Levi – Week 5

I almost forgot to do a 5 week post! Levi had his 1 month check up at 4 weeks 4 days and he looks healthy! 🙂 He weighed 10lbs 15oz which means he gained an average of 1lb 1oz for 3 weeks in a row. That’s just crazy! His weight went from the 25th percentile at birth to the 75th. His height was 22″ so he grew almost 2″ staying in the 75th and his head grew from the 5th percentile at birth to the 25th. You may remember that his head was measuring in the 7th at my 36 week ultrasound and it appears that was accurate after all.

The little guy smiled twice today. Once at my sister and once at my MIL. I have yet to get a for real smile out of him but I’m excited that he is smiling now. 🙂 5 weeks 4 days. About 2 weeks later than Tru. I am looking forward to coaxing more smiles out of him.

Mostly all Levi thinks about is eating. Big surprise, right!? 😉 But really, all day long from about 8:30 am on, he eats every 2 hours or more. He almost never goes over 2 hours during the day. In the evenings he will usually eat every hour from 5-6pm on. Then after he goes to bed anywhere from 9:30 – 11 or so he usually has 1 five hour stretch followed by another 3-4 hour stretch and then it’s morning. I love LOVE his sleep schedule and I so so so so hope he doesn’t change it. Tru didn’t sleep like this for months and months! Probably close to a year  … I’m still pumping twice a day and occasionally once in the night if I’m feeling too full. I hope to keep up a little extra supply as long as I can so I can keep giving it to Tru and freezing my 6oz a day. That’s my goal for now.

Levi has outgrown all his newborn clothes and is already too long for some 3 month sleepers so I guess I need to get out the 3-6mo clothes already. Craziness!

I think all my stitches are finally out! Now if I can just stop bleeding it would be nice. I will say, this recovery is totally different from my c section and most of it has been easier. Especially with being able to bend and lift etc. Both ways have their advantages but I think I would probably try for a vbac again given the opportunity.

It’s late and I should be sleeping so I’ll go. I just love this little guy. I spent hours today printing off all the pictures of my pregnancy and his first 5 weeks. He’s grown so much and I love seeing him and Tru together. It’s truly a great gift and I thank God always for them.

Dear God, thank You for a great week and for Levi’s growth and health. I pray that he will continue to grow well and healthy. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Levi – Week 4

One month old! I meant to take an official 1 month picture today but I forgot. I can’t get over how much the “little” guy has grown. He’s chunked out so much. His one month check up is tomorrow provided we are able to make it. DH is having a pole barn package delivered Lord willing so someone needs to be here. I’m really looking forward to seeing how much Levi weighs!!!

I also want to ask about getting some zantac for him because he definitely has acid reflux. Yesterday he was really uncomfortable with it. He throws up a good bit especially at night. It’s usually a large quantity in the night which always makes me nervous. Sometimes the vomit is clearish which I think is just stomach acid. It makes mommy sad. 😦

But the kid sure can eat! Some days he cluster feeds all.day.long. Like every hour or more. But he’s starting to have some nights where he sleeps a couple long stretches of 4+ hours. I think he even went 6 hours one night. Tru didn’t do this until he was a few months old so this is just great. However, we still have nights where we get up every 1.5-2 hours after our initial good stretch. He never eats much in the night though.

Levi is already in 3 month clothes. He wears outfits that Tru wore at 3+ months and fits them great. He’s also in size 1 diapers but I have a feeling we will have several packs to return. It’s just crazy how fast they grow and how quickly time flies!

Levi is a very kissed on baby with his big brother Tru loving on him all day. Tru just loves giving him hugs and kisses and I can’t get over how precious it is. I absolutely love seeing this brother bond forming. It’s such a precious thing to witness.

I am worried that we might have a case of breast feeding thrush. 😦 My nipples are still terribly sore. It could just be his high palate causing the pain I suppose but there is a little itching and very pink colored nipples so ….. I think I better start using some monistat on them. I’m pumping 2-4 times a day. At least once in the morning and once at night. Sometimes I get up in the night to pump once and sometimes once during the day. I’m still giving Tru the pumped  milk and freezing the extra.

