Mitchell is 3 weeks old today!

 
Here is a little video clip of him (you have to hit play twice). Time flies! We are doing a little better at getting settled into a routine, but are still struggling with our daytime naps. He is sleeping really well for us at night though. He gets up every 3 hours to eat, but goes right back to sleep afterwards.
The doctor says he is still a bit more susceptible to germs, so he has yet to leave the house since coming home from the hospital except for one trip to the pediatrician. Give us a few more weeks and we'll introduce him to the world outside of our doors. Remember the movie "The Truman Show" - well our house has become the Mitchell show :)

Precious Boy

He may have you fooled here, but he doesn't ALWAYS look quite this precious :) He is growing BIGGER every single day! He is eating a ton...at this rate, I think I'm going to be able to teach him to count by counting his chins. Just kidding! Look how long his fingers are? He got those from his momma. My dad thinks they'll enable him to palm a basketball. I didn't want to burst my dad's dreams for his only grandson, but they might also make him a pretty mean piano player. Guess we'll just have to wait and see :)

Aunt Kelli visits!

Aunt Kelli visited her first nephew over the weekend! Mitchell welcomed her by showing off his "automatic sprinkler" for her first diaper change. Although it took us a bit to get it all cleaned up, she was pretty impressed by his shot! He made it all the way to Tex's bed! Tex wasn't quite so impressed :)

Grandma meets Mitchell

Grandma and Grandpa Bays made their way to KC to welcome their first grandchild. David and Jacob have kept busy working on finishing the basement, while my mom has spent the majority of her time spoiling Mitchell. I'm not complaining :) Each morning she meets me at my bedroom door for the "pass-off" so that I can head back to bed for a few hours. We're both going to be in for a rude awakening when they leave!

Yet another bathtime picture!

I am a little obsessed with bathtime pictures, but he just looks the cuddliest when he's freshly bathed and wrapped up in his warm towel. Here's proof :)

Pediatrician Update

This is my recent favorite picture of Mitchell. He had his check-up appointment with the pediatrician this morning and now weighs 8 pounds, 10 ounces, which is exactly one pound over his birth weight. She was impressed that he was able to gain that much weight in only 12 days! He is healthy as can be...except that we have to be extra careful not to expose his little lungs to germs/flu/etc. She recommended that we keep him indoors and away from potential germs for the next 6 weeks. It's going to be a long six weeks for us at home...well worth it if he doesn't end up with anymore problems though!

First Bath at Home

Mitchell got his first at home bath in our kitchen sink on January 5th. He liked the experience 100% better than his hospital bath! In fact, he barely even cried at all. Hopefully they will continue to get better and better. He won't fit in the kitchen sink much longer, so I just had to snap a picture of him :)

Gran and Pops meet Mitchell

Jacob's mom (Karen) and step-dad (Rick) made the trip up from Tulsa to see their first grandson! Mitchell barely left Karen's arms - as you can see, he was quite content with that :)

We're finally home!!!!!!!!

We brought Mitchell home from the hospital on Thursday January 3, 2008 - exactly one week after his birthday. I can't tell you how nice it is to finally be home. You can tell that the whole experience tuckered the little guy out. His Aunt Katy made some sugar cookies with his name on them as a homecoming gift. Only problem with them is that they are too cute to eat!!!

Mitchell's First Bath

Here is a picture taken after Mitchell's first bath! He did NOT enjoy the bath very much, but definitely liked being wrapped in a cuddly towel afterwards. He's getting more and more used to his skin being exposed - at first he HATED it and would bawl at every single diaper change. Maybe he'll start liking baths better too....he's due for another one today, so we'll see :)

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!! This has been our most unique New Year's celebration yet! :) Hard to believe that one year ago, we were partying at Martini corner...now look at us! We spent New Year's Eve in the hospital and toasted in 2008 with sparkling grape juice! We couldn't have been happier to ring in the new year with our new little guy. Martini corner doesn't hold a candle to him :)

Here's to 2008! The best is yet to be.....

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? : )