Stella's 2 weeks old

The past 2 weeks have flown by and baby Stella is getting bigger and bigger by the day. She cracks us up with all her facial expressions which makes us think she might be a little dramatic...I wonder who she inherited that from;) Our good friend, Mark Morton came over today and took some pictures of Stella that we plan on posting soon. Lately, all she wants to do is sleep so it was quite surprising that she was alert and awake for her first "photo shoot" totally haming it up for the camera. I guess it's fitting since she was born the day after Thanksgiving which is the busiest shopping day of the year. Here are some recent photos over the last couple of weeks.

Home Sweet Home

(Picture of Stella in her travel-home clothes)

After a short night we woke up on Sunday morning and began the process to leave the hospital. Mom was feeling much better yesterday (Sunday) morning. We met with one of Dr. Olson's (our pediatrician) partners who gave Stella a clean bill of health. Next, we went through all of our discharge instructions with our nurse, Sabrina. Since the actual birth, we've been with Sabrina more than any other nurse and she was great to us. We then had a photographer come in to take Stella's St. Luke's website picture. Those pictures are now posted at: http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=67bc5cf2-9940-4591-8f82-b78b92315015 If it asks for a password, it's 63671252101558

If that's not enough, I've posted some additional pictures on our Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/davidmhenderson/Stella#

Finally, we had Sabrina check our carseat straps and check the carseat installation in the car and we were on our way (very slowly) home!

Stella has enjoyed her new home so far. She and Brittney are well "connected" so both have been very content on that front! As for the rest of us, we enjoyed some Papa Keno's pizza for lunch and we enjoyed a casserole that my mom had given us for dinner.

Stella mentioned that she would like to thank all of our hospital visitors and those who have sent nice notes to us via text, email, Facebook, blog comments, phone calls, etc, etc, etc! She mentioned that it has been a great two-and-a-half days in this world and that she feels fortunate to have inherited so many good friends and family!

Open for Visitors

Beginning yesterday we have had lots of support from our family and some friends. As soon as the emergency call went out that we were having Stella much sooner than later my mom and dad and Brittney's mom and dad and Janice all arrived immediately. It was a great feeling to come out and report to everyone that she was here and healthy. I think I got the biggest hug I'd ever received from my mom!! Since then, we had a few friends come last night and have already had a lot of visitors this morning. It's been great to see everyone and we look forward to seeing many more! Please call before stopping by 801-819-9216. We're in room 306 at St. Luke's South! Much love!

More pics

Well, this site seems to be acting up each time I try to post more pics so I've decided to put the pictures on another site that seems to be a little more friendly! http://picasaweb.google.com/davidmhenderson/Stella#

Brittney and I actually got a little bit of sleep last night. We both stare at Stella every moment we're with her. She ate 3 times over night and spent the rest of the night in the nursery. We look forward to spending the day today showing her off to friends and family. Brittney and I will be at the hospital until tomorrow. Thanks to all for the kind notes, emails and texts!

STELLA REESE HENDERSON IS HERE!

(Picture of Stella at appx 45 minutes old)

Stella arrived WAY ahead of schedule at 5:18pm tonight. We were guessing somewhere between 10pm and 3am tonight! She weighs 6lbs 10ozs and was 18.5" long. The grandparents and a few friends have been up to see her. Brittney and I have starred at her every second since she was born. Mom did SOOO well and was a total "PUSH!" expert. Brittney went from about a "4" to a "10" in about 30 minutes. Stella arrived only 45 minutes later! We are all extremely excited and will continue to post pictures as we get them. Call me at 801-819-9216 or text me if you'd like to come by St. Lukes South and visit!

Ok...HERE WE GO!!

Stacey just told us we would have the baby within the hour!! Brittney went from "4" to "10" in about a half-hour!!!

Gettling Settled In...

Here's a rundown of the day so far since we got here to St. Luke's South...





11am – Left home for Target.
11:15am – Target to get some last minute things for the hospital.
11:50am – Arrived to St. Luke’s South. Registered. Room 306. Our nurse is Stacey. Pam and Jerry followed us to the hospital and came in to get us settled and then went to run some errands. Stacey, our nurse (at the suggestion of Kim and Derik) is fantastic. She hooked up the IV of 1.) Pitocin and 2.) Sugar water.
12:15pm – Brittney starts to have mild contractions - this is great as it tells us the Pitocin is working
12:30pm – Dr. Arroyo came in and gave Brittney a check and she was dialated to 2 cm and effaced to about 70. Dr. Arroyo decided we could go ahead and break Brittney’s water so he did. He left soon after.
1:00pm – Everything looks good. Things are starting to progress and Brittney's contractions are getting more intense. We need to start thinking about the epidural.
2:00pm – Nurse Anesthetist, Angela Harvey, came in and explained everything about the Epidural.
2:30pm – Nurse Anesthesist, Angela, came and gave the epidural. Angela kept asking Brittney to slouch her shoulders and to put her chin to her chest. This whole process looked very painful but Brittney was very strong and after THREE TRIES Angela finally got it where it needed to be and shortly after Brittney was feeling much better.


3:00pm - Brittney's blood pressure was a little low and the baby's heart rate was falling after the peak of each contraction...not a lot but enough to prompt Stacey to call Angela, the nurse anesthetist, to come back. She came up and put some Ephederine in Brittney's line to increase her blood pressure. It worked quickly.


