Baby love...

Hayden's {Almost} Two Week Doctor Appointment

Hayden's first bottle of milk (he would drink about an ounce at a time)!

This morning Hayden and I headed to College Station for another check-up. We have been going almost every other day since we left the hospital to check his weight and billirubin. At Friday's appointment, both numbers improved and today they were even better!

Weighing 6 pounds, 2 ounces when he was born nearly two weeks ago, Hayden's weight dropped to 5 pounds 6.5 ounces when we were discharged a week ago from the hospital. Today we were back up to 5 pounds 14 ounces...which was great news!

His billirubin (jaundice) level made it as high as 13.8, but today is only 9.8! Another victory! We will go back to the doctor next Wednesday (February 8) to recheck his weight and billirubin levels, but his doctor feels confident that the numbers will continue to be good!

At today's visit, it was decided that they would no longer consider him a premature baby and measure and treat him the same way a "full term" infant would be treated. This means less trips to the doctor, but also means he will be on the "lower" end of the percentage weight/height charts, but I am completely fine with that. I have no doubt that in a few months we will be able to make some great strides on those charts.

All in all, it was a great day for our little guy. It's so hard to believe it has nearly been two weeks since he made his debut! We cannot imagine our life without him!

Big Sister...Little Brother

The question everyone has: "What does Sophia think of Hayden?"

It was love at first sight. She absolutely adores him.

It truly is the sweetest thing.

Introducing Hayden West Bartels

Hayden West Bartels
Born: January 18, 2012
Time: 2:35 pm
Weight: 6 lbs. 2 ozs.
Height: 19 inches
Born five weeks ahead of my due date, Hayden made his grand entrance a little early. However, despite some minor feeding difficulties and jaundice, he is doing great! We are in love with him and feel so lucky to have him home with us. Big Sister Sophia is doing great with him! She is protective and loves to help me care for him. It is the sweetest thing :-)

The day Hayden was born...

I've always believed that God laughs when we make plans. Sometimes it simply is better to accept that things are completely in his hands and it is up to us to live our lives with those plans.

Last week I had issues with high blood pressure. I was limited at that point on what I could do for the remainder of my pregnancy. This past Sunday I was hospitalized with an infection and small kidney stones (neither are good especially when pregnant). I came home Monday and tried to take it extremely easy. The goal was to make it to 37 weeks until I made a return trip to the hospital. At that point I was nearly at 35. Since I had Sophia at 37 weeks and 2 days, I was comfortable with that plan and just planned on being pregnant another two weeks!

Well, Tuesday Kris left for a conference for the Air National Guard for a week. I felt much better and just knew I would still be pregnant when he returned. Once again those were my plans...

Wednesday I woke up feeling better than Tuesday! However, that would not last for long! Around 9:30 I had my first contraction and knew fairly quickly after that I needed to get to the hospital. Since Kris was in Tennessee, our back up plan was put into full swing. I called my mom and told her to pick me up. By the time she got to my house, I knew it was real labor. I also knew that it was real enough that they would not stop it once we got the hospital.

When we arrived (around 11), they admitted me and there we were in the same room Sophia was born. Kris immediately started working on flights home. At first they thought I may be able to hold out until he made it to College Station. Of course, someone else decided other wise. I received an epidural at 2:02 pm and he was born at 2:35. Once my labor started it happened fast.

Since he was born two weeks before full term, I was not sure what to expect. However, at the point of labor I KNEW this was completely in God's hands. I knew by 2:20 that Kris would not be there for the birth and I called him. Kris gave me a pep talk and told me his only concern was me and the baby. We hung up the phone and the next call I made to him was a little over 20 minutes later right as he boarded his flight home to let him know our son was here!

By 7:30 that evening, Kris was able to meet his son for the first time, Sophia was able to meet her brother and we were one happy family.