I pulled out 3 more of my stitches today but there are still at least 3 more patches of stitching down there. I can’t wait till they are all out! I also really look forward to being done wearing pads! 😦 Hopefully soon. But all in all, recovery has been a piece of cake praise God. I just have to remember to take it easy or I can feel my body starting to rebel. I have lost about 25 pounds now as of a few days ago which means I only have 10 to go to get to pre-Levi weight. I think I would really like to lose about 15.

Well, I need to go lay this little precious sleeping baby down and go to bed. He’s making his little purring sounds that he does in his sleep. It’s so adorable. I really need to video it. 🙂

Dear God, thank You for the beauty of this moment. Holding my precious little surprise gift from You here on my chest, feeling his softness, smelling his sweet little head. This is such a beautiful moment and I know it is all because of You. I thank You and praise You and ask that You will continue to bless us and watch over little Levi and protect him. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Truett’s 18 Month Update

I know I just posted his 17 month update but it’s time for the 18 month update now. I’m trying to get back on schedule.

The big question we keep getting this month is: “How is Tru adjusting to the new baby?” I am glad to say that he has adjusted very well! Sure, there was some jealousy at first. There still is a little bit I’m sure. But I can also see that he is starting to genuinely love this new little guy. 🙂 First thing every morning after I get Tru out of his bed and change his diaper, he runs to the family room to check the bassinet and see if Levi is there. If the baby is in the other room crying, Tru gets all worried about him, trying to get me to open the door and get the baby. Tru is also fascinated by watching his brother breastfeed. He is constantly wanting to hug and/or kiss Levi. Occasionally we will help Tru hold the baby and he never wants to give him back! In a desperate attempt at getting Tru to sit still at church, I helped him hold Levi. It worked pretty well. 😉

So I would have to say, baby brother is a hit. But we have to watch Tru so closely around him as he still has no idea how to be consistently gentle. We also had a bit of an incident where Tru climbed into the bassinet with Levi. I have learned that I truly cannot turn my back for even 5 seconds. This means I have to take one of the boys with me pretty much everywhere I go  … no more peeing alone!

Truett had his 18 month check up last week. It went really well. His height is now 33.75″ in the 90th percentile. Tall boy! Weight is 24lbs 3oz in the 50th and head circumference is 49cm in the 90th. Smart boy! 😉 The Pediatrician is not worried about his weight because it has stayed pretty consistent around the 50th percentile for a long time now. We talked about how some days he eats a lot and other days he just picks at his food and she said that’s pretty normal. We just have to look at his diet on a whole which is generally okish. I do need to get more iron in him one way or the other though because his iron count came back at just 9 and then when it was retested a few minutes later it was 10. So it’s definitely a little low yet. The Pediatrician was surprised that Tru is happy to drink breast milk. Actually he begs for it…. When he sees me pumping he begs for the bottle. It’s kind of slightly a little bit gross I guess. But I am happy for him to be getting breast milk again and having those antibodies. I usually give him about 4 or 5 ounces of it a day.

He’s finally starting to use a few more words I think out of necessity more than anything. He has found that he needs a better way to communicate with us than just crying all the time. He also grabs our hands and leads us where he wants us to go. Usually outside or the kitchen. 😉 But lately he has been adamant about wanting to go to bed and have nap times as well. He needs the alone time I think. Works for me!!!! 🙂

Tru has also become very skilled at putting on his own socks. He can also get his pants on up to his diaper and we just have to pull them up for him. He will happily sit for 30 minutes putting on socks or taking shoes on and off.

This Easter made so much more sense to him. We went to church (then stopped at Lowe’s to buy a washer because ours quit) then came home so Tru could have a nap before heading to my aunt’s house for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Tru had fun finding eggs but once he figured out there was candy inside, he wanted to open every egg before putting them in the basket. 😉 It was super cute.

Dear God, please continue to bless and protect Tru throughout his life. Thank You for all the many new things he is learning every day. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Levi – Week 3

I went ahead and cancelled Levis weight check for this week. I can tell he has definitely gained some weight. I was supposed to have his bilirubin level checked this week if his Pediatrician thought he still looked yellow at his weight check, but since we didn’t go to the weight check we didn’t get the bilirubin level checked either. I think he looks like it is almost completely gone though so I’m really not worried about it at this point.

