2 Weeks Old

Ryan is now 2 weeks and 2 days old. And he has already visited the emergency room more times than his mom (well at least to admit herself, I was there with him both times he had to go!) Last Saturday we went to my mom's house and she promptly informed us that he was really yellow and we needed to take him to see someone. He had been slightly jaundice at birth but not enough for them to treat it. Of course it is Saturday at like 6:00 in the evening, so when I call the pediatrician, he tells me to go and get his bilirubin levels checked at the hospital. The doctor called us that night to let us know that his levels were REALLY high and that he would call us in the morning to see how many times he pooped during the night. In the morning we had to go back to the emergency room to have his levels checked again and then over to our pediatrician's office to have him checked out. At the office our doctor told us that he would be going on the lights and he was really excited because he had worked the whole thing out himself!! This was Sunday so his office was closed but he managed to get the lights set up through the home health people and to have it through the proper insurance and everything all without any staff (this is a major accomplishment for most doctors) So we went home and these people came and delivered the lights. And then our baby became a glow worm!

He pretty much hated the bilibed (yes it has a real name!) But after two full days of it, he was discharged and the people came to pick up the bed. He was happy to see it go, as was I because no one was getting very good sleep with it here!

On Friday, Ryan developed some weird thing in his eye, so yes, we went to the doctor. By this time I am feeling like some idiot first time mom. Most people just leave the hospital and see their doctor for the two week visit -- I've already been there three times and my two week visit is on Tuesday! Anyway, turns out he has conjunctivitis (not sure if I'm spelling that right) and now he has drops. Which he also hates. We really like our doctor, and he reassured me that at least every time we have come in, it has been for a real issue. I'll be glad to just see him at our scheduled appointment though!

Ryan has also been getting a lot of packages. We really appreciate all of the gifts that have been sent to him. The funniest one by far is this

UPS sent us this blanket with all of Ryan's info and their logo on it. We love UPS and we always laugh so hard at them, of course they would put their logo on a gift for a baby. It's a really nice blanket but we still think it's funny.

This pic is for Tara, this was the day after we got back from the hospital so we didn't really go very far. But we did use the mosquito net accessory and the breezy sun canopy so that he could get a little sun on his face. (That was because of the mild jaundice, but clearly it did nothing to help and he had to be treated later!)

We will post more pics later, and hopefully we won't have anymore stories involving sickness!

Ryan Matthew Calloway

Well, I had the baby! I had to be induced due to low amniotic fluid. There were no signs that I was having a problem, my OB ordered an ultrasound to estimate the size of the baby on Wednesday. I went in and by the time I left their office I was told that I needed to stop working (I had been at work that morning and was planning on returning) and that I needed to rest, come back on Friday and see if things had improved or else I would need to be induced. These instructions were given by a doctor in the practice but not my actual doctor as she was on call in the hospital that day. I returned home and I was not happy about staying home sitting around for two weeks, when my OB called from the hospital, she said that after reviewing the information, she determined that I needed to be induced, THAT DAY. Sheesh!

So Matt and I went down to the hospital Wednesday night, I had to be given some medicine to get things ready for the next morning when I would begin my pitocin at 6:00am.

The baby was born Thursday evening at 6:53, after less than an hour of pushing, weighing in at 6 lbs, 13 oz. Smaller than most people were expecting. He is 20 inches long and has a head full of black hair (as pictured). We named him Ryan Matthew Calloway (hope you don't mind Ryan Salmon).

The hospital stay was long because I was there for a night before and then two nights after. John and Lindy came to visit and John did a great blog which makes me feel as though I shouldn't complain about my stay that much ;) It really wasn't that bad but we were looking forward to coming home.

Our first family picture taken right after Ryan was born.


Being weighed and measured.


At the hospital

So, Rob, yes you are an uncle, and you can be an uncle for your friends kids!! I will post some more pictures later because I know that is all everyone wants anyway!

