Ethan's first 2 1/2 weeks

I had approximately 3 minutes to sit down on the computer and I chose to send y'all these pictures. Aren't you blessed?? LOL!

That is literally almost all the time I have these days. So, if I owe you an email, I apologize. I will eventually get back online. Right??

Funny how we wait so long to hold our precious bundles and then we wonder when we will be able to put them down!

No, I am enjoying it.

Really.

......As long as I keep reminding myself that house cleanliness is not important. LOL

Oklahoma Rising

Just saw this on OETA and love it.

I heard this from a great guy that used to go to our church
and I like to borrow it as my own:
"I am not from Oklahoma, but I got here as quick as I could."

ARGH

Ethan's bilirubin level is back up to 18. The doctor called and wanted me to quit nursing him for two days. I burst into tears and she felt bad and said I could continue to nurse him. Than she said that he had to go back under the lights. I was still crying, and she still felt bad, so she said we could use the "blanket" type lights. So....the bad news is: he is back under the lights for a few days. The good new is: we can still hold him and I don't have to quit nursing. :-)

Jaundice

I read this on about.com and I love it! Just had to share:

"The notion that there is something wrong with the baby being jaundiced comes from the assumption that the formula feeding baby is the standard by which we should determine how the breastfed baby should be. This manner of thinking, almost universal amongst health professionals, truly turns logic upside down. Thus, the formula feeding baby is rarely jaundiced after the first week of life, and when he is, there is usually something wrong. Therefore, the baby with breastmilk jaundice is a concern and "something must be done". However, in our experience, most exclusively breastfed babies who are perfectly healthy and gaining weight well are still jaundiced at 5-6 weeks of life and even later. The question, in fact, should be whether it is normal not to be jaundiced and is this absence of jaundice something we should worry about?"

Quick Blog

I don't have any babies in my arms right now, so I am going to do a very quick update!

We had a week with many "opportunities." Actually it has been a week and a half. Since right before having Ethan...

Here are some of the things going on:
Kaedra got sick so she has been back on her vent and oxygen. It was a bummer because she couldn't go to the hospital to see Ethan and I never had my whole family up there with me. :-( Plus, when we got home, she had to stay in her room (because of germs and because she wasn't feeling good) so I didn't get to see a lot of her. She is feeling better now and I am seeing more of her now. WOOHOO! (besides the fact that Michael went back to work Saturday so there isn't another option anymore!) We are now waiting for her to get back off the vent and oxygen full time. :-)

We got denied by Social Security (which we were assured we would get after Ethan was born). (we are trying to get social security for Kaedra - nursing and medical supplies which are no longer covered by our "wonderful" new insurance) We are now trying to get TEFRA which is supplemental aid for people who have disabled children and who make too much money for Social Security. We are waiting to hear back from them asap.

Because Social Security denied us and because our doctor is paying for our nursing out his own pocket, he cut us back to only 3 days a week of nursing. It has been a challenging week, to say the least - especially with Kaedy-bug sick.

I got diagnosed with severe anemia after delivery. (I had anemia while pregnant but I was unable to take the iron pills because of nausea) I am on some meds now. I have had a horrible headache since having Ethan arrived. I don't know if it was from the epidural or the anemia.

Ethan got off the phototherapy on Thursday. HALLELUJAH! However, he rebounded on Friday and was back up. Our doctor wanted me to supplement my breastmilk, but, after researching it online, I decided not to supplement and to just go with nursing him as much as possible. A nurse is supposed to come out today and check his bilirubin again, so please agree with us that it is at a good level!

Someone attempted to rob Michael's store again. They did break in, but since he had changed all the locks and combinations, they were unable to get money this time.


Well that's the unhappy stuff. The wonderful stuff is:

We had Ethan! And he's healthy and whole from the top of his head to the tips of his toes!

Our church has really blessed us: 2 weeks of meals and they came on Saturday and cleaned our house! We were hoping to make it to church last night, but we didn't have enough oxygen to take Kaedy. I can't wait to make it back!

Kaedra is feeling better every day!

My headache is almost all gone and I have more energy now then I have had since before getting pregnant last year!! I have actually been able to get some things done (when not holding a baby and/or a toddler)


Well Kaedra is waking up....I'd better get off of here. Today I will be learning how to juggle school, a toddler and a newborn. :-) Someday I will add back in more regular blogging and actually answering emails! LOL See ya!

Ethan's first pics

Ethan Michael Lynn was born Friday, February 2, 2007 at 8:36 pm.

I will write more about things later, I am exhausted and ready to go to bed. We got home late last night and had to take him to the doctor today. He has been diagnosed with fairly high levels of bilirubin (jaundice) so he is going to spend the next day or two under the phototherapy light. Please pray that when they test him tomorrow he has WONDERFUL levels and we can get back to the serious task of holding and loving on him.

Verse for tonight/tomorrow

"And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth"
Luke 1:14