What can I say that hasn't already been said. My sister came this week and I am so happy. I was there during the delivery and will always be there for her when she needs me. I am her big brother and that makes me very happy.

I had fun at the hospital while waiting for my sister. My mom and dad packed me up a Big Brother Bag that included some goodies for me including a few coloring books, crayons, a new toy and even a special lunch for me. My grandma was watching me a lot during the visit which was nice. We got to roam around the hallways and just do things at my own pace. I like to see the babies at the nursery.

My dad throughout the weekend was taking me back home to sleep. I began to rebel though after a while because I was sick of being put into my stroller or car seat. I fought and fought, oh and I screamed. I just wasn't going for it anymore. I wanted my mom to do it. Dad had a hard time with me getting situated but now I am back to normal it seems. The trick is that I want a Mary Poppins song playing while I get placed into the car seat. That isn't too difficult now is it?

The past couple of nights I have been able to sleep peacefully. My sister didn't even wake up at all last night so that was really good. She is a pretty quiet kiddo. When I'm in our family room and mom is in the kitchen, if Kaitlyn cries or chirps I like to go tell my mom. I'm like the little watchdog. Last night in the car though she was getting all crazy crying and I just couldn't take it anymore. I just had to blast out my own scream. I think I won that battle. I have a lot more experience making terrible noises.

That may be it for now. Have a great weekend and try to stay out of the scorching sun.

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What can I say that hasn't already been said. My sister came this week and I am so happy. I was there during the delivery and will always be there for her when she needs me. I am her big brother and that makes me very happy.

I had fun at the hospital while waiting for my sister. My mom and dad packed me up a Big Brother Bag that included some goodies for me including a few coloring books, crayons, a new toy and even a special lunch for me. My grandma was watching me a lot during the visit which was nice. We got to roam around the hallways and just do things at my own pace. I like to see the babies at the nursery.

My dad throughout the weekend was taking me back home to sleep. I began to rebel though after a while because I was sick of being put into my stroller or car seat. I fought and fought, oh and I screamed. I just wasn't going for it anymore. I wanted my mom to do it. Dad had a hard time with me getting situated but now I am back to normal it seems. The trick is that I want a Mary Poppins song playing while I get placed into the car seat. That isn't too difficult now is it?

The past couple of nights I have been able to sleep peacefully. My sister didn't even wake up at all last night so that was really good. She is a pretty quiet kiddo. When I'm in our family room and mom is in the kitchen, if Kaitlyn cries or chirps I like to go tell my mom. I'm like the little watchdog. Last night in the car though she was getting all crazy crying and I just couldn't take it anymore. I just had to blast out my own scream. I think I won that battle. I have a lot more experience making terrible noises.

That may be it for now. Have a great weekend and try to stay out of the scorching sun.

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(sorry for the poor quality)

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Today is my first day at work since I rushed home early on Friday to rush my wife to the hospital only to be turned away. I have a lot of catching up to do and a lot of questions to answer about my new daughter.

Here is a bit of recap from the weekend events. We went back into the hospital and got admitted in at 10:00pm on Friday. At 9:36am, Kaitlyn was with us. My wife progressed really quickly near the end and they began to notice that Kaitlyn's heartbeat was running at 200bpm and they wanted to rush her out. They prepped us by talking about the possible use of c-section and the suction tool. We just wanted her here healthy. They got everything ready for a normal birth and noticed that she was already crowning. It only took 2 pushes and Kaitlyn was here. Simply amazing.

They monitored her for an hour or so and watched her heart rate. At this time we really introduced Rylan to Kaitlyn. At first, he was a bit reluctant but quickly reached out for her hand while she was on the warming table. They held hands and you could tell he knew who she was.

Me and Rylan took off for a bit and let my wife get settled into her new postpartum room. We came back and Rylan picked up right where he had left off. He was kissing and hugging Kaitlyn like he was waiting for her arrival. He can't get enough of her.

We were out of the hospital about 24 hours and back home. Soon after we got back home, Kaitlyn was crying a bit and Rylan, being the helpful big brother that he is, went into our suitcase and got whatever he could to help her. He found the nose sucker which he must have thought she needed. Definitely a helpful brother already. We are working on getting him to be a good helper by getting diapers and wipes. He is transitioning really well.

The past 2 nights, Kaitlyn has woken up to feed and she gets a bit fussy at that time. With Rylan sleeping in our room as well we figured he would be woken up and he has. The first night he started angrily grunting and then came over to see what the commotion was about. Last night, he sat up for a second and after we told him that everything was OK, he went back to bed. Perfect.

Right now we are getting woken up every 3 hours or so for feeding and changing. This was about what we had with Rylan. We can live with this.

My wife had a terrible time at first feeding Rylan but is having a much easier time with Kaitlyn. The knowledge she learned before and now better expectations allow her to coop with it all much easier it seems. It was definitely one of the most difficult things about having Rylan and I am glad that she can have a bit easier time with Kaitlyn.

More updates as the days go on...

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Here is a play on the magic numbers related to Kaitlyn and how they add up. Let the crazy talk begin..

Birth time: 9:36am
Weight: 8lb 4oz
Length: 21in

[(9*3)+(6+8-4)](21)=777

777 the same as her birthday. *cue the eerie music*

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Friday 11:00am - We headed to the hospital because my wife was bleeding. They sent us home after her doctor told the hospital that she had stripped the membranes which would have caused the bleeding. This stripping of the membranes never did happen though, We were sent home with instructions to drink more water to stop the 3-6 minute contractions. She is at 1cm dilation.

Friday 10:00pm - We head back to the hospital because my wife's contractions have increased in strength and timing.

Friday 10:20pm - My wife is taken back for exam. They determine she is having contractions every 3 minutes and she is now 3cm dilated.

Friday 11:20pm - My wife is admitted into the labor and delivery floor and is given a private room.

Saturday 1:00am - She is given an epidural to help with the severe contractions. She is still at 3cm dilation.

Saturday 2:00am - Me and Rylan head home for a few hours of sleep while my wife's mother is helping her at the hospital.

Saturday 6:50am - She has been at 3cm for about 10 hours now. They have given her Pitocin to get things really going.

Saturday 8:00am - Me and Rylan get back to the hospital. My wife is now at 5cm dilation.

Saturday est9:00am - I stepped out of the room to get my wife some ice chip and when I returned the doctor was telling her that she was 7-8cm dilation.

Saturday 9:20am - The doctor tells us that our daughters heart rate is high at 200 and they need to get the baby out quickly. They go over the possibilities of c-section and use of the vacuum.

Saturday 9:36am - Kaitlyn is born amazingly fast. They had gotten the table setup and my wife all situated and they quickly noticed the babies head was already showing. After 2 pushes, Kaitlyn was here.

Kaitlyn's heart rate remained high so they were a bit worried but after an hour it had decreased. Rylan was cautious at first but soon warmed up to here. He grabbed for her hand while she was on the table and they held hands for about 3 minutes. He is fascinated by her and loves to be next to her. She has even gotten a few kisses from him already.

My wife is doing great. Bit thirsty and tired but otherwise in great condition. The delivery was perfect.

Pictures should be coming soon...

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Well of course this weeks main focus was the firework displays that we saw. I had a good time watching the fireworks and I really liked the big loud ones. I kept looking behind me though because the bangs were really loud there. My dad tells me it was the sound bouncing off of the walls. He is smart. As for the fireworks themselves, we had fun but I think I like the fireworks at Disneyland much better. They have fireworks that they shoot up to make it look like Mickey's head. No show here will ever do that.

