Monday, January 28, 2008

Doctor, doctor

The past week and a half have been busy days. We are all doing pretty good. I have been sick with a cold and felt pretty bad today, and then this afternoon Finley started getting congested, and right now is having troubles breathing through her little nose. I think she picked up the cold from me. We will see how the night goes, and if she's not any better in the morning I will be taking her to the doctor. She also has her 2 month check up on Wednesday morning. Mike weighed her yesterday, and she was at 8 pounds 1 ounce. She is getting some pretty good rolls now on her little thighs, and some chubby cheeks to go along with that. It's hard not to squeeze her she's so cute! Bryson is still loving his little sister and asks to hold her a lot! I guess this is a good thing :)

I went to my nephrologist (kidney specialist) on Friday last week for my first check up since having Finley. They had me do some lab work beforehand and said everything was starting to head back in the right direction. I will have another check up in about 4 months to see how things have progressed further. They had also told me that things were a lot worse when I was in the hospital than the week before when I had been in their office. My protein level in the urine is normally higher than others because of my kidney disease, usally around 2-something. During pregnancy the number kept climbing higher and higher. When I was in their office the week before we delivered they told us that it was at like a 5.7 ratio, and apparently when I was in the hospital it had gotten up to a 6.9. She said that was horrible, and that we delivered at the right time, which was good to hear. It made me feel a little better being reassured that the timing had been right, and not jumping the gun a little earlier than we should have. Right now my numbers are getting back towards normal, for me, around 2.7.

I caught a good picture of Daddy and Finley napping a few weekends ago,

This is the picture that Mike took last night of me and Finley holding hands as we fell asleep :)

Friday, January 18, 2008

Due Date

Yesterday was my due date, Jan. 17th. WOW. It feels like it's taken forever for us to get here. Will blog more later this weekend. Hope you all have a good one!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

6 weeks old!

Today Finley is 6 weeks old. Can you believe it?! WOW! We have been sort of getting into a routine around here, but it seems like there is just not enough time in the day anymore to get to a lot of what we need to. It is frustrating to say the least, but so worth it. Finley has been opening her eyes more and more, and has been gazing into our eyes the past few days, and it is so heart warming. We just love it! I feel like she is really listening to what we're telling her. I took her to the doctor a few weeks ago because she has been spitting up and was so fussy at night. They diagnosed her then with having reflux. Yuck! I know a little bit about that myself! They put her on Zantac, and she has been taking that for 2 weeks. It really hasn't improved much, and has actually seemed to have gotten worse. She throws up some at each meal and is very uncomfortable. I took her in again this morning because she was sounding congested in her nose and chest from liquid coming out both her mouth and nose, and they said that her lungs sound clear, which is good. It means she has not aspirated anything so far. Her nose was also clear, which is good because it means that there isn't a sinus infection right now, which can happen with fluids passing through the nose often. They changed her over to Prilosec, so hopefully this works for us. They said if it doesn't the next step would be an upper GI, and we sure don't want to have to put her through that. We're hopeful everything should be just fine with the new medicine though, and they said we should see a difference within the first few days. While we were there they weighed her and she was close to 7 pounds, although I can't remember the exact number because at the time I was trying to keep Bryson from running off in the doctor's office as the nurse had Finley. She is getting big to us, but when we're out we still have people commenting "look at that tiny baby!"

After our appointment 2 weeks ago I headed to Babies R Us to get a wedge thingy for babies to sleep on to keep their head elevated to see if that would also help, and while I was there some girl came up to me and asked if I'd like a free 8x10 picture of the kids if I wanted to come take a picture with them right then. I actually had Bryson in a cute sweater that day, and Finley was looking pretty cute too, had been fed recently and was nice and content, so I agreed. The pictures turned out so cute!! Here is our favorite pose :)

I did get a picture of Finley smiling at me yesterday, but I was trying to take it so fast that they came out blurry for some reason. I'm posting them anyways (in the order they happened), because it's the first documented smile! Enjoy :)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Longest Night of Our Lives & Sweet Smiles

