Liberty Park

Liberty Park is one of my favorite places to visit in the summer because of all the ducks and geese you can feed. The last 2 times we have driven into Salt Lake to try to feed the ducks have been unsuccessful so we were happy to see that there was actually water in the pond and that there were no crazy hippy fests going on! We took Jayda for the first time and she is just like her mama. She loved it and was fearless.

What a great way to spend some family time together on Bryce's only day off that week.

Newborn photo shoot

Newborn pictures are my favorite thing. I searched the internet a lot and found a photographer who was cheap and that had really great pictures so I was really excited to schedule a photo shoot with Ashley at Miles of Memories Photography. She took these pictures in her home and we are really happy with how they turned out. The only thing I wish is that babies looked like newborns a little longer, they change so fast that you have to get their pictures taken within the first week or so and I was still really swollen even in my face. It's not about me though right? Right.
Jayda didn't want to have her pictures taken so we were lucky to even get these two pictures with her and her brother.

2 week stats

Bentley had his 2 week appointment today. He was able to get rid of the blue light last Thursday and the Dr says he is looking good. I think these 2 week appointments are probably just as much for the mothers as they are to check on the babies. I have all of these fears (probably irrational) that were nice to be able to talk to a doctor about and have them pacified. Newborns are always a little scary, but with the whole jaundice thing I have been extra paranoid.
Bentley seems to be pretty opposite of Jayda in his features so far. His nose is a little bigger, his chin is a little bigger, his cheeks are MUCH smaller, his ears are shaped differently and are pinned back more and his hair is lighter. He is also on the small end of the spectrum where Jayda was on the larger end. His 2 week stats are:

Weight- 7 pounds 12 ounces 23%
Height- 20 inches 18%
Head Circ- 13.8 inches 13%

This is Benltey's alien machine. It had to be plugged into an outlet at all times so we spent a lot of time holding him and watching movies.

Bentley smiles a lot and we were lucky enough to capture this one on camera. He is a lot like Jayda in that way so hopefully he will be a happy kid like she has been so far.

A Family of Four

We officially became a family of four on Sunday night August 7th at 3:19am. Bentley weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces and is 20 inches long. I started having contractions at 8:30pm. They were much more painful than the ones I had with Jayda and they were every 3 to 4 minutes. We waited for about an hour and then decided that we definitely needed to go to the hospital. We dropped Jayda off at my parent's house and checked into LDS at 11pm. They made me wait for an hour to see if they were going to keep me. When that hour was up I had progressed from a 3+ to a 4+ so luckily I got to stay. My contractions were so painful I would have cried if they had sent me home. After that I got my epidural and Dr K broke my water at 1:30am. Everything went very quickly after that. I was progressing so fast that Bentley's heart rate would drop down to 90 each time I had a contraction and they were having a hard time finding his heartbeat so they put oxygen on me and stuck a heart rate monitor in his head. This made me very nervous but I tried to stay calm so it wouldn't affect him even more. In 15 minutes I went from a 6 to an 8 and then within the next fifteen minutes I pushed 3 times and that was it. He had his cord wrapped around his neck but Dr Kasteler was really calm about it and just quickly slipped it off.

The cute nurse on the left was 9 months pregnant herself and was supposed to be on bed rest. She was also working her first graveyard shift, poor thing.

Jayda loves her little brother and likes to hold him and know where he is at. She has adjusted extremely well and has acted like having a brand new baby at home is completely normal. We have been really grateful that the transition so far has been relatively easy for her. She is such a sweet big sister.

Just like Jayda, Bentley was borderline for jaundice when we left the hospital so we tried to give him some sun to help his levels. Unfortunately when we took him back two days later his levels had jumped from 8.8 to 17.4 and he had to be put on blue light phototherapy. We brought him back on Friday to check him again and hopefully get rid of the machine, but he had only dropped to a 16. I am grateful for the machine, but it makes things a little difficult when he has to be plugged into an outlet for the majority of the day. We are keeping our fingers crossed that on Monday he will be better.

We have had lots of visitors at home and at the hospital. I haven't been good about taking pictures of everyone, but we have really loved having everyone visit and are grateful for the meals and all of the support we have received.

Jayda's 2nd Birthday