From the Torture Museum:

Here's the old hip brace that my parents found in their closet:

This is my mom getting ready to leave the hospital with me 34 years ago:

Finally, here's me and John with Aubree the first day that she was put into the harness. Thank goodness for the upgrade in medical devices!
Click here to see more pictures of our past 3 weeks with our sweet baby girl, Aubree!

Aubree's First Week

Today Aubree turned one week old. What a wonderful week for us! We were in the hospital recovering Friday-Monday. We finally came home about 10:30 PM Monday night. Aubree already has so many people that love her and came to meet her in the hospital while we were there.

Since the hospital, we've had to spend a lot of our time running from one doctor appointment to another. Sweet Aubree was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplacia. She has to wear an annoying little harness to hold her hips in place so the bone won't grow with them out of socket. I had the same condition as a newborn, so I don't know why it never crossed my mind that it might happen to her. I was a breech delivery and had to wear a brace to correct my hips for three months as a newborn. The risk factors for hip dysplacia are:

• female
• first born
• runs in the family
• breech

Aubree met the criteria for every risk factor! Her orthopedist thinks she'll be able to correct it with the brace in three months. She will have to go in weekly to make sure that it's developing correctly. Please pray for her that the brace will fix the problem completely.
Unfortunately, the brace is getting in the way of some of her cutest outfits, so my mom has been helping me go through her things to see what she can wear with it.
We had a visit with the pediatrician yesterday because she had lost close to 10% of her body weight in the hospital and they wanted to make sure that she got it back up. She wasn't eating a lot in the hospital but has been a hearty eater since we've come home. Just like her mama! We were so happy to hear that she has regained nearly all of her weight. Her birth weight was 7 lbs 6 oz and yesterday she was 7 lbs 5 1/2 oz. She's also grown an inch already! I'm so happy that she's growing so well but a little sad that I won't have a tiny baby for long.
We love sweet little Aubree and are so thankful for everyone's prayers and support.
Click here to see more pictures from the past week.

Aubree Ann Laurell

Aubree Ann Laurell is here!

January 8, 2010

10:07 am

19 1/2 inches
We love her! More to come soon.

Click here to check out our Picasa Web Album:

Aubree Ann Laurell

Baby Laurell Will Be Born Tomorrow!

Just a quick note to let you know that Baby Laurell will be born tomorrow by C-section. She is still breech so Dr. Pinell scheduled a C-section for her to make her way safely into this world.
We are very excited and a little nervous about all that will take place in the next 24 hours. We can't wait to meet this little girl!
Please say a prayer for us and for her that all will go well!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! We spent Christmas Eve at Michael and Brook's house after going to their church service where Isaac played a wise man, Elijah played a camel, and Annabelle got to play...Baby Jesus! They all did a great job. We had fun eating and playing and sharing gifts. Isaac and Jack were following the Santa tracker and set the kitchen timer to go off at exactly midnight so they might be able to see Santa. Did it work?
Later we came home and Taylor and Brittany opened some gifts. Here they are trying them on:

John's family came to our house for lunch today and we had a ton of delicious food. We spent our day eating and playing Taboo. Lots of fun!

As for baby girl Laurell, she's due in less than two weeks and has been in breech position ever since we first saw her. I've tried lots of tricks to try to get her to turn with no success yet. Please say your prayers that she will get her head down. My mom had both of her girls breech and my sister's girls were breech. Dr. Pinell is giving her two weeks to flip and then he is going to schedule a c-section. Believe it or not, I was actually kind of looking forward to going into labor. I know it hurts but I think the excitement would be a rush that I don't want to miss.
I am a horrible blogger. Now that John and I bought a new camera and will have a new baby soon I'll try to be better.

John and Brittany's Father Daughter Dance

Last night John and Brittany performed a hippy dance with the Brigade at the Cy Fair High School football game.
This was John's first time performing in public. He and Brittany both did so well and we are proud of them!

Our little girl is growing!

Check out our ultrasound quiz on the right.
We had another ultrasound this week and Dr. Pinell said our little girl looks very healthy and active. Our little girl is now about the length of an ear of corn!
I love being pregnant and have been enjoying my extra daily calories. I still need to get a belly shot so you can see how much extra I've been enjoying it!