Our Stay at Swedish

Our first few nights with Mikayla at Swedish were so special!

I stayed up all night with her, mostly because she wanted to nurse but also because I was just too excited to sleep!

I still can't believe we have a beautiful baby girl!

Lots of visitors came by to meet our little princess. 

Here's auntie Melanie meeting baby M for the first time.

With Grandpa Woj.

Proud Papi!

My mom and dad stayed with James at our house and brought him to the hospital for visits.  It was nice to know he was being well cared for and able to sleep in his own bed.  We wanted to keep as many things as we could the "same" for James initially, knowing how much change the new baby would bring to all our lives!

Here's one of his first encounters with his baby sister.  He was very curious.  Notice how he held her hand right away! SO sweet!

Happy Tutu!  

My mom is especially excited that Mikayla has some Filipino traits.  
Her dark hair and dark skin definitely come from the Umipeg side of the family!  

It seems appropriate that we named her Mikayla Lei, I've always loved the first name Mikayla and Lei is my mom's middle name.  
Mikayla translates into "of God" and "angel", which she certainly is!

Excited about the new addition to our family!

Check out that smile!

Here's James telling Dad all about baby sister.

I am so blessed! Two gorgeous babies!

Meeting Auntie Jill!

A very proud Grandpa Knight.

With Liza!

Here's a very proud Daddy. Matt loves having a daughter.  
Already many people have commented that Mikayla looks like Matt. 
I definitely think she has Matt's eyes, but I do see lots of Mom in her too! :)

 Isn't she precious?!

A few memories from our hospital stay:

1. Mikayla earned the reputation for "best eater and pooper" in our wing of the hospital.  The nurses were all very impressed with how quickly she took to nursing and how many dirty diapers she was making!

2.  Our doctors comments on Mikayla's head circumference: 13.75 inches, apparently larger than the average baby!

Crazy about pink right now!

Sweetness.

Here she is! All ready to go home in her little dress.

Mikayla was born on a Thursday afternoon and by Saturday morning, we were ready to go home.

She wasn't so sure about her carseat at first...

Soon she settled right in.  We were excited to introduce Mikayla to her new home, where we look forward to making many, many memories as a family!!

Our Family

L.O.V.E. the Willow Tree collection!

They're perfect for capturing our family at this oh-so-precious moment in time.

It's a GIRL!

That's right, we welcomed a sweet baby girl into the world and our family on Thursday, September 8th!

Mikayla Lei Backman was born at Swedish Hospital at 3:38pm, 

weighing in at 8 pounds 1.8 ounces and measuring 20 inches long.

She came out screaming and alert! 

Eyes open, this little one was ready to see the world.  

And check out all that dark hair! 

We are so thrilled to have a baby girl!

I have to say, this was the best surprise Matt and I have ever experienced.  We asked the doctor to let Matt announce the gender.  When Matt told me "it's a girl," I burst into tears!  Such a special, indescribable moment.  I'm so glad we waited on learning the gender, this was too fun!

From a family of three... (taken just before going to the hospital)

... to a family of four! Big Brother James (proudly sporting his big bro shirt) is doing great with his baby sister... more on this to come.

About an hour after Mikayla was born, we welcomed in James and our parents to meet the new family member.

All smiles!

We are overjoyed and so grateful for this sweet blessing!

Mikayla is beautiful, healthy and perfect!

I have SO many pictures and so much video... it will take awhile to get caught up.  We're spending most of our time just enjoying our sweet kids for now.  We had about a week of beautiful sunny summer before fall arrived. Mikayla and I enjoyed long evenings on the back patio, watching big brother and Dad play.

Our house full of blue boy things is being infiltrated with pink! 

We're so excited!