"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankrolls smaller, homes happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
-Author unknown
I realize that I’m behind on the blog this week, but I have a good reason. More on that shortly. We left the hospital with James last Wednesday, and it was great to get back home. We settled in pretty quickly, and Ashlyn was happy to have her baby brother in the house. Really, she was! We weren’t sure how she would react to the new addition, but she’s been awesome about it.
And now to the reason for the late blog post. We went back to the hospital on Saturday for a routine checkup which included a jaundice check. Later Saturday afternoon we received a call from James’ Doctor with the unfortunate news that his jaundice levels had risen and that we needed to go back to the hospital for phototherapy. This shouldn’t have been a surprise since Ashlyn had it, but with Ashlyn it spiked and was treated before we left the hospital. So back to the hospital we went, and James was put under the lights. They were much better than the lights that Ashlyn had, and James seemed to enjoy it. We were there for 30 hours, and James slept the entire time other than feedings. We’re grateful for that.
With the jaundice levels under control, we were given the green light to go back home again on Tuesday. With Ashlyn returned (a big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe for watching Ashlyn while we were at the hospital), we were finally re-united as a family. Ashlyn went right into big sister mode and began comparing hand and feet sizes with her little brother. Ashlyn won.
On an un-related note, here’s a quick video of James throwing the curve for the rest of the class. The average baby will turn over from belly to back at around 4 months. Here’s James doing it at 4 days. He did it twice in a 15 minute period, and I was able to capture the second time on video. It may have been luck, but at any rate it’s a good reminder that you can’t leave them on the couch by themselves. We’ll be giving more tummy time from here on out.
Now that we’re back home, people have been coming by to see James and Ashlyn. Well, mostly they sat on the couch talking to Ashlyn while a baby slept on them. There really is no feeling like a baby sleeping on you.
Even the pets are settling in with the baby! Rusty is indifferent, Nala is jealous, and Kitty still doesn’t want to be near children.
I should be back on the same blog schedule starting this Sunday, where you’ll get to see some pictures of Ashlyn taking part in her first parade as well as Ashlyn putting her doll in all the places that baby brother likes to sleep.
Thank you everyone for your support through the delivery and hospital stays. We’re incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful family.