Brandon Coppernoll Web content management, internet marketing and social media in Indiana

Family is what I value most

Last night our baby girl would not sleep. She ate and wanted to make all kinds of noises and avoided sleep. My wife has been a trooper this first month with a new baby. I haven't been able to help her a lot, and I wish I've been able to help more. So last night I told her, "Let me take care of the baby this coming morning."

I woke up to the baby screaming as customary, and Miranda was taking good care of her already. She's very quick to try to appease the child. Our son is starting to learn to sleep through her wails in the morning so that's been a blessing. I asked her, "Do you want me to take her?" My wife replied that she had it taken care of so I dozed off for a bit.

Our daughter wasn't satisfied once again with a feeding and would not sleep. At which time my wife asked that I care for her so she could sleep. I got out of bed and held her in my arms (the baby, not my wife) and tried to work some magic to get her to sleep. She wasn't having any of it. She's just so bright-eyed at 3 AM! So I laid in bed next to her. I let her hold my finger and just tried to soothe her to sleep. As she was almost down I took her back to her bed to let her sleep. I'm pretty strict about not sleeping with the baby in bed.

The point of this short story is laying with her in bed even though she wouldn't sleep at three in the morning is that I am very thankful for her even when she's difficult. I know that she is alive and well. I know that she looks up to me already with those new eyes and loves me unconditionally already because I care for her. It also helps me remember it's family is what I value most.

It's been a long time

So I'm a big failure in the blogosphere as I keep waiting for days at a time before I post anything. I need to make a better habit of posting more often.

With that said, spring is offically here! This weekend was a busy one, but let me get started by saying "Thank you!" to my wife for a wonderful week to celebrate my birthday. I've gotten to do so many cool things I have to thank her for that.

Back to the spring comment, this weekend I built a swing set with my father-in-law for my son, got sun-burnt really bad, went to an amazing dinner with my wife in Indianapolis and fired up the grill. My baby daughter is over 3 weeks old now. She's so very pretty already. I'm very excited about what spring and summer has to come.

Even if my posts are generally shorter I'm going to try to be more active. I plan on starting an outdoor workout regimen too. Maybe I'll start posting my progress here to keep myself in check.

Getting back to "normal"

The insanity of having a baby is over. We've been home several days with family streaming in and out saying "hello" and getting to know our baby girl. Now that's all over. It's time for me to go back to work. My wife will be home about six weeks with our baby before her life becomes a little more "normal."

I love my job, but there's times where I long for "abnormal" such as I wish I could stay home six weeks to take care of our new baby as well. Unfortunately, the best way I can take care of my baby is going back to work. I hate it because I'm going to be away from my wife and new daughter. It has to be done. I love my job, but I will miss my baby girl.

The morning after having a baby girl

Words really cannot describe the feelings that are rushing through me as I work on this post, but I am going to do my best to do the job. Last night at 7:02 PM, baby Lillian came into our world at 21 1/2" and 7 lbs. 11 oz.

I feel...fulfilled. This is our second child. For the longest time I thought I'd want three children. This is largely because my brother has four now, and he is also about ten years older than I was so from about seven or eight years old I really was kind of an only child. I also love my family so much that I just felt that I'd have enough to go around to spread the love to more children.

This morning I woke up and looked into Lillian's eyes and realized that I'm good. I'm in a good place right now. I don't have much to complain about at all. I have a beautiful wife who is loving and supportive in everything I do. I have a wonderful two year-old boy who is rambunctious and loves me. Now I have a beautiful baby girl that I just can't wait to watch grow up.

I welcome any and all friends and family to visit us at the hospital today and over the course of the weekend. I will be back at the hospital today around 11 AM. Our son will be meeting his baby sister for the first time around then. We are excited!

So close yet so far

A really quick post for everyone. She's getting very close. Right now she's sleeping because she's been up since around 5:00 AM to get this whole process underway. We're probably realistically 2-3 hours behind because when she arrived here all of the rooms were occupied. I'm just happy she's taking a quick nap. We've watched three movies since getting here though. So at least we've had things to occupy ourselves. I told her that we should have brought the Lord of the Rings Trilogy since we finally had a day where we weren't going anywhere. Then a contraction came, and she told me that I was having the next one. I think we're stopping at two kids.

In the delivery room

We're in the delivery room. We're finally going to have this baby! My wife is hooked up to about two or three IVs and a blood pressure device.

I am here next to her hooked up to my laptop letting the world know about the birth of our baby girl. This will be a long process as there will be at least four hours likely before they even consider breaking her water.

Either way, I will keep all of you posted. By the way, Miranda just discovered a pocket on the front of her gown in an unusual spot. Anyone know about this pocket? What's it's use? What's it's purpose?

Also just discovered there is no coke in the nearby vending machine. So I may be having a little talk with the hospital.