First Unassisted Night and More Brynn Facts

Well, we made it through our first night without Grandma Carol's assistance. She was ready for Round 3, but we wanted to see how things would go on our own. Other than one hard-to-diagnose spate of intense crying, it went pretty well. I don't think Jen got a full REM cycle in; but she nicely let me grab one. But this lack of sleep is what every parent has assured we'd be facing. So far we are dealing with it better than we expected. It helps when you have just the cutest little bug as a daughter.

This morning we had our second in home visit from a nurse, and Brynn is doing very well. Her bilirubin levels have actually started to drop, which is great. She's been at good levels, but it is even better to see them go down. The nurse was very impressed with her. She is back up to 7lbs. 13oz. after dipping down to 7lbs. 10oz. on her first full day back at home. We are so blessed to have a healthy, strong daughter. I may be projecting, but I think she was even tracking my head movements with her eyes the other day. Of course I wouldn't be surprised for my amazing little girl to be doing such advanced things already.

When she came out, Brynn was as purple as a grape. This is much preferred by me to the bluish white I've seen for some babies due to the vernix on them. Her color changed very quickly though to a nice healthy red and pink by the time she was on the warming table. Her extremities are still a little purplish, but that's normal.

We've found a good way to prompt her to feed a bit longer is to lift her arm like she's doing the chicken dance. When she pauses a bit long and may be getting sleepy, I'll lift her little chicken wing and let it flop. That usually will get her to suck for a few more seconds before she sleepily pauses.

We just love her so much! She is so cute and we can't wait to see how she develops day by day!