We have a thumb sucker

Yesterday, Keagan found his thumb. I think he really he enjoys it.

Keagan is doing very well. We had his 1 week appt. at the doctor and he is back to his birth weight and has already grown an inch!!

I am feeling much better. It has been a rough week. After delivery, I felt really good but as the week progressed I just felt more awful. I was having a lot of back pain, chills and then 30 minutes later sweating. I thought maybe it was just hormones or something. Anyway, when we went to the dr. yesterday for Keagan's checkup, I mentioned to her that I did not feel good. SO - here's the list of what's wrong: I have mastitis, bladder/kidney infection, and am severely dehydrated!!! And to top it all off, yesterday when I was blowdrying my hair, the blowdryer blew up in my hands and I almost burned my hair. AAAAAAAH!! This too shall pass!!

I feel much better today after 24 hours of antibiotics and now am ready to kick back and relax at the superbowl party tomorrow night.

Baby it's cold outside!

We finally had enough snow overnight that Kellen could play in it. We had a pretty bad ice storm the day before but fortunately we did not lose power. I was nervous about what we would do with a newborn and no heat.
Kellen and Karsten took the opportunity this morning to play outside and burn off some energy. Kellen (and I think Karsten too) really enjoyed himself.


Getting all bundled up


Keagan was all bundled up as well - but we stayed inside. I can't believe he's a week old today!!!! It makes me so sad that they grow up so quickly.


Karsten teaching Kellen how to make snow angels.

I think they were having fun don't you?

Kellen went right outside to his play house. He loved breaking off all the icicles and sliding down his slide.

Kellen is doing very well with the new addition. He still won't hold Keagan and I gave him the opportunity to feed Keagan as well this morning but he wasn't interested. I can't complain though. I do have a funny story though. The other morning - early early in the morning - Kellen started hollering for me. Karsten went in his room and there he is on the floor completely cocooned in his blanket, his head on the pillow, and his body halfway under his bed. So Karsten told him to get back into bed and Kellen's comment was "I stuck." He must have fallen out of bed after kicking off his pillows in the middle of the night. When Karsten told me the story I just started laughing. I wish I could have seen it!!

Keagan's first photo session

When Aunt Shannon came over on saturday we had plans to take lots of pictures - including a family one. Unfortunately our ideas and plans didn't work out too well since Keagan was very fussy and it was so cold - I hated to strip him down to nothing, so we gave up. Anyway, if you haven't visited Shannon's blog here are some of my favorites that she took.

My little old man

Whoa! Doesn't he look like he's about to sprout fangs!??! I thought it was hilarious.

You can also check out Kellen's hospital photo at www.deaconess.com

Follow the links for web nursery.

bslater (all lower case) and the password is slater (also all lower case).

The last several days

It's been a busy weekend thus far with visitors and sleepless nights but I've managed to take over the blogging business again. I tried to do it from the hospital, but we didn't have very good connection and the hubby had to take over.

So here is a recap from the weekend:

We came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon - I was so anxious to get home to my own bed - man that hospital bed was soooo uncomfortable. Anyway, Karsten's parents stayed with us Friday night and both my sisters came Saturday and left Sunday afternoon. We were so glad people were able to come stay and help out.

Getting ready to leave the hospital.

Keagan's first sponge bath at home. Kellen wanted to help but lost interest after a few minutes. He just wanted to play with the water faucet.

Aunt Shannon


Uncle Luke

Aunt Morgan

My boys

Aunt Shannon made Keagan this ADORABLE quilt. I love it. I know she worked hard on this - it was one of her first sewing projects.

So far, the first 5 days of Keagan's life have been wonderful and exhausting. He's eating about every 2 - 3 hours at night so we are up a lot but it's so rewarding. Thankfully my husband has this whole week off to help me out. I don't know what I would do without him or my friends and family. Thank you to everyone for your help, thoughts, and prayers.

Hold Your Horses!!!

