Tuesday, August 30, 2005

"No Sleep 'til Brooklyn..."


Brittiny and I are pleased to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Brooklyn Margo Epperson. Brittiny was scheduled for an induction at 8:00am Monday morning. However, Brooklyn surprised Mom & Dad (and all of the OB/GYN staff at the Yale New Haven Hospital) by arriving @ 5:59am Monday morning, born @ the top stair landing of their Maltby Gardens apartment. ;)

Brittiny was amazing throughout the entire pregnancy and certainly did not disappoint with her surprise delivery to a couple of scared Paramedics in the apartment hallway. She even helped them out with suggestive comments such as "AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE SUPPORTING MY PERINEUM?!". Thankfully the delivery went well and now both Mom and baby are home, in excellent shape and enjoying each other's company. Already it's impossible for us to imagine life w/o our beautiful little girl!

With the arrival of our little angel has come the understanding that our lives are to change dramatically and forever. Brittiny is coping with the sorest of nips. I'm coping with the realization that in the not-too-distant future Brooklyn will start dating. I'll postpone thoughts that this precious little creature will someday be a surly teenager, pleading with her mom to buy her some pair of jeans that cost more than my first car. For now she is beautiful, perfect, and ever so welcome in our home. We love you Baby Brooklyn and welcome to the family! - sorry we're not better-looking ;)

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Bathing, Diapering and Dressing...

So here Brittiny and I sit here on the couch timing her contractions (45 secs) and watching a video on caring for a newborn child. Yeah, seeing that Brittiny might now be actually going in to labor we thought it was time to end the procrastination and watch the "Newborn Child" video courtesy of Yale New Haven hospital. Here are some of the highlights from the video that was filmed circa 1972...

Chapter 1: Your baby's appearance... your baby will obviously be a baby, so there will really no way that you'll confuse her with, say, your bookshelf or an air conditioner. (I'm not even sure what purpose this chapter of the video served).

Chapter 2: Breastfeeding... okay, so this isn't as simple as one might suspect. A nursing mother can't just unleash a breast and expect her baby to navigate her own way to milky satisfaction. There's a lot of technique involved. As with a solid, repeatable golf swing, sound mechanics go a long way with breastfeeding. There are even breastfeeding coaches, or 'Lactation Consultants', that specialize in breast maintenance for maximum milk production. Also, after a baby has drunk her fill, you have to whack her on the back until she yaks all over you... man, this baby thing is sounding better every minute.

Chapter 3: Sleeping... about all I got out of this segment is that newborns never sleep. All of the parents in the video looked like hell. Don't drive around in your car to put your kid to sleep. If you baby is very fussy, anxious and difficult to comfort, you should either read her some Garrison Keillor or give her a cigarette, as both tend to soothe frazzled nerves.

Chapter 4: Baths... you should wash your baby with water and baby soap. Be sure to wash in between all of the folds of your baby's chubby bod. You should next rub alcohol around the umbilical cord area (Heineken works best). Rinse, dry and immediately dress your baby in a clean, pressed shirt.

Chapter 5: Diapering... most babies are unable to use a toilet for at least a few months. The solution to this messy problem is apparently to make your baby wear a "diaper". For those of you who have never seen one, their design is similar to a feedbag that you strap to a horse, but trust me, that's not hay in there! Seriously, though, the baby's 1st BM looks like tar, called meconium. My buddy Tim told me that he spent a whole box of wet wipes on Avery's first poopie. He later used this self-same poopie to patch some holes in his fishing boat.

Chapter 6: Crib Safety... every baby should be able to go home and chill in her crib. There should be no pillows in the crib. Also no posers should be allowed near the crib, thus maintaining the crib's chill nature.

Well, that's about all the Yale New Haven educational video had to offer, but it was perfect for expectant mothers/fathers like Brittiny and me. Although Brittiny is a 4th yr medical student, she is clueless when it comes to Motherhood. Fair enough, since she s never been a mother. Anyhow, we are both so excited to welcome Baby Brooklyn into the world!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

The Final Days

So here I am, just about 2 weeks "overdue". Doctors should not tell pregnant women that they are "due". We live in a fast-food, instant coffee, 1-hr photo world where we can anticipate everything that happens in life. When it comes to pregnancy it's just not anything you can schedule, and thus, the due date means nothing. A "due timeframe" would make more sense. I get phone calls all day long, peeps wondering why I never called them with the big news. News flash for all of you: no baby = no phone call, so enough already! Baby Brooklyn will just come when she comes.

On Monday my mom and I went to my appt with the OB/Gyn. She did an ultrasound and we got a really good look @ Brooklyn. Brandon says that looking at an ultrasound is just like checking on brownies by peering through the glass front of an oven, you can't really tell if they're done. If only we could stick a toothpick in her. Brooklyn's face was all smashed up against my uterus. If I were her, there's no way I would keep on keeping on in there - I'd come right out. The most unsettling news of the ultrasound is that our baby will unfortunately have ugly feet. Our biggest concern since we conceived was that Brooklyn have cute feet. It now appears that she has my high arch and Brandon's nappy Hobbit toes. This is a bad, bad combination, but we'll just be sure to keep her in socks in mixed company.

Not a whole lot else going on in our household. I've finished decorating Brooklyn's room with the help of my mom who's been out here for the past few weeks. We bought a lot of stuff that has really made our second bedroom cute and cozy for the baby. Brandon points out to me as I spend money that she won't notice any of this stuff, but I pretend I can't hear him.

That's all folks! With the next post hopefully we'll have our baby!

(To the right you can see Brandon testing out our Baby Bjorn)