Riley Elden

Riley was born a month early, on March 1 at 3:59 pm 6lbs 5oz and 19.9" long. (I was admitted to the hospital on February 25th because my blood pressure was too high-the adventure being induced is a long one which i don't think i remember well enough to explain. It was horrible...and we'll leave it at that!) Labor was not terrible (after the epidural of course), I believe they said I was only in active labor for 4 hours, I slept through the last few hours of it, woke up said to the nurse "I feel a lot of pressure" she checked and said "you're 10cm and I can feel his head. Let me go let the Dr. know we're going to start pushing and I'll be right back." She came back we pushed a few times and she said "ok! I can see his head, don't push, I have to go get everyone in here!"  So a few pushes later, here he was!  For being a month early-there wasn't anything wrong! They took him to the nursery that night just to make sure, but the next morning, he was able to come be in the room with us.  Because I had preeclampsia, and because they induced me, I was hooked up to 5 different IV's. One was magnesium, which I had to be on 24 hours after giving birth to make sure I didn't have seizures (due to the preeclampsia).  That one was the worst by far! I felt horrible and totally out of it!!  Because of all the fluids I was having pumped into me I was totally swollen.  It took a good week for the swelling in my feet and legs to go down. I couldn't even hardly put on a pair of socks and had to wear slippers when we went to his first few dr appointments!

 First Family Picture (Proof of all the fluids they were pumping into me! I'm totally puffy!)

He was jaundiced, so he had to have photo therapy  That was really hard to have to leave him in that bed and not be able to pick him up much other than to feed.  He cried pretty much the entire time he was in it, and Elden or I had to stand above the bed and keep his arms down so he'd stay covered up and somewhat calm. :(  They even made us stay an extra day so he could have more time with the photo therapy.

We're home and doing well now.  He doesn't like to be put down very much.  He typically only sleeps out of my arms at night, when he's laying in bed next to me...and most nights he sleeps 3 hours at a time, but the last few he's woken up every hour or so. He's growing like crazy, but he's still skinny enough for the newborn stuff, but too long for it.  And unfortunately they don't make any slim/tall baby clothes! 

My sister Penny and 3 of her kids came down for their spring break to meet Riley.  Penny took some pictures of Riley-and I love them!!!

He's just the cutest! :)