This kid eats nonstop all day and all evening. It really doesn’t bother me though. He likes to snack more than have a full on meal. The only problem with that is he didn’t get my breast fully drained out and I ended up developing a clogged milk duct which then decided to go ahead and try to turn into a breast infection. It has been about five or six days now and I still have not gotten the blockage to move through completely. I tried nursing on all fours, dangling above the baby ( what a sight) to try to bring the blockage down but nothing seems to be working. So I added in 2 extra pumping sessions. I’m now pumping once in the morning, once in the evening, once before I go to bed and once in the middle of the night. Hopefully that will help me to stay drained out a little bit better so I don’t risk more blockages.

I think my stitches might be starting to fall out finally! I think there are roughly 10 on the outside and who knows how many on the inside.

It’s crazy how much more aware Levi is this week! I can really see him starting to notice things and  understand things a little bit. DH’s sister had a baby boy 18 days after I had Levi. It was so amazing to see the two babies together and be able to tell how much Levi has grown and developed in such a short amount of time. He loves to look around and pays attention for a little bit while I talk to him. I can see a hint of a smile trying to peek through every now and then. I think Truett started smiling at us when he was about 3 weeks 4 days old so Levi is probably just days away from being able to smile!! It’s amazing how fast the time flies…

He makes the cutest sounds now too. He has this little sound he makes in his sleep all the time that sounds just like a bullfrog. It has earned him the nickname Baby Bullfrog. 😉

We are getting anywhere from two and a half to four and a half hours of sleep at a time at night. Most nights he wakes up almost exactly every 3 hours. That works out pretty well for me. He usually gets done nursing relatively quickly too. 10 to 20 minutes then we are back asleep. We did have a couple nights that really tried my patience where he wouldn’t stay asleep and he just wanted to be held. I think his tummy was really hurting him though. We have started giving him some gas drops with his evening feedings and it seems to be helping.

I would love to write more but we have gotten rid of our home internet temporarily and it’s such a pain to try to write on my phone! So I shall leave you with a few pictures.

Dear God, please keep Your hedge of protection around Levi and continue to help him grow strong and healthy. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Truett’s 17 Month Update

It’s a cryin’ shame I never posted this last month when I wrote it. It’s time now for an 18 month post!!

I thought I was supposed to be writing a 16 month update and then I realized the little guy is already 17 months! Where is all the time going?

 

I can tell that Tru has really had a growth spurt lately. I am planning to take him to a well baby check up next week. I skipped taking him to his 15 month appointment because there was such a flu outbreak around our area at the time and I felt it best to just stay home and away from the dr’s office as much as possible. I don’t want to wait another month to take him to his 18 month check up though because I do have a few concerns. There is probably nothing wrong at all but mom’s worry, it’s kind of our thing that we do whether we should or not. My main concern is that, while I can see that he has grown taller (having to pack up a lot of his shirts and pants because they are suddenly too short) he has gained only maybe 2 pounds since October. That’s not seeming normal to me at this point because he really looks skinny. He has mostly days where he eats great and days where he has very little appetite. He isn’t at all picky, he just chooses not to eat some days. For example, I am keeping a food log this week to show his pediatrician and so today he ate less than 1/2 of a cheeseburger, 1 hotdog, a few bites of mixed vegetables and 1/2 cup yogurt. (I know, the cheeseburger and hotdog were super healthy choices.) I offered plenty of other foods and he turned them all down. I even made banana muffins which are one of his favorite foods and wouldn’t eat more than a bite or two. He drank a bottle of milk in the morning and another at bedtime. Of course, we all have days that we are just not as hungry and that is perfectly fine.  Other days he will eat plenty. The other morning he ate 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 a banana and 1 whole orange just for breakfast! He had a whole peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and some mashed potatoes with mushrooms for supper. Plus several bottles of milk. There is no rhyme or reason to his eating habits and that is why I am confused that he is not gaining weight. I could understand it if all his days were like today….

