Welcome Brian Oliver!

What a day! I'm exhausted, but so thrilled to have my baby boy! Sometimes I think he looks like Kayleigh in his mannerisms and how he's sleeping, but I'm not sure that their faces look alike. In case you don't know, Brian was born right at 8:00 this morning. He was a big 8 lbs 12 oz, and I have to tell you, I'm a little disappointed he didn't reach 9 pounds!
The only issue we're having today is with Brian's sugar levels. I guess it's common for bigger babies to have a hard time regulating their blood sugar. The poor boy has been pricked too many times to count! We have supplemented with formula and are praying that his levels will stay above 40. They have gone up and down today, and now the nurses are pricking him to check his sugar before each feeding.
We are going to do our best to get sleep tonight. Kayleigh is with my parents at our house. She's enjoying their attention, but has also liked meeting Brian and getting to hold him this afternoon.
I need to save more pictures on the computer and will get them up either later tonight (for those of you who might read this before another post) or tomorrow morning.
Thank you for all of your prayers! Please specifically pray for Brian's sugar levels, his upcoming circumcision, and my healing. I'll have to get out of bed tomorrow and I'm a little nervous. Please also pray for Kayleigh and her adjustment to our newest family member.

New video

A couple of weekends ago, Kayleigh decided she could snap! It's fun watching her, and it's funny that she can only do it with her left hand. She also learned how to show all of her numbers from 1-5 on her hand.
We did make it to school (day care) this morning to visit Kayleigh's friends. She's explaining in the video that she fell on the sidewalk when she was running into her classroom. It was traumatic, but only for a few minutes, and then she was ready to go and play! She had a great time, and I can't wait until we can visit the school again and introduce the teachers to Brian!

3 Days and counting!

Since I haven't put any pictures up on this blog yet, I figured I should do it. And, since it's Sunday, I am actually dressed up for once, so I thought it would be a good day to get a couple of belly pictures taken before Brian is here on WEDNESDAY! Of course, I got a couple of comments at church about whether or not I would even make it to Wednesday. I think it's funny because technically I still have over a week to go until my official due date. I just leave that part out since it would really get people going!
Kayleigh is very much into the book "Pinkalicious" that her cousin, Cayla, bought her for her birthday. Erik went upstairs to get her ready for church this morning, and in order for him to get her to put on her dress, he told her she would look pinkalicious. It's also how I convinced her to eat her Frosted Mini Wheats this morning. They have pink frosting, so it went with the theme for the day! I wanted to get a couple of pictures of Kayleigh and me in our pink, but as you might be able to tell from the pictures, she wasn't cooperating as I had hoped. Oh well. That's the norm for her photo sessions.
We are ready for Mom, Dad and Brian to come this week. Everything is moved to where it needs to be (I think) and clothes and laundry is done and ready for Brian's arrival. We do need to pack a hospital bag, but I really don't think Brian will come any earlier than planned. I will update the blog as soon as possible. Erik has borrowed a laptop from work, so we'll be taking and posting pictures at the hospital.
I hope to get Kayleigh out tomorrow and Tuesday so we can enjoy some alone time before the baby's arrival. She mentioned seeing her friends the other day, so I'd like to go up to her day care tomorrow for one last visit. Hopefully we can make it to the library for story time on Tuesday. I'm almost done with the 4th book in a series that I'm reading and want to check out the next 2 while I can! I'm not sure how much reading I'll be able to do in the near future, but I'd like to have the books just in case!

Udder covers

Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and put in a good word for a website I heard about on craigslist. I have wanted to get an udder cover since I had Kayleigh, but they are expensive, and I'm cheap! Not a good combination. On craigslist a couple of weeks ago, someone posted about a website called Udder Covers. You can choose one of their covers (I chose the Jones) and enter the promo code "coins". When you use the promo code, you only have to pay shipping and handling for the cover, rather than full price. It means you only have to pay $8.95, rather than $40! I'm not sure how much longer the promo will last, so if you think you might at some point in the future want/need an udder cover, order now!

