Rowan James Braun

Welcome to the world son!

Born 3/25/2009 at 4:56PM

4lb 12oz 18.5inches

fuzzy brown hair and a squeaky little cry

The surgery went well, Rowan was out in about 2 minutes. Natalie is doing very well in my opinion, she is walking about 40 yards to the nursery already and is "enjoying" her buffet of clear liquids-broth, tea, jello, popsicles and water. She'll get to eat food soon.

Rowan's heart is doing well. The echocardiogram done this morning validated the earlier concerns of the heart defect, but it also shows that his valves are working well and leaking only a small amount and the aortic arch is fine- no kinks or obstructions! Amazingly this baby is not in need of a ventilator and has been held by half a dozen family members already. His IV is of concern, as it was in his hand but needed to be redone after only half a day. They tried in his foot, head and one other place but were not able to place it, so they are going to try to use the umbilical chord. Please pray for this procedure, they do it all the time but there are possible problems that can come from it.

Graham was able to come visit today and actually did get to see his brother! Rowan was off all his tethers at the moment because they were about to go to work on the new IV so they brought him to the window and Graham got to see him! Then the nurse snuck him out of the nursery into the hallway for them to meet! Graham can already say Rowan's name!

Rowan is not yet breastfeeding but Natalie is pumping and I got to feed it to him today (or try). He was really sleepy and I did the tricks I know to wake a baby but the nurse was more successful and he ate 5ml of milk! this is very important because the sooner he learns to eat the sooner he can come home. He was 5 weeks early and babies with Down's tend to have trouble feeding anyhow, so we are encouraged at his first small success.

Natlie is going to be in the hospital until at least Saturday, maybe Sunday. I'm home tonite to sleep and will be back in the AM. If anyone wants to visit, all are welcome.

Praise God for a successful delivery and a pretty healthy little boy!

My sister and brother-in-law stopped in on Sunday afternoon on their way back to California for a little visit with us. It was fun to see all of them. (I didn't get pictures of my sister and her husband, though!!) Graham and his cousin, Caitlyn, LOVE playing together. It is so fun to see them giggle and play so well together. Here are some pics.

Caitlyn and Graham playing "hide-and-go-seek".

Enjoying a brownie snack. YUM!!

Hanging out with Aunt Natalie. :)

Getting Ready for Baby

My mom came last week to be with Graham and I and also help me get the room ready for the baby. She washed lots and lots of clothes and blankets and put them all away in the drawers. It was so fun to get them all out again. I am looking forward to putting them on our new little boy! Eric and I got to go on a date to the Keg for my b-day dinner while she watched Graham. It was so nice to go out just the two of us! Thank you, Mama. She also spent some quality time with Graham. He likes his Nana....they had lots of fun together!

Potties and Dos

So Natalie got Graham a potty today. Last week he actually pooped on the potty at the babysitter's house. It may have been a coincidence, but we were excited about it. This evening Natalie asked Graham to show me his potty, so we went into the bathroom and there it was. He sat on it clothes and all, so I asked him if he had to go and he said yeah. Our little boy then went pee in the potty! I can't tell you how excited he was about this, and us too! After I put his diaper back on, he put on his shorts all by himself! He's growing up so fast!




Today Natalie went to the doctor for her normal non stress test and growth ultrasound. His growth was up but his NST was not quite good, so Natalie went to the hospital for a longer test. This turned out ok, but it may be like this for awhile, Natalie going in with the possibility of staying in for awhile. We are glad that she and Dos are getting such good care!

Ragnar 2009

This past weekend was the culmination of several months of training for me and 11 other teammates. We completed the Ragnar Del Sol race from Prescott to Mesa- 202 miles. The race is a relay, where 6 team members are in a van. They each run a leg of the race until all 6 have run, then pass off to a second van with the other 6 runners. They all run a leg and then pass back to the first van. This happens for 36 legs of the race, each person running 3 legs ranging from just over 2 miles to 9 miles per leg. Me not being too much of a runner, and also nursing an IT band injury that makes my knee feel like a hot poker is stabbing it when I walk/run, mixed with a dull aching, I got the easiest position which gave me just over 12 miles total. My team was awesome- most of them are Greenway High School teachers/administrators who know my sister and her husband. As you can imagine running 200 miles takes quite awhile to do- our team finished in just over 28 hours. Our part of the team got to sleep for about 2 hours on Saturday morning, which was nice because I don't think the other van got to sleep much at all. I can't really believe that I did this 2 years in a row, but I think I'm up for it again next year. Here are some photos:



This is the happy group of van 1 in Prescott- before anyone did any running.



Me finishing my 3rd leg after running up the dynamite road on north side of Pinnacle Peak. I couldn't walk more than 1/2 mile before the leg because my knee was killing me, but with the help of my hand foam roller and some extra stretching, I could walk tenderly with just some pain. I was hoping that running would loosen it up, but running has the opposite effect on this injury, so that 4.2 miles up the hill was awful. Oh, and I thought that it was 3.6- so when it took forever to get to the "1 mile to go" sign, I thought somebody had screwed up and put it 200 yards from the finish. They didn't.


Adam "I'm not gonna let a Brophy Boy pass me" Mrozinsky sprinted out the last 20 yards after passing this kid, offering him some encouragement only to have him try to sprint by him at the end. I hear him say just after he handed off "Well that was stupid." Indeed.

Kayla passing off to Tiela after finishing her final leg. Note the determination on Kayla's face.

9 of 12 members of Team Demons at the finish.

A last shot of me with my medal- the slogan above fits the races to a T. I'm happy to tell you that after 12 hours of sleep last night, I can keep my eyes open and even walk with just some pain. Nothing a gram of Ibuprophen can't fix.




And I would be remiss to forget my wonderful wife who encouraged me to train, let me run after work even when she was at whits end with our son, spent Friday and Saturday with him while I was gone and took care of me last night when I got home. Oh, and she's 7 months pregnant too. So she's supermom and superwife. I love you dear.