The Phelps: After a little scare...

Kalyn and I are quickly learning that, as parents, we really do not have control over much of anything. Our desire going into labor was to have a natural childbirth...as we mentioned below, that was not an option for us. However, the hardest part of our hospital stay was yet to come. James has been a great little guy, but he is very big. Because of his size, he was having a hard time getting enough fluid and on Saturday he started showing signs of dehydration. The doctors ran more tests that indicated he might have had an infection. They decided that he needed to stay in the newborn ICU for a couple days to be monitored. Needless to say, this was very difficult for K and I. Hearing that your brand new baby has to stay in the NICU is the last thing any parent wants to hear. One of my mom's good friends is the a neonatologist at St. Marks hospital. She was amazing and really helped us feel a little better. She assured us that James was healthy and this stay was just a precaution. In the NICU, we were able to go down and feed James every three hours, but we could not stay in there with him or hold him for more than a half an hour. To make matters worse, Kalyn was discharged on Monday and James still had to stay. Driving home without our little guy was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do.
Things are much better now! James is getting healthier all the time and was allowed to come home with us yesterday!!! His first day at home he slept well, ate well and did some impressive work in the diapers.
Through all of this, we have realized that God is totally watching over us. Had we had James like we wanted, we would have left the hospital before we realized that James was dehydrated. Though he did not have a bad infection, dehydration in a newborn can be a pretty bad thing. We feel blessed that James had great care in the hospital and is home and healthy. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Here are some pictures of our little guy with grandparents and uncles...He is so loved!

James with Brian, Melanie (B's Girlfriend...we like her a lot) and Kevin