We have been urged at the request of some VERY impatient people (you know who you are) to post more pictures of Keagan. So here are a few more. We really don't have that many yet as we are still in the hospital and haven't started wearing the cute oufits yet. Hopefully this will pacify for now.





Daily summary:
Keagan endured the "male sacrifice" this morning. Everything looks OK and the vital pieces remain intact. He is making good improvements in breastfeeding. He is definitely orally fixated. I held a pacifier to his mouth for 2 hours in the middle of the night inbetween two full breastfeeding sessions. He is much more relaxed with the pacifier. The grandfathers made it in tonight to see Keagan. I think they might have set a new land speed record to get here, because they made it in less than 4 hours and that includes a stop for food! Kellen is still a little uninterested in Keagan overall and is just happy to be back playing with his trains. His Nana Slater got him a playdough set with accessories. He enjoyed that very much this evening. His Pa Dudley got him a John Deere movie which we all watched at the hospital. Kellen was excited to see the tractors, loaders, diggers and combines. I'm sure we will wear the tape out before Spring. That's it for today. Brooke and Keagan will be coming home tomorrow!



(If you have noticed the striking difference in writing style, its because Dad has taken the blog back over until Mom gets home from the hospital and ready to take it back.)

New Arrival!

Just a quick announcement in case you haven't heard. Keagan Gabriel Slater was born today (1/21/09) at 11:08 am weighing 8 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long! Brooke did great! Everything went well. She and Keagan are doing fine. Kellen isn't quite sure what to think yet. He held Keagan for about 30 seconds and was done. I think he was just glad to be back home after spending a few days with the grandparents. We were glad that our mom's were able to drive down this morning and be there after Keagan was little over an hour old. Of course the G'mas were gushing with joy and love and made no effort to contain it. More pictures will come in the next day or two once Keagan is a little more photogenic. At least he has gotten a bath now. He came out quite cheesy!

OUCH!!!

No, I'm not saying ouch to any contractions - although I wish I were! I just have to tell you a funny/sad story.
The other night I was fixing sloppy joes. Because I still have pregnancy brain, I completely forgot to saute the onion with the hamburger meat. SO as I was browning the meat and remembered that I needed the onion, it was too late. I decided I would get some onion powder and salt out of the spice cabinet above the stove. You can only imagine what happened next. As my large protuding abdomen was hovering over the pan on the stove I leaned a little too far and seared it - I mean a good 3 inch burn on my already super sensitive skin!!
Karsten came home from work almost immedietly after this happened and I was almost in tears. The burn had already blistered and my belly felt like it was going to split open! I told him I was done with this pregnancy and would do anything to get this child out! BUT I'm still pregnant. SIGH! Karsten then had to encourage me by saying - that's going to leave a scar!
Anyway, I'll spare you the pictures. It's not attractive. Poor me!!

Mr. Sillyhead

Kellen loves Mr. Potato Head - especially now that he has been watching Toy Story. Every time we watch the movie he drags Mr. Potato Head out. The other day he thought it would be funny if he could wear the parts (the other parts didn't work out too well).

Patiently waiting

So with less than a couple weeks to go with the pregnancy I have been trying to be as patient as possible - but it's not working. I have mopped, cleaned and washed EVERYTHING you can think of. I think you could eat off my bathroom floors if you really wanted to! I am so ready to meet little Keagan I can hardly stand it any longer. I'm trying everything in my power to help labor come but so far nothing. I am dilated and effaced and having LOTS of braxton hicks contractions but I'm still walking around trying to find things to clean.

Anyway, we did finish the nursery after Christmas. Here's a final picture of our paint job:

Hopefully my next blog entry will be of our new little one!

Kellen's new artwork

So I just wanted to take a minute and brag on Karsten's sister Kendra. She painted these for Kellen's room - aren't they amazing!!?? We got them for Christmas and I could not wait to hang them up. Kellen loves them (as do I) and I personally think she should start her own business!