Kayleigh and Thor

I know that I promised this a long time ago, but I finally have a picture of the new cousins, Kayleigh and Thor. No, Kayleigh doesn't look good in this picture, but remember that she was pulled from eating and forced to take this picture. Thor looks good, though, and he's the one that most people want to see, anyway.

Nick and Robyn are coming over tonight and will stay through Sunday morning. This will be their first chance to meet Kayleigh. I don't know about them, but she's excited!!

Hanging out

Kayleigh and I have had fun these past few days hanging out with aunt Valerie. Valerie came over to Tallahassee to babysit us for a couple of days while Erik went out of town for work. Valerie and I spent our afternoons playing cards. Valerie was a bad guest and didn't let me win very much. Or, I guess you could say that I was a great host!!

Kayleigh seems to be sleeping better at night as well. For the past couple of nights, she has woken up at her usual times, but now she's better at just eating and going back to sleep, rather than eating and hanging out for an hour or two! It's making the nights better and shorter. Or longer?? Either way, I feel like I'm sleeping more!

Welcome, Thor!!

This morning at 6:55, Thor Evan Eikeland joined our family. He is the son of Curry and Amanda, Erik's nephew and wife. Thor weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. Sound familiar? Those were Kayleigh's measurements, although she was technically 19.9 inches, but what's 1/10 of an inch?!? Aunt Lisa thinks that he looks just like his dad. I can't normally tell who the baby looks like (if anyone other than his/herself), but that was the first thought that came into my head.
Amanda had to have a c-section this morning. Her body just didn't want to dilate all the way. She and I have the same "girly doctor", and the doctor asked when we Eikelands were going to learn the right way to have a baby! Amanda seems to be doing well, but is stiff today. Jim, Shirley, Erik and I stopped in for just a few minutes this afternoon--long enough for us to meet them, and for the cousins to have their first meet and greet! I did get a couple of pictures, and I'll post them soon. Unfortunately, Kayleigh's feeding time was interrupted when we took the pictures, so they're not super. Maybe we'll go back this weekend and try again!

Weighing in...

I'm am just too proud of myself! I was finally brave enough to go on the scale this morning, and I am happy to report that I am already back down to my pre-pregnancy weight!!! I only gained 26 pounds, and lost 16 of them in the first week. Of course, 8 of them were Kayleigh, but even when I was weighed the first time at the doctor's office, I was still carrying water weight from all of the swelling I did after my surgery! WOOHOO!!
Erik and I are having a full week this week. Sunday was Erik's first Father's Day. It wasn't too exciting, but nice and relaxing, and hopefully how he wanted it to be. Monday was Erik's birthday. Our friends, Erick and Amy, had us over for dinner for steaks and homemade onion rings. Delish! Amy also made a yummy cake for Erik, but I dropped the ball and forgot to bring over the ice cream. Oh well. I wasn't given too hard of a time for it. Today is our anniversary, and we have someone bringing over dinner. I'm not sure what it'll be, but I don't have any complaints about the food that we've received so far, so I'm sure this will be up to par. Erik might ask his parents if they'll watch Kayleigh tomorrow night so that we can go out to dinner for a day late anniversary. No one is bringing us food, so it'll be a good time to go. I don't think his parents will mind watching her, either.

Happy Father's Day!!!

It's a bird, it's a plane...

No, it's Kayleigh!!! Does anyone else think that she looks like a superhero in the making?!?!

We did it!!!

Yesterday was the first day that Kayleigh and I had to spend all alone! The day went

by quickly, and with only one trip to the doctor's office. We really did go to my doctor. This is a little gross, but I've had some drainage from the incision site, and I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything bad. Erik came home from work at lunch to take me in. The doctor said that everything was fine and that I would live. Whew!

After Erik went back to work, I had a nice visit with Curry and Amanda (his nephew and wife). She is due on the 20th, and thought that yesterday could have been the big day. Unfortunately, it wasn't, but I got some human contact out of it, so no complaints from my end!! :) Amanda has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and just one week until her due date.

