He's seems to be enjoying living with us.
I've been so busy with Max and work that I haven't been able to keep up on the blog like I wanted to, but really wanted to get a bunch of things written. This is going to be a long post.
We came home Thursday night to a nice clean happy home. We were so thrilled to be in our home, our new family, the three of us. In only a few hours, the house was trashed and we realized how much work we had ahead of us. Feeding, pumping, changing, wiping, and laundry was kicking our butts in the first few hours.
Because of Bobbie Jo's c-section I made her stay on the couch to get some rest. For the first few days I handled as much of these new responsibilities as I could. It was overwhelming. Thankfully she is much better now, I don't know how I could do any of this without her.
The hospital was worried about jaundice, so I took Max to the doctor first thing Friday morning. Because Max was so much smaller than we had expected we didn't have any clothes that fit him. I took him to the doctor (in the middle of a snow storm) in a diaper, a tee shirt we stole from the hospital, and a hat. We bundled him in a bunch of blankets as I took him out to the car I had been warming up for a half hour. Bobbie Jo pleaded with me to make sure that the doctor didn't call social services and take our baby away. Everything went well at the doctor, we were told to get another blood test on Saturday, and we headed home.
After dropping him off with his mom, I went out and bought him a bunch of preemie clothes. The rest of Friday was spent getting our bearings on this parenthood thing. We gave him his first bath, which he hated, and he rewarded us by crapping in his fancy little baby tub. And peeing on the kitchen counter, and the floor, and a little on my backpack.
Saturday morning my sore throat was really acting up. Bobbie Jo gave me some cold medicine, and I took Max to the hospital for his daily blood test. The women at the lab were great, and all of the old ladies in the waiting room gushed over my cute tiny baby. The lab results came back good, the jaundice was going down- no more blood tests. We returned home to our wonderful wife/mother who was doing better, but still needed to recooperate for a few more days. I was beat. This parenting thing was kil
ling me. I straightened up around the house and fell asleep on the couch, Max on my chest. One of my buddies called me up to see how things were going, "I don't know how I'm going to handle this" I said. I can't remember ever being so tired. My sore throat was getting worse, and the medicine didn't seem to be helping. It was an early night in bed.
Sunday morning I woke up in time to watch "Meet the Press", got my coffee started and went to the medicine cabinet where Bobbie Jo had been getting my medicine. As I pulled the pills from the box I noticed the moon icon in the lower corner with the words "Nighttime Formula" printed neatly beside it. I had been taking sleepy medicine all day Saturday, I wasn't a bum, my wife had been drugging me!
Tuesday was quite eventful. I went back to work. Bobbie Jo's mom came over to help out (she had been with us on Monday as well). Max's umbilical cord started to bleed, giving us quite a scare (but perfectly normal). He developed a fungal infection in his mouth (also incredibly common). He was given another bath (and did not poop in it!). And at 8pm we packed him up and took him to our friend Dan's to get his baby pictures taken. Dan does great work (check him out at www.terpstraphoto.com), and Max was great. He was well behaved and extremely cooperative. He, and I, got tired and the three of us came home around ten. We've seen a few of the photos and are very pleased. We'll share them all very soon.
We've had lots of visitors and have loved seeing everyone and getting to show off Max. We appreciate all of your friendship and love so much.
It's been an incredible week. We've learned a lot. We're getting the hang of things, and are much more comfortable with this than we were on Thursday night. We're ready for this. We'll be great caregivers, we're still scared about the parent thing, but we know we are fully capable of feeding and caring for the little guy.
As for Max, he's pretty cool. He's cute. He can pee really far. He hates his hiccups (which he gets often). He likes to fart a lot (like his pop), and he seems to really love his parents. Something about him changes when we hold him. I can't explain it but I think he connects with us too. It's awesome.
We're loving this. It's pretty cool.
