Taking to the bottle

No, I'm not talking about Jeff or myself taking to the bottle. Carolina took her first bottle of breastmilk today. There was a lot of whining, crying, and one huge scream...and that was from me! Carolina was confused at first, but after I held her and the bottle for a while, she figured out that this bottle-feeding thing wasn't too bad after all. I, on the other hand, still felt saddened by the fact that my daughter was now taking a bottle. This is the beginning of my personal wheening from my daughter. A week from today, I will be back at work, and throwing my own little fits that I am not with my daughter 24/7. But, I think that I too will get used to it.

A sad milestone:(

You read correctly, Carolina has reached a developmental milestone...

Carolina cried her first tears. While I was changing her diaper, Carolina had a bit of an accident, therefore her diaper change took longer than expected. She started crying, and before I knew it, her tiny little eyes were welling up with tiny tears. They did not leave her tiny eye sockets, but they did pool up. I knew it was developmental, but it still made me sad that I made my baby cry tears.

More friend pics

These pictures were taken on Carolina's first official day of life. She's "hanging out" with her new friend, Asher.

First "playdate"

From left to right: Melody with 2 week old Carolina, Sarah with almost 3 month old Asher, and Kim with 3 week old Luke



I think the adults enjoyed the playdate more than the kiddos, but we will label this event their first "playdate" nonetheless!

Home Sweet Home, Pt. 2

We are home again.

The doctor released us Wednesday morning, after Carolina's bilirubin levels fell off the chart. She was all the way down to about 7.5, two points below where she was last Saturday. No bili blanket, no restricts, nothing. Just go home.

So we are finally getting settled in and figuring out what "normal" life will be like now with two beautiful daughters. Carolina is feeding well, except for a span of a couple of hours early this morning where she couldn't make up her mind if she wanted to eat or sleep. She got her first bath at home today and really seemed to enjoy the first day of the NCAA Tournament.

Victoria seems to be doing well, too. She was kind of quiet for a few days. I think it wore on her having Mommy, Daddy and baby sister in the hospital for about 5 1/2 out of the past 7 days. Luckily we have incredible family members who have taken good care of her and are trying to make her feel special.


Thanks for all the kind words, prayers and support over the past week. They have helped more than you know.

--Jeff

That Billy Rubin is nothing but trouble!

Here we are at the hospital again, on the pediatric floor. I'm on the hospital bed, blogging away. Melody's in a chair next to me enjoying American Idol. And Carolina? She's in a bili bed, trying to get rid of her jaundice.

She had to stay an extra day at the hospital because of her jaundice, but was released to go home Saturday afternoon. We took her in to see Dr. B. Monday for a check-up and her bilirubin levels had spiked pretty high. The decision was made, then, to admit her for a day or two for some extensive phototherapy to get the bilirubin down and some normal color back to her skin (she had begun to look pumpkiny).



So far so good. Her bilirubin had dropped from 18, to 15. From 15 to 11 and from 11 to 10.3. Dr. B wants to get it into the single digits before letting her go home Wednesday morning. The "acceptable" range for her at 5 days old was around 14, so she's well within that now as a 6-day old. I'm just trying to remind myself that she will be okay.

This has been hard. Carolina's heels are spotted red from all the times they've had to draw blood. Both Melody and I are a bit stir crazy from being in a hospital room for so long and it's just hard to see our Sweet Pea go through this.

We also battle feeling selfish. Here around us are all these children with real, serious illnesses. Things that may affect the rest of their lives. Our baby just has jaundice and, really, that's not so uncommon. It's possible that this could cause her some long-term problems, but it's not very likely. Who are we to think we have it so hard?

Keep us in your thoughts. We're trying to put a positive spin on all this. Carolina's health will be good and soon we'll all be at home together. Plus, she's just so adorable in her bili bed. She has these cool shades velcroed to her head right now. I think they look like stunner shades. I want t draw some horizontal lines on them so she'll look like Kanye in the "Stronger" video. Come on, tell me this:



doesn't remind you of this:



Hopefully we'll have more good news to share tomorrow.

--Jeff

Movie Star Carolina

Kid can own a scene already. She and Victoria clearly inherited the drama gene. Here's Carolina Lily visiting us in the suite Thursday morning.




We have more pictures of the newest Kessinger...we'll post those later as time allows. Carolina's on her way to try nursing for the first time.