Brody's First Day at Home

We brought Brody home from the hospital yesterday. Brennan and Branton already love him so much. They want to take turns holding him. Branton has told him, "Love you!" and Brennan has told us, "I love him!" They have also both given him tons of hugs and kisses. Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Brothers

Brennan and Branton enjoyed meeting Brody for the first time on Monday afternoon. I was surprised by their reactions because they were the opposite of what I expected. Brennan has been looking forward to Brody's arrival and spent the last few weeks talking about him getting here, holding him, and helping take care of him. During that time, Branton has acted completely oblivious that anything was changing as we talked about Brody. However, when Gran and Grandad brought Brennan and Branton to the hospital, it was Branton that was incredibly interested in Brody. He wanted to hold him, look at him, hug him, kiss him, and blow kisses to him. Brennan was somewhat interested but not nearly as much as I had expected. The pictures below are from the boys visiting Brody at the hospital. I will have to update again on what they think of him in a few days after we go home from the hospital today.

Brody's Heart

We were told several months ago that Brody had a heart defect. We were told he had Atrial Septal Defect and would have to have surgery to close the large hole in his heart. We (and many of you) have spent the last few months praying for him. We are thrilled to announce that the doctors did an echocardiogram on Monday evening and found that he does NOT have Atrial Septal Defect. His heart is great! He will need to have another echocardiogram done in a few months but he will NOT need surgery.

Brody does have bilateral superior vena cava; he has a left and right superior vena cava while most of us only have one superior vena cava that is located on the right side. The left superior vena cava is seen in front of the atrial septum when the doctors look at his heart, so that could be why it looked like there was a large hole in the septum before. We also know that there could have been a hole there before that God has closed. Either way, we thank God that Brody has a healthy heart! Thank you for your prayers!

Brody is here!

Brody Collin Douglas was born at 9:50 AM, weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz, and is 20 inches long. Jennifer and Brody are doing great! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!

Update on Brody

Unless Brody decides to come on his own, it does not look like we will be meeting him until Monday, February 28. We had an amniocentesis done today and his levels did not show that his lungs are mature enough to deliver him early. His score was 34. We were informed that the baby can be ready and have a low score but they can't deliver before 39 weeks unless the score is 55 because of the possibility of the baby's lungs not being mature. They did one other test as well that checks for something different with lung maturity but will not get results until tomorrow afternoon. If that test shows that he is ready, then we will have him this week, but they didn't think that test would show him ready when the other did not. However the test turns out, we only have 1 week or less until we will be holding our precious Brody!

Warm Days in February

We have had a very nice week and been able to go to the zoo and the park. It was a little chilly at the zoo, but still very nice for February. The weather at the park was amazing! Here are some pictures from this week.





























If you want to see even more pictures, you can see them at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53025&id=100000043061045&l=d5dc4f8e6d.