Brotherly Love

DH went to Baltimore this weekend so Murphy, EH and I went to visit my parents again this weekend.  I figured there was no reason for us to stay at home alone all weekend!

EH loves his puppy, but Murphy generally isn't too sure of what he thinks about this little creature that suddenly takes away all of the attention that used to go to him.  In a rare moment of brotherly love these two took a minute to smile for the camera.  Every time I look at this picture it just makes me smile.  I know these two are going to be great friends in no time at all!

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Just testing my mobile blogging app. Let's hope this works!

A New Moms' Accomplishments List

EH had his two month well visit yesterday and all is "well."  However, he had to get some vaccinations which involved one that was oral and two that were injections.  He loved the oral one, tolerated the first shot with a flinch, and screamed bloody murder for the second.

Yesterday I think his legs were sore where the shots went in.  He was nearly inconsolable. I spent most of the day holding him, hugging him, soothing him.  In return he mostly cried, but eh, what can you do?

Today he seems to be running a low-grade fever although at one point I got worried because he was crying and was extremely sweaty.  But that seems to have passed now and I know that fevers are a side effect of vaccinations.

Hi Everyone!!!

On the positive side, he seems to be very sleepy today and he's been napping like a champ so far today.  So much so that I realized I did 3 truly remarkable things today that I would like to categorize under the heading of "New Moms Accomplishments List."

1. I showered!!!! BONUS POINT - I dried and straightened my hair!
2. I put on REAL CLOTHES!!!! (As in jeans and a shirt - usually I just walk around in sweatpants and whatever shirt I slept in.) 
3. I ate breakfast AND lunch!!! (Granted it was cereal for breakfast and soup and chips for lunch, but both occurred before 1:30 p.m.) - BONUS POINT: I also washed my dishes!!!!
4. I put a load of laundry in the wash!!!!

What's that?? You do all of those things every single day? Usually in a matter of 60 minutes or less?

Yeah, I know. I used to too.  But with a newborn, everything changes and I find myself skipping the general everyday "me" care items in order to tend to baby care things.  That means that most days I don't get dressed, don't eat well (if at all before 2 p.m.), and I almost never find time to shower.  If I get in three showers a week I feel really good about myself.  Don't worry, I'm not disgustingly greasy or sweaty or anything like that. I spend 95% of my time at home doing nothing more than baby care and the occasional bit of housework. Trust me, I am not getting particularly dirty.

I guess it's about time I get these simply day-to-day personal hygiene and health tasks under control. After all, I go back to work in just over two weeks now, and EH starts his first "transition" day at daycare on Tuesday. As in NEXT WEEK!  I am not kidding when I say that every time I think about having to drop him off at day care for his first full day I tear up, and I am not usually a particularly emotional or teary person.

I have no idea what my "accomplishments" list is going to look like once I have to go back to work.  Seriously, you mean I have to shower, dress myself, eat, do laundry, spend time with the kid, cook dinner for DH AND somehow spend 10 hours a day at work????

Right now it seems completely and utterly impossible.

EH's Birth Story - Part 8 - Heading Home

Time to wrap up this birth story!!! 

On Sunday morning of our hospital stay it was finally time to get ready to go home.  We had to wait for my doctor's office to discharge me and then we needed EH's pediatrician to discharge him.  Unfortunately when they took EH for his discharge weighing, he had lost even more weight than the previous day.  You might recall that he weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces at birth and on his discharge day he only weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces.

They did another bilirubin count via a blood test, and the numbers came back higher than before.  We could still take him home, but the pediatrician recommended that we start supplementing his feedings with formula and then scheduled a home-care nurse to come to our house the next day to take a blood sample to see if his bilirubin count went down.  If it didn't, we might need to get a bili-blanket or it got really bad, he would need to come back to the hospital.

That morning I met with a lactation consultant since it was suspected that most of the weight loss was caused by the fact that EH wasn't getting enough to eat.  I now know that he wasn't getting enough to eat because my milk hadn't come in yet, but at the time they were worried that he wasn't latching on properly and in any case, the extra lesson on breastfeeding was helpful since no one really gives you much information on it otherwise.  If I was to give advice to a first-time mom who was also planning to breastfeed, I would recommend that you request a meeting with a lactation consultant on the very first day that your baby is born.  If we had gotten the proper information about breastfeeding, how to do it and how often he should be eating, we might have avoided this whole jaundice mess.

