10 days of captivity

Late the 2nd day they let Riley out of the nursery to come to our room but he still had all the wires and monitors attached. At least we got to hold him and take care of him on our own even it if did mean having to deal with lots of cords and machines beeping at us when something would accidentally come loose. Thankfully after 3 days they took all the montiors off and we just had to deal with the IV.

Riley ended up having to stay in the hospital for 10 days so he could get anti-biotics through an IV. Thankfully the hospital let me "room-in" which basically meant I used one of their rooms like a hotel room so I could stay with Riley. I stayed up there the entire 10 days except 2 short outings (one to see Sara and one to get some "real" food)
Here are some pictures I took during our 10 days of captivity.

Our First Family Portrait

Because of some problems with his lungs, Riley had to stay in the nursery for closer observation and testing for the first couple days. It was really hard to see him hooked up to all the wires and to be without him but we went to visit him really often. The nurse was nice enough to disconnect Riley from some of the monitors temporarily so we could hold him for a bit. Janine snapped this first family portrait for us.

Here are some pictures of him in the nursery.

Introducing Riley Wendell Pickens

Riley decided he was going to come 3 and a half weeks early! Maybe he just really wanted to be born on the same day as Aidan so they could definitely be best buds from the start.

He also came really fast. My water broke at about 2:30 am and Riley was born at 10:26 am. Labor went so quickly and smoothly I didn't have time to really even think about getting an epidural which was good because I was planning on doing it without one anyway. The whole thing happened so fast that it really seemed completely unreal. He is absolutely beautiful and it looks like he might even end up having red hair!

So here he is. Riley Wendell Pickens. Born September 26th, 2008 at 10:26 AM.
He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.

Finished Baby Room

Painting the mural for the baby room took forever but it was so worth it! (Although I never plan to paint a mural again) For more pics click here.