Friday night was the longest night of our lives yet! When Daddy got home from work on Friday Bryson was still asleep from his nap at 5:30. That was a nearly 4 hour nap for him. We should have known something was up at that point. I was asleep myself because I had been on the computer trying to work when I could barely keep my eyes open. Finley had been fed and was asleep herself, so I decided I should lay down for a bit while I had the chance. So, after Mike got home from work we woke Bryson up and he didn't quite seem himself. Around 6:00 he threw up for the first time. After that he threw up every 30 minutes until about 4 in the morning. He was miserable! At some point through the night we got him to start leaning over the "throw up bucket" we have in our house, which made things a little easier. Before that point though we were never sure where it was going to go. Our sheets and the back up set probably went through the wash throughout the night a few times each. Mike and I both had to take a shower at some point also to get cleaned off from throw up. We finally got some sleep from about 5:30 to 8:30 Sat. morning. We were so worried that things might pass to Finley, and we were being extremely careful, scrubbing our hands and arms for 2 minutes and using hand sanitizer like we had to do at the NICU. Yesterday Bryson was so lethargic and weak, and laid around for most of the day. We couldn't get much of any food or drink in him yesterday at all. This morning wasn't much different, but he wanted to eat a bit of lunch, and then took a good nap again today, and when he woke up he was a different person. He was in such a good mood this evening, and finally ate a good amount of food. We've sprayed everything down with Lysol and washed everything too. It is so nice to have him back, and hopefully we've made it through the chance of passing it on to anyone else in the house, especially Finley. We can't wait to start a fresh week!

We did have a pleasant surprise yesterday though! I was playing with Finley a bit yesterday and we were having a nice little conversation. She tried smiling at me, and I could tell that it wasn't gas, but I didn't want to get too excited until she did it again. This evening I was sitting with her and trying to get her to smile back at me, and she gave me the biggest smile. She's even got a little dimple on the side of her mouth. It's adorable. Mike was at the sink in the kitchen at the time, and he got to see it from a distance too. We tried to get her to do it again and had the camera ready, but of course it didn't happen. We'll be working on getting a picture of that soon! We can't wait for more of these little smiles. They just melt your heart!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

5 weeks old!

Finley is 5 weeks old today, already! Can you believe it?! She is growing up way too fast, as they all do, but it still feels very much like she was just born. Today we were on our way home from a friend's house when Finley started crying hard because she was so hungry. I asked Bryson if he could hold her hand and tell her it was okay. He did just that, and had a smile on his face. I think he's liking his role as big brother more each day. He held her on the couch today again and rubbed her feet and kissed her head with a big grin. I didn't have the chance to grab the camera on either occasion, so no picture today. There will be many more ahead though :)

Monday, January 7, 2008

Long time, no blog!

We have been getting behind here in blog land. We really want to keep this thing up, and plan to. We may start to make it more of a family blog now though as there's more to say about all of our daily activities around here. Finley is eating, sleeping and pooping, and growing more and more every day. We are starting to get her out a bit, and it has been nice not to feel like we are stuck in the house so much anymore. We have been asked a few times while out if she was a doll because she's so little! She is going to be 5 weeks old this Wednesday, and is right around 6 pounds right now. She and Bryson are still getting along really well. He has been enjoying talking to her, waving to her, and showing her all of "Bryson's toys". I think he really wants to make sure she knows those trucks all belong to him! He starts back to preschool tomorrow after a long 2 week winter break. Mom is excited about this as it will allow me to get more work done during the time that he's there, and to keep the household organized with a few free hours two days a week. Maybe I can grab in a few moments to myself here and there too ;) So, we'll try to stay on top of blogging here from now on. We wish you all a Happy New Year!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Finley's weird brother


Looks like Bryson likes his green bell peppers just as much as his dad! After trying a small piece from the homemade pizza, he wanted the whole thing. No, he didn't finish it. :)