Kaylyn Week 2

Well week 2 started off with a family dinner at Hong Kong Garden on Saturday evening to celebrate Tyler's graduation from WWU and for being grad student of the year for the history department! Kaylyn slept the whole time so it was nice to just relax and enjoy good company and super good food:) Saturday morning was finally the last time a nurse had to come to the house to prick Kaylyn and they finally took the bili bed with them too! Thank goodness!!! We were ready to throw that thing in the trash. lol (not really though) It was just getting harder and harder to watch her go through that every day. The first couple times honestly didn't bother me so much. In my head I was like okay this has to be done so I didn't even think about it. But after a couple days and seeing her heals bruised up so bad and how much blood would get everywhere really started to build up some emotion. Probably the lack of sleep and the stress of knowing that she had to be on the bed so long didn't help anything either:) At least I could hold it together just fine when the nurse was there. I was definitely glad that Jeremy was home the first couple days. Even though he would make himself scarce when the nurse would come, he would come in room the minute she was gone and comfort us both:) He is so wonderful!

Sunday was a wonderful day. We were blessed to have our little girl baptized. It was neat that Jeremy's dad was playing organ that day so he was right up there with us. (well almost:)) Kaylyn was also wearing the same baptism gown that I was baptized in so that was really special for me. After baptism we all went to my parents house for buns and lots of other yummy food.  On Monday my friend Angela from the salon came and took Kaylyn's newborn pictures. Kaylyn was pretty much crying the whole time which was a bummer.  Especially since I fed her three times during those three hours Angela was here. lol at least you can't tell from the pictures! On Thursday Kaylyn had another doctors appointment and she gained a little bit more and is now 7lbs 9 oz! She has been gaining about a half ounce everyday so the doctor said that is exactly what she should be doing. Yay good baby:) I was really bummed though that I had to take her to the lab to get her heal pricked again:( I thought we were finally over that. She cried for the longest time too. Normally I would hear the needle go and she would give a little cry and then be done but this time she got so upset. Poor little thing! It is so hard to just sit there holding her and seeing her so peaceful and knowing that she has no idea what is about to happen. I know it has to be done but each time it is harder and harder to watch. She also only has a poopy diaper about every five days. So I know that isn't helping her jaundice much either. Sorry if that is a little TMI ha ha but that is my life right now:) Apparently that can be normal for breastfed babies so I am not getting too worried about it yet. Well that is all for now!  

 Here are a few pics of our darling little lady that my friend took. She has her own photography business that she is starting called Angela Joy Photography. Angela also took my maternity shots. She is so talented and I can't wait for her to take Kaylyn's 3 month photos!

Kaylyn Week 1

Well Kaylyn's first week of life was definitely a busy one:) She was born on a Thursday and we got to go home from the hospital on Saturday around 5 in the afternoon. Right away on Sunday morning we had a nurse come to the house to check her jaundice levels which meant them pricking her heal to draw blood:( In the hospital they did it in the nursery so I never saw it done. Jeremy held her when they did it on Sunday but they came everyday to check her levels until Saturday. On Monday Jeremy went outside to work on the yard cause he couldn't handle watching them poke her. Her poor little heels were getting so beat up. The first couple days didn't bother me when they did it but by the end of the week I just wanted to cry right along with her! 

Starting on Sunday she also had to be on the Bili bed. Which is like a mini tanning bed that fits right inside her bassinet. She had to be on the bed at least 12 hours a day! It was so hard getting her to stay there though. In the hospital she loved to be swaddled up nice and tight and she would stay nice and warm. But the Bili bed had this somewhat of a sleep sack that had Velcro on the corners to stick to the bed. It had little sleeves and a zipper with snap on the top to kind of look like a sleep sack but it was pretty much a glorified blanket with sleeves. So she had tons of room to be able to kick around and such. She stayed on it pretty good during the day but at night it was a major struggle. She always felt freezing cold and her feet where always purple. Poor little thing! We couldn't handle seeing her so upset so finally Jeremy just put her in her swaddle blanket on top of the lights. Hey it was better than nothing! At least she did have some progress when they told us her test results everyday. They weren't exactly where we wanted them to be but it was better than nothing. I was so afraid to tell the nurse the next morning that we had swaddled her at night. It was like not telling your elementary school teacher that you hadn't finished all your homework. lol But the nurses were really understanding and they said you gotta do what you gotta do so I was pretty relieved:) Kaylyn also lost a bunch of weight too. She was 7lbs 14oz when she was born and she dropped down to 7lbs pretty quick.

Kaylyn in her bed:) Can you see the blue lights peaking out from the sides? 

 Besides dealing with her jaundice, Kaylyn wasn't getting a whole lot to eat either:( I didn't really have a whole lot of colostrum and it took longer for my milk to come in as well. So we were on a strict feeding schedule as well. I had to try to feed her for at least 10-15 min (it usually took quite a bit longer than that cause she kept falling asleep) on each side then I would give her to Jeremy and he would finger feed her 15ml of formula in a syringe and a tiny little tube that was taped to his finger. Come to think of it I never took a picture of it. Bummer:) So the tube feed would take about 10-15 minutes as well. And while Jeremy was feeding her the formula I would have to pump for 10-15 minutes as well. I never got anything from pumping it was just to trick my body into producing more. Needless to say feeding took about 45 minutes each time and we had to feed her every 2-3 hours. 

On Tuesday afternoon I had to take Kaylyn to the doctor's for another checkup. This time she weighed 7lbs 2oz. 

Also on her one week birthday we went to Jeremy's sister Marina's 8th grade graduation from Cornerstone. It was pretty cute because Jeremy's dad mentioned Kaylyn in his principles speech and they had a blurb about Marina being super excited about being an Auntie before she went on stage:) After graduation we went to Jeremy's parent's house to celebrate some more. It might have been a little bit too much for Kaylyn cause she was super upset that night, but how do you not let all her Aunts and Uncles hold her:)

So it was pretty stressful the first week to have to feed her for that long and still try to get her to be on the bed for twelve hours each day. So much for lots of newborn cuddles! It was really hard when we would have lots of visitors too cause who comes for a visit and not get to hold the baby? But at the end of each day when I would lay in bed and pray, a sad or negative thought never crossed my mind. I was so incredibly thankful that God had blessed us with this beautiful baby girl. We had struggled for years with not being able to conceive a child but we knew it was all in God's perfect timing. Even though the days were a bit stressful I was so thankful that those were the only problems we were having. I knew that everyday there was more and more progress and in a week all of this will be a blur. 

Jeremy on Sunday after church