Brienna Marie Marr

Our precious daughter, Brienna Marie Marr, was born into Heaven last night June 2, 2009 at 8:50 PM.  She was quite simply, the most beautiful baby we have ever laid eyes on.  There are no words to describe how deeply she is loved and how much she is already missed. Her time with us was truly a gift that we will cherish forever.  Her name is Celtic and means “strong, she ascends”.  There is no better name than that for our amazing baby girl.

We thank you as always for your love and support.  It means the world to us.  Brienna only knew love, and for that, we’re very grateful.

Love,
Patrick, Laurie and Brienna

UPDATE:

We cannot thank you enough for all the calls, text messages, emails and comments on the blog. We feel so blessed to have the unyielding love and support of our friends and families …

We were very lucky yesterday to have Sharon (from NILMDTS) photograph our beautiful daughter just moments after her birth. Sharon is an amazing person and we continue to be awed by her compassion and generosity.

Laurie, Patrick and Brienna Marr
Laurie, Patrick and Brienna Marr

There will be more pictures to come, but we wanted to share one with you now.  Brienna was truly the most perfect baby.  We will write more about our experience meeting her, but felt everyone should get to see how cute she really is!

(You can see some of our maternity pictures here.)

Due Date #2

Well, here we are at May 28, our second due date.  Miss Toot has still not arrived, and doesn’t appear to be making any moves to do so!  She is apparently quite content in my belly, which is just fine with us.  She continues to dance away, and makes us laugh all the time with how forceful her little kicks are!  She puts on a show every night as we fall asleep … it’s incredible and gives us such joy to watch and feel!  At this point, it looks like Toot might end up being a June baby after all … certainly not what we expected, but the more time we have with her, the better!

We’re waiting on pins and needles to meet her and will keep you posted on her arrival … thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers.  They are much appreciated!

Due Date

May 18, 2009 … it’s hard to believe that this day is actually here … it carries so much meaning for us, and always will.  We’ve been dreaming about this day since September 15 when we first found out we were pregnant … the fact that it is here both terrifies and amazes us.  When the two small words “trisomy 18” first became a reality, making it to this date didn’t seem possible.  But Miss Toot defied the odds, and the fact that we’ve been given 40 weeks with our precious little girl is a gift we will cherish forever.  We’re so anxious to meet her, and hoping and praying with everything we have that she gets to open her eyes, say hello to this world and meet the people that surround her with love each and every day.

Thank you again for thinking of us today; your comments, texts and emails were very much appreciated.   Toot is a lucky girl, and so are her parents …

Growth Spurt!

Much to our delight, we had another ultrasound with Miss Toot on Thursday!  We had requested one at our last appointment because we wanted to check on her growth and mostly because we wanted to see her.  Our doctor’s office was very gracious in granting our request, which made us quite happy!  I am happy to report that Miss Toot continues to grow!  She’s up to 4 lbs 5 oz, which is still incredibly small (less than the 3rd percentile on growth charts) but we are very proud of her nonetheless!  Per usual, she was dancing all over the place and continues to keep her feet tucked up inside my ribs 🙂  It’s amazing to see how big she gotten … she even has some hair on the back of her head!!

There’s still no telling when she’ll arrive, but we continue to hope and pray that she does so on her terms.  If she waits too long, our doctors prefer to induce, but as we’d like to avoid that, we’re going to ask for your prayers that she comes on her terms!!  We’ve let her call all the shots thus far and would like to continue to do so … it’s so hard to believe that May is here already!  We’re getting very anxious to meet our precious girl and are hoping and praying for even just a few minutes with her.  We would like to thank you again for all for your continued love, prayers and support.  It means the world to us and we tell Toot all the time how many people are rooting for her.  She’s the most special little girl and has already touched so many lives … we feel very blessed to be her parents.  We’ll do our best to keep you all updated over the next couple of weeks and thank you again for thinking of us!

Family Portrait

Thanks to an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, we were treated to a family portrait session with Miss Toot!  NILMDTS is an all volunteer group of professional photographers who take pictures for families and their babies when they are predicted to have a poor outcome at birth … It breaks my heart that this organization has to exist, because it means there are far too many people who lose their children, but at the same time, I am so thankful it does … without them, we wouldn’t have some amazing pictures to remember this pregnancy by.

A new friend who also lost her baby to Trisomy 18 first told me about NILMDTS and after browsing their website and list of photographers, I came across Sharon.  I think I broke all the rules and contacted her directly, but after seeing her website, I knew she was the right person for us.  Sharon suddenly lost her son Owen two weeks before he was due to be born … she’s since joined NILMDTS and keeps Owen’s legacy alive by helping people like us.

