First road trip!!

We decided to make the first road trip this past weekend to Wadsworth (Jeff's hometown) and stop in Columbus on the way home to see some of my family. The trip was smooth as can be and we really didn't hear a peep out of Brayden until we would get off of the highway. I think that he definitely enjoys the movement of the car. Brayden got to meet lots of new family members and did a great job with all of the excitement!

In Wadsworth hanging out with Great Grandma.

Great Grandpa holding his 3rd great grandchild!

My cousins, Mark and Regina with their 6 month old, Adrian.

Spending time with Great Aunt Kathy

Stephanie, Brayden and Great Grandpa

Cousins, Adrian and Brayden

Brady had a follow up with a home health nurse this morning and checked out just fine. He has some clogged tear ducts which is causing some discharge in his eyes, but nothing to be concerned about right now. It's nothing that a warm washcloth can't take care of. He weighs 8 lbs, 5 oz, so he's almost back to his birth weight. He continues to sleep about 2-4 hours at a time at night which has been great for us. He only cries when he is hungry, fighting sleep or sometimes when he is getting a diaper change. There are just times when he really does not like to be messed with. :) When placed on his tummy, Brady already will lift his head and turn it to the other side or just look around at everything (he actually started doing this on day 3). He has been a wonderful baby so far and we hope that things continue to go well!

First checkup!

We took Brayden for his first pediatrician visit today. He got the Hepatitis B shot which he did not enjoy, but overall the doctor said that everything was looking great. When we left the hospital he weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz which is 6 oz less than his birth weight. They usually lose weight in their first 5-6 days then start to gain it back. Today he weighed 8 lbs even (55th percentile) and the doctor is expecting that he will only go up from this point since he's eating so well. Brayden was only 21 1/4 inches long (85th percentile) today as compared to the 22 inches that he was at birth. He shrunk because he lost his conehead!!! :)

We could not have asked for a better baby these past few days at home! He woke up at 1:00, 2:00, 4:30 and 7:30 during the first night which wasn't too bad. Last night, he only woke up at 2:00, 6:30 and 9:00. We actually went in to check on him several times because we hadn't heard a peep from him. He was all curled up and fast asleep! I know that this will not last, but we are definitely enjoying the sleep when we can get it!!

We are going on our first road trip this weekend to Wadsworth to hang out with the family. Brayden is looking forward to meeting everyone!

Brayden's first photo shoot

A woman came around at the hospital and took some professional pictures. Here are the proofs
http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=c2d161fa-1001-4c4b-be5e-a5db9f66c19f

Brayden Daniel is here at last!!!!!

We are now done with our hospital stay and settled at home! It has been an amazing 48 hours but so exciting!

To continue where Jeff left off...our family arrived after dinner and we were able to visit with them for a few hours while we waited for the baby to arrive. I progressed nicely and wasn't feeling any of the pain...thank goodness! :) At about 9:30 p.m., the doctor came in and checked and I was at 10 cm. It took 2 1/2 hours of pushing, but Brayden arrived at 12:31 a.m. on 8/16/2009. It was actually kinda funny that we didn't know if he would be born on the 15th or 16th (I was hoping for as soon as possible, of course!). Brayden ended up with a bit of a cone head, but his head looks normal now :) He weighted in at 8 lbs, 7 ounces and was 22 inches long. Even the doctor was shocked when she heard his weight. None of us expected him to be that big!

Yesterday, the grandparents came back to visit and we got visits from our friends KC, Kyle, Kirby, Jen and Doug. Doug and Jen brought their 3 month old, so Brayden made a friend. Today, we mainly relaxed before getting discharged. Some girls that I work with came up to from the 8th floor to visit and a photographer came by to snap some shots of him. Brayden got checked out by the pediatrician and everything was great! Sleep has been very hard to come by, but I'm hoping that now that we are out of the hospital we can have some sort of a routine...key word HOPING :) He really has been a great baby so far and we feel very lucky that everything was gone so smoothly!!

Brayden and Corin Ryan becoming friends :)

Baby Day is here at last!

This is Jeff posting for the first time.

We are sitting in the brand new Labor and Delivery Suite at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati.

Stephanie was having a rough night last night and finally had significant enough regular contractions starting about 1030am today. After 2 hours of regular contractions, we called the doc and headed into the hospital.

We have been set up nicely and Steph is already 5cm and has had her epidural! Things are progressing nicely and we should have a new addition to the Keenan family by breakfast! For up to minute updates you can follow me at twitter at JDKeenan!

More to follow..

The waiting game...

No baby yet! The due date is about a week away though so we're getting excited...and impatient! :) Jeff had to travel to Indianapolis this week for work so he was gone Sunday and Monday night. I was a little worried with him being gone, but I knew that he could be home within a couple of hours if needed. On Monday night, I barely got any sleep. I woke up on and off all night long with cramping/contractions. I just tried to stay in bed and get some rest because I figured that if the pain got too bad, I wouldn't be able to sleep through it. I ended up calling off work since I knew that I wasn't well rested and I had no idea what the day had in store for me. I continued to feel a cramping feeling all day, but it wasn't really something that I could start timing since it was just a constant feeling. I called the doctor's office after I woke up and they said to just take it easy, take some Tylenol for the pain and call if the contractions are 5 minutes apart.

So after the long couple of days that I had, I thought that I may get some news today at my doctor's appointment. Turns out that I'm still at 3 cm...oh well! My weight stayed the same and my blood pressure was normal. The doctor said that it's just a matter of time and we just have to wait until the water breaks and/or for the contractions get regular. She said that she really doubts that I will last another week. I guess the baby will come when he/she is ready! I'm still feeling a lot of cramping/contractions, but I'm still not able to really time anything yet. Hopefully something will happen soon!!!

38 weeks!

Keeps growing and growing...and growing!

37 week update!!

Baby Keenan is full term now! 37 weeks...crazy! Crazy to think that he/she could make an appearance at any time now. The past week has been more of the same. I finally feel that we have the house/nursery completely ready to go. I went out earlier this week and picked up some last minute stuff just to make myself feel more at ease.

I've been feeling ok, just starting to get a lot of hip pain. I definitely feel a lot of stretching and even laying down hurts my hips. I have felt contractions, but nothing regular enough to start timing or anything like that.

Now for the exciting part...our doctor's appointment this morning. I'm at 3 cm and 50% effaced! I was going to be quite upset if I wasn't further along than last week with all of the hip pain I've been feeling. The doctor said that it's definitely a good sign and everything is progressing nicely. She said that it's a good sign that labor will progress nicely when we get to that point and it probably won't be a really long 20 hour labor or anything. We made her take a guess on the due date and she said that if she had to guess, she would say the 16th or 17th instead of the 20th. We'll see if she's right! Not sure that I can grow much more :)