Nope- not for me. My incision has yet to be seen. I think it might heal on its own though. Still leaks some but not as bad.
Nope, not Brendan. He’s fine though a bit sleep deprived as we all are.
Nope, not DH. Though he *was* involved in a bitty fender bender this morning.
That leaves Andrew. 3 occassions of choking and 2 hours of what seemed to be him trying to poop had us bring him to the ER. They didn’t seem to care about either too much- just that he had a fever.
Newborn + fever = 3 day hospital stay + every test imaginable run.
Diagnosis- Reflux. Feed upright. Keep upright. 2 meds. See him again in a week. Seems the fever was a fluke. :/
Frankly, I lost it in the end. Hopefully that slowly reverses now that we are home again. No more cords attached to alarms, blood pressure cuffs, needles, x-rays or nurses poking and prodding every d*mn minute night and day and a baby who understandably turned into Mr. Anxiety and refuses to be put down, awake or asleep. Don’t even ask about the nurse who told me I was nursing him too often.
Breathe in, breathe out. Just might be the perfect time for Daddy to introduce a bottle while mommy sleeps.
He weighed 10 lbs 2 oz this morning.

We have a belly button!!! Time for a bath! Whee!
Here is the traditional “ducky robe” first bath photo.

Yes, they do look a lot alike… the eyes are different though. Here’s Bren’s ducky robe pic.

And another cute shot.

I have an entire 4 lines of the birth story written. Sigh. I might as well tell you I ended up with another c-section though you’ll surely have noticed how I thoughtlessly posted about going to get my staples removed. LOL. Dumb-o is me.
Anyway, I’m now having complications from it. I have been swelling below my incision but thought nothing of it since I did the same after Brendan, just not as bad. Apparently it is a pouch of yellow liquid. Yak! Yesterday morning one of my steri-strips (think industrial butterfly bandages) came off and the liquid in there took the opportunity to bust free- leaving me a nice pinky tip-sized hole and a big goopy mess. According to the on-call dr, this was a good thing as the collected liquid would probably have gotten infected otherwise. She advised butterfly bandages and to see my dr on Tuesday if it got worse or started to smell. It is too late (though I don’t know why) to add another stitch and it’ll have to heal slowly on it’s own now.
Well, it continues to leak. I am wearing disposable diapers across it and it still stays wet all the time. All but one of my steri-strips have come off and the butterfly bandages are worthless. My pinky hole is now 2 pinkies and DH says he saw leaking from another spot as well. Frankly, it’s gross.
I’m going to try to wait until tomorrow when the dr office is open again but if it gets worse I may have to go to the ER. Obviously I am living on the couch right now. I have never seen more tv. 😉

I set Andy down on a blanket on the floor to go get myself a drink in the kitchen. Of course, he started to fuss. I saw Bren go over there and comfort him. When I returned, Bren had laid down beside him and pulled up his shirt. He was trying to get Andy to breastfeed from his belly!!! Oh I wish I had a picture!!! 😀 Hee hee!

My little Snuffles is 2 weeks old! How is that possible?? “Snuffles” is Andy’s most common nickname because he makes the cutest snuffling noises as he eagerly roots all around looking to nurse. He especially likes necks. I am also quite fond of “Mr Grunty” (he grunts all the time!) and “Andy muh man.” LOL.

My MIL is on the train ride home. She was wonderful… happy to settle a disgruntled baby, cook full blown meals, straighten the house AND do both the diashes and the laundry. Thank you Mimi!

Brendan continues to do well with the baby. No jealousy except he doesn’t want to share certain things- like his blanket. Understandable. He has taken his cue from us on how to handle the crying and instead of upsetting him, he pats him and tells him “It’s okay”. He loves to sit beside us on the couch as Andy eats. Since I have spent so much time feeding Andy (he is honestly insatiable), Brendan has had copious Mario Kart time as well. He can run the courses in true racing fashion now instead of just clowning around. He loves to call out what number he placed- and yes, “1” is often his number. It is quite amazing how good he has gotten.

We had another pedi visit today and Andy now weighs 9 lbs 10 oz. Yay!!! No more visits until he’s 2 months old. Next appt- Oct. 25th. My birthday- but this is a good thing since DH will come home early from work and we can do something fun.
Except for being tired and achy I am doing well. I breastfed while walking through the hospital today. I didn’t look at anybody I passed and no one said anything to me. I did feel quite foolish that even though no skin was showing, I *was* proudly displaying my maternity jeans’ belly panel. LOL… how embarrassing. Time to check and see how my regular pants fit!
AND… the best news of all…
I got on my scale this morning after DH commented that he had never seen my feet skinnier looking and I have lost 43.5 pounds! I swear to God I ate fried fish, gobs of tartar sauce, macaroni and cheese, veggies in butter sauce, a buttered roll plus shared a piece of chocolate cake AND chocolate pie last night for dinner. I am not dieting in the least. I lose all this weight and what looks skinny? My stinkin’ feet. Haha.
Looks like we are going to visit the in-laws next Wednesday for 6 days. Our truck needs an overhaul and it costs MUCH less up there.
Gotta run- it’s cluster feed time. lol

goes to Lilypadz! They rock my world!
I can sleep without leaking.
I can go braless without leaking.
I can nurse on one side and not have the other side drip incessantly.
I can wear them in my bra and not have “floating” breast pads!
And they are totally washable and reusable- and retain their stickiness!
They work great on my current rather freakishly large size but would work just as fine on small women!
Edited to add: Though I would have sworn I saw them at Target and BRU has never heard of them, you CAN get Lilypadz at Baby Depot for $19.99.