3:30pm - Stacey hasn't left our side since the epidural. She said everything was going well and just left.


3:45pm - Brittney can still feel the contraction but they are much better now. Brittney is reading her smut (US Weekly) magazine and I just got done chatting with Pam and Jerry and my dad who were in the waiting room. Now we'll just wait for the contraction to start picking up. Unfortunately, Stacey will leave at 7pm and we'll get a new nurse. I attached a picture of our great nurse, Stacey, and Brittney.

As for me, I realized there is a big room with all the snacks you can eat. I just grabbed some cookies, chips, cheese, crackers and a turkey sandwich! I'm going to take full advantage of that all-you-can-eat buffet! I have to eat it on the sly as Brittney can't eat anything right now and I want to be a good birthing partner! Brittney found the Tori Spelling Show Marathon on the Oxygen Channel so that's what we've been watching since we arrived. We've listened to my Jack Johnson mix on the IPod twice already.

More to come...

Let's Get This Party Started!

So today is THE big day! We got out of bed around 7am and Brittney's folks and I had a big breakfast and Brittney had some granola and milk and some dry toast. We hung around the house for a while and got packed and then left for the hospital around 11am.

Here is a pic on our way out the door heading to the hospital. HERE WE GO!

The Baby's Room (and test of the new video camera)

This is a short video of where Baby Henderson will spend her first night in Roeland Park after we get home from the hospital. Also a quick peek into the pink bathroom where we hope to have baby Henderson potty trained in just a few short days - KIDDING - a few short weeks. Without the need for diapers for the rest of Baby Henderson's childhood I will be able to buy those new golf clubs I want! I finished putting together the vibrating swing (pink, to the left of the crib) this morning. This is suppose to make Baby Henderson very content and is very soothing to her. It made me wonder why adults don't have papasan-type chairs that vibrate and play soothing music. With a bloody mary, remote control and someone to feed and burp me I think I'd stop crying and ride that out as long as I could too! Maybe I'll buy one of those with all the money we will save from not having to buy all those diapers...

All Systems Go!

We met with Dr. Bishop this morning and he confirmed that we will be having this baby this week. We are scheduled to check in to the hospital at noon on Friday and we'll begin the Pitocin! Stay tuned here for regular updates, pics and video!

T-Minus 4 Days

IT'S HERE! Brittney will be induced on Friday! These are pics of Brittney as of Sunday night (11/23). We meet with Dr. Bishop in the morning and if it's still "all systems go" then we'll show up at St. Luke's South at noon on Friday, November 28th!! Stay here for up to the minute updates as I'm going to do my best to keep this site updated with pics and video to document the whole process!

The Final Countdown- 35 Weeks

David and I went to breakfast last Sunday. There is nothing that a pregnant girl loves more then food. Baby Girl Henderson loves sweet things so I ordered the chocolate german pancakes just for her. Now that our due date is around the corner we are getting really excited!!My mom came in town this past weekend and we finished the baby's nursery and washed all her clothes. David has been a great hubby and gives me back rubs and pep talks to keep me going. It definitely gets harder to lug this belly around! We have a sonogram and doctors appointment this week and will keep you posted on our progress!

Big Mama...

Brittney had one of her regularly scheduled check up's with her OB/GYN yesterday. The OB/GYN fill in for Dr. Bishop (who was out this week) told Brittney that our daughter could already weigh 7 pounds. For those of you playing at home, we still have 5 weeks to our due date so this could be one big baby. I don't think Brittney has any desires to set any records though! Brittney will go in next Friday for a sonogram to assess the situation and determine next steps but Baby Henderson may be ready to come out before we're ready for her so stay tuned!

Our Doctors

Brittney and I just met our pediatrician, Dr. Thomas Olson, for the first time at Shawnee Mission Pediatrics. Dr. Olson seemed a bit standoffish at first (mainly because he didn't come to greet us since he was hobbled from a recent ankle surgery) but we became very comfortable with Dr. Olson and think he will be a great doctor to our daughter. He will meet us at the hospital after our daughter is born and will perform her first check up at that point. Dr. Olson went to Univ of Nebraska - Omaha for Med School and did his residency at UMKC - Children's Mercy here in KC. Here's a pic of Dr. Olson. I also included an old pic of Dr. Olson b/c it's freaking hilarious!!

Also, although we've seen Dr. Henry Bishop quite a few times already I didn't want to leave him out as he is our OB/GYN and will (hopefully) deliver our baby girl. Dr. Bishop is also very reassuring, comforting and very down to earth. Brittney and I get tickled every time he takes our baby's heartbeat because when he hears it he gets this giant childish grin as to show his approval and happiness that the sound is normal. Dr. B received his medical degree from Univ of Texas - San Antonio and did his residency at Truman Medical Center here in KC.

Here's a picture of Dr. B.

We are very confident in both of our doctors and feel like we're in good hands for pre, during, and post birth!

20 Week Sonogram Pics

There IS something in there. Look at the big foot...just like her daddy!

David and Brittney...9 months prior to December 7th...

Picture of David and Brittney on (or about) March 7th, 2008 at Julie and Ben's wedding in San Diego...