 

Tru isn’t talking much at all lately and that is frustrating for all of us. His inability to tell us exactly what he wants/needs results in a lot of pointing and screaming by him and a lot of guessing and exasperation from us. He has started a new habit of pulling me up from the couch and leading me to the kitchen when he is hungry. That is actually really good because at least he is finally giving me more clues to go off of concerning what he is wanting. For some reason though, he thinks he needs to fuss/cry the entire time I am getting him food. If I am pouring him a sippy cup of water, he will usually fuss until it is actually in his hands. I am trying to work with him on showing him that I am getting the food/drink/toy therefore he doesn’t need to keep crying for it. It’s as good as done. I haven’t been able to get that point across yet.

 

This evening Tru was extra fussy. I finally asked him if he wanted to go to bed. He ran to his bedroom door and knocked on it and made gestures of laying his head down. It was SO adorable!!! I wish I had it on video. I changed his diaper and he went to DH and hugged him goodnight several times before I scooped him up to put him in bed. He still goes to bed and naps easily. I am so thankful for that! I hope he continues to do well with this and hopefully his baby brother will be an easy sleeper like Tru is. 🙂

 

Climbing onto the couch is a new favorite hobby that started in the last month. Tru is up and down from the couch probably a hundred times a day. He loves to sit next to us for about 2 seconds and then get down again. For some reason, he has lost interest in basically all of his toys and become a major bookworm! He LOVES his books and carries them around and “reads” them all day long. Sometimes he reads them out loud, making up his own words and being quite dramatic. I love it when he does that. It is so cute. He isn’t much into us reading the books to him at this point. He likes to turn the pages and read to us mostly. 🙂

 

He still loves the dog and follows him around hugging him as much as he can while the dog is a total butt head and runs away and doesn’t appreciate all the adorableness that is happening. Today, I was pretty sure that Tru said “doggy” while he was fussing about something. Whenever the dog is in his cage, Tru wants to let him out. If only the dog would cooperate, I think we could have one of those really cute boy-and-his-dog relationships going on.

 

The weather is finally warming up this week and for pretty much the first time in his life, Tru got to really run around outside today. (By the time he started walking, it was getting too cold out and it’s been winter for pretty much forever now so he hasn’t gotten to just play outside except for a few minutes here and there.) He really loved it and I hated to have to bring him inside. I would really like to put a baby gate on our porch so that I can sit out there with him while I’m nursing Levi etc, and Tru could play with toys and get to enjoy fresh air and sunshine. I pushed Tru in his stroller around the track at our community college the other day and he really loved that too. It makes me happy that he is seeming to be an outdoorsy boy.

 

This is getting pretty long so I should probably wrap it up now. I know that I could go on and on all day about how precious my little boy is…. he’s not a baby anymore, he’s a little boy now. It’s amazing how much he has grown in just a year and a half. He is so sweet. He comes up to me and hugs me multiple times a day. Just this month he has started giving me and DH kisses (he has been giving my sister kisses for months now but just finally started to kiss DH and I) and it is just the most precious thing. He loves to pat my belly and snuggle up to it and hug it. I think he will actually miss my belly when it is gone. I know I will miss him laying his head on it. It’s one of my favorite things for him to do. 🙂 This is very likely our last weekend with Tru’s brother on the inside… I just so look forward to seeing his reaction to having a baby brother. I want to see their bond as they grow up together. I just love so much for them to be close in age.

 

Dear God, thank You so much for my sweet little Truett. He is such a sweet and precious little boy and I am so blessed to be his mommy. I thank You for seeing fit to bless our lives with this beautiful little person. Please protect and watch over Tru all the days of his life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Birth Pictures

Tru helping me get Levi into position. I used that ball so much through the last few months of my pregnancy. I highly recommend it if for no other reason than the pain relief factor.

Tru giving my belly some love. He kissed and hugged my belly constantly before Levi was born.

My 38 weeks 5 days pregnant picture. Just hours before heading to the hospital.

Not yet hooked up to the pitocin. I was out of that bed asap once the contractions started.

Dealing with a couple contractions in the bed.

In transition. Trying to cope but not succeeding.

