Benjamin's hospital stay

My second problem at the hospital was that this scale was apparently not calibrated properly. This one right after being born said 6'4", but later in the middle of the night when he got checked on another scale said 6'12". Now he did nurse a little after born but that was it, in fact we struggled to get him eating regularly while in hospital so I don't think he suddenly gained 8 oz. After the next check up he was 6'8" so we figured the second record was more accurate.

Here we are before Eric and Benjamin took off to the nursery to get checked more thoroughly and bathed. Somehow we didn't take many of the normal pictures. The labor room was a lot nicer than the one I was in with Aaron. We only took a picture with Daddy and Grandma (my mom) didn't get one till after we moved downstairs to a recovery room.

 It was amazing how much the essential oils helped with every step of the process. It was also nice having him at 5:30 at night instead of 5:30 am like with Aaron. We both got a regularish night sleep. Also we were able to introduce him to his siblings. We found a tolerable Thanksgiving meal, of course not as good as being home but well enough for the hospital. Then we had a visit from home, the kids were so excited to see their new baby brother. They came after they had got ready for bed so hopefully on the way home they would fall asleep.

After we captured our new family picture I let each of the kids hold him and took their picture (we really struggled w/lighting). We asked Miriam why my tummy was still big if baby had come out and she thought there was another baby in there. We said no there better not be she got a thinking look and said," I know its full of milk!" Another b case of straightening out sensitive body functions.

Aaron was also very excited to see his new brother. When they were leaving to go home he got really upset because he wanted to take the baby home! He enjoys holding Benjamin a lot though maybe not as much as his sisters love holding him!

Rachel made a beeline directly for Benjamin, she was so exciting to see the baby and she stuck pretty close to us. She constantly was pointing at him as if to say our baby is finally here! She is always holding her arms out just expecting us to hand Benjamin over no matter what. ;)

This is pretty much the sum total of our visitors. I loved having my whole family here. Dad has always come down to meet the new addition within in a week, but it was cool for him to meet Benjamin right off, same for my brother. My siblings are finally getting more comfortable with infants being around all of mine. Eric's Aunt Julie popped in after her shift at the hospital and we got some phone calls to congratulate us. Thanks family for holding down the home fort while we were gone!

After his first feeding it was a little bit of a struggle to get him to eat partly from being sleepy and I think partly because his tummy was upset. About 2 am he started crying and I noticed red liquid beside him and he was spitting up red tinged mucus stuff. Apparently the poor guy had swallowed some stuff on his way being born and they had to suction some of it out a couple of times. The nurses were fabulous letting me dictate a lot of my care with exception to their regular vital takings. I don't know if that how they usually are or realized I had done this before. We worked together to help him nurse better from "priming the pump" with formula to letting me pump some milk to get him started. Friday they brought the kids and their bedtime stuff done so we could help them get ready then hopefully go to sleep on the way home. They brought balloons for us which the kids enjoyed as much or more than I did.

Here we are preparing to discharge on Saturday. Upper left dressing Benjamin and having our vitals checked one last time. The right pictures are Benjamin his car seat for the first time to go home!