Our First Days...

I am so glad to be home! Our first few days home as a family of four was wonderful. Mia is doing exceptionally well considering my limitations to hold and care for her. Justin really stepped up to the plate and reminds me a 100 times per day to go lay down. When I tell him I feel stressed out about the dishes or cluttered floor he jumps right up and takes care of it. Of course he is my main wing man when it comes to caring for Amelia. She is a bit put out with me so greatly favors Justin right now. We went to the park on Friday and he took her yesterday. Amelia is becoming more and more creative when it comes to helping herself. Justin found her in the garage on Friday covered in black grease from the exhaust pipe on my car. She thought the black stuff was paint so covered her hands with the mucky junk. She ate three cuppy cakes for breakfast today...rather licked all the frosting off them. Her new best friend is the tall bar stool. She can climb up on that thing and help herself to the upper cabinets. She found three large cups and walked over the sink (over the counter tops) and started to play with the water. By the time I got up from nursing we had a fun little lake to sop up. She loves being called big sister! Amelia loved to help fetch diapers and snap his onesies. Her nursery leader came by and she was just beaming with pride over showing off her baby brother. By accident Amelia discovered that the straw from my hospital cup whistles. Isn't the picture of her tooting the straw just adorable. She looks like a hippy with her glasses, arranged hair, and awesome highlights! Luckily, Justin became the nap sheriff and convinced Amelia to nap in her own bed. I am in heaven!

Phillip is already growing. He cries only when hungry and when his nose is suctioned out. I am completely amazed at the difference between Amelia as an infant and Phillip. He eats, burps (the hardest part), poops, gets a diaper change, stays awake for 10-20 minutes, gets swaddled, popped into the cradle, and boom he is out. Even the night is awesome. His last regular feeding starts at 10:30 then he wakes me up with quiet snuffling around 3 am, feeds, and is out like a light until about 6:30. I can stretch his awake hour for 30-40 minutes with his binky. Goodness gracious...he is a miracle after Amelia. I am in love with his natural baby smell: a mix of soft powder and fresh milk. His skin is so clear and radiant. He makes the funniest little grunts and pulls amazing faces. The first diaper change in the hospital he ended up peeing all over his face. I about died laughing at the grimace of complete shock on his tiny face. Since then he's peed on himself and us more than a couple times. The pee-pee teepees help but he still throws us surprises! He is a bit jaundiced so we try to sunbathe him as often as possible. Now that he is nursing normally his biliruben levels should drop. I am grateful that my Dr was not worried...he expects jaundice in breast fed babies. No running to the Dr every day for a week and tanning beds is so awesome.

Justin is so fun to watch. He croons, "my booooy!" over and over at every chance. I am so glad that my pride did not overcome me when we named him. Every time he calls our baby Phillip a look of utter joy and satisfaction crosses his face. I can't even bring myself to call the baby Anson. I am so willing to let it all go witnessing Justin's joy. I don't even care about the camera...throw that selfish desire to the wind.

Me...I am doing alright. The privations of having a baby by forceps are numerous. I won't list my battle scars but will mention that it will take a lot longer to recover than I anticipated. Sitting down in any form almost makes me pass out! The headaches are pretty manageable and should disappear next week after my spinal fluid reaches a normal level. The Dr asked me to drink a lot of caffeinated soda to help rebuild my spinal fluid. I don't ever want another Mt Dew...even coke is starting to become boring. I really just want to sleep but the caffeine keeps me awake...sleep or headache? Hard choice! Well, that is enough about me. Enjoy some pictures of little Phillip!!

PS: check out my web album for more pics of the past few days at www.picasaweb.google.com/jollijenni3