In Summary

Well it is most definately time for a new post. We try to be more up to date, and I even think at times that I will blog about a particular thing, but then when I don't I want to catch up and it gets so overwhelming with all of the things that I would like to blog about....Now I am sitting here after a month and a half and I can't seem to remember anything that I wanted to say.

Hmmm, here are some of the pics I took in the last little while, hopefully this will jog my memory.

This picture is from the Faith Hill Tim McGraw concert that Matt and I went to. I took this picture for a few reasons. FIRST OF ALL, just because your famous doesn't mean that you can wear a unitard. She was wearing a ONEPIECE white outfit, it was NOT flattering. Ummm hello, isn't there someone whose entire job it is to pick out outfits for her to wear. AND she didn't do a costume change, SHE JUST KEPT WEARING IT. WHAT??? Then, in this picture you will notice that there are two people on stage, Faith and oh wait, what's that guys name that is NOT Tim. It seems as though all of their family and friends live here in Atlanta. Faith was talking to her brother and a bunch of her friends during the concert, which is FINE, but then she called this dude up on stage with her to sing...what a way to ruin the song. I guess he is some friend of hers from Atlanta, first of all he is a shrimp (see the photo) and HE CAN'T SING. To say the least the concert was good, not great, but good. Tim was MUCH better than Faith, which I was surprised by because I really like her...hmmm. Anyways, moving on.

I had two baby showers this month. These are some pictures from one of them. That cake was cute and also totally delicious!! Both showers were very fun and the baby got a TON of stuff. We still haven't unpacked all of it, as we are still trying to figure out where to put it all even though it is weeks later.



This picture is taken a week later after we had put tons of stuff away...as you can see we are still struggling to get everything put away. The funniest story is this. My boss gave us this very fancy stroller, it does everything. It has all of these features and it comes with a 44 page instruction manual and a DVD on how to use it....She put it together and gave it to me assembled, so I made Matt bring it in assembled because I didn't know how to fold it down and obviously we wanted to bring it inside. Well lets just say that during the course of trying to learn how to fold it down, I learned how to adjust the suspension, inflate the tires, change position of the handlebar and extend the handlebar....but I still couldn't collapse the thing. FINALLY, after reading almost the entire manual and watching the DVD, I figure it out. In my defense the manual begins assuming that the stroller isn't already put together, so I don't think I am a total idiot. My boss also gave us almost all of the accessories that you can get, they each come with their own manual...haven't read any of those yet. The manual also encourages you to practice each feature so that you will easily be able to do it when the time comes. Seems as though I need more practice because when I tried to show John how it works (I knew he would like it, as it is an engineering masterpiece) I was unable to get it from collapsed to open. How embarrassing. He wanted to help me, but we both figured that I should be able to do it on my own. I finally got it and this time it only took a minute or two, but I will be practicing more...

Not too much else is going on, yesterday John and Lindy and Anya came over as well as my parents and Sara. We were doing some work on the baby's room and John and Lindy somehow were roped into helping, they really came up to have lunch with us but we put them to work. We also had Anya take some of the toys for a test drive. She seems to like them and played with them for a fair amount of time...hopefully we will be so lucky with our own child.

We ate lunch at Carribean Feista, this is Sara's FAVORITE restuarant and it is authentic...which is code for kind of weird food. They serve ox tail soup and other delights. The food is really spicy, it isn't toned down for American's. Lindy enjoyed some goat, which the guy sold to her as lamb, but after we realized he probably didn't know what mutton meant. I didn't eat any of the food because it was a little too spicy for me right now...so if you want a review you'll have to wait and hope that John and Lindy post one, or possibly Sara but she loves that place so her review may be biased. We did think that our cousin JASON should come a visit us and that we would take him there...this is a hint to Jason and Shannon to bring their cute daughter with them and come and visit us...we will make it a fun trip!

Well this blog is long enough, it makes up for the few that I have been missing though. I will try to post again soon, but I make no promises!