Brett Ivan Nelson

July 18, 2012  5:32 AM

6 lb. 6 oz.   17 3/4 in.

We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful delivery. Everything went well and we feel so blessed to have little Brett with us! I had a scheduled c-section for the morning of the 18th at 9:00am. We went to bed Tuesday night with our alarms set to be at the hospital by 7:00am on Wednesday. But apparently Brett wanted to be a little bit ahead of schedule because around 2AM that morning my water broke! By 2:30 I was having consistent (and I might add, painful) contractions. We were at the hospital by 3:00 and my doctor arrived around 5AM to do the c-section. When they pulled him out he was all tangled up in the umbilical cord; it was wrapped around his neck twice, his abdomen, and his leg! It didn't surprise me, though, because he was very active in the womb - I swear sometimes I thought he was doing gymnastics in there :) 

Smiling between contractions

Let's do this

Healthy and happy little boy!

The first time Emma held him was so cute. We put Brett in her arms and she said to him, "Oh hi sweetie". We died laughing! She's such a good big sister :)

Family of 4 now!

Coming home from the hospital

I attempted to take some 'professional' looking pictures of Brett. Let's just say there's a reason I'm not a photographer... and I don't have any cool editing program either...

I tried for a good 15 minutes to get a cute picture of Emma and Brett together and this was the best I could do. 

Brett was pretty much screaming the whole time. 

Haha, we'll have to try again another time...

Brett's first bath

Spencer and Taylor had their little boy, Bradford, two and a half weeks after we had Brett. They're already best friends :)

monkey face

Summertime

Swimming, swimming, and more swimming. That's what we've been up to the last few weeks :)

Emma and I did a two week swimming class together and she did fabulous! She is such a little fish and she's getting more and more brave in the water.

BABY SHOWER - JUNE 23, 2012

My mom, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law threw me a baby shower and it was so much fun. How cute are the decorations and the cake! 

Yummy food, games, and great friends and family :)

We spent the 4th of July up in Pine at our friends' family cabin. We had so much fun!

 Out for a morning walk - the weather was beautiful

Emma is so patriotic :)

 The never-ending horseshoe tournament

 A little wiffle ball

The girls, Lucy and Emma, in their matching tanks

 Quality daddy-daughter time on the swings

The crew at dinner

 Happy 4th of July!!

 Our good friends, Chad and Carissa, are moving to Missouri for med school and last weekend was the last time we got to hang out with them before they left. They have been such good friends and we are sad to see them move but we're excited for them to start their med school adventure!

I love, love, LOVE homemade jam. I had a bunch of frozen strawberries stored in our freezer so I decided to try to make some. It was a success! There's something about homemade jam that just makes me smile and reminds me of growing up - my mom always had homemade jam in the fridge :)

So I've been going through all of our old baby stuff getting ready for this little guy to come. We got down this bouncy seat and Emma thinks that she's small enough to sit in it (yes, I realize it is pink - don't judge. Even though he'll have some pink baby stuff, our son will NOT be girly - Thomas will make sure of that).

It reminded my of some pictures I took of her in it as a baby. This one was taken almost exactly two years ago. I can't believe she used to be that little!