Studio Portraits

Yesterday, Mikayla had her first studio portraits taken at JC Penny. She seems to be a natural in front of the camera. See pictures below.

Update and New Photos: Day 3 through 6

Well, we brought Mikayla home on Friday. The first night was a little difficult as we found that she positively will not sleep on her back. Justin got around 2 hours of sleep on that night, while I got about 45 minutes. Thankfully, Grandma Long (Janet) came over in the early morning to watch her while we caught up on a few more hours. The second night at home we found that she slept slightly better on her side but not for long. Finally, at 4 am we discovered that she slept for long stretches if we strapped her into her infant car seat. The third night, using this discovery, we were able to get around 8 hours of sleep, with feedings about every 2 hours. This felt amazing compared to the first night! When not trying to sleep at night, we took quite a few pictures. Check out the slide show below of the some of the best!

Mikayla's Second Day

We have some new photos from day 2. She is starting to look like an entirely different baby as her head has begun to assume a more normal shape and swelling from delivery has gone down. So, enjoy the slideshow below!

Mikayla is Here!

Well, after 10 hours of induced labor and a short 30 minutes of pushing, Mikayla finally arrived at 5:41 pm on 5-20-09, weighing in at 6 lb 1 oz and at 18 in long. She also had a thick head of brown hair. During the labor, she developed heart rate decelerations during strong contractions. It was later discovered during delivery that her cord was wrapped around her neck, likely resulting in these decelerations. Shortly after delivery, she developed some respiratory retractions and grunting. The NICU team monitored her but these symptoms spontaeously regressed after 20 minutes or so. They attributed this to a slow transition from placental oxygenation to natural respiration and also excess fluid in the lungs as a result of the short delivery compression. At the time of writing, she is laying next to Mommy as content as can be, looking very cute! A slideshow is included below. More updates and pictures in the coming days!

Induction Tomorrow!

Well, it's official. We will be getting an early start to the hospital tomorrow for induction! As long as all goes well, Justin and I will be parents tomorrow! We're as ready as we're going to be and can't wait to see our little Mikayla. We will be taking the laptop to the hospital. I'll have Justin post an announcement and pictures for all to see. Keep us in your prayers!

Update Nursery Pictures

Here's a few pictures of the nursery. All the decorating is done! Thanks to all the grandparents for the help. All that is left is getting the changing table that my dad is building. He's putting a rush on it to try to get it done before Mikayla gets here. We'll see who wins!

Over Due Update!

Well, it's been a while since our last update and a lot has happened. We've had four baby showers, stitches in Justin's finger, three or four doctor appointments, put on bedrest, and scheduled to be induced! The showers were all wonderful! Thanks to everyone who was able to come and for the numerous gifts! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family surrounding us! If you haven't heard, we've been watching my blood pressure throughout the pregnancy. It has slowly crept up to become mild preeclampsia. I was put on bedrest this past Thursday. It seems that as long as I stay calm and lying down my pressures are good. It's driving me crazy to lay here and have everyone doing for me! A huge thanks to all our parents and grandparents for your help with yard work, Mikayla's laundry, nursery decorating, organizing, cleaning shopping, errands, and food! What would we ever do without you! Now were just monitoring Mikayla's growth and my blood pressures closely. We're planning on inducing on May 20th if she's not here by then. Keep us in your prayers and we'll keep you updated. We have nursery pictures on the camera, but I'll have to wait for Justin to get the pictures transferred so I can work with them from the laptop.