I had my staples removed and my baby admired at my OB’s office today. Incision is looking nice, I’m told. All good… especially the fact that I have officially LOST 1/2 A POUND since getting pregnant. WooHoo!!! Haha. I had gained 26 pounds according to their scale. I am curious to see what my scale says in the morning. Not too shabby for only 6 days and eating like a horse since I had him!
Next appointment is in four weeks.
Andy is wonderful. He loves to breastfeed and loves lights. Brendan is wonderful. He loves to kiss Andy all over and show him pictures that he has drawn. He and Mimi even made him a “Welcome Baby Brother” sign. 😀

If it weren’t for the nights I’d be floating but as it is, I’ll settle for days of bliss. Mmmmm… baby. I had so forgotten the joy.

*BEAM!* 😀
That’s what the pedi said as soon as he saw him. No jaundice worries and he didn’t look in his mouth at all so didn’t see the frenulum clipping scar. We debate whether that oversight was intentional or not, lol. 😛
We have to bring him back in a week because he is still below birthweight- he weighs 8-15 now, down from 9-9. Two days ago when we left the hospital he was only 1 ounce more, 9 pounds even, so we are rounding the bend nicely. Doctor is not worried, I am not worried. Just a formality.
The height discrepancy at birth was cleared up. He was 20 1/2 inches (not the 21 1/2 DH heard) because today he is 20 5/8 inches.
Brendan also got on the scale. We are initiating a family healthy eating plan because at almost 3 1/2 he weighs 41 1/2 pounds. 😯 I need to research some new yet kid friendly healthy meals and snacks- pronto. DH has gained a few sympathy pounds as well and I’m positive I’ve got a few to shed myself. Haha. I’ll make sure to do mine slowly though.
Brendan did not scream the entire visit this time either. I’d say just the opposite- he was fine and even said good-bye to the nurse- but he hid his face in the chair the entire time the actual doctor was in the room and after he left called him scary. Have no idea why he shies away from him.
Also, I had my first official public breastfeeding where someone was definitely going to see me… even if it was only the doctor. 😀

I asked to be set up with a Medela Symphony pump while in the hospital. Niiiice. 😀 And I la la love how the parts also go together to make a manual pump!! I like it much better than the Avent Isis!
You’d never have guessed it but my prep work with my flat nipples has worked beautifully. I now posess superior nipplage. Haha. So superior that I actually pump better with the next size up pump flanges! 😯 I just rub up and down the standard ones. This is probably why I dislike the Avent I have… one day I need to check and see if they make a bigger flange as well.
As for breastfeeding… it’s going far better than I expected. But my gosh it doesn’t last very long!! I was up ALL NIGHT LONG last night. By the end I was miserably tired. I made DH get up and take him away for an hour. Gotta remedy that somehow but I am in for it tonight- Andy has slept all day just about. He is so hard to wake up to feed when he doesn’t want to. All that night eating has brought in my milk though… yee-ouch! I ache!
BTW, Andy got his frenulectomy today. His tongue-tie was worse than Brendan’s!! His little tongue was very heart shaped in front and when each nurse came on duty that was the first thing they said to me… you gotta get that taken care of! LOL. Anyway, it was very, very fast and done with in less than twenty seconds- with the actucal lasering lasting only 1 second. Just Zooop! Done! Looks so much better. Dana King, a dentist & orthodontist here, is fabulous. We even set up Bren with his first “happy visit”- a free of charge visit to allow him to get to know them before they attempt an appt with actual cleaning. What a great idea! And they say he can have as many happy appts as he needs before a real one. Amazing when you find such wonderful people in the world!
I can’t tell if nursing is better or not, he really hasn’t figured his new tongue abilities out quite yet. We were doing pretty well even though sometimes he thrusts his tongue into my nipples and when he pops off they are outta whack looking. LOL.
Our first pedi appt is tomorrow. I cringe thinking of when he sees we did another frenulectomy but oh, well. He surely can’t expect us to do it the first time and not the second!
Still figuring things out… We really only have the hang of the football hold and nursing in the car was interesting to figure out today. Heh. We left the house today and after a few minutes I kind of gave a start of surprise when I realized I was out with a baby without a bottle anywhere. Haha. We do pretty well nursing hidden once he is latched on but absolutely am NOT discreet in getting things situated and latching him on! LOL.
I am doing well but I am very exhausted. Gimme a few days for the birth story, okay?? The whole stay was, of course, full of ups and downs. We call this kid the “11th hour baby”. You’ll find out why soon!

Bren adores his baby brudder!!

Mommy adores him too!