Luke Hudson Van Eps

So for those of you out there without a Facebook account, I wanted to put a few videos up here for you to see and to give you a rundown of our time here in the hospital. Everything with the birth went well, we arrived here at St. Luke's around 8 a.m. for induction and Steph was dilated to 3 initially, and was hooked up and started on her Pitocin induction around 8:45. Her doctor came in to check her around 12:30, found she was dilated to at least 4, broke her water right there, and she got an epidural within 20 minutes. Steph was feelin good at that point, so we threw in a movie and both took a nap. We woke up to her being dilated to 7, nearly totally effaced, and the nurse said we should have a baby within the next few hours. For us, this time flew by given that Harper's induction took over 24 hours and extending through the night. He cried right away after they suctioned him and pinked up really quick, easing his dad's anxiety. Although we were initially just glad to see all ten fingers and toes and all parts in the right places, we were struck how much he looked like his sister initially, with those same bright red lips. He was fine that first day, mostly sleeping, but yesterday as we suspected might happen, he went from a 0.0 bilirubin to over 9.0 in less than a day. So he's been getting his baby bronzing ever since yesterday evening with the UV bili bed, to help clear the bilirubin that his immature liver can't clear yet. He's been under the high intensity lights all day, hoping to drive down the numbers so we don't have to take a bili bed home with us like we had to with Harper, and we're trying to push the fluids on him but he's been so-so with the feeding so far. All in all, though, with today's technology jaundice like his is not a big deal, just more of an annoyance. We're still kind of shell shocked that we are now the American family with 2 kids and a dog, but also incredibly thankful for our new healthy boy. We have been so fortunate and thankful to my parents for their tremendous help with our crazy 1 and a half year old during this whole ordeal. We might have been clinically insane by now without them. Thanks to everyone for your excitement and support.