I'm back to work now...After taking 2-1/2 weeks off to spend time with Jaime and our new little one, McKenna. Jaime is still at home for another couple months and has her hands quite full from what it sounds like. I wish I could be there as well to see the new everything is that I'll most surely miss. I'm also sleeping in another room because McKenna wakes up every few hours for feeding or cranky time. I keep telling Jaime she has to nap when Jaime naps during the day, hopefully she'll get some rest after the schedule we're trying to establish takes hold!

Our new little bundle of joy is so cute. Even when she's screaming. Which lately has been a lot. We've found that when she screams and you blow on her face, she stops for a second and raises her eyebrows and squints her eyes and look right at you as if to say "What the ?" and then continues to fuss. It's quite cute.

We thought she had an eye infection or pink eye or something because her left eye was gunking up all the time and was really red. We also thought that she had a fever and was taking her temperature with 3 different thermometers every few minutes. Jaime called the doctor and they said it was a blocked tear duct, happens in about 80% of newborns and isn't serious at all, just to keep cleaning the gunk with a wet cloth. Now why couldn't they have told us that before we freaked out for 14 hours straight??? :) I have a feeling there will be many, many more instances like that.

One thing I have to say is thank God for digital cameras. I would be so broke and in debt if I had to pay to develop all of the pictures we've been taking of her.
As we do every year, Jaime is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the family. Although this year instead of the entire extended McConnell/Probst family we're just going to have Jaime's mom, dad, sister and friend as well as Jaime, McKenna and I. There will be lots of food, and hopefully some naps as well. I get Thursday and Friday off work, and have now homework to do over the weekend so that should be nice.

We've seen a new dvd's lately Bewitched gets 2-1/2 diapers. Christmas with the Kranks gets 2-1/2 diapers. House of Wax gets 2-1/2 diapers. Land of the Dead gets 3 diapers (just because it was so campy but still made seriously, and it had a guest cameo by the Shaun of the Dead director and lead actor). Also, we finally finished the first season of Veronica Mars which gets 5 diapers.

That's it for now, keeping checking out nellnell.com for new baby pictures and other fun stuff. Also, I've added some more links to other friends sites. Check them out when you have time.
Hope all is well with you and yours, and have a great Thanksgiving!

A Play by Play

• Wednesday Night
• 11/2/05 11pm. Slight water leakage, Jaime says "I think my water just broke"
• Thursday Morning
• 11/3/05 12am. Larger water leakage, Jaime says "My water just broke"
• 12:15am. Contractions 4-5 minutes apart, although they are not painful. Called Dr. Steinberg (OB/GYN), their office gave us the go ahead to go to the hospital and get evaluated.
• 1:30am. Checked into Stevens Hospital, got a room assigned (#711). Jaime got "gowned" and had her vitals taken. She was hooked up to a monitor for her and the baby. Contractions 3-4 minutes apart, still not painful. Tried to sleep a little.
• 3:00am. Contractions starting to hurt, still 3-4 minutes apart.
• 4:30am. Contractions hurting A LOT. 2-3 minutes apart
• 6:45am. epidural installed and Jaime is examined. 5 cm dilated & 75% effaced.
• 8:00am. An adjustment to the epidural placement (it was only working on her left side). Got a little rest, not sleep necessarily, just peaceful napping.
• 9:40am. Catheter installed. Jaime doesn't seem to be in too much pain, looks like the epidural adjustment worked.
• 9:55am. Examined, 8-9 cm dilated. 95% effaced. Dr. Siscoe's (the on call delivery doctor) guess is that we'll be holding our new baby around noon!
• 10:42am. Examined, 9-10 cm dilated "Anterior Rim" (Whatever that means). Our nurse Amber said our baby has a "cute head". :)
• 11:28am. Examined, 10 cm dilated. "Ready to Go". We'll start pushing as soon as the anesthesiologist gives her more medicine, it's starting to hurt more.
• 11:40am. More epi. medicine and they gave Jaime some oxygen in preparation for pushing.
• 11:55am. Starting pushing with the contractions.
• 12:37pm. Still pushing, nurse said our baby's hair is dark brown or black.
• 1:00pm. Still pushing, Jaime is in a lot of pain. The baby is in the correct head down position and her head is turned correctly, but her shoulders are turned so that they are hitting Jaime inside and won't come through easily.
• 1:30pm. Jaime headbutts Mark because I'm invading her space while trying to comfort her. (More to follow from Jaime's point of view)
• 3:00pm. We've got a beautiful baby girl! Welcome to the world McKenna Gwen Beadnell!
• Lots of tests and exams and waiting and talking ensue. (All normal for the baby, Jaime still has trouble with her calf muscle on one of her legs from the epidural, and lots of pain)
• Friday Afternoon
• 11/4/05 4:00pm. Discharged and head for home to begin our new life as a family! Where do we pick up the Instructional Handbook...?

So if you're counting that's:

• 16 hours of labor after her first water breakage \or
• 12 hours of labor after it started to hurt \or
• 3 hours 5 min of intense pushing

Everyone at Stevens was very nice and helpful. Although we would of loved to have Dr. Steinberg deliver our little one, we were left in very capable and gentle hands with Dr. Siscoe. All of the nurses throughout our 37-1/2 hr stay were great. At times we had up to 6 attending to us at the same time! So, thank you very much Stevens and staff! We very much appreciate it.

She's here! Finally :) McKenna Gwen Beadnell arrived to us at 3pm on November the 3rd, 2005. She weighs 8 lbs, 15 oz and is 20 inches long. Has a full head of black hair and is as cute as can be. (My newborn can beat up your newborn!) Jaime is doing pretty good, she had a tough delivery (long) and now has Strep Throat as well. She's been trying to get her rest, and I've been trying to do all I can to make sure she gets her rest. There are some thing I just can't do however (breast feed), although sometimes when I'm burping McKenna, she doesn't realize this and tries anyway.

Getting used to waking up every few hours has been difficult for both of us...and the poop that comes out of her....OH MY! The first 10 or so was this dark dark black sticky tar...I was thinking of patching up some road out front of the house with it. For those of you that have had babies I'm sure this is not surprising, but OH MY!...now we're in to a lighter brown watery kind....easier to clean up, but it doesn't always stay in the diaper! OH MY! In the last 3 days since we've been home we've done about 10 loads of laundry already. Anyways....enough of the poop. (I've got more stories if you want to hear about it, that means you Jeff)

So all is well, even better than well...it would be perfect if Jaime was feeling better. We're just so happy that McKenna is here and she's healthy and beautiful and ours!

The next blog will be a breakdown of our time at the hospital.


Until next time.....
Love,
Mark, Jaime, and McKenna

Remember to check out more pictures at: http://www.nellnell.com