our little man

11.19.2006

first few days

everything has been going great with our new little man. it's certainly an adjustment for all of us, but we seem to be getting a rhythm going and we're just taking some time to spend together as a family - which is really nice and most important.

our hospital stay was uneventful. we were only there a little over 24 hours after ben was born, so it was a nice, short stay. after he was born and cleaned up, i nursed ben for the first time (he did great!) and then let him visit with my mom and brianna. my mom also called my grandparents and they went to pick tara up at school and came for a quick visit as well. my dad also happened to call just after ben was born to check on us, so we didn't even need to make that call. he and catherine planned to come visit a bit later in the afternoon after we had gotten settled. adam left for a few minutes to go make some announcement phone calls to his family, and then we were moved to our postpartum room. brianna and my mom stuck around to help us carry all of our stuff to the new room and then they headed home.

we spent the next couple of hours just reveling in the whole experience and holding our son. my dad and catherine came in the late afternoon to visit, and a little after dinner adam's parents brought sophie in. she was in love with her brother right away and wanted to hold and kiss him. she did a great job, even though it was late for her. she was very energetic, but happy. it was a great first meeting for the two new siblings.

the next day we were hoping to go home. we weren't completely sure if we would be able to because ben hadn't finished all of the testing he needed. because he was over 9 pounds, it is hospital policy to do regular blood sugar tests just to make sure the baby is doing ok with their levels, getting enough to eat, etc (because they are bigger and use it up quicker). his tests all came back great except for the last one they were going to do, which was just a tiny bit below what they wanted to see. i just kept nursing him frequently and the subsequent tests were fine. the pediatrician needed to wait and see what those results were before she said he could go, so it wasn't until early afternoon that we knew for sure we'd be able to leave. he also had to have his hearing test redone that afternoon because he wasn't sleepy enough the first time he took it for them to get good results. he passed just fine when they re-tested him, though.

we spent most of the day just hanging out and cuddling with ben. my mom stopped by for a quick visit, which was a nice way to pass some of the time. we also had our "celebration" meal at lunchtime which was nice. the hospital provides the new parents with a special meal on their last day. the nurse came and took ben for his hearing test at that time, so adam and i were able to just sit and eat together. after that we started packing up and getting ready to go. the nurse went over all of the discharge information with us and then we were set to go.

we came straight home, as sophie was spending one more night with adam's parents. it was nice to come home with just ben and get settled in without having to worry about how sophie was handling everything. adam's mom brought her home early the next morning, and it was nice to welcome her home once we were all unpacked and everything was much more calm. thursday morning we also had a visiting nurse come to check up on ben... just a routine check that the hospital provides as part of your stay. she did a quick temperature and blood pressure check on me, and then checked ben all over. everything looked great and she commented on how healthy and strong he was. she weighed him and he was down to 9 pounds and 4.5 ounces. she said that they like to have the babies back up their birth weight by a week and she didn't think he'd have any problems with that.

since then we've just been spending time as a family. adam has taken sophie out to the grocery store a couple of times and we all went to the store yesterday (adam stayed in the car with ben while sophie and i ran in together), but otherwise we've just all been home hanging out. sophie really loves her brother and loves to help out. she brings a diaper and wipes when we need to change him, likes to help pick out his clothes, and even helped us give him his first sponge bath at home. ben is doing great - he's very even-tempered and only seems to fuss when he's hungry or cold (like when we're changing him). he's nursing great and hasn't had any issues there. the only challenge we're having is getting him to stay asleep at night. he falls asleep fine, but wakes up almost as soon as we lay him down. i think the longest stretch he's slept in his bassinette is about 20 minutes. after that he wakes up and wants to be held. he sleeps fine that way, but as soon as he's on his own, he wakes up again. we're trying to lay him down more during the day to get him used to sleeping alone, so we'll see if that helps. we'll figure it out eventually. every baby is different - we've just got to figure out what works for him.

tomorrow adam goes back to work, and honestly i'm a little nervous about how it will be alone with both kiddos, but this week is going to be nice because adam lined up some visitors for me to help play with sophie and lend an extra set of hands. i'm so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband.

posted at 12:27 PM by aimee // 0 comments