Presenting Michael Rory van Brackel

Our son Michael Rory was born this evening at 5:03 PM. He's 21.5 inches long, 8 lbs. 15 oz. and absolutely beautiful. But I'm biased of course so I'll let pictures speak louder than text.

Michael was Heather's father's name, and is her brother's name.  Rory is my (Jason) father's name.
Michael is of Hebrew origin and means "Who is like God?".  Rory is of Irish origin and means "Red King".

40 weeks tomorrow.....

We no longer have to wait and wonder when the baby is coming! I had my 40 week appointment today and my blood pressure was great (again!). The baby is still doing really well and put on quite a show for the nurse (moving around like crazy). The doctor said I am still not progressing on my own and therefore scheduled me for an induction. I am scheduled to go to the hospital tomorrow night at which point they will administer cervidil and wait until the morning to give me pitocin to induce labor. Hopefully everything progresses nicely, my blood pressure stays under control and we'll have a baby by the end of Wednesday. There are other possibilities too! Wednesday morning if things are not progressing and my blood pressure is ok they could send me home hoping labor will progress there. The other alternative is that if my blood pressure is high and things are going too slowly then I could have a c-section. We're praying for a smooth induction without being sent home and no c-section!! We are both really excited that we are really close to meeting our little baby!!!

Us!

Ok, this is the last picture for the day (I think)! I thought it was too cute to pass up! Can you tell we're excited?!

39 weeks

These pictures are from last night, marking 39 weeks for us! We are so close and can't wait to meet this little one. I will admit that I will miss feeling the baby moving inside of me though!

38 weeks

Although we have been much better at updating our blog, we haven't posted pictures in a while. The following pictures are from last week (38 weeks).

THE BELLY!

My view from the couch (the baby bump and my feet)!

My view of Jason from the couch!


Buddy enjoying bedrest!!

Jason's Birthday

Jason's birthday was 1/25, just before my full bedrest started! We celebrated that night by eating pizza (per Jason's request) and playing Guitar Hero (his birthday gift). I need to get pictures of him playing. Anyway, we had my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew over the next day for cake and ice cream. I made a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate icing served with rocky road ice cream. You would think that I wanted all that chocolate since I'm pregnant. But, it was all Jason's request. Craziness! Not that I minded though!!!

39 weeks!!!

Good news!!! (No, the baby hasn't arrived yet...there would be a much bigger deal made about that). But, my blood pressure was great at my appt. this morning...woo hoo! The baby is still moving around like a crazy little person and is doing very well. As far as when he/she will make an appearance......your guess is as good as mine at this point. The doctor said nothing is happening (still). So, I could deliver in two weeks or I could deliver this week. Everyone is different! Don't you just love mysteries?! I am still in very good spirits and although I would love to meet the baby right now, I am thankful that everything is going well. Best quote from my doctor today "You can't put the baby back once he/she comes out"......in response to me wanting to have the baby NOW. Anyone else have parents that used the quote "I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it"?! The doctor's quote reminds me of that one!! Actually, my parents would use that with my siblings....I was a perfect child (ignore what my sisters and brother say) :-).

Baby mop!

Ok, so as I sit here and watch Ellen on TV she is talking about interesting inventions. How great is this one:
Baby Mop

I can continue to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat bon bons once the baby is born. He/she will just clean up for me! Is that considered a form of child abuse possibly?!

Leap Year Baby?

Well, apparently I'm in this bedrest for the long haul. We had my appt. this morning and for the first time in a while my blood pressure was decent on the first check (which is great). Then when they checked me, nothing was happening again. So I asked if that means I'll go closer to my due date and she said "probably". Since my blood pressure is able to be managed by bedrest there is no need to induce at this point as it would increase my chances of needing a c-section. I have been joking for a while that we are having a leap year baby, but now I'm thinking it may not be too far from the truth. It's 3 days after my due date (not too horrible....but still 2 weeks to go). The baby is still doing really well and all bloodwork and such have come back good too.

Oh, by the way you know you have been on bedrest too long when you think watching a bullriding competition in HD is awesome! I only saw it once, but would definitely watch it again :-).

The price of keeping a pregnant woman on bedrest sane.....

Laser Pointer = $15
Rachael Ray Magazine = $3.99
Internet = $20/month
Text messaging = $5 (unlimited)
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Price of keeping a pregnant woman sane = Priceless


I am now 38 weeks pregnant and have been on full bedrest for 2 weeks! I was supposed to have a doctor's appt. this afternoon but they closed the office due to inclement weather. So now I wait patiently (or something like that) for my rescheduled appt. in the morning. I didn't sleep well last night as I was having contractions and couldn't get comfortable. I kept thinking that maybe the contractions would get worse and I would go into labor, but obviously nothing happened. In fact, Jason decided to sternly tell the baby this morning "I'd appreciate it if you would come out today" as he gets woken up by my tossing and turning. So far we can say that the baby has inherited one personality characteristic that both Jason and I have: The gift of being STUBBORN!

The price of keeping me sane has been relatively inexpensive...I'm easy to amuse. My newly discovered time passing device is the laser pointer. Jason ordered it for himself to tease the cat with, but it arrived yesterday while he was at work. It has been quite amusing and I think Buddy is enjoying the exercise. I have also had wonderful family and friends stop by to see me, which has been awesome. My mom is back for a second week here after returning to MD for the weekend. Today she made homemade meatballs and chocolate chip cookies. Surprisingly enough I'm not gaining any weight.

We'll post tomorrow after the appt.!!!

The baby's already messing with me

Heather and I spent the late afternoon, and early evening at labor and delivery last night. We went to the OB's office to have Heather all checked out again. Heather's blood pressure was little high so she laid on her side for a few minutes. After a few more minutes they checked her blood pressure again and it had gone up a little bit. So, the baby decided to raise Heather's blood pressure and so we were sent us to the hospital.

We met a wonderful nurse at the hospital who took wonderful care of Heather. So we sat there for a couple hours while they did a non-stress test on Heather and the baby. Every once in a while her blood pressure cuff would go off. It was nice just spending some time together.
That LB decided to get me all excited about meeting us, and then our little blessing allowed Heather's blood pressure to go back down, so the doctor sent us home. No baby for us, yet. We did get some nice Braxton Hicks contractions to watch on the monitor, so that was exciting. Suffice it to say, I'm really really excited about the baby coming and can not wait to meet the baby.

So Heather and I are resting peacefully in the bedroom watching season 3 of the office. It's a lot of fun just getting to hang out.

Note: LB is a term of endearment & respect in my family.

37 weeks

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and I am exactly 37 weeks today! I was somewhat excited before going because I started having contractions two hours before my appointment and they were regular. But, when the doctor checked me he said that I am not dialated and today is probably not the day....which I was kind of thinking. My blood pressure is still elevated and they sent me for more bloodwork. Apparently they need to keep checking how my liver functioning is due to the elevated blood pressure and will most likely do bloodwork every week until I deliver. Although I am somewhat dissapointed that seeing the baby isn't as close as I would like, I am happy that I can rest a little more as I'm feeling pretty tired today.