At last...

Hello everyone. I apologize that is has taken me so long to let everyone know what is going on. Things were crazy towards the end of our time in the hospital and then the computer completely crashed. Stan took it to a guy at work yesterday who got it up and running enough so he could get on and get all of out pictures saved to disk and I got on the Internet for a bit, only for it to lose the connection and then stop connecting all together. So Stan spent the better part of today reformatting and loading and TA DA, here I am. So here's what's been going on with us...

Me: I'm starting with me because I know if I write the other stuff first no one will care about me. I am actually feeling really well for day 10 post pardum. I handled the surgery much better than I thought I would, maybe even better than last time. I'm actually even a few pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight--who needs Master Cleanse when you have childbirth. Of course it was all so different this time. I forced myself to get up and move around so much more since I had to go to the SCN to visit Bennett. By Friday I was able to go in and nurse him, which was a relief because I was so worried he would have trouble the longer we had to wait--not a problem for him at all. :) Stan and I went home on Saturday--it really was sad to leave Bennett, I just had to keep reminding myself some mothers leave there precious babies for months. I knew I would have Bennett home in a matter of days.

Bennett: By Friday night they had moved Bennett from his special bed that allowed them to monitor his respiratory rate the easiest to a regular hospital bassinet. The antibiotics had to run through IV for at least 48 hours so they could not disconnect that until Saturday morning. All of the normal newborn tests and procedures were done on Sunday. When I called to check in on Sunday morning they told me he was doing really well and they were hoping to get the OK to have us come back, spend the night with him on the pediatric floor and take him home Monday. When I called back before lunch, we got the OK and headed to the hospital. We spent the night with him there so nurses could monitor him for one more night, make sure he was eating well and give us time with him that we didn't have during my recovery time. He had even already begun to gain weight again--he got down to 8 lb. 12 oz and was back up to 8-14 by Monday. We also found out he was 21 inches long at birth. We had to move him up to size 1 from newborn diapers and he is almost too long for his sleepers. Needless to say he is doing well. We go for a check up next Thursday.

Kirby: He absolutely loves his baby brother. If one of us is holding Bennett he wants to sit with us too--not out of jealousy but because he wants to be close to his brother. The only bit of jealousy he showed was the first day we were home and Stan was holding Bennett-should have known he would be more concerned about Daddy than Mommy. He even hates when Bennett is crying in the other room. He goes to the door and says 'Baby' over and over until we go check on him. We are working on Kirby calling him Bennett rather than just baby but that will come in time--he has a close version, I think he just forgets.

So as you can see all is going pretty well. I haven't had too many crazy moments yet. Of course after next week all of my help will be gone so we will see how things are then. Here is a picture I took yesterday. You can see how happy Kirby is to be a big brother, and you can tell Stan is just a bit tired. Aren't we all!