update

Can you believe Teagan is almost one month old already?! Time has gone by so fast yet it seems like so long ago that we were in the hospital and entering this new journey in life.
Amidst the diaper changes, feedings, late nights, interrupted sleep, Tim's odd schedule with snow plowing and firefighter classes, lessons on "timing," first ventures out in public etc., the transition of having Teagan in our lives is going quite well (kudos to my hubby who has been an amazing father as well as an amazing support to me over the last 4 weeks)! We are experiencing a love like none felt before! She is growing so fast...almost out of her newborn stuff! At her doctor's appointment 2 weeks ago, she weighed in at 8 lbs. 12 oz...almost exactly a pound heavier than her birth weight! She loves to cuddle and flash her adorable smile. She is almost at the point where she's smiling reactively rather than just because. She is focusing on us when we talk to her and this has made interacting with her even more enjoyable! She's also proven herself to be quite strong as she lifts her head from side to side and almost rolled over once during tummy time! She is the cutest thing we've ever laid our eyes on and we just can't get enough of her!

Unfortunately, because our camera is not functioning properly, I don't have any updated pictures to post of Teagan. Hopefully this will be remedied soon, however, the cost to get the camera fixed will be more than the camera is worth. :( Looks like we may have to take the plunge and get a new one. I don't like missing out on capturing these precious moments! We did get a lovely video camera for Christmas though and we hope to post a video of our lil' pumpkin pie in the near future.

precious baby

My sister, Tara, is a gifted photographer and was able to take some adorable pictures of Teagan when she and Myles were in town visiting last week. Thanks again Tara!
Click HERE to check them out!

Home At Last!

As of yesterday morning, our precious Teagan is home! We are adjusting well to a life which revolves around lots of feedings, wardrobe changes, dirty diapers, more feedings (feels like a full time job!), sleep times, wake times (when it should be sleepy time) :) and LOTS of cuddling and kissing! She's been smiling a lot (I don't believe it's "just gas"), :) often a cute, crooked smile. It's adorable! We just can't get enough of her! She and Bailey are enjoying getting to know one another as well. :)
Being at the hospital all day with her last week helped prepare us for what her schedule is like and in a way, was somewhat of a nice transition into being home with her 24/7. That's my one positive note about the longest week of our lives. Actually, in spite of the circumstances, we had a great experience at Holland Hospital and were cared for by some truly amazing nurses and doctors. We deeply appreciated how they loved and cared for Teagan as well as for Tim and my physical and emotional well-being.

Here are some pictures from our day yesterday. We apologize if they appear with lines through them. Our camera took a terrible fall and we are going to have to look into getting it fixed asap. :(


My take home outfit!


Mommy liked this cozy "bear" snow suit for me but it didn't work out aa well as she hoped in my car seat.


Bye Bye!


Oma and Aunt Andrea surprised me by making this cute poster and putting balloons up to welcome me home!


I love my Daddy!


My first bath at home! I'm a little ducky!

More of Daddy's favorite pics

I love how she holds her pacifier in her mouth all by herself


She loves to touch Mommy's skin


She is always comfy against Mommy

Daddy's favorite pics

I thought some people would enjoy some pics from my perspective. It was absolutely incredible to watch the emergency C-Section. In total it took 15 minutes with 30 seconds of it pulling Teagan out of Brooke, so I was fortunate to get some good shots. I love my wife so much and cannot believe how strong she has been throughout this whole experience. I am truly blessed! Thank you all for your outpouring of love, support, and prayers!

Tim


Near end of labor waiting for epideral


Near end of labor AFTER the epideral



Doc pullin Teags out!


Doc still pullin!

Teaggy Bears

Tim and I were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and have been having to leave our precious little girl here each night. This has been difficult but we are staying strong and keeping things in perspective in terms of how these past nights are just a small part of the awesome journey awaiting us. Meanwhile, we are spending early morning to late evening (aka early morning...12am or 1am) "living" here in a lounge in the Special Care Nursery area. The great thing has been that they let Teagan go off of her monitors so that she can leave the actual nursery and spend all day in the lounge with us! Our days have been filled with feeding her, changing her, holding her, staring at her and loving on her constantly! She is doing so well! The only reason she needs to stay here is because of the antibiotics that she receives every 8 hours through an IV (which they had to place in a vein on her head...this was a little disturbing at first and broke our hearts but it is really the best place to administer the medicine and all other attempts to place the IV in her hands and feet have been unsuccessful due to her sensitive veins "bursting" or dissolving). Even more great news is that we will be taking her home on Sunday morning as her antibiotic treatment will be over!

Thank you again for all of your love, support and prayers!


The Keeler Family



I passed my hearing test! :)

Update on Teagan

We met with one of Teagan's pediatricians yesterday and learned that the results of her tests were negative thus far in showing what bacterial infection she could be fighting. Despite this, they knew from her blood tests that she was still fighting something. My placenta was tested yesterday and the results came back that it was infected with Group B Strep. As routine for pregnant women, I was tested for this a few weeks back and knew the results came back positive, however, I was told that the baby wouldn't be affected by it as long as I was placed on antibiotics right when my water broke, which I was. Unfortunately, we now learned that there is a rare chance that the uterus and placenta can be affected prior to the water breaking, however, the reasoning for this is unknown. That is what they are assuming happened with Teagan so they are moving ahead and treating her for Group B Strep (GBS). The good news is that she has been on antibiotics since she was born so the fight started at the right time. She is now on a more specific antibiotic which is a more direct fighter against GBS and she will be on this until next Monday. We were fortunate to be approved for an extra day here at the hospital since I was placed back on antibiotics as my white blood cell count was still elevated. We will be discharged tomorrow around noon but have the option to be here as long as we want during the coming days. Please continue to pray for us as it will still be very difficult not being here 24/7 with her...we've been having a hard enough time just being down the hall from her!

Other praises to note: All of Teagan's test results in terms of her heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen levels etc. have come back with no problems! She is getting so strong and looks really healthy. She was taken off of her IV fluid on Sunday which allowed her to be able to breastfeed on a regular basis and this has been going great! She has a sweet temperament (but will definitely let you know when she wants something!) and loves to just be held. We have already fallen head over heals for her! God is so good and so faithful. We find great comfort knowing that His angels have been watching over her!

Thank you to all of you who have sent notes, stopped by, made phone calls etc. We feel so uplifted by your support and prayers! Like I mentioned before, we will be in and out of the hospital all week while she is here so if you want to visit and see Teagan, just let us know!

Love to all of you!

Teagan Alise Keeler

As most of you have heard our precious daughter made her debut yesterday at 10:03am. She weighed in at 7lbs.13oz. and 20inches long. Labor ended up not going totally as planned as they realized that Brooke had a fever and an infection, which resulted in the uterus being infected and Teagan's heart rate increasing. After emergency C-section Teagan was taken and eventually placed into Special Care Nursery where she has received many tests in hopes of figuring out what type of infection she is battling. Brooke's fever and infection have gone away and Teagan continues to improve with more information coming tomorrow on the infection and respiratory issues. The results will determine how long she needs to stay in Special Care...anywhere from a few more days to 10 days. Please continue to pray for our beautiful little Teagers (or Daddy's other nickname for her: Teaggy Bear) and for us as we are possibly facing going home on Monday without her. We will share more of the delivery story and post more updates as we find out more information. We are so grateful to God for blessing us with her and to all of you for your love, support, and prayers!