Day 14

 
Today was a pretty busy day. Kerala had her two week doctor appointment this morning. She has gained almost a full pound since coming home. The doctor said that this is great news and that everything must be going very well with her feeding. After the doctor visit and a short nap, we headed over to a friend's house. They had just had a baby boy a few days ago and were home from the hospital. Then after that visit some friends stopped by and brought us dinner and visited with us through the evening. All in all it was Kerala's busiest day so far.

Hopefully, a busy day will translate into sleeping some at night. She hasn't slept very much at night for the past two nights. Corey has taken the bullet for me though, as she has taken care of Kerala for the past week at night on her own. I've been luckily enough to log six or seven continuous hours of sleep, but Corey has been up every three hours or so since Kerala was born. Tonight though we are trying something new. We are introducing the pacifier to see if that will help Kerala sleep more through the night. We did a few test runs this evening and it did seem to work. If all goes well Corey may be able to get a solid four straight hours of sleep in!

Day 11

 

Corey survived her first two full days caring for Kerala with no support staff. My spring break has ended and I'm back in school. Corey has been gracious enough to let me sleep through the night so I'm not a zombie at school, but this means she doing all the work from around 11pm through 7pm the next night. My class schedule is pretty full Monday and Tuesday but eases up a bit later in the week, so I'll be able to help out more. So far though things have been going pretty smoothly, mom and daughter appear to be getting along splendidly.

For the past few days we've had wonderfully warm weather around here. We took Kerala out for a family walk and Corey took Kerala out yesterday for another walk around the block. Yesterday evening we had some friends stop by. They have a son, Henry, who is almost 2 years old and was very nice to Kerala. Hopefully, Henry's little brother will be making an appearance very soon.

Day 9

Yesterday Kerala had some more visitors as Corey's parents and sister Julie and her husband Ralph stopped by. Julie and Ralph also brought along a big portion of tacos for lunch. We had enough for left overs as well.

We are still adjusting to Kerala liking to be up at night and sleep during the day. We are told that in a few weeks her schedule will change to a more normal schedule.

We have started back on the cloth diapers and so far things are going well. She still hates to get her diaper changed but we try to be as quick as possible.

Day 7

In the last two days we have discovered two new activities. The first is the scream. Last night Kerala seemed to wake up every hour and just cry. Only by nursing her or letting her suck on my pinky finger could we calm her down. Finally, Corey moved her downstairs into her own room and that seemed to do the trick. She fell right to sleep for a few hours. So we are trying the same routine tonight and hopefully Kerala will log more sleep tonight.

The other fun activity we discovered today was the misplaced diaper. A couple of times today, either from us putting the diaper on wrong or by Kerala kicking so much, the diaper dropped down a little bit and we had a nice mess to clean up in her onesie! Thankfully, there were no gigantic messes.

Cloud continues to get used to Kerala. She no longer runs from the room when Kerala cries and lately has taken an interest in keeping an eye on Kerala. Sometimes Cloud sleeps at the edge of our bed so she can look into Kerala's bassinet. She also likes to sleep on the rug next to Kerala's crib when Kerala is napping. Cloud even shared a little tummy time with Kerala this afternoon.

Day 5

 

Well today was an exciting day. Kerala received her 2nd package in the mail. She received a nice package from my aunt as well as a new pair of shoes from a friend. See photos for both of these in action. I also received the new camera I bought in the mail -- so I can take more pictures.

We also had a slight scare tonight with our cat. Around 7:45pm she vomitted what appeared to be blood. After a quick trip to the pet emergency room we still don't know what is wrong. Cloud though appears to be acting normal so we are assuming that it wasn't blood and everything is fine.

Day 4

 

We made it through another night with little issues but plenty of diaper changes. We also survived our first doctor appointment. Kerala had her 4 day doctor appointment and everything went smoothly until it was time to take her temperature. Her temperature was below 97 degrees. The doctor finally gave us the all clear after about an hour of trying to raise her temperature. Kerala's small size is the reason the doctor said her temperature was a bit low and should be nothing to worry about at this time.

Our cat, Cloud, is also slowly adjusting to her little sister. Last night Cloud slept in our bedroom for most of the night. I was even able to take a nap with both of them this afternoon.

First Night at Home

Well we had our first night at home last night. Kerala slept for 30-60 minute increments until around 6am. She then gave us a break and slept from 6am til around 8:30 and from 9am til 11am. Overall, even with the little sleep, everything went fairly smoothly. Kerala seemed to eat a decent amount through out the night and I discovered I can change diapers while being 3/4 asleep.

Kerala is born!

Kerala Samson Smith was born on 3/16/2007. She weighed 6lbs 11oz and 20.5 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing well. The family was able to come home on Sunday and we are all looking forward to getting some sleep!

We will be posting more photos as the days progress. Here's a link to the ones we have so far.