The Hospital Days and Recent Happenings

Just a few more photos (of course) to share of our stay in the hospital.. I still need to read through the birth story again before I post it, but it is coming. It is LONG, but for those interested--mostly recently pregnant Mommies I'd assume, it spares no detail :)

Yesterday Toomas' Mom returned to Estonia and she called last night saying that she arrived safe and sound. We are so thankful that she was able to come and help us out! Babysitting Kaitlyn is no easy task and she did a great job with her :) Toomas drove over 500 km yesterday to the airport. His termed "vacation" from work isn't quite that accurate. He's been so wonderful helping out with the cooking and older child care...I'm certainly one lucky wife and Mom!

In the afternoon yesterday we had a photoshoot at a photographer that I LOVE.. She was the one who shot Kaitlyn as a newborn for her birth annoucnements. Her portraits are works of art! Thankfully Evan did a WONDERFUL job and didn't fuss or cry at all during the 1.5 hour shoot! We got some great shots of the older kids with him, and EVEN got a shot of Kaitlyn holding baby Evan for the first time. Everybody did so well. I can't wait to see the portraits. Capturing those newborn days (Evan was 9 days old) is so important to me. They change SO quickly and the pictures are just so powerful...They take you right back in time.. to the smells, memories and emotions of that time.

Okay, so now for some more photos of our hospital stay (which was great)...I got my SINGLE room that I dreamed of and it was HUGE. I had a bathroom and bathing/changing facilities for Evan right in the room which is a real luxury. I'm also posting a photo of Evan seeing the pediatrician for the first time. The exam is usually done in the 24 hours following the birth and his exam was 21 hours after his birth. And last but not least a few photo "firsts": a photo of Toomas' Mom meeting Evan for the first time and one of Erik holding his baby BROTHER for the first time!!!! All so very exciting :)

Tomorrow I go back in to the hospital to have Evan's 10 day old exam in the nursery. Evan will be weighed and checked for jaundice levels. He's been eating well, but STILL doesn't open his little mouth as wide as I'd like. Hopefully we'll be on target for weight gain tomorrow. He lost 10 percent of his weight on the 4th day, so he was down to 3,515 grams. When we left the hospital he was back up to 3,600 grams. Hopefully we'll be a few hundred grams up by tomorrow.

I'll be back again with my long birth story and also an update from our visit to the hospital tomorrow.