Bye Bye Bassinet, Hello Crib!

Our little girl has reached a milestone--she is now sleeping in her crib in her own bedroom! We are so excited that this transition has been an easy one. Arden has been sleeping in her crib for the last two weeks and has done so well! EVERYONE is sleeping better :) She is sleeping for 5-7 hours at a time, which is very nice for me! She is also falling asleep on her own, which means I don't have to rock or hold her until she falls asleep. We may have to go in and replace the passy or pat her bottom a little (which she LOVES!) to help her fall asleep, but that's so much better than the alternative! We are so proud of her and so thankful for the little bit of freedom this gives us--our little Arden is growing up!
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We definitely enjoyed the time spent with our family and hopefully I will be able to post about Arden's first Christmas soon. I just need to steal some pictures from my cousin and sister!!

Picture Tag

My Aunt Theresa tagged me and here are the rules: Go to your picture files. Pick the 4th file, and the 4th picture in it. Tell a little about the picture. Tag 4 friends. **We've recently had computer problems so I only have one picture folder on our computer right now. So I chose the fourth picture in the file**
This is a picture of Arden right after she was born. Many of you know that her cord was wrapped around her neck and body so she was in shock when she was born. They had to use the little oxygen thing for a bit and eventually sent her to the NICU to make sure her lungs were functioning properly. Luckily she was doing just fine and only had to spend 2 hours there. We are so grateful for our healthy little girl! I tag Stephanie, Stacy, Jenni, and Dasha :)

Decisions, Decisions!

I received an email tonight from our photographer with a link to our first session gallery! We are in love with our pictures and I know we are going to have a tough time deciding which pictures to buy. Please take a look--http://www.carlabphotography.com/Arden and let us know which is your favorite!

Healthy Baby Arden!!!

Praise God! The sweat test showed that Arden does NOT have Cystic Fibrosis. A huge burden has been lifted from us--we couldn't be more relieved. Arden is such a trooper! Our day started at 3:30 yesterday morning since we had to be in Birmingham by 7:30am. After completing registration, they sent us to the lab where they attached small electrodes to her arms for five minutes(they did one arm at a time). These electrodes stimulated sweat that they collected over the next 30 minutes. In order to collect the sweat, they had to wrap her arms like this:

I wish I had a picture of her with both arms wrapped, but as you can see she was a little worn out from all the work :) At first, Arden was a little upset by the test but once she had her passy she was out for the rest of the time :) The test wasn't painful at all, but supposedly it makes your arm feel tingly and babies don't really care for that too much. After 30 minutes they took off the "casts" and we had to wait 2 1/2 hours for the results. Fortunately this time flew by and as soon as we arrived back at the office after lunch they were ready to meet with us. They didn't waste any time letting us know that she tested negative for Cystic Fibrosis, but they did spend a lot of time going over what we needed to know about her being a carrier. She will have NO symptoms of the disease, but it will be important for Arden to know this information when she is ready to start her own family. We also learned the process for Geoff and me to be tested to see which of us is the carrier. There is the possibility that we are both carriers, but we are praying this is not the case.

Thanks to all of you for the prayers that were lifted up on our behalf. We know God heard our prayers and He has answered them. Please continue to pray for us as we await our testing!

Here is a picture of Arden on our way home. Do you think she was exhausted or what?!

Random Pictures

So it's been called to my attention that I'm not doing a very good job of updating the blog with pictures of Arden. I am so sorry to all of you who do not get to see her on a daily basis--I promise I will try and do a better job! Things have been a bit busy around here though, and as you will see I haven't taken many pictures of just Arden. Most of them include her cousin Silas, but that's okay because he is such a little cutie himself :) I have realized that we've done a poor job of taking pictures of Arden and as the time flies, she is growing so much! We really do need to do a better job so we will remember these precious days a little better. So, here are a few pictures--I hope these will satisfy your "Arden fix" until I can take a few more pictures!

Sneak Peek!

On Saturday, Arden had a photo session with a photographer. This was the first of four sessions we will have over the next 15 months. Carla was wonderful to work with--we can't wait to see all the pictures! She has posted 2 pictures from Saturday on her blog--http://carlabphotography.com/theblog/ --you should check them out! I will post a link to the proofs once they are ready for us to view.

Arden is growing so fast! It's amazing that in five short weeks she has changed so much. Seeing Silas makes me realize just how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. Arden seems so big compared to him! I know one day he will catch up to her, but it still makes me sad that she is changing so quickly :)

Speaking of Silas, he and April are here visiting today! Hopefully we will be able to take pictures of Arden and Silas together and I will post them as soon as I can!

Baby Silas Is Here!!!

Baby Silas has made his grand debut into the world. He weighs 8lbs. 7oz. and is 21 inches long. He is very alert and letting us all know he is here with his wonderful "singing" (aka crying). Mommie April is doing well, just very exhausted from all the hard work she just went through. Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment!

Stats and Pictures

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We definitely enjoyed the time with our family on Arden's first Thanksgiving. Of course she won't remember it, but it was a great time for all of us!

Arden had her 3 week check-up on Monday, November 24th. My how she is growing! She weighed 9 lb. 15 oz. and was 21" long. They also did the follow-up PKU blood test and she did NOT like it at all! I guess I wouldn't like someone pricking my heel and then squeezing the blood out of it either! On a more serious note, we did find out that she is a carrier of Cystic Fibrosis. This was discovered by the original PKU test they did in the hospital. We have an appointment in Birmingham on December 12 for additional testing to determine if she actually has CF or if she is just a carrier. Please keep our family in your prayers as this is definitely a stressful time for us. We just want peace no matter the outcome and we know that God will provide that peace for us.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Silas' Birthday!

Today is the big day! April was admitted to the hospital this morning to be induced. She just got her epidural and is waiting for it to take it's full effect. Please pray that she has a fast and easy delivery! April now how her own blog and I will be updating it later today with pictures of baby Silas. Check http://amtucker.blogspot.com fo updates!