Date night

Erik's parents were sweet to offer to watch Kayleigh for the night so that Erik and I could have one last night to ourselves before we're parents of TWO! We decided to go to Outback for dinner, and definitely enjoyed the free Bloomin' Onion. (In case you've never heard, if you have a AAA card, you can get a free Bloomin' Onion when you show them your card.) We did a good job of talking about more than Kayleigh and the arrival of Brian. There was a little boy at the booth next to us who kept getting out of the booth and walking around. The one time he almost knocked over a waiter, I was glad to see that it was THEIR food that they almost lost, and not someone else's! They kept asking the boy if he wanted to sit in his seat. Ummm...did they really think he would say yes??? Oh well. Our food and service was good, so I can overlook the kid.
After dinner we went to the movies. I was impressed that after 2 1/2 cherry cokes, I was still able to sit through the whole thing without having to take a bathroom break! :) I did make a quick stop before the drive home. I would have been desperate!
Thanks again, Jim and Shirley, for letting us have one more night out on the town! We had so much fun!!!

Last doctor's appointment

I'm both excited and sad to say that today was my last doctor's appointment before Brian arrives. I'm excited because it means that his birth day is almost here. I'm sad because I love the ladies who work in the office and will miss seeing them all the time! I think they will miss seeing Kayleigh more than they'll miss seeing me, though. They LOVE her! I had two people today (including the doctor) tell me how well behaved she is. It's music to my ears!
I had one final ultrasound today to try to guess the baby's weight. The technician said that he's about 8 pounds 9 ounces right now. Whew! He's also measuring 39 weeks and 4 days, so he's definitely big. He's still in the 95th percentile for weight. The funniest thing to me was the fact that one of Brian's knees is all the way up by the top left side of my stomach. His other foot is down by his face! I promise he was trying to chew on it while we were watching! It was hard to get any pictures of him, and the ones that the technician did get aren't that great, so I won't post them.
Oh, and as of this week, I've only gained 16 pounds. I'm DEFINITELY all baby!
It's late for a nap (3:00), but Kayleigh is down and hopefully she'll sleep. We've both gotten colds and have felt a little rotten. I feel better today, but Kayleigh's nose is still running and she's coughing more than me. I'm going to try to read for a little while, and if I doze off, even better! :)

Doctor's appointment

Let me start by saying that I am SO glad that Kayleigh is a well behaved child. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 4:15, and it was at least 5:30 before I saw the doctor. Ugh! Kayleigh did great, and the nurses and doctor LOVE to see her and talk to her! One of my favorite nurses saw us and came over to talk to Kayleigh.
Today was my second-to-last visit before Brian is born. I can't believe that the end is in sight, and thankfully these last few weeks have gone by quickly. The doctor measured my stomach, and even though I won't be 37 weeks until Thursday, I'm already measuring 40 weeks. I don't think that it means too much--I measured the same way when I was pregnant with Kayleigh. But, since I am big, the doctor asked if I would like to see how much the baby weighs at the next visit. Do you know what that means? Another ultrasound!! Woohoo!!! I think that will bring the grand total to 5 ultrasounds for this little one. Not quite as many as the 7 or 8 I had with Kayleigh, but still a fun number. I will be sad if we have a 3rd child and only get the regular 2 ultrasounds...So, next week at 1:30 I'll be at the doctor's office one last time getting an ultrasound and finishing up my last doctor's appointment.
Kayleigh is so looking forward to Grandma and Abuelo's visit, and I told her this morning that she can say that they'll be here in two weeks instead of 3. I also told her that Valerie and Matt would be here. Her reaction, "Everyone is coming to my house to see my new carpet and big girl room!" Yes, it's true that they will want to see them, too, and it's easier to tell her that they want to come up for that and give her some attention.

Welcome to our new blog!

We finally took the plunge and have made a new blog to include the newest addition to our family--Brian Oliver Eikeland. We hope that this blog is easy to find and that you will continue to read all about what we're doing and watch our kids as they grow.