Brendan's debut

Yesterday, my little son turned one month old.  I looked at my blog and realized that I hadn't even posted that he was born.  Anyone who might read this blog probably already knows that he finally made his debut.  But for archival purposes, I'm just going to make a quick entry about his birth.

Brendan Dennis was born Thursday, April 22, 2010 (a birthday shared with his uncle, Christian), at 5:28 p.m.  He didn't seem to want to come out on his own, so he was forced out a week and a day after his due date via induction.  The doctor thought the ultrasound was overestimating when it approximated Brendan at 9 lbs 1 oz three days before birth.  But in fact, the boy came in at a whopping 9 lbs 13 oz and measuring 23".

After less than a day, Brendan was admitted to the NICU for intermittent labored breathing.  (Notice how big he is in the NICU incubator.  Compared to the preemies in there, he was GINORMOUS!  [I love that word! Thank you, Elf!])  He had to stay a minimum of 48 hours.  This was very hard for me to cope with in my postpartum hormotional & sleep-deprived state.  I was discharged a day before he was.  We ended up staying in a hotel by the hospital (for the third time in a week) so that I could be nearby.  Brendan was discharged on Sunday.  The neonatologists and consulting ENT chalked up his symptoms to excess residual mucus in his lungs and a mild case of laryngomalacia (immature cartilage surrounding the vocal cords).

I will write about this first month in a different post.  But I will close with pictures from the hospital.  Some of them are professional, and I'm VERY sad that I wasn't present for the session.  But at least we captured the guest of honor.  (Sorry, I wish I could figure out how to post pictures side-by-side to conserve space.)

This is the closest we could get Lauren to Brendan that first day.  Doesn't she look excited?!

This picture cracks me up.  It was after the ride home from the hospital.  Her neck is kinked one way, and his the opposite.  Let's hope we won't need physical therapy in the future.









Here are the professional pictures: