Family Time

Hello from Hyrum, where we are thoroughly enjoying our newest family member. I kept saying how cool it would be for our baby girl to be born on 10/10/10 and, lo and behold, it actually happened. Right from the start she's been nothing but cooperative! Our day started bright and early when my water broke at 3:30 am. Brandon and I arrived at the hospital at ~7:30 am and had a relaxing and easy morning while my labor progressed. I got smart this time and opted to have an epidural. Once the epidural kicked in my labor went into high gear. A couple of hours and not very many pushes later, our baby girl was born. Unbelievably easy. You've probably already gotten all the stats, but for the record, Vivian Kayla Chard arrived at 1:12 in the afternoon. She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long. I might be a little bit biased, but I'm pretty sure she's absolutely perfect. She had a little bit of jaundice when we left the hospital on Tuesday and it got a little worse after our first day home, but then it got a little better. We think she's well on her way to being in the pink, but we can take her in for another bilirubin test on Monday if we're concerned.

We got home on Tuesday around noon and Mom and Pop arrived around 6 pm - so even though they weren't here when Vivian was born, they sure didn't miss much! Gavin seems to really like his baby sister. He wishes she was awake more and he's curious about and protective of her. When he was fawning over her yesterday, Papa took a picture of the two of them and Gavin yelled at him to stop taking pictures because the flash was too bright for Vivian (whose eyes were closed in slumber). Although he's enamored with his sister, he's also been doing plenty of new things (mostly naughty ones) to get attention. As much of a handful as he's been, he's still a pretty good kid. We went with Nana and Papa on Saturday to the gardener's market and Gavin got to see a few of his friends (and a few of our friends got to meet Vivian for the first time).
We don't have a whole lot planned for the coming week. A trip to the American West Heritage Center is on the list, and I'm going to enlist Papa to help with Gavin's Halloween costume. Nana has been a great help with dishes and cooking and laundry.

I can tell that I'm rambling, so I'll shut up and post a couple of pictures. I'll be adding more to the web album over the next few days as well. Vivian will need to eat again soon and then I hope to catch some zzz's. Goodnight, Family!