Snoozing

We try to catch as much shut eye as possible when Mitchell is sleeping. He's pretty good about sleeping contently in his cradle in our hospital room most of the time, but sometimes he gets fussy and just wants to cuddle. Jacob and I don't mind that too much :)

Growing Stronger!

Although he is still technically a NICU patient, he's doing so well that they're allowing him to board in our hospital room with us rather than in the NICU. We are loving it! We're getting to spend LOTS more time with him. Click on the play button under the box below to see a little video. If it doesn't work the first time, try hitting play again.

Welcoming the newest Folks

Jacob's dad (David) and stepmom (Diane) had planned to come visit Mitchell about a week after my due date...however because he was a week late, they actually arrived on his birthday! Jacob's siblings - Skyler, Connor and Katy - also visited, but none of them were able to spend as much time with Mitchell as they had hoped since we spent their whole visit in the hospital. :( We'll be visiting them in Maine for the 4th of July - hard to believe Mitchell will be 6 months old by then! Think that's too early to start training him to water ski on their lake? :)

Daddy's Little Buddy

Here is a video of Jacob and Mitchell. He is definitely his dad's buddy. I have come to expect little smirks from Jacob in the instances where I have trouble calming Mitchell down and he quiets right away when I finally give in and pass him over to Jacob. The opposite is definitely true sometimes too though, but I try not to return the smirk :) We are getting to know him more and more everyday.

(Taken 12/29/07 at 11AM - 37 hours old)

My first cuddle with Mitchell

The above picture of Mitchell and I was taken the first time I really got to hold him (except the extremely short stint right after delivery.) I know we are biased, but Jacob and I think he is so damn cute!!!


Below is a video of Mitchell - taken 9:30am the morning of 12/28. He was about 12 hours old. This was really the first time we got to hang out with him because he struggled a bit on the way out and ended up with some fluid in his lungs, so they wisked him away to the Neonatal Intensive Care unit right after delivery. We did get to go up and see him around 2am on 12/28, but I was so exhausted that I didn't get much out of the visit. Although NICU sounds serious, the main reason he's in there is because they have him on a 7 day course of antibiotics, so that means that we don't get to bring him home until they are done (which should be Thursday). If it weren't for the antibiotics we'd be headed home b/c he is doing REALLY well. Jacob and I are staying in the hospital with him, so it'll a week long hospital stay, which is much longer than we anticipated, but you can't always plan these things!

After much anticipation, he's finally here!

Mitchell Ryan Folks was born on Thursday, December 27 at 9:57pm. He is 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 20 1/2 inches. His first name is obviously my maiden name, but spelled what most people would consider to be the "correct" way. We tossed around the idea of spelling it Michel....but I just couldn't subject the little guy to being called Michael?, Mikehl?, Michelle?, Mickel?, etc...

We're are all doing well!

A picture of the little guy is attached-- we think he's a keeper :)

Last Pregnancy Picture

This picture was taken right before heading to the hospital - the snowy evening of December 26th, 2007. We dropped Tex off at my Dad's and our car got stuck in his driveway! We were worried that we might not make it to the hospital at all! Jacob made fun of me because my first reaction was to get out of the car and push it from behind. He said "Mandi, we're on our way to the hospital to have a baby. You're not going to push a car out of snow drift!" After a little manuevering on Jacob's part, we finally made it out of the driveway and to the hospital. Come to find out...maybe I could've used some practice pushing afterall :)

40 Weeks

Another picture of me at 40 weeks. Measuring normal...right along where I should be. He's moving all over the place now too. Not just cute little kicks now and then....it's like waves of arms and legs. Such a weird, but cool feeling. I really think I'm going to miss not being pregnant, as weird as that sounds. I never really thought I'd say that. I think it's just so neat to grow a human inside you...gives my life more of a "purpose". Corny, I know! I guess my purpose will be defined as taking care of the little guy once he's here though.

Almost there!

Well here we are at about 40 weeks - we made it!!! Hopefully I won't look like this much longer, we're expecting his arrival any day now. It's kind of ironic that we wrapped my tummy up in a bow in the picture because that might be one of my biggest complaints about being pregnany...cutesy maternity clothes!!! It seems like every single maternity shirt has a bow somewhere on it...do designers think pregnant women need to be wrapped up like dang presents for 9 months? : )