Devin, Melia, Eli & Genevieve: November 2009

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Making Weight!

Well, Eli is 2 weeks and 3 days old. On Friday he had his 2 week doctor appointment and though it was exciting, we've been to the doctors so many times that the magic is pretty much gone. But Eli is back up to his birth weight (7 lbs) which is very exciting! He's in the 10% for weight for boys his age. He's actually shrunk since he was born - now he's 20 1/4 inches long (he was born 21 inches) which makes him in the 28%. And his head is 35 1/2 cm around - 24%. Yep, we have a pretty little baby boy but he's healthy and happy and that makes us happy.

For only being 2 weeks old, Eli has had a pretty eventful life... which means that we've had a pretty eventful 2 weeks. He's had 2 ultrasounds, 1 x-ray, been on "bedrest" while he was jaundice (but what baby's not on bedrest!), had blood drawn from his little arm, and 6 or 7 eventful heel pricks to draw blood. He's been to visit his pediatrician 4 times and has peed on 4 people (1 was standing about 5 feet away... that's my boy!), 2 blankets, 1 changing table, 1 changing pad, and lots of diapers and outfits. See, like I said, he's had a pretty awesome and evenful life! Eli is really a good baby though. He only cries when he needs something or when he doesn't want to fall asleep. He eats a lot - we aim for every 3-4 hours but sometimes end up with only 1 1/2. We're finally getting a hang of the whole nursing thing and I'm grateful for that. So things are going well for Eli!

Devin has been really busy playing catch-up with work and school. I guess that's what you get for taking some time off to have a baby! I'm busy just taking care of Eli all day. I know that it might sound totally lame, but I am SO GLAD that I don't have a job. I don't know if I could handle Eli and work responsibilities... so way to go all you moms who can do it all, I know that I couldn't. So, that's pretty much it for us. Hope to find you all as happy as we are!

Sleeping Baby! He does this a lot!

Nakie Baby!

The light is so bright!

We have a bunch of these "Got Milk" onesies. I think they're really cute.

This is from Eli's first bath. Well it was a sponge bath, cause his umbillical cord still hasn't fallen off, but it still counts right?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Eli's Coming!!!

Eli Glenn DuPree is here!!! We went to the hospital last Thursday, November 5th, at 5:30am for Melia to be induced. They started the pitocin at 7:00am and Melia started having contractions right away, but had to wait until 10:00am to get the epidural. She has decided that she will never have a baby without an epidural - it was a life saver! The whole thing seemed to go rather quickly. The doctor came in to check her at 12:30pm and decided it was time for the baby to come. Melia only had to push a few times and the doctor used the vacuum extractor and Eli was here by 12:44pm. He had the cord wrapped around his neck twice, but the doctor caught it quick and it wasn't a problem. Here is Eli right after he was born.

And here he is a little happier.

Here is the whole family right after Eli was born.

Eli was born 7 pounds 0 ounces and 21 inches long.

He's a good lookin' guy. Check him out.

We found out yesterday that Eli has jaundice, so he has to stay on his baby tanning bed for a few days. The bed has lights that help his little body break up the bilirubin in his blood, so that he won't be yellowy any more. Here he is on his tanning bed.

And here he is at a rave! This is his bed with the other lights off.

Melia's brother and his family visited this last weekend and Melia's Mom has been staying with us for this first week and has been helping out a lot. It was really good to have all of them here. We had a bit of a scare yesterday. Eli has cephalohemotoma (blood pockets on his head) from being sucked out of Mom. This is normal for babies that are helped out of the womb, but after an x-ray yesterday the doctors were worried that his head might still be bleeding inside or have blood in the wrong place. We're going in today for an ultra-sound to make sure that all is well, but it looks like everything is normal and the blood should dissolve on its own. Both Melia and Eli seem to be doing well and getting better each day. Our only worry is for all of the women that will have their hearts broken by this fine-lookin' man! We are apparently not the only ones that are worried about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdpEyxS0988

Sunday, November 1, 2009

One last picture...

This picture is for Ashley and all those who keep asking to see pictures of me from the side. Sorry it's not cute and that I'm wearing a baggy sweatshirt but schwhatev - this will just have to do!

Baby is on His Way!

Devin's cohort (the group of 8 students starting the MFT Master's program this year) threw a baby shower for us. We called it a baby bbq so that the guys could come too. We tied our shoes with balloons in our shirts, freed teething rings from ice, looked at melted candy bars in diapers, ate baby food, wrapped Melia's belly with toilet paper, and stuck paper binkies to a paper baby. We also ate a lot and got a lot of presents. In this picture, Devin has a balloon in his shirt... fyi.

I, however, don't have a balloon in my shirt. I've also decided that I don't need too many pictures of me pregnant.

Oh! We have good news!!! We decided at my last doctor's appointment to be induced this coming Thursday, November 5th. So, everyone pray that all will go well. We are so excited to not have to wait too much longer! He will be here soon! And hopefully he will have a name!

A New Job for Devin???

As many stories begin, I really wanted a pedicure, but I didn't want to pay for one. Thanks to the basketball sized baby inside my stomach, Devin agreed to give me a pedicure.

He concentrated more than I have ever seen anyone concentrate while painting toenails with hotpink nailpolish.

Apparently, concentration is not the key to a good pedicure!

Goodbye Idaho, Hello Texas!

So, we are slowly becoming Texans. They don't take you in all at once - they slowly push, shape, and change everything about you... or at least your car. We finally registered our car and got our new Texas license plates (not actual plates in pictures). Devin was pretty upset about it. If the car looks clean to you, that's because we just washed it for the first time in a long time.

Melia put on a sad face to suppport Devin's misery - she really doesn't care about Idaho (where the wind blows, the snow stacks, and it all smells like cows). That surprisingly sounds a lot like Lubbock, except for the snow part!

Welcome to our New Home!

It has taken 2 weeks, but we now have all of our stuff put away and finally took pictures for everyone to see the new house. Here is Melia waving in front of the right side of the house.

And here is Melia waving in front of the left side of the house.

Here is our living room (we are waiting for baby pictures to help cover the walls).

Here is the other half of the living room from the front door. This is the true character of the house (other than Devin). The white bookshelf-looking thing is actually a small cutout into the kitchen. Devin sticks his head through to watch TV while we're cooking sometimes.

Through the doorway on the right of this previous picture is a small hallway (it's just a normal hallway, so we didn't take picture) that leads to the kitchen (the humongous refrigerator came with the house),

the bathroom (it's the ugliest part of the house, but the showerhead has great water pressure),

and the two bedrooms. The first two pictures are where we sleep. We sleep on the bed; not in the crib - that's for when the baby gets here. We're planning on painting our room a different color sometime. Devin's favorite part of the second bedroom is the inflatable duck baby bathtub with temperature sensitive spot to make sure the water isn't too hot! Melia thinks the coolest part of the tub is that the beak quacks when you squeeze it (the Munchkin baby bathtub is available at Target)!

Through a door in the kitchen is our garage with our new washer and dryer (so nice to have!).

And from the garage you can go into the backyard, complete with a giant shed and doghouse (Devin hasn't had to sleep there yet).

You can't see how great the house is from these pictures, so you all need to visit. Just let us know when you will be coming. And bring your own air mattress!!! Unless there is just one of you coming - then you can sleep on the couch looking futon in the living room.

Devin, Melia, Eli & Genevieve