Welcome Keaton Marie!!!

On Tuesday, September 16th at 5:27 p.m. we welcomed a beautiful baby GIRL into the world. Keaton Marie was born screaming with a full head of hair. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. As the doctors pulled and pushed her out of me, they let Nathan announce the sex. She was pulled out with her butt facing Nathan and he said... "What is it?" All the doctors said "It's a girl!" Yes, her little girl parts were a bit swallon leaving her looking like she could have been a boy from the back side. We stayed in "hotel" medical city for 5 days and mommy was well taken care of. In fact, I didn't want to leave! Once we got home, Keaton slept too much and wasn't too interested in eating. When we went to the doctor on Tuesday for her one week appointment she was down to 6 pounds 15 ounces and her jaundice levels were getting high. The doctors gave us 48 hours to beafen her up and we were able to put 3 ounces on her in 2 days. We head back to the doctor this week for our 2 week appointment where she should be back up to her birth weight. Keaton is a good sleeper (when sleeping on mommy - not in her bed) and right now we have to wake her up to eat. She loves to poop and pee while we are changing her diaper leaving us with a very big mess, lots of used wipes and multiple diapers getting dirty in a matter of minutes. When you put her on your stomach, she is able to crawl... yes crawl up your chest to the crevice in your neck where she can feel your pulse. She then falls sound asleep... Her Aunt Ashly and cousin Elijah just visited us for 4 days from Berkeley. Aunt Ashly was a HUGE help cooking us dinner, taking Keaton at night so we could sleep, and changing many diapers. Elijah just chilled with his super cute, bright eyed self and finally warmed up to Barley and Nathan just in time to head back home. We can't wait for them to come visit us again.

Almost there...

With under 2 weeks to go, I am officially READY! I survived my first week back at school and it felt really good to stay busy all day. My co-workers could not believe I was back at school and the parents were even more surprised when they met me. Their first question was "Who is your sub?" and their second was "When are you coming back?"
I have been going to the dr. once-twice a week for check ups. Everything is still going well and he said he would move my due date up to next week if I wanted (because my belly is HUGE), but I am going to "try" to hold out until the 16th. However, I have been doing a few natural things to speed up the process. Other than walking A LOT, I have been drinking raspberry leaf tea several times a day, bathing in sage, trying to eat spicy food, and getting pedicures to hit pressure points. We'll see if any of these speed things up.
Nathan and I finally took our child birth class at the hospital last Saturday after rescheduling it 3 times. We learned a lot of good stuff like infant CPR and choking, breastfeeding tips, signs of labor, etc. My favorite part was when they said that the mother shouldn't clean or do laundry for 6-8 weeks after giving birth. I am all for that tip!
Barley has been getting ready too. At 8 years old, we FINALLY had his boy parts cut off. Or atleast we thought they were going to be cut off, they actually just take them out and then the sack perks back up again so he still looks like a boy. We are very pleased with the outcome. And while he was under, he had his teeth cleaned, a mole removed from his eye, and his nails cut really short. So far we haven't seen any difference, he is still his crazy self that we love. We also think he hid his shock collar on us because we can not find it anywhere!
The pics above are photos we had taken today! 12 days and counting...