Thursdays pictures

I’ve already whined about my Thursday and how crazy it was, but here are the few pictures we managed to take of our doctor adventures.

First trip to the doctor’s office!

Meeting Dr. Harper for the first time…

Waiting at the lab for his heels to warm up. 

I’m very thankful that they’ve opened a branch of “our lab” (the one we have to go to with our current insurance) in Kingwood.  The Humble one actually wouldn’t have been far from the doctor’s office, but this one is new and nice and not usually busy.  They’re awfully slow, but with the new and clean and nice, it balances out okay.

Snuggled into Daddy.

He screamed for the heel stick and draw, but he bled like a champ!  And FYI his levels came back such that he doesn’t need another trip to the lab.  We should just watch and make sure he doesn’t get more yellowy.  It’s hard for me to tell, but my mom stopped by this afternoon and thought he looked better to her.

Wednesday… real quick

I have tons of pictures I want to post of the last few days.  Not that you need to see them all, but they’re just so cute!  I’m going to post as much as I can before the baby wakes up!

Wednesday morning in his first Fuzzibunz.  This is an x-small Fuzzibunz, not a one-size, so he’ll grow out of it.  I haven’t tried putting any of the one-size diapers on him yet.  I’m thinking we’ll need to wait until the cord stump falls off first.

Diaper twins!

Siblings!

Oh, the love!

 

Mommy and her munchkins.  I’m trying to think… I’m actually not sure we have a full family pic yet.  May have to grab the next person who comes over to take one!

This one Joanna took of James and me.  Matt was actually helping, if you’re impressed with the centering and all of that.  :)

The girls had so much fun making the animal noises from James’ footies.  :)

Big sister protector.

I love the look on her face her – like she could just drink him in!

This is random but I’m loving this little bunch of flowers on my table.  They make me smile. :)  We got two really pretty flower arrangements in the hospital, and when we got home I cannibalized them to put the flowers in my kitchen window.  I have mentioned how I LOVE fresh flowers in my kitchen window, right?

Sometimes these girls are JUST SO SWEET!  They discovered they could use the white crayon on Mickey’s ears.  So brilliant, right?

Gran came and got the girls for lunch and playing at the park!  She took a few shots:

They came back grimy and tired, but with full bellies, having had so much fun!

Natalie simply adores her “Baby Bruder.”

That night when we went to check on the girls, we found this:

It’s actually the first time they’ve been in the same bed since Natalie moved out of the crib.

Here’s Mr. James, all snuggled for night time.  He’s awfully cute.  :)

The best laid plans…

This post will probably sound a little whiney, but it’s really about how we just don’t have control over everything!

Here was my basic plan for today, Thursday:

Get up, get everybody ready.  Send the girls off to school with Gran while Matt and I took James for his first doctor’s visit at 9am.

Get home still in the morning and clean up the house.  Move car seats around in the cars.  Give James a bath.  Basically just use the time when the girls were in school to catch up on things at home.  Get the house looking presentable since we’re having a photographer come over Friday morning.

Have Matt pick up the girls from school.  Finish any chores.  Eat dinner, have baths, go to bed early. 

Watch Fringe with Matt.

Here is how the day actually went (in a nutshell):

We got up and got everybody ready after a pretty bad night.  Little James just wanted to party all night long.  :)  The girls slept in a bit until 8:00 and 8:30 (yay!).  I had their lunches packed and outfits laid out.  Gran came over about 8:30 and finished getting them ready.  Matt and I left a little later than we’d planned, but still made it to the doctor’s office in plenty of time.  It was super busy for whatever reason (Maybe a Thursday thing?  I never go on Thursdays.) so we waited and waited.  The appointment went fine.  I’ll blog more about it later.  Dr. Harper did notice some jaundice and sent us to the lab for blood work.  That took forever too so we got home about noon.  Really not too bad and I’m thankful Matt was with me and the girls were at school, but it was easily a couple hours longer than I’d planned to be away from home!  We picked up from the morning, ate, took care of James.  Matt left to get the girls a little after 2:00.  I lay down while James was sleeping and got a little nap before the girls came home at about 3:00.  I managed to clean up the playroom (major disaster zone) before needed to feed James.  Then while Matt was warming up dinner, Joanna fell in the kitchen and split open her chin across the scar from the last time.  I handed off the baby to Matt for a diaper change and took care of Joanna.  Last time we took her to the urgent care place.  They put steri-strips and glue on her chin and it cost $500.  I decided I could do that for less.  Since the cut is on the bottom of her chin, it won’t affect her extreme beauty even if I make an ugly scar.  :)  So I left Matt with all three kids while I ran to Walgreens for supplies.  First I hooked the girls up with their dinner.  Meanwhile James had peed and pooped all over everywhere.  I got butterfly bandages and liquid bandage and came home.  I told Matt to call his folks for help.  There were just too many needy kids for us!  James needed to be held.  Natalie was tired and falling apart, and Joanna was in surgery with Dr. Mom.  I cleaned her up, glued her together and sent her to color with Mamma and Pop.  Matt and I were able to eat and get things cleaned up.  Thanks Mamma and Pop!  After they left I gave the girls baths, cleaned the kitchen (some), and got the girls ready for bed.  About then my back clenched up (still have major back pain – so need to build up my core muscles), which is why I’m sitting here typing instead of cleaning the house.  I was also hoping I’d get diapers washed early enough to hang them outside.  As it is, they’re washing now and will have to start drying tonight inside.  I really want to get James’ Fuzzibunz clean again for the pictures!  Better go start that final rinse…

It really wasn’t a bad day, I’m just stressing over little things.  I’m absolutely fixed on getting things organized and clean around here.  I’m letting the clutter drive me crazy instead of just enjoying my babies.  Oh and I discovered at some point today that now that I finally have a couple of Thursdays off at home with my hubby, Fox is airing baseball instead of my new favorite show Fringe.  Oh well, I have better things to be doing anyway.  :(

Tuesday

A freshly showered Mommy!  Doesn’t he look super-cute in his “little brother” onesie?!