We were there about 3 hours longer than we were originally supposed to be, because of the weight loss problem.  By the time we were officially allowed to leave, we were definitely ready to get out of there.

DH bundled him into his car seat and it suddenly felt so real.  They were letting us take him home. This tiny little person whose life depended on us. It seemed really surreal, as if the whole time at the hospital we were just visiting with him, but he wasn't really ours.

But he was ready. He seemed to know that he was in good hands. (See that little smile?)

And so we left.  DH carrying the car seat and our new little guy, and I followed behind with the camera, documenting the moment, probably like a stereotypical first time mom. 

It felt so weird to be able to walk right out with him... I kept expecting someone to stop us.

I realized walking out just how cooped up I had been in that little hospital room. I didn't even realize what floor or wing I was on!  

We walked through the hallways that I previously only seen when we toured the hospital.  Down the elevator and into the parking garage.  (The bad part about delivering at an urban hospital is the outrageous amounts you have to pay for parking, even if you're a patient there!!!!)

DH wanted me to sit in the backseat with EH, just in case something might happened.  He was already worried, and it was so sweet and I remembered what a great father he was going to be.  So I sat in the back seat, with my new little baby, holding his head up with my hand (because we had the tilt on his car seat all wrong and didn't realize it!.)

And before I knew it we were home. Our new family of three.

We're Home!

EH, Murphy and I are all back in the 'Burgh, after a nice relaxing week at my parents house.***  I told DH yesterday that it was sort of like an all inclusive vacation - all you can eat, all you can drink, all you can relax all week.  Except that I had a baby with me.  But even some of that work was taken care of.  We had a great week and it's a little bit of a shock to be home now - you mean I have to cook my own meals again?  Murphy can't believe that we won't let him in and out every 10 minutes and EH doesn't get nearly as many hugs and snuggles as he got there. We were definitely spoiled. 

But it's also good to be home.

My own bed, all of my clothes (although most of them still don't fit). And of course, my husband, who was very lonely without the three of us around all week. 

Now that EH is on a better sleep schedule, I'm hoping to be able to get a lot more blogging done in my last three weeks of maternity leave. (ACK! Is it seriously almost over already!?!?!)  I have lots of posts started or already written and I just need to add pictures to many of them and finish writing the others.  If I ever get around to publishing them all, it could be a small novel!

Anyway, just wanted to say "thanks" for sticking around and reading and I promise that more frequent posts will be coming soon!


*** I tried to post pictures and updates during the week but my blogging app on my phone was failing miserable, as was the email posting feature. Not sure why!!!

At Nana and Papa's

 This week EH, Murphy and I are spending the week with Nana and Papa to help Nana celebrate her first week of retirement with her favorite grandson and to let DH get caught up on some of his work at home.
So that's why posting has been light this week - I'm writing this on my phone - but I figure I can at least post some pictures while I'm here!

We are still working on the sleep schedule. There are good days and there are bad days, but at least they aren't all bad days anymore! Last night was a bad one though and it can be summed up with two words - poop 'splosion.

Enough said, right?

9 pounds!

Although EH is still a tiny peanut of a baby compared to his peers of the same age, he's definitely growing.  All of the "newborn" sized onesies and pajamas that we bought him a few weeks ago are finally getting too tight or too short and he just looks bigger.

He's more alert these days and has started cooing and smiling and grabbing and batting at things.  It's so cute and it almost makes up for all of the nights he keeps me up crying.

But we're making some progress slowly but surely in that area as well.....  Hopefully I'll have good news to report on the sleep front soon.

So anyway, we weighed him yesterday and he came in at a whopping 9 pounds!  Finally! I feel like we missed the 8 pound window altogether, since the last time I knew his weight he was 7 pounds 15 ounces. (Or was it 7 pounds 13 ounces? I can't remember.)

In any case, he's finally definitely growing.  Sadly, we'll probably never be able to get him into the summer outfits that we received as gifts in size 0 to 3 months, because by the time he'll really fit into them it will be winter - at least the way this fall has been going.  Maybe we'll just have to take a vacation to a warm destination!  (Probably not, but a girl can dream, right?)

We goes for his two month well-visit in just under 2 weeks, and I can't wait to see what percentile he's going to fall into then.  I just know that he's going to be out of the single digits, probably in terms of percentile AND poundage.