Sharon very graciously came to our house over a month ago to take some maternity pictures for us and was perfect.  She just got it, which made it so much easier for Pat and I … she took some amazing photos and somehow captured all of our emotions perfectly.  I was stunned when I saw the pictures … She also happens to be an animal lover, and snapped a few pictures of our “fur baby” which made us smile!

We’ll be calling Sharon when Toot arrives, and hope and pray she’s able to make it to the hospital!  She has her hands full with her daughter, but is going to do everything she can to be there for us.  It’s kindnesses like hers that make us realize how lucky we really are … I wish with all our hearts that we didn’t need NILMDTS, but because of them, we’ll always have these family pictures.  Thank you Sharon!

UPDATE: (06/03/09)

Now that Brienna has joined our family, we thought it appropriate to post some of the maternity photos that Sharon took for us:

 

Laurie, Patrick and Toot #1
Laurie, Patrick and Toot #1

 

 

Laurie and Toot
Laurie and Toot

 

Toot Tells a Joke
Toot Tells a Joke

MiniMarr and LittleConroys

This is a little belated, but better late than never!  We celebrated Easter last weekend with my brother and his family.   It was in a way, a reunion of sorts.  The last time most of us were together was out in Oregon in September.  Toot was there too, we just didn’t know it yet!!

The new Wisconsonites flew into Boston Thursday night and we spent Friday just hanging out at the house and taking the boys to the Children’s Museum.  Quinn got to ride on a train, and was very excited about it.  The conductor gave the 7 of us a family fare, hinting that I was under 18 so it was okay … I smiled and said yes, quickly hiding my pregnant belly 🙂  We had a great afternoon, and met Kris to take the train home from Boston and back to Canton.  I can remember going to the Children’s Museum when I was little, but it was neat to see it through Quinn’s eyes.  He dove right into all sorts of activities, having a blast with the boats (and ending up soaked) and fun with bubbles, trucks, balls and all sorts of other activities …

Reece turned 1 on April 7, so we had a little birthday party for him on Friday night.  He loved being sung to, which totally cracked me up.  He just knew we were singing to him and would smile and clap, it was adorable!  Being the good big brother that he is, Quinn graciously helped open all his presents too.   We had a little open house on Saturday so all our relatives could see the boys (it’s quite an occasion when they come to town!) and the Marrs came to visit too!  It was a great afternoon and I loved having my entire family together.  Easter Sunday was all about the boys … we had an Easter egg hunt, decorated eggs and opened lots of Easter presents.  It was a great weekend, and hard to say goodbye to everyone!

Bailey was of course with us too, and despite her initial trepidation about the little people, she quickly learned that when kids are around, food is dropped and therefore she can eat it!  She followed Quinn everywhere (who also quickly learned that Bailey would try and eat everything and kept his hand up in the air if he had food in it) and sat beside Reece for every meal … needless to say, she was well fed all weekend!  Here’s the none-too-pleased Easter Bailey:

We hope everyone had a great Easter and is enjoying the awesome spring weather!  It’s hard to believe it’s the middle of April already!  We’re getting closer and closer to our due date and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our sweet Toot 🙂  Thank you again for all of your continued thoughts and prayers.  We appreciate them more than you know!

Due Date(s)

Pat and I were treated to another glimpse of our precious Toot on Friday … we had an ultrasound scheduled and got to spend some time looking at little Miss Marr, but I have to say, 2D is just nowhere near as good as 4D!  We were definitely spoiled by our last ultrasound with Patty!

The ultrasound was basically just a growth check, but as always, it was fun to watch Toot dancing around.  She is still measuring behind in growth but weighed in at 2 lbs 10 oz!  That only puts her in the 5th percentile, which is very tiny, but we are quite proud of our little peanut!!

It turns out that Toot was measuring small all the way back to our first ultrasound, so our doctors are now estimating that her due date is probably closer to May 28 than May 18 … the due date in our hearts is and always will be May 18, but at least we won’t be shocked if June rolls around and Toot has yet to make an appearance!  We’re quite content to have her with us as long as she wants!

There’s been some inquires about how Toot got her nickname and quite honestly, I don’t even know!  Pat and I had been calling MiniMarr “Toot” for as long as we can remember (it seems so feminine now though, I think it’s a good thing she turned out to be a girl!) and somewhere along the way we started using it in front of everyone and it’s just stuck!  She’s probably always be Toot to us, poor thing 🙂  She will eventually have a proper name though, I promise!