Snuggles with Momma

His spaceship:

So I just love the marketing here.  A gift for breastfeeding moms.  (Oh boy, I love a good gift!)  It’s formula.  For breastfeeding moms.  I don’t get it.  I understand they want to send their product home with new mommies.  Makes sense.  If someone decides later they’d like to have some formula, this stuff’s in the house.  But I really really cannot comprehend actually printing “for breastfeeding moms”  on the package of formula.

The bag it came in is super cute though.  And I have a can of Enfamil premium newborn if anyone needs it.

In his car seat for the first time – ready to head home!

When we drove up, it startled me that the yard sign from the church was blue.  It seriously took my brain a few moments.  The others have been pink!

And yes, at this point I’m sure the ISO or white balance or something is off on my mom’s camera.  (I checked but it all says “auto.”)  I haven’t tried to figure it out, and I gave it back to her – maybe she will figure it out!

Our official “We’re home” parents and baby picture.  I’ll have to post the ones from the girls as well, but they’re in the other room on the external hard drive.  I can’t keep a ton of pictures on this computer.

Except for the bruise on her head, this is an amazing picture of Joanna!  If only James wasn’t a little covered up, it would be perfect of the two of them.  She LOVES him.

Natalie loves him too, but she’s a little more confused about him.

First diaper at home: a prefold with a cover!

Christiana stopped by on her way home from work for some Baby James snuggles!

We were very glad to be home on Tuesday.  It felt good to get the house picked up and “settle in” a little bit while the girls were in school.  I definitely slept better at home!  I will post pics from today another time.  We had another nice day at home. 

I am noticing that I’m not “back to my old self” though.  My back still hurts like crazy, and my abdominal muscles are a joke.  It takes time I know, and I’m going to try and be good about getting my body back into shape.  I’m very anemic still; they were pretty worried about my blood counts in the hospital.  The discharging doctor from my ObGyn practice said I was “living on the edge” blood-wise.  My numbers are half what they should be.  Um, oops.  So I’m really working hard at remembering to take my prenatal vitamin.  I’m hoping that by getting my blood count up I will also see an increase in my energy and stamina too.  That’s an incentive for sure!

Last Picture on the First Day

One very happy Daddy.

Much less sleepy

We had a great night last night. The girls had a little trouble going to sleep. In fact I probably fell asleep before Miss Natalie. She really wanted in our bed!
Let's see what I can remember...
James ate around 8pm and had a little snooze next to me. I was a bad kind of tired. I actually hadn't slept more than one hour in a row since he was born. It wasn't pretty. :) Anyway, I put him in his little bed in our room, and he slept until about 11:40pm. I got him up and changed and fed him. It was probably about an hour later that I got him swaddled back up and into his bed. He slept again until about 3:45am, where he again ate and got some fresh pants. He settled back down for some snoozing at 4:45, and then slept until around 8:30!! I got up at 7:00; I guess my body just didn't know what to do with all that sleep. :) Joanna woke up at 8:00 and Natalie at 8:15. That was really nice. They're still a little off, but getting back on schedule and getting some of those grumpies out!
After a shower I was a new woman and even got a few clothes folded. Now I'm holding my sleeping James; I just couldn't lay him down!
I have a bajillion ton of pictures to post, but I've sadly had to downgrade to my computer and give the work computer back to the church. I'm going to try to download Windows Live Writer later, but it may be too much program for this machine. Everything takes longer on this computer, but there are some super-cute pictures worth the work!

Some Updates from a Sleepy Woman

Joanna comes running every time James cries. "Is Baby James okay?" she asks me.

Natalie is calling James "Jean Imogene," which is the name of our Cabbage Patch doll. I think she's a little confused.
She also kept saying "bite" when James would nurse. At first I thought she thought he was biting me. Now I think she's asking for a bite.

I am glad to be home but definitely feeling a little bluesy. Matt and I are both wiped out, and the girls are pretty tired too. We're hoping to get back into a bit of a routine, with good bedtimes and rest times. I absolutely could not sleep last night. It was so quiet in the hospital room that every whimper, snore, and noise kept me awake. I'm hoping for at least a little more sleep tonight!

James is in is first cloth diaper. He's wearing a prefold with a cover. It's pretty bulky! I need to organize all my stuff that fits him or fits Natalie right now and maybe label the drawers (I'm really tired!). We'll see what works!

James was circumcised last night. It's making him sad, but he's a trooper! He's been sleeping like a champ (on someone, of course). He's also nursing well and filling his diapers regularly.

Because we left the hospital after just one day, our pediatric practice wants to see James soon so our appointment is on Thursday. I'm looking forward to our doctor meeting him!

My cousin Josh's birthday is also October 18th. His mom (my Aunt Gail) commented on Facebook that Josh was born 28 years ago on a Monday morning at 8:24am. How cool is that! He and James are only 30 minutes apart. :)