So a bit about the first two weeks....Christian decided that he wanted to go home on phototherapy due to his high bilirubin levels, so he spent his first week of life plugged into a wall basking in UV light to get rid of his tan (or rather his jaundiced skin). We attempted to use the bili light table, but learned quickly that Christian more than hated the idea of sitting naked on a hard surface without even a blanket to comfort him, so we gave up on that idea after the first night. Thankfully, our pediatrician is a realist and agreed that the table is really quite a joke at home in most instances, so I was glad to not be disobeying doctor's orders. We were just dilligent with and stuck to the "bili blanket."His bili was up at 15 the Monday after we left the hospital. Wednesday it was the same. By Friday, it had dropped to 10 and it only had to go down to 13 to stop the phototherapy, so we were pretty happy with the big jump.
We were hoping that with the absence of the bili blanket complicating a comfortable sleep, Christian would become a perfect sleeper. He actually did very good the first night phototherapy free, a great birthday present for Brad, but now he is frequently fussy less than three hours from his previous feeding, so his sleeping pattern is far from ideal. Oh, and I didn't mention the struggle we have putting him back to sleep in the middle of the night after feedings either.
It has been interesting to watch Ellie's reaction to her baby brother. For the first week, she hadn't done more than touch his hair and tickle his toes. She has warmed up to him a bit, and will now give him kisses, but She doesn't think holding him sounds fun at all. She doesn't really even want to be near him in most instances. Despite the fact that she won't really touch him, she loves to talk about him. She loves to look at him and say in a high pitched voice "he's so cute" or call him a cutie pie. She gets very excited in the morning when she hears him wake up. She is always sure to tell me that he's probably hungry. She also like to tell me to put him down to play with her, or tell me that he's hungry or angry when he's crying.
At Christian's one week mark, Aubrey and I met up together to introduce the two new cousins to each other. Her baby boy was born on the 3rd, so he and Christian are only three days apart. Brad's sister Kristi also had a baby girl about a week after Christian's birth. So Christian will have lots of cousins to play with his same age on both sides of the family with twins on my side of the family born 4 months ago.
In the midst of adjusting to life as a family of four, we also tried to celebrate Brad's birthday. My parents were kind enough to offer to watch Ellie and Christian on the night of Brad's birthday so we could go and have dinner together. I had gotten Brad some gifts, but unfortunately in my tired fog, they sat under the bed not wrapped and pretty much forgotten until 3 days after his birthday when he casually reminded me about them. I felt pretty bad about that. And he totally deserves to be spoiled because he has been so great these past two weeks. Not only is he is great to take rocking shifts in the middle of the night when I've reached my limit, he has also been great helping Ellie adjust to Christian. He had to take a test at 7:30 the day after we got home from the hospital followed by another exam the next morning, and he felt ok about both of them!. He has had to miss quite a bit of school and is still pulling out some very decent grades this semester. What a catch I got. I'm so grateful that he is such a great dad, husband, and student.
I'm going to try and post pictures, but it may be a while before I figure out the best way to do it. Sorry about that.
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