The Hoernke Family

We welcomed Brielle Marie into the world and into our family in dramatic fashion on Thursday May 12, 2011! She was 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/4 " long.

Proud Daddy and his new little girl!

Our sweetheart :)

Ashlyn seeing her new little sister for the first time.

Our new family!

We are so Blessed...

Our Birth Story:

Well, it was quite the adventure into this world for our 2nd daughter. I woke up on Thursday morning around 3am and started having contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. This continued until 6 or 6:30 am. Damien got up and got ready and got Ashlyn ready and took her to daycare and then he went into work for a bit and my contractions had started to get closer together - about 7 minutes apart. I waited until I had 4 contractions that were 5 minutes apart, which was around 8:30 am and then called Damien and told him to come home because it was time to head to the hospital. The contractions were getting really painful at this point. He got home about 10-15 minutes later around 8:45. We were getting into the car (or I was trying!) and my water broke. At this point I was just trying to tell Damien that we needed to get to the hospital fast. In the car my contractions were immediately basically coming one right after another and I was in severe pain. I told Damien we had to go faster because we were NOT going to make it. He kept telling me we would make it to the hospital and to just breathe and not push. I tried to breathe but that wasn't doing any good and I could tell the baby was coming. We were speeding just "slightly" at this point and going through red lights and trying to get around traffic as we drove down Hastings Way through construction. I told him 3 times that we needed to pull over because this baby was not going to wait till we got to the hospital but he kept driving and saying "no we can't stop...just don't push"! The third time I told Damien to pull over however he said he could tell in my voice that I REALLY meant it this time. So he pulled over in a basically empty parking lot at the time and was yelling at what he should do. I told or maybe screamed at him probably not very nicely, to call 911. He got the 911 operator on the phone and told him our location. I remember sitting in the passenger seat of our car and seeing him run to the nearest intersection to check the street sign to see where we were for sure and at the same time hoping he was going to hurry and come back to the car because the baby was coming! By the time he got back to me in the car she was entering this world. He had to throw his phone on the dash and daddy delivered his 2nd daughter only about 10 minutes after we left our house. Damien did what he could to clear her airway and shortly after she let out a little cry and we were so very relieved!!! I then had to grab the phone and ask the 911 operator what we should do. They just told us to wrap her up and keep her as warm as we could. Some bystanders who were wondering what was going on went to get us blankets to use and we waited about 5 minutes until the ambulance arrived. Once they arrived they cut her cord and got us all into the ambulance and we headed to the hospital. Brielle checked out perfect and I was doing well also and actually felt really good. We feel so lucky Brielle was okay and we had no complications! It was definately not anything you can ever imagine happening to yourself but Daddy did great even though there were "brief" periods of freaking out! I think Mommy was in too much pain and in shock at how quickly everything was happening to freak out. I just knew everything would be fine. And of course this is from the girl who wonders why anyone would NOT get an epidural during childbirth! I guess Brielle had different intentions for me this time around :) That's okay though because she is worth every minute of it and we will have an exciting story to tell her when she gets older. We had 2 TV stations in Eau Claire come and interview us and the Leader Telegram did a nice story on her arrival as well. We will definately remember her birth forever and are in love with our newest daughter!

We came home Friday afternoon just 29 hours after Brielle was born. We are doing good and getting adjusted to life with our two little girls!

Ashlyn loves giving her baby sister hugs and kisses. We have been talking more and more about the baby lately and Ashlyn seems to be quite excited for her baby sister to arrive. She wanted her to be here right now but we've been telling her "not quite yet" so every now and then she will say "baby sister can't come out quite yet!" Although the other day she put her hands around my belly and started pulling and said to me "I can't get her out!" She is something....but is prepping to be a great big sister! :)

This was taken a week ago at about 31 weeks...

Posing for a picture with her favorite friend!

Got her coat, hat and mittens on all by herself! We only had to help with the zipper.

Still our little helper! This morning Ashlyn came walking from the laundry room to the kitchen with her hands full. I think she was trying to tell me something!!!