Dad and I have been having a lot of fun lately. We have been trying a new game where he sits on the floor near the couch and I jump off the couch into his arms. I could do this for hours. Sometimes I get to the edge of the couch and just fall off and sometimes I get of a running start and leap off. Every time seems to be more fun than the last. It is teaching me how to jump which is fun too. Dad put me on the ground after this and showed me how to jump but all I could do was stretch out my body as much as possible. Mom sure got a good laugh.

So the heat over here is scorching. I think it was up to 116F the other day. That is simply ridiculous. It seems to take the car a bazillion years to fully cool down and then you have the fight the heat of the sun. Talk about terrible. We try not to drive but sometimes it's just necessary. I sure never look forward to it though.

Yesterday my mom had another baby checkup and everything is still looking OK. The doctor said that my sister was going to be a bigger than I was maybe.. hmmm Mom just woke up and called my dad to have him drive us to the hospital. I just got back now, just in time to finish writing this review. They say everything is OK and that the problems she is having was because the doctor stripped her membranes yesterday. We are a bit cautious though because the Dr. did not actually do this so we are a bit confused. We are all watching mom closely.

I think thats it for this week. I am going to go monitor my mom like a hawk. We'll let you know if anything changes. Have a good weekend.

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We decided this year, due to work schedules, that we would check out one of the July 3rd events. A nearby city was throwing a big celebration so we figured we would check it out. We were hoping for a big celebration including food, activities and then the fireworks finale but that wasn't really the case.

We got there a few hours before the scheduled fireworks and not until after we got in did we realize that it was pretty boring and not too many events or food to enjoy. The most difficult part was there were no strollers allowed so we knew we were going to have a fun time with Rylan. We walked around for a bit and decided to get some overpriced concession food. Rylan wasn't too interested in this though and just wanted to walk around.

Somehow we blew a couple hours before the fireworks started. We headed up to the grandstands to watch and found a seat near the exit so we could bail out quickly in hopes of beating the rush. Rylan continued to be restless while watching the fireworks. He didn't know if he wanted to sit down or stand up. He enjoyed a few of the big fireworks but wasn't too interested in the smaller ones. I taught him how to say Boom! and he immediately picked up on that which was fun for us. We took off before their finale but still managed to get stuck in some heavy traffic. Despite drinking water, we were all dehydrated trying to fight off the 110F heat at night.

We didn't have anything planned for the actual 4th of July so we just headed to the store to run our normal errands. As we returned home we noticed some fireworks going off nearby so we took a slight detour to show Rylan. He was immediately interested in pointing out the fireworks but that quickly died off again. He seems to have a short attention span when it comes to fireworks. Maybe he just doesn't want to get stuck in traffic. Smart kiddo.

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My wife was having a rough pregnancy day on Saturday so it was my job to make sure that Rylan didn't wake her up. We played downstairs for a bit and quickly realized that Rylan would prefer to pick at my wife somehow rather than reading a book. I figured this was a great opportunity to reintroduce the good ol' secret fort.

I took Rylan upstairs and got out our largest bed sheet. We currently have Rylan's bed in our room so I draped the sheet from our bed to his. Using a bit of props, I got it to stay up and I showed Rylan how to get inside. He was thrilled like before. I figured it would be a good idea to have some of Rylan's friends over as well so I grabbed Mickey and put him next to him.

Rylan, the smart guy that he is, decided he would like to introduce all of his buddies to this new secret fort. He went out and grabbed Pooh bear and brought him back in. We gathered the rest of his stuffed toys including Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie. We had the whole Disney crew hanging out in the secret fort. We were all in heaven.

I grabbed a few books and Rylan was now interested in reading them with me. He stepped out a few times to grab a few more books himself. We laid there for quite a bit just reading books. What a great weekend.

Rylan's good mood stayed through the rest of the day as we went out shopping, eating and even the play area. This may have been the best day for Rylan in months. We had dinner at home and Rylan was given some pie as a treat to finish off the day. It was a great day and just overall relaxing like the weekend should be.

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