First Days Home

Wow, what a change. Michael came home on Monday, August 7th. After fussing for a while he fell asleep in the co-sleeper. We had a few feeding cycles and then it was time for us to go to bed, with Michael right next to us. Well, he fussed an moaned most of the night. I wound up getting up and holding him in his room from about 2:00a on. He wasn't hungry, just fussy. We have a few theories, which I will get to soon.

So after making it through our first night (with very little , if any, sleep) we began our new life at home. This included taking Michael to his first pediatrician visit the mornng of the 8th. Everything checked out fine, and he is due to go back next month. We then ran our first errand with him, going to the Jewel to pick up his vitamins and some Mylicon for gas. Michael and Gretchen stayed in the car. Since Michael has been on iron, he has been much more irregular in the pooping department. At the hospital they would give him a glycerin suppository if he hadn't pooped in 24 hours. Which he never did. So we are trying to let him get it out on his own, but that requires patience. Additionally, he seems to have a little gas issue, which might be part of what makes him fussy. Hence the Mylicon.

We also tried putting him in his crib instead of the co-sleeper today for his nap. We first tried the co-sleeper, but he just fussed and squirmed. So into the crib he went. And he just went to sleep. So the co-sleeper has been put on hold until he begins to fully breast feed. Then it would be nice for Gretchen if she didn't have to completely get up to feed him. Since we have to get up now anyway, it doesn't matter much where he sleeps.

We gave him his first bath at home yesterday as well. That was not a plesent experience, let me tell you. We like the little bath basin we got, but the "sling" it comes with is more like a slide. He just slides to the bottom and gets upset. Back to the drawing board on this item. But at least he's clean now. And we got the obligitory "First Bath" pictures. Though, it's really a good thing we don't have a video camera. Years down the road, people would have view that movie and thought we were torturing our new child.

Finally, the night of the 8th, Michael slept the night in his crib. And it went VERY smoothly. he woke up every 3-4 hours to eat. And then went back to sleep.he woke up at 7:00a when the sun started peeking through his curtains, but fell right back asleep when I closed them. He didn't wake up again until about 9:30a, four hours after his last feeding.

So I think he is starting to settle into his new surroundings. We have toured most of the house with him. Spending a bit of time in the front room on the floor doing some "tummy tmie" or in the bouncy seat (Thanks Jara's, with a little oil we even got the vibration working again.)

All in all, not a bad few days. I can say that since we actually got some sleep last night.