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. :-)
Papaw took us to the zoo his last weekend here in town. Amelia had so much fun with all the animals and she especially loved the merry-go-round...which daddy had to take her on because even that sissy of a ride makes mommy dizzy!!!
Amelia and the gorilla. She looks like such a big girl in this photo I just can't get over it!
Grandpa and Grandma came down for another afternoon visit. We took the kids to Sharon Woods for a picnic — Grandpa and Amelia had fun playing ball.
Our little Elton John look-a-like.
Brother and sister laying on the floor just before bath time.
Bath time with both kids...this actually works out rather well. Amelia does a great job with him — even in the water. We are VERY lucky she is such a wonderful big sister to Oliver.
Amelia LOVES to hold Oliver now. The main photo on the blog is from this same moment on our bed...I love that photo...look really close at Amelia's eyes — she looks like she's got some ulterior motives!
This is Amelia's version of fishing — for now. She can NOT wait till she can go fishing with Uncle Jamie this summer at their lake house. Later that night she came up to me and asked with puppy-dog eyes, "Mommy, I can go fishing with Uncle Jammie this weekend?" (She calls him Uncle Jam-E for some reason. She knows better but thinks it's funny this way!)
After fishing she took a great nap so I let her play with her paints in the backyard. In school they had just made their foot prints so she wanted to do the same thing at home. It escalated from there.....
.... to her hands and legs.....
.... to her entire body. She kinda looks like a Jackson Pollock painting. She was SO goofy this afternoon. After her naked painting session she ran all over the yard laughing hysterically and kept telling me that the bear was chasing her...but he was a nice bear and he was just playing. Such an imagination on this child!!
The kids. Oliver says Hi!