I love my MIL and DH’s face in the background.

That much longed for moment. Baby on my chest.

After getting some oxygen. Looking nice and pink.

He had lots of mucus coming out of his mouth for the first 24 hours or so.

Daddy meeting his new baby.

Getting to hold Levi for the first time.

Enjoying some snuggles while mommy gets stitched up.

I was too weak to keep my eyes open, not that they could focus at that point anyways.

Getting to do skin on skin while the “repairs” were being finished.

Snuggling on mommy’s chest.

Grandma getting her turn.

Auntie getting her turn.

Meeting another Auntie.

I love that puffy little face.

Getting to hold my little man after all the “repairs” were done.

Baby kisses!

So happy to be holding my little guy. I wish those moments could last longer.

Levi – Week 2

This week we are getting settled into our grove here. I am alone with the boys all day while DH is at work and so far I have done fine on my own. Thank God. I did get my sister to go with me to Levi’s weight check and Truett’s 18 month check up. But next week she isn’t available so I suppose I may have to figure out how to get one tiny newborn and one active toddler into the Dr’s office on my own for another weight check and *gulp* blood draw for Levi.

Levi’s bilirubin check came back 6 days after going off the light at a 9. The pediatrician was somewhat surprised that his jaundice wasn’t completely gone so she said to stop breast feeding for 24 hours and use formula to flush the bilirubin through. I did this at first but after a few bottles, I didn’t feel right about compromising our breast feeding for something that isn’t proven to lower high bilirubin when it is caused by blood incompatibility, so I went back to breast feeding. Levi had decided he didn’t want to latch without the nipple shield and I think he was liking the bottle better so we struggled all night and all day with getting him to latch on again. He would fuss and fight for as long as 10 minutes before finally getting on and nursing. Thankfully, he seems to be happy to nurse again although I am really sore from not using the nipple shield in over 24 hours. I may have to resort to using it every other feeding for awhile. His high pallet is what is causing the soreness. We have seen the lactation consultant twice while we were in the hospital and she was a great help with reassuring me that his latch was good and it was just the shape of his mouth causing me pain.

His cord fell off after 9 days but it didn’t heal underneath so the pediatrician is treating that. She sealed it with silver nitrate a couple days ago but she said it will probably take a couple treatments because it was not healed at all at 11 days old.

He sleeps some night for 2-3 hours between feeds and other nights he has gone as long as 5 hours at which point I always wake him to nurse. He weighed 7lbs 12oz at 11 days old so he was still 2oz under his birth weight and for that reason, he is supposed to go back for a weight check in a week. I was surprised that he hadn’t gained it all back yet because he had gained back to 7lbs 10oz at 4 days old. He eats and poops constantly all day. Obviously he just isn’t getting all that he needs. I have felt that the milk is there since I have been pumping extra out in the mornings and evenings (which I have been freezing and… Tru loves to drink it from a bottle. Begs for it actually.) but the pediatrician thought that maybe the nipple shield was making it hard for him to get all the milk he needs. I think he isn’t getting the rich hind milk out as well with the shield which is another reason I stopped using it.

Aside from that, he is a happy baby. Loves to be held, but he’s usually happy to just lay in his bassinet while I take care of his brother. I have been making a point of laying him down awake at night to try to get him used to going to bed and self soothing like Tru has always done. I don’t let him cry at this point though. He refuses to take a pacifier which sucks (pun intended) but maybe we will get him started on that at some point. We have tried 4 different kinds. The problem seems to be that the nipple isn’t filling his mouth enough. It all comes back to that high pallet issue again. Oh well. I would love for him to have something that comforts him at night but on the plus side, we won’t have to wean him from it so that is good!

I am starting to feel more like myself although there is still some residual soreness and the stitches still itch a bit since they haven’t dissolved just yet. The itching was no joke last week! I had some numbing spray they gave me at the hospital but it only went so far to relieving the soreness and itch. But I do feel stronger now and I have been taking iron like the Dr said to rebuild my blood. Seems to be helping. I am getting more sleep than I did when Tru was a baby since Levi doesn’t wake as often as Tru did. But some nights like last night I don’t get as much sleep and I am dragging trying to take care of both kids. It’s for such a short time though. I feel like time is going too fast already!!

