11/17/08

2 Week Check-up


Last Friday I took Carilyn in for her two week well-baby check-up.  Here are her stats...

Weight - 8lb 6oz (75th Percentile)
Lenght - 21 inches (50th Percentile)
I didn't get the size of her head, but it was also in the 75th percentile

She is a great eater and sleeper and we can't be more blessed with a wonderful baby girl.  

11/13/08

She has arrived!

Here are some photo's of our new little one.  She is an angel and our transition from one to two kids has been a blessing so far.  Hope you enjoy looking and listening like we did.  

This is mommy early in labor on Halloween night.  We were hoping that our baby girl would be here soon, but she had a different plan.






This was mommy over 12 hours later and our baby girl still wasn't here.  We had started talking about a C-section at this point and as you can see, I was exhausted!





Here we are in the operating room.   This was taken at about 2pm on November 1st.  We were anxious to see our little girl!







First moments of life for Carilyn Jane at 2:10pm on November 1, 2008.







Meeting Mom for the first time.  

Carilyn and I had to get antibiotics after her delivery because I had a fever through most of my labor.  The doctors took her to the nursery to get an IV and Keagan went with her as they finished my C-section.



Here's Keagan finally in our postpartum room where we were able to enjoy a few moments together.  







First family photo.  Andrew and Michelle had brought Quarton  by Saturday evening to meet Carilyn and he enjoyed being the big brother.  Keagan then went home with Quarton to put him to bed.  My nurse, Brandi, that first night in the hospital was a blessing to have.  She took care of Carilyn while I was able to get some rest.  She would bring Carilyn in when it was time to eat and then would take her back out to the nurses station.  I believe it was a slow weekend for them.  Only one other family was in the postpartum rooms so the nurses weren't too busy.  




Here she is getting ready to go home with Mommy and Daddy.









Last couple of pictures before we leave the hospital.

10/24/08

Month of September..

Well since October is almost over, I guess I should update you on what's been happening since I last posted a message.  

The month of September was a busy one and I don't know where the month went.  It started out as Keagan left for his hunting trip with our Minister Deryl.  They were headed north of Kotzebu out in the middle of no where.  Keagan was wanting to hunt for Caribou mainly, but if a big enough Moose or Grizzly Bear came by he wasn't going to pass it up.  Keagan and Deryl left on the 1st of September and returned to Anchorage on the 10th.  They both had a successful hunt with Keagan getting a Caribou, Moose, and Grizzly and Deryl got a Grizzly and Caribou.  
While Keagan was on his hunting trip, Randy and Donna flew up here to visit with Quarton.  I was headed to Illinois for my ten year high 
school class reunion.  It was a quick trip to Illinois, but I had 
a great time visiting with
 old friends.  


Keagan returned from his hunting trip only to leave again a few days later to go run the Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH.  He was running the race with his cousin, Aaron, who had been training along with Keagan since January.  Keagan was able to see his parents and had a great time running the race with Aaron.  

8/15/08

28 Week Doctors Appointment

Yesterday we all attended my OB appointment.  In the Women's Health Clinic you don't have a specific doctor that you see every appointment.  They have three Nurse Practitioners and three Midwives.  Yesterday we saw a Midwife which we liked out of all four doctors we've seen.  I can request to see her again, but when it comes time to deliver, you get whoever is on call that day/night.  So I might as well continue to see all of them.

As far as the appointment went, everything checked out okay.  The babies heart rate is in the low 140's, she seems to be sitting head down with her bottom off to my right side, and my uterus is measuring 29 cm which is right on track.  My blood pressure was 111/62, thyroid level was normal, and I don't have gestational diabetes.  My weight gain is good.  My next appointment will be at 32 weeks.

8/12/08

Happenings this past week.




This past week has been a hectic week for us here in the McLeese household.  

Keagan was able to make it back from Guam two Saturday's ago, on time.  We had a great time going to see him fly a F-22 in and meet him out on the taxi-way where they park the jets.  Quarton thought it was the coolest thing on earth!  Unfortunately, my camera was out of batteries after I swapped out charged batteries (or so I thought I did).  I go to turn the camera on as we were walking o
ut to the jet and it didn't even come on.  A friend of ours caught a picture as Keagan picked up Quarton to give him a hug.  It was nice of her to do that for us and we appreciate the picture.  

Keagan took the next week off from work to have some time at home with us and to help the Sailer's get ready to leave if they needed us.  Last Monday and Tuesday were busy for them trying to get everything organized and packed to do a "trial run" of actually getting it all in the vehicle.  Everything seemed to fit the night before, but as they kept finding odds and ends here in the house, their Explorer soon was filled.  Wednesday morning was a sad day for all of us.  I think I cried for the whole morning, just thinking about how my good friend didn't live down the street anymore.  It also didn't help that Keagan was sad also because he wouldn't seen Tyson around the squadron or get to fly with him.  It took Keagan to get us all up and out of the house to find something to eat for lunch.  Once we got out and about the day seemed to get a little easier, but we still miss our friends, The Sailer's.  

As the week progressed Quarton began to realize that Jack and Trinity weren't coming over 
everyday let alone living with us anymore.  It took him a couple of days to realize that they weren't around, but he is surprisingly dealing with it quite well.  I think that we've made it such a big deal that Jack and Trinity get to move to a new house with new rooms and yard to play in that he's happy for them.   

In the midst of all of this our neighborhood is under construction.  Like they always have said, there are two season's in Alaska, winter and construction.  We have had poor drainage in our neighbor hood since they built it and are now taking care of the problem.  Two good things have come of this...Quarton loves to watch all the "diggers" and "bulldozers"  tear up the road, and we haven't had hardly any traffic on our street.  We are hoping that the drainage will get fixed and our sump pump (sp?) won't have to run as much during September, the rainy season, and in the spring when everything begins to melt.  

On a side note, we are all doing great here.  I have a doctor's appointment this Thursday and I will update you all on Friday how that went.   This past Sunday I was informed that I needed to get a registry started somewhere so the church ladies could give us a baby shower.  So we are registered at JCPenny and Babies R Us.  We really don't need much other than girl clothes, which aren't hard to come by, and maybe some blankets and any other cute pink stuff we can find.  I now know why we didn't have a girl first because we would be broke and living on the street after buying all the cute little girl stuff.  We are all getting anxious for the arrival of her, but we still have a lot to do before she arrives.  

Well I will be signing off for now and until next time...take care and God bless.

8/1/08

The beginning of blogs...


So I've decided to join the "blogs" and begin to write about the McLeese family happenings.  As I begin to write this message we are nearing the end to a great time with the Sailer's in Alaska.  Both Tyson and Keagan should be returning from their deployment this weekend.  Then the Sailer's will begin to pack up for their PCS to Tyndall AFB, Florida.  

I can't begin to tell you what great friends they have been to us.  This isn't going to be a "good-bye", but a "see you later" here in a few days.  We know that someday we will be back together especially since the F-22 community is fairly small and we have a limited amount of bases to go to.  

For now I will sign off.  I just wanted to get something posted for our friends and family to read about.  Here's a picture of the three little angels who have been living together since July 9th.  Hope everyone is doing well and I will be keeping in touch.

In Christ, 
The McLeese Family