Grandma Audrey and Kayla Louise

Grandma Audrey wih baby Kayla!

So sweet! Kayla is the first girl in a long time on the Peterson side of the family. Erik has only brothers and before Kayla was born there were only grandson's. I am thinking she will be a little spoiled!

Helping Dad!

Alex loves helping Daddy do yard work!

I guess it is time to take a water break!

"Do you have a problem?"

Alex and Kayla

My cousin Whitney took this picture with her camera phone while she was out here visiting. Alex looks huge next to Kayla! The shadows are hitting her just right so she looks like a little dark skinned baby. So pretty. . . and how handsome our little Alex is. We could not have done better ourselves with either children. They are both amazing! We are soooo blessed!

The Kids!

Alex loves holding his sister. He likes to lightly touch her cheeks and eyes!

All these preemie clothes are too big for her!

Alex and Dad hanging out. They actually were just playing in Dad's car. Playing in the car is one of Alex's favorite things to do.




Now Alex is playing in moms car.

SO CUTE!!!

Everyone keeps saying that Kayla doesn't look that small, so I decided to show how small she is. This is her next to my shoe, I know I have big feet but she is still tiny. Today we had her first appointment with her pediatrician. She weighs 5lbs 3 oz now. The nurse said she didn't need to see her again for 2 months because she is doing so good, and she is not worried about her at all. She has her monitor but it has not gone off once since we brought it home. She loves to eat and sleep so I don't think we have anything to worry about. I consistantly say prayers after each feeding that she will be okay and continue to progress and I know my prayers are being answered and they are helping. Anyway, the cute bow in Kaylas hair is from cousin Deb, Aunt Janell, and family. They sent us a package today full of fun things. They even sent some things for Alex. Thanks a lot guys!!!! I got the cute little boots at target. We have to keep Kayla warm so I thought cute little mukluks were a great way to do it!

Finally!

Alex's first time meeting Kayla!




These pictures are a little bit better than the ones we took in the hospital. I think she is so pretty. She is finally home in her own bed. We will have her sleep with us until we give the monitor back. She will be on the monitor until they think she is fine. So we have the pack and play set up in the bassinet position and I will not be getting sleep for a few days. I am looking forward to every minute of it! We have waited so long for a baby and we feel so blessed to have her home. I was at the hospital all day today training in CPR and learning what to do if the monitor alarms. Pretty simple and i am really glad I have it. It will go off anytime she quits breathing for more than 20 seconds so it will wake us up in the middle of the night. I am at ease knowing we have it. I am trying to upload some video of Alex and Kayla meeting. It is so cute! I cant figure out how to do it so I will do it later. I am so glad she is home!

1 more day!?!?!?

Today I went to the hospital for Kayla's car seat evaluation. When a baby is premature they have to do a lot of different things for their safety. She passed with flying colors. I was hoping I would be taking her home today but it didn't happen. She has had episodes with apnea, which is when they don't breath for a period of time. The doctors like to wait 5 to 7 days after their last episode before they send the baby home. Her last one was the 15th so that would make it wed or later before we can bring her home. Well I got a call after I came home and they decided because she is doing so well that they will send her home tomorrow with a monitor. So she will have the monitor for a month or 2 which makes me feel better because I will know if she stops breathing. SO I will be at the hospital all day tomorrow. I have to be there at 9 and the course is 3 hours long. Then I will hang out until I am totally comfortable with the monitor and then we will bring her home. Yay!!! I can't wait to get her home. We have waited so long and not having her here makes it hard. I am excited for Alex to meet his new little sister. It will be interesting to see how he is with her.

Kayla

These are the most recent pictures taken of Kayla. Some nurses are cool and let me hold her as long as I want. Some of them make me put her back before I am ready to. I wasn't done holding her on this day and I asked if I could snap a couple of shots before I left. The one below is of her yawning! I love her so much already! She is such a little miracle! I can't wait to get her home so I can hold her however long I want, without anyone telling me I have to put her down!

Erik and I just got back from the hospital! Kayla is doing soooo good. They took the IV out today and they are going to see how she does out of the incubator. I am soooo excited that she doing so good. Tonight I got to help give her a bath. She is so sweet! She didn't like being naked. It is cool how they give a preemie a bath. We undressed her and then wrapped her in a receiving blanket. Then we put her in the water with the blanket still around her. The nurse said it is less of a shock to do it that way. So we washed her little tiny body and then we dried her off and wrapped her all up again so she would be warm. Then we washed her hair while she was all dry and wrapped up. She loved having her hair washed. Afterwards I brushed it and she just looked around not saying a word. We know she loved it because giving her the bath was putting her behind on eating and this girl loves to eat. The nurse said they give the babies about a 1/2 hour to eat and they have a hard time getting some of them to do it. I told Erik to watch the clock, (this was his first time with the feeding) so we watched it and she had her milk down in less than 5 min. We are hoping she continues to do well so we can get her home. The soonest is Monday and at this rate it is highly probable.