Dear God, thank You for another good week. I pray that You will continue to heal Levi of his jaundice and that You will improve our breast feeding so that he will get all the milk that he needs. I pray that I won’t get any breast infections or anything that would hinder our breast feeding and I pray that Levi will do a good job nursing with or without the shield. I also ask that You will make my body provide lots of milk for Levi so that we never struggle with having too little milk. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Levi – Week 1

I wanted to get this out before I forgot absolutely everything. Time really flies!

I left off with us in the delivery room. Me getting stitched up and Levi getting some oxygen before being given back to me for breastfeeding. He seemed to take to nursing like a champ and was happy to nurse several times before we were moved to our recovery room about 4 hours after the birth. He nursed for about 20 minutes at a time and I was very hopeful we would have a good breast feeding experience. My FIL came to see Levi that night and my BIL who had been sitting in the waiting room with my niece for about 7 hours, finally got to come in and see him as well.

We all got good sleep that night with Levi sleeping one 5 hour stretch. It was great for us to all get rest after DH and I had been up all night the night before while I was in labor. The Dr came by in the morning and asked me if I wanted a blood transfusion as my blood count had dropped to 7, but the thought of a bag of blood hanging over me was enough to make me decline. I was dizzy upon standing but I was starting to get my vision back without going cross eyed. I was having these weird allusions that the bed was going up and down. It was weird. The Dr told me that she was proud that I was her patient and that she had learned a lot from me. I think this was her way of apologizing for being so pushy and hard to deal with throughout my labor. I think she realized that she had gone too far. She told me at one point that she had been making me mad on purpose because she knew that would motivate me… whether that is true or not, I don’t know. But she for sure did motivate me! I was determined to show her (by the grace of God!) and in the end, I did. She kept telling me and my family that I was a strong woman and that she could never give birth naturally. (I guess she didn’t think the shot of epidural I had 3 hours before giving birth counted. I know it was gone by the time I started pushing but I am so thankful I had it during that forever long transition part.) The Dr said we could probably go home that day if we wanted to but the pediatrician came by and quickly crushed those dreams. DH’s grandma and 2 aunts came to see us and we had fun showing off our little guy.

Later on in the day, the nurse came and told us that Levi had jaundice. I had thought maybe he did because he was starting to look yellow. I had asked DH to hold him by the window earlier that day in the sunlight but unfortunately, he needed to placed under a light and on a light blanket. His level was at 10 and every 6 hours they would take him for a heel stick and it would keep rising even though he was on the lights. It went to 11 and then 12 and by then it was the next day and the pediatrician ordered another light. So he was on 3 lights now, wearing adorable little goggles over his eyes that he absolutely hated and cried over. It was hard for me because we couldn’t hold him except long enough for me to breast feed him and then put him right back. And I had to keep him on the light blanket so it was awkward to hold him. He cried about 90% of the night the first night he was on the lights and DH and I took turns holding his hands and feet through the door of the incubator to comfort him. Eventually, he accepted that he was brought into this world to be abandoned in an incubator and stopped crying. It broke my heart!!! I have to say, one positive about this whole situation is that the hospital where I gave birth is absolutely wonderful and they make every effort to keep mom and baby together. So the incubator and lights were brought into our room and he stayed with us the entire time except for leaving for his heel pricks and weight checks. It was wonderful to have him right there even though we couldn’t hold him.

Not at all happy under the light the first night.

I have to say though, the goggles were really cute. 🙂

DH on one of his turns during the night trying to comfort baby.

I wish I had taken pictures of the delivery room because it was big and beautiful. But this is the recovery room. DH got to have his own bed because the hospital is doing construction and they had extra beds available so they gave him one.

With both of the births of our babies, DH has watched a huge amount of Pawn Stars. I don’t know what he was watching here but by day 3 and not getting to hold Levi, we were both getting pretty bored.