Thank you again for all of your love and support; reading the comments about Toot’s ultrasound picture made us both so proud and we feel lucky to have such a great network of friends and family.  We’re in the homestretch now, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Beautiful Baby

Today, we were treated to an extended look at our gorgeous little girl!  My aunt Patty works for GE and was able to borrow a portable ultrasound machine equipped with 4D … she very graciously gave up her Sunday afternoon and came to our house to give us a private viewing of Toot.  It was awesome.  We now have so many great pictures of her and can’t believe how big she is getting!  Her little heart was ticking away at 136 beats per minute and we were able to record the sound of it – that makes me happy because it’s one of my favorite sounds and now we’ll always have it to remember.  The 4D images are amazing.  You can see every detail and I must say, we made a good looking baby 🙂  Toot has her dad’s perfect nose (lucky girl) and her mom’s chubby cheeks.  Her little arms look so muscular, which made us laugh!  As usual, she was dancing all over the place.  It was pretty cool because it was the first time that I was able to see what she’s actually doing when I feel her move!  Here she is about to scoot away from the camera:

It’s been about six weeks since we’ve seen Toot on ultrasound and I didn’t realize how much I missed her!! In a way, it reenergizes me and helps give me a little extra lift for the coming weeks.  Toot looks perfect to us and it’s hard to believe that we’ll meet her in 10 short weeks.  We want all the time in the world with our little girl, but hope and pray for even just a few minutes with her … she’s a fighter (she even had a great boxing pose!) and I am so proud of her for making it as far as she has.  Despite the uncertainty of all this, she’s shown us that hope truly does spring eternal.  We love our little girl so much and are beyond grateful to Patty for giving us the gift of spending as much time as we wanted just staring at her … we are so lucky to be surrounded by such great family and friends … thank you!!

A long overdue update!

It has such been a long time since we’ve blogged, I figured I’d just post a little update!

Miss Toot has been a busy girl!  In the past month, she’s been to NYC, the Cape, Boston (several times) and today, the beach!  Things started off in NYC with a visit to Aunt Kristen over President’s Day Weekend.  It was a much needed weekend away and we had a great time!  Here we are with Lady Liberty wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day:

The weekend flew by (they always do!), but we had a great time and it was really nice to escape for a little bit! The following weekend we headed to the Cape to check out the new Marr house.  It is coming along great and we’re very excited for summer to arrive!

Today though, was all about Bailey.  Since it was so beautiful out this weekend, we decided to spend as much time as possible outside.  Yesterday we went for a nice, long walk on a golf course, but today when we went, there were golfers there (go figure) so we had to come up with plan B.  We decided to head to the beach and it was a very good decision!  I was incredibly anxious that B would not play nicely with all the people and other dogs, but I was mistaken.  She was so good.  We got several comments about how good looking she is, and despite the fact that Pat and I have nothing to do with her looks, we’re ridiculously proud anyway!  We let her off the leash so she could chase her prized tennis ball and she had us laughing out loud because the waves petrified her.  She loved running on the sand, but anytime that mean water chased her, she hightailed it in the other direction.  It made us (and everyone else) smile and laugh.  Here she is waiting for the next toss of the ball from Pat – note the length of her tongue!

It was a very successful trip, and we’re looking forward to taking her again soon!  Hopefully the weather will cooperate – I can’t believe it’s March already!  When we found out in December that Toot was sick, I didn’t think we’d ever make it to this point.  I couldn’t even begin to fathom the journey that awaited us.  But we’re plugging along, making the most of every day that we can.  Every minute we get with Toot is truly a gift and we cherish the time we have with her … she is a special little girl that we love more than words can accurately describe.  Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers, they are truly appreciated!

Captain Destructo …

As most of you know, Bailey has quite the personality!  She is a little bit crazy (okay, a lot crazy), goofy and incredibly sweet all rolled into one.  We love her so much and she keeps us (mostly) sane.  One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up to find this:

I was none too pleased, seeing as the laundry was clean, but I suppose I shouldn’t have left it on the floor in the first place!  I went downstairs to confront the little nugget and see what further damage she had done, and found her happily chewing on one of my sports bras.  She pranced over to me to show me her “prize” and I just didn’t have the heart to get mad at her.  She was so proud of herself!  I would love to know what goes through her mind … it cracks me up that she threw all the socks on the floor (apparently they just weren’t good enough), and why the laundry has such appeal is beyond me, but we thank God every day that Miss B makes us smile and laugh and reminds us to enjoy the simple things in life!

We also want to say congratulations to proud new parents Amanda and Nick!!  Antonia Maya made her fashionably late entrance into the world Saturday, January 17, weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz, complete with a full head of hair.  She is a cutie and we’re looking forward to meeting her!

Our own precious angel remains overwhelmed (as do her parents) at the love and support she continues to receive!  We’re so grateful to everyone who’s been so kind to us … this is certainly a challenging time, but knowing we are not alone is so comforting.  We have another ultrasound the first week of February and cannot wait to see our little girl again.  I think I’m starting to feel her move, which is absolutely amazing and words can’t describe how special it is … the little flutters are something I treasure, and know I’ll hold close to my heart forever … we “talk” every day and I love it.  I love knowing that for the time being, she is safe with me … if only I could keep her that way forever, I would.