Introducing Miles Timothy

On May 18th, we got to welcome the newest member of our family here to Earth. Miles Timothy was born at 2:15 pm weighing 8 lbs 11 oz. He was 20 inches long and has sweet fuzzy dark hair.

I ended up being induced (which was not my ideal plan, but I can share the birth story another day) and luckily things went more quickly and much more smoothly than Grant's induction.

He had a sweet little cry for only a second after birth and it was an absolutely incredible experience to see everything that was being done for him and then have him returned to us immediately after for skin to skin time and nursing. We truly cherished having a "normal" delivery experience and I will never take for granted the health of a newborn baby again. Kyle took pictures of every little moment for me and I cherish it!

True to form, we arrived at the hospital without our camera, so Kyle went home right after we checked in to grab it and came back with these beautiful flowers. He had already brought a bottle of sparkling cider so that we could celebrate and I had packed my Cinnamon Life cereal... the one thing that I was dying to eat after starving for 2 days during Grant's delivery. We decided that Cinnamon Life will be my traditional post delivery meal now and true to form, it tasted delicious when I was finally allowed to eat it!

Miles loved his first bath... he was just so chill and alert.

We got to spend almost 4 hours in recovery while we waited for a post partum room to become available. It was awesome. We just got to hold him and admire his sweet little face without any distractions and without anyone coming in to whisk Miles away.

Later that night, Grant came with my parents to meet his baby brother. It did not go well (as you can see from his tear filled face and sad expressions). Grant has really had a hard week adjusting to having a new baby around. We knew that it would be a struggle, but I have still been surprised at how Grant has reacted. He woke up covered in a rash the morning I was set to come home (2 days after delivery) and continued to have flare ups of "itchies" for the first 4 days. I don't think anything was actually triggering the skin issues... I truly believe that his little world was so stressed out by having mom gone and that is how he reacted. Grant has slept worse than Miles this week and seems to have a breakdown absolutely every time I sit down to nurse Miles. I think that he is finally starting to warm up to him a little though because today he actually touched Miles once without being coached to do so (he refuses to hold him!) and he has asked a few times today about baby Miles. I will take any progress we get! It has helped that he has had tons of fun playing with Daddy home, going to Grandma's house for special outings, and getting to play with Aunt Kellie and Uncle Spencer who are in town for Memorial Day weekend. Thanks everyone!

We love having Miles as part of our family. He has been really jaundiced and is not responding well to the double bili lights that we have had on him at home. Miles and I have been to the doctor every day this week for blood draws to check his bili levels and the one day we tried to trial him off, his levels jumped so dramatically that we almost had to admit him to the hospital! We go in again tomorrow to the hospital for labs and they are going to do a full liver panel to check his liver function. We are crossing our fingers that it is nothing serious and that we will finally get to take him off his lights. It has been 8 days and I would love to have a cord free baby. Luckily, hauling around an oxygen tank and a feeding pump prepared us well, but I have still been pretty emotional over having a baby tied to machines again. Perspective is amazing though and we are just so grateful to have Miles home with us. I will update more pictures and stories when I feel a little more rested (ha!). :)