By day 2 Levi’s weight dropped to 7lbs 9oz which was only down 4.7% (I think) so the Dr was happy with that. I kept breast feeding and started pumping often to give him whatever drops I could get and to help my milk come in sooner. It started to come in by day 2 and was in better by day 3 when I was pumping an ounce and a half at a time. I was in dire pain with breast feeding by then with cracking nipples (something I never had with Tru) so DH was giving Levi pumped milk with a bottle which was helpful because we could see how much he was getting. I had to start using a nipple shield at every feeding because he was doing some weird tongue rolling thing that he thankfully outgrew and also because he has an unusually high pallet. (As of yesterday, I have stopped using the nipple shield although the soreness is coming back so we may have to use it every other feeding or something for awhile.)

I was discharged from the hospital after 48 hours but we were all allowed to stay in the room as guests as long as they didn’t need the room back. If they did need the room at some point, we would be allowed to stay in a tiny breast feeding room without beds but at least we would still be with Levi and he would still be in our room. This hospital works so hard to make sure mom and baby are not separated. It was such a comfort to me that I could stay with him. Even though I wasn’t a patient and wasn’t getting meals anymore, they still let us use the kitchen and eat whatever we could find in there. Absolutely so nice and handy.

We were told that Levi’s jaundice was caused by us having different blood types. I am a bit confused as to how it all works and my facts may be off but the way I understand it is, my body made antibodies against Levi’s blood and he was born with these antibodies fighting his own blood cells. Something like that. This kind of jaundice can take a long time to get over and is one of the more serious types.

On day 3, the pediatrician came by and said she wanted Levi on the lights another day and maybe they would finally get around to circumcising him that day. A few minutes later though, we were told they needed our room and that they were going to do a trial of taking Levi off the lights for the day and see where his bilirubin levels came back at. I think they were 11 or 12 at this point. So, we spent the day cuddling our baby in the sunlight coming in the windows. They ended up not needing our room after all either which was nice. That evening, Levi was circumcised and his level came back at 12 or 13 so we were sent home with him on the Bili Blanket. He was our little glow worm. I was beyond thankful to go home. At the hospital, we couldn’t get any sleep with Drs and nurses coming in every 1-2 hours checking on Levi all night.

On day 4 we went to the pediatrician and she had Levi’s bilirubin tested again and left him on the blanket another day and night since his level was 14 (I think, facts are getting fuzzy). The next day it was 13 and we FINALLY got to take him off the blanket and hold him without that bulky cord and being stuck in one spot. We spent the rest of the week catching up on baby snuggles and enjoying our 2 boys at home.

Tru didn’t know what to think of his baby brother when we came home! We got his reaction on video and it was adorable! He was so happy to see us after so many days. (We left Thursday night at 11pm and came home Monday night after 9pm) He didn’t even notice that there was a baby in the car seat at first since he was busy inspecting other bags. When he looked in the car seat, he wanted to pull Levi out and play with him. I think he thought Levi was a doll. We helped him hold him on the couch and he was pretty impressed but when the boobs came out and Levi started nursing, Tru started getting a little jealous. He would lean towards the boob and make chomping sounds. We had a couple incidents where he started out gently patting the baby and then got more rough. We have had to be so careful about telling him to be gentle because it hurts his feelings easily.

Tru loves to lay his head on Levi. He hugs and kisses him all day long. He worries about him when he cries and the first thing he does every morning is run up to the bassinet in the living room and look for Levi. Melts my heart!!! 🙂

The handsome daddy of my 2 gorgeous boys. 🙂

DH, Tru and Levi all sleep like this. I do not. I think it is cute how parents can pass traits like that on to their children.

First sponge bath.

Tru likes to be right there whenever we are holding Levi. I don’t mind the extra cuddles. 😉

It’s always a kissing triangle around here nowadays.

In his coming home from the hospital outfit.

Ready for the drive home.

This picture was hanging on the wall across from my bad and I stared at it for 3 days freaking out about how much that looks like me when I’m not pregnant. DH doesn’t see it.

Well I think that is enough for now. I will try to post about week 2 asap.

Dear God, Thank You so much for bringing us safely and happily through the hospital stay and through Levi’s first week and for blessing us so much with the gift that our 2 precious little boys are to us. In Jesus’ name, amen.