Our first week home

All in all everything has gone rather well. I was SO nervous at first — how would I handle two kids, how will Amelia handle not being the only child any more, how will we ever figure everything out? I quickly learned that we will just figure it all out day by day. And so far that's working rather well.

We came home on Friday around 11am. This gave us a few hours to get acclimated before Tyler picked Amelia up from school. I was SO excited to see Amelia again; I waited outside on the front porch (Oliver was sleeping) for the two of them to pull up the driveway. Amelia got out of the car, ran up the stairs, gave me the biggest hug ever and said, "I missed you Mommy!" I was a basketcase! She is the sweetest child ever!

She came inside and sat down next to baby brother immediately. So far so good.

Then Oliver started to cry — it was time for him to eat. I'm breastfeeding so I picked him up, explained that I was going to feed him and proceeded to try to get him to latch on. Oliver kept crying, Amelia is sitting next to me and she starts crying and said, "Stop mommy. Don't hurt baby brother. STOP." This just broke my heart. She had no idea what I was trying to do no matter how I explained it. Tyler took her aside and explained things to her and then took her outside to play. I joined them outside. Amelia got out her chair, sat down next to me and said/asked, "You feed baby brother from your boobs? There's milk in there." Shocked at what she just said I simply replied, "Yes, that's right." To which she replied, "Oh, okay." And that was that! Now when Oliver cries she just looks at me and says, "Mommy feed him. He's hungry."
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Oliver has been sleeping and eating rather well. We were quite nervous the first few days home because he didn't have a dirty diaper for nearly 3 days. We knew being jaundiced was more likely for him since Amelia was (I didn't know it "ran in the family" till the doc told me so). For those of you who don't know jaundice refers to the yellow color of the skin and whites of the eyes caused by excess bilirubin in the blood. Jaundice occurs when bilirubin builds up faster than a newborn's liver can break it down and pass it from the body ... hence why we were hoping for poopy diapers! On Sunday night he finally had his first dirty diaper — yes we practically celebrated this occassion. I was still concerned on Tuesday because his skin and eyes were still yellowish so we took him to the doc yesterday. He told us not to be concerned and to keep track of his feedings, temperature, weight gain and dirty diapers. So far I think we are doing okay. He has regained 3 of the 7 ounces he lost since birth and the dirty diapers are starting to appear a little more frequently.

Right now he sleeps 3-4 hours at a time — boy do I hope and pray this continues! He opens his eyes a couple times a day and stays alert for 30-60 minutes at a time once or twice a day. Typical newborn activity. Yes, we are going for typical and ordinary at the moment.

Amelia has been going to school and has maintained her routine thanks to Daddy. Right now we are doing more of a man-to-man approach, hopefully we can move to a zone defense in the next few months. :-)