New baby

We've had a crazy couple of weeks, but we have our cute and healthy baby Lydia at home with us. Jen went into labor 3 1/2 weeks early on the night of August 18th. We showed up at the hospital around 2 am. My parents were going to be our babysitters when we went to the hospital, but they were unfortunately still on a cruise in Alaska, so my sisters and brothers-in-law helped us out a ton until Jen's parents could fly in from Denver. Lydia Teija Porter was born a few minutes before noon, right in the middle of a huge rainstorm.

There were a lot of similarities to Jacob's birth. She weighed about the same (6 pounds 10 oz; Jacob was 6 pounds 4 oz), had the same breathing difficulties early on, and was whisked off to the NICU for evaluation. The doctors ended up saying she had "a touch of pneumonia" and prescribed 7 days of antibiotics, during which time she would need to stay in the NICU. After Jacob's 10-day stay when he was born, this was a piece of cake to us, and Lydia improved faster than Jacob did. She was on oxygen for a few days but then did fine without it, and she was released from the hospital a week after being born. Compared to some of the other 2 and 3 pound babies we saw in the NICU, she was lucky.

Jacob has turned out to be a very nice big brother and has been asking to hold her. He is always trying to share things with her - at first he tried to give her food but I think we finally got the message through that she only drinks milk.

In the NICU with oxygen

In her nose is a feeding tube, which they used a little until she could eat on her own

with great Grandpa & Grandma Porter

Strawberry hat from Finland

Jacob looking huge again