Social Butterfly

Mr. Rhylan has already had quite the active social calendar. In his (not quite) 3 weeks of life, he has had many, many visitors, been to 3 parties, 2 baseball games, gone to playgroup, been to the mall, lots of visits (and snuggles) at Daddy's work, and the list just goes on. He has also met a couple of future playmates this week-

First, Tina's new little guy, Evan, who was born on Tuesday:

(Rhylan is on the left-Evan on the right)

Then yesterday he spent some time with Mary's little angel, Allison- who is getting SO big already!(Notice the coordinating outfits- Thanks Mary!!)

First Bath

Rhylan's umbilical cord fell out in the middle of the night on Thursday, so we were able to give him his first "real" bath on Friday. He loved it... until we took him out! Big Brother, Brayden, was a big help and really enjoyed bathing his baby brother. We thought we would share some of the pictures:

Pictures of Our Family

A big, big "thank you" to Donita for coming over and sharing her talents for our family!! We were able to get several pictures that will be treasured for years to come.

Granted, I am probably a bit biased, but I think that these turned out beautifully. I thought I would share a small sample of the shots that she was able to capture for us:

Seeing Double?

Several people have asked if Rhylan looks anything like Brayden did as a baby. I will let you be the judge:

Rhylan 1 day old

Brayden 1 day old

Rhylan 8 days old

Brayden 8 days old

I also keep meaning to post that there are web pictures up from when we were leaving the hospital: http://www.carle.com/Hospital/centprog/Maternity/WebBabies/index.asp?id=12297

How "Sweet" it Is....

Not that I am worried about my figure at this point in time, heck, I am just happy to eat again! But, I am starting to think that friends are wanting me to put some pounds on... and fast! Or they just want to pad my dentist's checking account!

Not only have we started receiving wonderfully delicious meals from member's of Mother's and More, but we have had people drop by with tons of wonderful baked goods. I am not usually a sweets person, but I can't help myself with some of these! Our neighbor, Mona, makes cakes as a hobby. Not just any cakes, but the most wonderful cakes I have ever tasted. She stopped by the other day with this beautiful creation-

She is so talented! It isn't just beautiful, it tastes like heaven. (We have shared this with friends because we haven't wanted it to go to waste, and I am sure that they can back me up on that statement!!)

Then we got a delivery that same day:

It is so cute, I feel guilty to eat any of it!!

On top of these, another neighbor of ours has brought over huge plates full of cookie bars twice in the past week. I am definitely going to need to get to the dentist ASAP with all of these sweets in the house!! YUMMY!

All is going well with being a new family of 4. We are tired, of course, but not completely drained. Rhylan is a really good baby. He is doing well- we have been at the doctor or the lab at the hospital everyday this week because of him being jaundice. We knew when we were discharged from the hospital that he had elevated bilirubin levels, but were told to have our pediatrician follow up. The levels climbed a bit when we went to the doctor on Tuesday, and they ordered bilirubin lights (kind of like a baby tanning bed to break up the cells) to be delivered to us at home to keep him under, rather than readmitting him to the hospital. There was some big ordeal with the home health company not getting it to us, so we had to go to the hospital lab twice on the 4th of July to have his levels checked. They were still elevated, but stable. Then we went to the doctor again on Thursday and they were still stable, so at that point they cancelled the order for the lights (which still hadn't made it to us anyway) in hopes that it would start to go down. As of this morning, it had dropped way, way down, and he no longer has to have his little heels stuck to draw blood to check his levels. Yay! It was no big deal even if he had to go under the lights, as jaundice is really common in newborns- especially preemies, but we are happy that we were able to avoid it and that our little guy was strong enough to overcome this on his own!

I hope to get more pictures posted soon, and to update our online photo album as time permits.

Perfect

Brayden summed it up beautifully yesterday. While holding his new little brother he said: "Mommy, baby Rhylan is perfect for our family". I think the words out of our almost 4 year old were more insightful than those of even the most articulate person- so well said, and so true!

We are still at the hospital, but plan on going home today. We are both doing better than anyone could have expected. The doctor covering for my doctor actually had said that I could go home yesterday if I wanted to- she couldn't believe how well I am doing post c-section, she said my recovery has been "unbelievable"! We chose to stay just to get one more night of rest and to be on the safe side. We are anxious to come home today though.

Rhylan is doing extremely well also. His weight has dropped a little bit, but well within the realms of normal loss for newborns, and he has been wetting/dirtying more than enough diapers in a day, so they are really happy with how he is doing. After I posted the other night about having some issues with nursing, he decided that he loves nursing! He has started latching right on and feeding beautifully. The lactation consultant was just thrilled/surprised with the sudden turn around with how many weeks early he is! He has been sleeping for 3 hour stretches at night, only waking up for a quick feeding and going right back to sleep. So Jason and I actually feel rested (for the moment anyway!).

In a nutshell, things couldn't be better!!