Since We've Been Home...

This is going to be a long post. I haven't had a chance to get online since we got home. Well, I've taken about 5 minutes to scan my email, but that's it. I've been busy admiring this cutie :) ... and napping - ha.

Check out these cheeks! When he was born he was so puffy - I know his face was wider than it was tall. Too cute!

See what I mean? All that pudge?

Too cute!

This was his first outfit. What do you think? I was amazed that it fit so well. This is a 0-3 size outfit. A lot of his 0-3 clothes aren't going to fit very long.

Dad sure adores him :) as you would expect.

This was one of the first times he would actually keep his eyes open for any length of time. We were all waiting to see if he would have blue eyes like three of his siblings, or brown, like his littlest brother. Blue appears to be the winner.

This is the way he prefers to be held by me. It looks like he has frog legs when he cuddles like this. When we got home, I told everyone that this is how he likes to be held, but it turns out that this is just how he likes Mom to hold him. Nobody else can hold him this way :)

We had a beautiful view of the Elk Refuge out our window from the room he was born in. We were allowed to stay in that room from our arrival Friday morning through Saturday evening. Then they had to get it ready for someone else, so we moved to a much smaller room for Saturday night until we were released Sunday afternoon. Ironically, the smaller room had a much more comfortable bed. But the room was very cramped and inconvenient for both of us and all our extra stuff, as well as the bassinet, and baby stuff.

Before we left on Sunday, this particular nurse offered to do hand and footprints. She had even set aside a newspaper from his birth day and did his foot prints on that. It was quite a task to get his hand prints done. He wouldn't unclench his little fists.

I just love little baby feet. Here they are compared to the size of Daddy's hand.

This baby has my toes - long and skinny. He likes to spread them wide apart. Too cute!

Here' s his little hand in Daddy's. Such tiny little fingers.

Anyway, we ended up with some cute hand and foot prints and to use in a baby book...

And a newspaper from the day of his birth with his little foot prints stamped on it. I love this idea, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. The footprints will smear if they are touched. But it is an adorable idea.

Finally, after getting the prints done, we were all ready to go home! No socks. I never could find the kind that actually stay on the baby's feet, so we're going without until I find the ones I want. Besides, it was 85 degrees - UGH - when we left the hospital.

Papa and Bugga were excited to finally get to meet him.

They stopped by for a visit before heading up to camp with her brothers and sister for the rest of the weekend.

There's been no shortage of attention for the new little one. Everyone loves him. The two year old amazes me at how gentle and caring he is being. Here he's trying to help out with the pacifier.

Of course Daddy gets a turn too - usually with help.

In fact the two year old thinks he has to help with everything. Here he climbed the changing table because, "I can't see him!"

Like I said, he really loves his new baby brother.

The oldest brother does too...

And so does the 7 year old. In fact everyone fights about who gets to hold him, and who held him last, and so on. It's been a very friendly welcome home. I've been terrible about taking pictures lately. I usually hand the camera to someone else. And somehow in all that, I've missed getting a picture of my daughter holding him - though she does all the time, and is usually the one the seven year old is complaining about when he says it ought to be his turn :)

Do you like his Fourth of July outfit? The name fits - I had to take about 6 pictures before I could get one with his face looking even close to the camera.

On the Fourth, Dad took the rest of the kids (other than the two year old and baby) up to the lake to do a little fishing. They did pretty well. I'm told there were two (or was it three?) other fish that were landed, but managed to get away before they made it onto the stringer. Anyway, they had a good time.

The night of the fourth, we all went to watch the fireworks. They didn't bother the baby a bit, but the two year old was terrified. He kept yelling, "Want to go home!" and clinging to us tightly. I wanted him to look at the fireworks, but he either hid behind me or when we picked him up, he would only face the opposite direction and cling to our necks. I made the mistake of picking him up. He fought with me a lot and kicked me too much, and by the time we got home I was in some serious pain. In fact I was in worse pain than I had been in since giving birth. I was wishing I had filled the prescription for the stronger pain killer. I have been getting by on 800 mg of Motrin four times a day, but that one really tested me. Thankfully I'm feeling much better now - just a little run down.

I was surprised by a couple of things when I got home. First, my two year old looks HUGE. I was amazed that he can easily see over the top of the bassinet. I guess he has been the little one for so long that it didn't occur to me how big he really is getting. The other thing that surprised me was how small the bassinet is. Either this baby is big (which he is) or the bassinet isn't (which also appears to be true). I haven't decided. Probably a combination of both. Either way, it looks like I'm going to have to do some major re-shuffling of furniture in our room in order to fit a full sized crib in there fairly soon. I had hoped we would be in the other house by the time the bassinet was too small, but now it appears that we won't be getting the house out here at all, so now it's time to rethink everything. As in, long term, where are we going to fit everything. I'm sure it will all work out. It's just too much for my postpartum, hormone-filled brain to contemplate right now.

Here he is without the blanket. See how long he is? He doesn't love the bassinet either. Most of the time he will nurse and then sleep on my lap in the recliner (though I do have to admit that's because I fall asleep every time I start nursing :) I also like to nurse him in bed. It's the only time I get to lay down flat. He will then sleep next to me for a long time. He's a true snuggler.

See? Here's how I spend most of my days and nights - this is in the recliner. One of those rare times I was awake enough to read a whole chapter...

Tuesday (July 5) he had his first visit to the pediatrician. I was worried about possible jaundice - he looked awfully yellow to me, especially in the whites of his eyes. But the doctor said for as old as he is, it isn't a problem, and he wasn't even going to send him for a blood test. That was a major answer to prayer since our last one had to be in the hospital a couple extra days because he had such bad jaundice.

The doctor also told me I looked wonderful - that a lot of the mothers he sees are so pale that he thinks it will take two months for them to get their blood counts back up. I was thrilled to hear that - I am not feeling wonderful, but I'll settle for looking wonderful - ha.

See how snuggly he is? In one hand, he's cuddling the little giraffe clip that holds his pacifier, and in the other hand he has the pacifier.

He's definitely a keeper! :)