Three Weeks Old

Little Ephraim turned three weeks old on Friday! It is so crazy that he has been in our lives for that long. On Thursday we went back to the doctor's office for a weight check. The poor guy has been to the doctor's a minimum of two times a week since he has been born. He gained three ounces this week - which is less than he is supposed to, but more than he gained last week. I think we are going to throw a small party when he reaches 7 pounds.


He is getting very expressive lately - even though I know he is not smiling at me on purpose - it is still so much fun to see his big grin.






Forrest worked like crazy this past week - two 14 hour days, so I snapped a picture of him and Ephraim getting some quality time.

A visit from the Brownlees

Last weekend we were lucky to be visited by Merrick, Hannah, and Grace. It was fun to spend time with them. One of my favorite things about the Brownlee's is that they are so laid back. Forrest had to work all weekend, and Ephraim and I are still working on him eating - but Merrick and Hannah had no problem just hanging out on our couch, playing with Wallis and getting some quality Super Monkey Ball time. It was crazy to see how big Gracie is, knowing that she started out smaller than Ephraim - it's hard to imagine that he will ever be that big! We are looking forward to getting to spend more time with them this summer as we all hang out on the Willamette River.

A new blog!

I am very excited that my sister Colleen has started a new blog! Click on the Erik and Colleen link on the right. My nieces are way too cute for words, and I am excited to see all of their pictures.

Finally some pictures!

Sorry it has taken us so long to post some more pictures! It has been a little crazy here. Ephraim has just started to get the hang of eating in the last 48 hours. Coming home from the hospital, he didn't really know how to suck, so we have been using a supplemental nursing system (SNS) to help him get some food. We would feed him every three hours (it took two people and took an hour) and then I would pump for 1/2 an hour after that. Needless to say, we have been a little tired. Thankfully Ephraim has begun to not need the SNS as much and our feeding times have been cut down. I will post more pictures later!

He's SO little!

His "I'm hungry" face.

Ephraim and mom.

His pensieve look.

Snuggled up on daddy on our first day home.

First family photo.

More baby pics

What, no new baby pics? Nope not yet!

Sure, its 1:23 in the morning and even in my partial state of stupor I might be able to reach into the camera bag, pull out the memory card, walk next door to the office load the photos onto our computer, log into this site and post a new blog similar to this one only with pics added using the handy "Add image" button. But nah, I'm going to sit here in the nursery on my laptop typing this, for lack of a thesaurus, useless post, while Amy feeds Ephraim then I'll stumble back to bed hoping to not trip over the dog on my way.

Oh and he just peed all over the changing pad, his blanket, the changing table, and the wall. Kids' got skillz! Good thing Grandpa was smart and put plenty of coats of finish on the changing table he made.

A little early

Ephraim Alvis Arnold

Born 6:04 pm 4/4/08

Weight: 6lbs 12oz

Length: 20 in

Baby and mother are both doing fine. We should be leaving the hospital sometime tomorrow (4/5).

A guessing game

Things have been rather exciting for the Arnold family the past 24 hours. Yesterday morning I went into my weekly appointment and was told there was not really any progress. No big deal - I'm only 37 weeks. Over the weekend I switched to injecting myself with Heparin (due to its shorter life span than the Lovenox I have been on). It was a major hassle to get the Heparin and three pharmacies later I had enough Heparin to get me through tomorrow. I told my doc and he started to have his nurse look into things. They called me yesterday afternoon and said that they could not find Heparin anywhere and that after consulting with a maternal-fetal specialist, they decided we should have the baby.

Fast forward to this morning. Forrest and I went to the hospital to have an amnio to check on baby's lung maturity. They monitored me for over an hour to make sure everything was fine and then sent me home. Forrest and I ran some errands and received a call saying baby's lungs are mature and that we are "on call" with the hospital. As soon as the hospital is ready for me, I will go in tonight to begin thinning my cervix and then tomorrow morning they will induce me.

Now, onto the guessing game. We already know that we are having a boy - so make a guess about the time, length, and weight and the winner will get some sort of fabulous prize!