Erik and I had our first catered meal yesterday. It was delish! I'm trying to figure out how to tactfully ask people to also bring in breakfast and lunch food, too. Feel free to offer up ideas!

Kayleigh is whining, so I think it's time to eat.

All alone

Wow. It is very quiet at the house now. All of our guests are on their way home. Mom has been up in Tallahassee since "Labor Day". Dad, Valerie and Matthew all came up on Friday evening. It's going to be an interesting week trying to figure out how to do everything on our own. Luckily, couples from our Sunday School class are going to start bringing meals on Monday. I can't imagine having to be up and cooking right now! One of the teachers brought over some pizza on Friday night. He said that he would bring over whatever I wanted, and that sounded good! I do appreciate a good homecooked meal, but sometimes grease sounds even better! We'll have dinners coming for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be ready to start cooking again after the meals stop coming!

Bath time!

Kayleigh got her first bath tonight. She did surprisingly well. She was pretty calm for the first couple of minutes, but then perked up for the rest of her bath. She was fine once we got her dried off and wrapped in her towel. She is just too cute!! Kayleigh got her revenge by pooping in the little tub at some point during the bath. She seems to like to wait until her diaper is off to do her business. Ick! She's already sleeping again, and mom has her outside to get some fresh air.

Good news!

After long days under UV lights and wrapped in a UV blanket, Erik and I took Kayleigh to the doctor's office to have her bilirubin levels checked. The hardest part was watching the nurse stick her with a needle to draw blood. Of course, Kayleigh was great and only wimpered a little bit. When the results came in, her level was down to 8.4. The doctor was pleased, and that means no more blankets and no more drawing blood to check her!!! We are very excited to have that behind us. We still need to keep her near the sunlight just to get the rest of the yellow out of her skin.

Erik went to work today around 1. He's going to work a couple of half days, and then try to go in for a full day by the end of the week. Mom is still here, and she's been a lot of help. She's been cooking and doing cleaning. This morning I had her picking things up off of the floor. It's my day to drop things is seems! She was so excited to be able to hold Kayleigh without the blanket on her. All of us (including the bird and dogs) took a nap for about an hour and a half this afternoon. It's been a nice, quiet day here!

WE'RE HOME!!!

Whew! It has been a looooooooooong few days, but in a way, I felt like I was on vacation. It's hard to think about things going on in the outside world when you're stuck in the hospital not feeling like doing much.

Wednesday was a good day, filled with lots of emotions, and highs from having just given birth. We had the most visitors that day.

Thursday was when things began to slow down. We still had some visitors, and we did our best to take pictures of Kayleigh with each of her new friends.

Thursday night/early Friday morning, Kayleigh was given a test for jaundice, and we were told that she did have it. I know that it's not that big of a deal, but at this point, I had really started bonding with my new daughter (!) and could hardly bear the thought of only being able to look at her during the day and not being able to hold her. I was told that I had to stop breast feeding (TMI for some, I know!), and she had to go on formula. Erik was great at giving her the bottle. I couldn't quite sit up straight enough to effectively feed it to her. Friday was my worst day with pain and not feeling like doing much. Luckily, Kayleigh was able to sleep in the room with us, even though she had to be under a UV light.

By Saturday morning, her bilirubin (SP!?!?!?) levels hadn't gone down much. The bili...is what causes a person to become jaundice, and is what they need to get rid of. Because of the levels still being a little high, I thought for sure that we would stay in the hospital. I had really gotten used to being waited on hand and foot, and I loved all of the free stuff I was getting there. (mainly the humble servants!!!) When the pediatrician FINALLY came at 1ish, he said that they would order a UV light that we could take home so that we didn't have to stay. I tried to tell him that I, unlike some, was quite enjoying my hospital stay, and wouldn't mind another night there. Erik saw it from a different view. He was ready to come home. We got here at 6:05. The dogs are being really good, although I think that they're feeling a little deprived of attention. Shirley made a wonderful dinner for us, including both salad and dessert! Everyone is kind of getting their bearings again and settling in for the night.