Day 1: 4lb 9oz

Day 2: 4lb 11oz

Day 3: 4lb 7oz

Day 4: 4lb 9oz

Day 5: 4lb 10oz

She is doing good with weight. She went up and then down, and now she is consistantly going up which is really good.

A small update on Kayla!

Sorry no pictures today! I just wanted to give an update on how Kayla is doing. When I went to see her yesterday morning the nurses said she had gained 2 oz. She also is eating really good. She wants more than they will give her right now. Last night I was able to feed her for my first time. Oh, she is sooooo sweet! I did not want to leave her! If she continues to progress like she is then we will be able to bring her home sooner than later. Yesterday I was super stressed about babysitters for Alex so I had a bright idea. I would pay for my cousin Whitney to come out and help. She has come out the last 2 summers and I knew she would want to come again. Well I had a voucher from Christmas that will probably expire before I get to use it so I decided to try and use it for Whitney. It worked! It only cost me $25 to get her here. She is flying in today at noon and will be here for 10 days. No more stressing about my toddler and what to do with him while I am at the hosptial with baby Kayla. I do feel blessed though because I had several friends and church members willing to help us out. I was getting e-mails and phone calls from people wanting to help with Alex and bring us meals to lighten our load a little. I really do appreciate all of them for there willingness to help us. It will be nice to have Whitney here so Alex can keep his schedule and things can stay normal for him. I want to make this new little addition in our lives as easy on Alex as possible. He is such a sweetheart too and will make a great big brother. I can not wait until he can meet her. We are waiting until they take the IV out so that he wont tug on anything he shouldn't. I am going back to the hospital this morning and then I am picking Whitney up! Yeah!!!

Our New Addition!

What a wonderful day today was. We were called early in the morning sometime before 5 with some exciting news. Our baby girl had arrived. What a sweetheart she is. We feel so very very blessed to have her in our lives.
This is my first photo with our new daughter. I definetly look tired, because I am. It has been a long day of filling out papers. I also had been up since 5 and I am not use to that. I should start practicing for when we bring her home.
Look how tiny she is! So precious!
I will give a detailed story of how things went later. I am tired from my day and I am going to go to bed. Enjoy the pictures though. I think she is beautiful!

Having a Bad Day!

So I was having a very very bad day yesterday. I would take pictures but I am not sure I want proof of how bad it turned out. I am not going to go into details as to why my day was being so aweful. What happened at the end of the day is, or at least will be something to laugh at later on. Most of you who read this will probably laugh now, but right now I am not laughing, my stomach is actually turning sommersalts with nausia. So at the end of my very very bad day I decided to take a hot shower. When I got out I did the normal things like put on lotion and face cream. Well then I picked up my hair trimmer. I have this tiny hair trimmer that is like clippers only smaller. It does have attatchments and stuff. I use it to trim my eyebrows. I always have it on the setting for the length I want my eyebrows trimmed to. Well I got out of the shower venting to Erik about my very, very bad day and I wasnt paying attention to what I was doing. I picked up my hairtrimmer and put it tight tomy eyebrow and then my eyes popped out of my head. Someone had taken the attatchment off (my first guess would be Alex) Yes you guessed it, I shaved my eyebrow right off. I am about to throw up as I relive it right now. Well I had no other choice but to do the same to the other one. I have really thick bushy eyebrows and it would be more obvious to have one real one and one fake one. So because I am a vain person I will be staying away from people I know for a week or two. So that means postponing my trip to Idaho as long as possible. The good news, well I hope it is anyway, is that usually my hair grows really fast. I have to shave my legs daily because the hair grows so fast. I am hoping it is the same with my eyebrows. So those of you from Idaho that want us to come fast better be praying that my eyebrows grow back in a few days.

ICE CREAM!!!

Dad was in charge of dinner tonight!
"Dad is great. . . . he give's me chocolate ice cream..."
"Dad....you Rock"!!!

Alex is not a very good eater. Maybe it is because he is holding out for the food Dad will prepare for him!!! Erik gave him this 1/2 gallon of ice cream but he probably only ate about a bite. Alex is such a funny eater. He scoops a big spoonful and then just takes little tiny licks. He doesnt eat it like his dad does. His dad could eat the whole thing all by himself!