Brynn Renée Thingvall

We are so excited and blessed to get to introduce Brynn Renée Thingvall to you all. She is just the cutest thing ever. She was born at 7:56 PM on Thursday, April 26th. She weighed 8lbs. 2oz. at birth, and is 20.75 inches long. She was delivered by Dr. Barton at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette. We were really pleased with the hospital and the staff and would recommend them very highly.

Jen started in with contractions at 3 in the morning on Thursday. Jen was nice and let me sleep till the alarm went off before she told me the news. We had a doctor's appointment already scheduled at 9:30 that morning, so we called to see if they still wanted us to come in. They said to come anyway, but at 9. We got there and when the nurses saw Jen squatting and grimacing during a contraction, they moved us quickly to meet with the doctor. She checked Jen and said she was dilated to 4cm. "Go straight to the hospital," she said. "Don't stop for coffee." We did and were quickly admitted. Her parents showed up shortly thereafter and were troopers helping us throughout the day.

Jen progressed well at about 1cm an hour until stalling out at 9cm (where 10cm is the goal). That last centimeter was hard won, but she did it! My amazing wife did this without an epidural or pain meds. Painful transition contractions started around 2:30 or so and lasted through 5:15 when the pushing began. That ran up until Brynn's birth just before 8. Of course, that's when I lost it and got all weepy with joy. We were so relieved to be through labor and so happy to see our little girl!

They moved us over from the delivery wing to the Mom & Baby section around 11. We were ready to fall over at this point and the prospect of some sleep was so alluring, but we sat through the explanations so ably and kindly provided by the staff. It does seem cruel that right after a day filled with strenuous exertion and pain that someone would come in every 1.5 hours and wake us up to take blood, have us feed Brynn, or have some blood pressure monitoring. It's all for the best, but boy we just wanted to sleep.

Brynn has been feeding well off and on. If she is sleepy and not in the mood, she will not be roused. But if she is ready to feed, she will do so with appetite and enthusiasm. We've been trying lots of different ways to get her to wake up. What works seems to change every time.

We spent the next day dozing and seeing a few visitors and getting Brynn checked out by a steady stream of medical staff. We went home that evening after about 24 hours at the hospital. They sent home with us a frozen lasagna meal with all the fixings, which is pretty amazing. Jen's Mom was a superstar grandma and stayed up all night with the baby helping us to be able to get some sleep and standing by us while we worked to get in sync with our little daughter in the middle of the night.

Today we've just been snoozing, feeding, and entertaining a few visitors. Gavin and Sarah brought some delicious cookies and muffins. Thanks, guys! Mainly we're trying to rest and to get Brynn to eat up.

Okay, and now I'm starting to get a sense of the pace our lives will be adopting. I started this blog post yesterday around noon, and now it's late Sunday morning and I'm getting to work on it again. Jen's Mom again was an angel and stayed the night to help us get some sleep. Brynn fed and fed last night (Yay!), so Jen is fried this morning and I am a bit too. I held Brynn most of the morning and she is just the cutest bug ever. I am also discovering arm cramps. Now I will be working on developing a repertoire of holds.

The flow of pictures is of course ongoing and steady, so I'm just going to have to stop here and invite you to check out the gallery of pictures from Brynn's first three days. We are so blessed by God to have this little one, and we pray His protection and grace over her. We want to see her grow up strong, healthy, and wise and to walk alongside Jesus throughout her life. We'll be there too, and I think we're off to a great start.