the previous day, but we were still told to just make sure she was eating and getting some indirect sunlight. We called our pediatrician and set an appt for Saturday morning. Our doctor sent us AGAIN to the lab for ANOTHER blood draw. We got the call Saturday afternoon that Sophia's bilirubin levels were in the "High Risk" zone, and that she would need a couple days of phototherapy. Cook Children's Home Health came by Saturday evenin with all the necessary equipment. Sophia had to lay in a little light bed 24 hours a day (with the exception of when she was eating or being changed). It absolutely broke my heart. Paul and I had a tough time with it, but Sophia didn't really seem to mind too much. She was nice and toasty. We went back AGAIN to the lab on Sunday, and by this point I couldn't stay in the room anymore :( I handed that awful task to Paul. As tough as it was for me and Paul, the phototherapy really worked wonders. We got the call early Monday morning that we could turn off the lights! Sophia's levels were back down to a low risk level!!!!!! So her first week of life seemed pretty tough, but everyday I realize just how lucky we really are :)

So that's been just about all the excitement for the last week and a half! We enjoyed a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home and have just been trying to work on our sleep schedule! It hasn't been half bad. Sophia is a good little sleeper, so we're guaranteed about 2 hour stints at night. So far everything is great, and I couldn't ask for anything more! I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter to wake up to each and every morning....how could life get any better?!!

State Fair time!

It's that time of year again...the great State Fair of Texas! Paul's never been, so I was really looking forward to being able to take him out there. Even though the last couple of weeks have been very hectic, we were really looking forward to taking a break! We went with Nate and Jessica one evening last week. The weather was a little chilly, but at least it wasn't raining!! Paul finally got to experience the unhealthy fried food assortment available only at the fair!!
We didn't get any pictures really since it was getting dark, but at least we got a couple.

Another long baby update!!

Paul and I have been super busy lately trying to get everything together and finished for baby Sophia's arrival! I had my baby shower a couple weeks ago and that was a blast! We got so many wonderful presents...I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to change Sophia's outfit twice a day just so she gets to wear everything!! I don't have too many pics from the baby shower, but I did get a great picture of me and mom and grandma.

After the shower we went and purchased the rest of the things we needed for the nursery. With the exception of a few pictures on the walls everything is finished!! We had started painting the nursery several months ago, but just finished the final touches shortly before the shower. It may have taken a while, but Paul did a great job of painting the room. And, thanks to him and Dad, the walls look wonderful with the chair railing they installed! Here's a look at the LONG process of putting the nursery together...





Here's the aftermath of the baby shower and some shopping on our part...




But FINALLY everything is put together!!

Sophia's pretty "Going Home" outfit!!!!

Everything's ready, so now we're just counting down the days! I certainly know that I'm ready for her to be here...it seems like everyday she's running out of room!! I definitely can't complain though...I have been very blessed with an easy pregnancy so far...now we're just hoping it stays that way for the next 5 weeks!

Maternity pictures!

Paul and I went down to visit Brian and Amber (and fam) a couple weeks ago and Amber took some AWESOME maternity pictures for us! They came out great! We really wanted to capture this time since it's so special.

Thank you so much Amber!

(I'll also post more pictures on our shutterfly website-- http://pkobrien.shutterfly.com/ )

Our dogs can be so cute sometimes...

We have been trying to keep the dogs out of Sophia's room while it's "under construction", so when they get the chance to wander in there they are soooo cute! That use to be their room so it's taken some adjusting on their part.

Paul left the door open yesterday and came back to find Cujo just sitting in the middle of the room checking it out :). LOL he was looking the walls up and down! I guess I can't blame him for for being so curious!

Finally an update!!!!

We created this blog last November in hopes that we would actually keep it somewhat up-to-date, but that obviously hasn't happened! So I figured it was about time I tackle the massive update!

ALOT has happened so far this year! We found out on Monday, March 16th that we would be welcoming our first child at the end of this year! We were both so happy! And although we were planning, Paul was still surprised but definitely happy. We had our first sonogram at 7 weeks, and found out our due date is November 25th. It's such a wonderful time! We will be celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary on November 24th, and Thanksgiving this year happens to fall on the 26th....so it's going to be a busy holiday season for us but we couldn't ask for anything more!

Here are a couple pictures from our 7 week sonogram. It's our little Peanut!

We had another sonogram at 9 weeks, and it was absolutely amazing to see how much Peanut had grown in just 2 weeks!

I was blessed with my mom's good pregnancy genes I guess! I never experienced any of the horrors of morning sickness, thank goodness. I had a couple weeks (around 10-12 weeks) that I occasionally felt a little nauseated but that was easily remedied by munching on some crackers or Lifesavers. So thanks Mom!!!

Paul and I celebrated our wonderful news a little late, but I guess that's better then never! Paul's parents were gracious enough to give us an overnight stay at a wonderful bed and breakfast in Arlington. We went to the Sanford house on Friday, May 29th and enjoyed every minute! They had a live jazz band on the patio and we had the perfect room...we were able to just sit on our balcony and enjoy the band! Sorry, don't have any pictures to post of our little outing. A couple weeks later we had our official "summer vacation", although it was cut much shorter so that I could save up my vacation time. We went with a couple of friends to a great little cabin in Oklahoma on the Glover River. We spent 3 days there just relaxing and enjoying great company.

Our "Big sonogram" was on July 15th (at 21 weeks) and I never thought the day would get there! By that point our little Peanut was moving around alot, and I absolutely loved feeling all the little squirms and mini-kicks! Our sonogram confirmed that everything was going great and baby was growing right on track, and was actually measuring a couple days a head of schedule! We really thought Peanut was a boy, but as it turned out the sonogram tech told us Peanut is FOR SURE a little GIRL!!!!!!!!! We were absolutely thrilled!!!

Here are a few pics from our 21 week sonogram...

BABY SOPHIA has been getting so big!

The time has really been flying by! The last couple months we've busy busy getting things ready...painting the nursery, putting furniture together (and returning some!), getting the car seat, and all that fun stuff! Sophia's room is ALMOST done...FINALLY!! I'll post a couple pics soon.

We also had a 3-D sonogram at 29 weeks. Sophia was not really in the mood to have her picture taken that day, but they still came out great! She really just wanted to sleep!!

We're patiently waiting for our baby girl to be here with us...9 weeks left!!!! It's amazing how fast the time is flying by now! There is still soooo much to do!!!!

This past Friday, Amber was super awesome and took some maternity pictures for us....so I'll post those soon!!!

Sorry so long, but now our blog is officially up to date!!!