Aug 31, 2008

Portraits Continued...




Latest Portraits








Here are the latest portraits, taken yesterday. These are Luke's 18 month shots and Sam's almost 2 month shots. Next post has Luke's...




Aug 28, 2008

Aren't Grandparents Grand?

I have been remiss in showing picture evidence of all the grandparents being here to see Sam...(so, for Monica in Omaha)...here you go :)! They are all from early on when she was still in the NICU, which I hope explains a little (I was not quite with it with posting at that time, nor with anything else...much better now). Also it is probably overdue to post a thanks to them all. By what we believe was God's design, Grandma and Grandpa Hurst were here when Sam was born. Had they not been here visiting already James would have missed the delivery all together as there would not have been enough time to get someone here to watch Luke while he came to the hospital. Then for the week following they kept the house running and Luke entertained while I languished in the hospital and then spent the days going back and forth between here and there. Rumor has it they made sure Luke got a good dose of dance time in daily, which always wins him over! Following their visit, Pops Anderson came to serve as driver extraordinaire. I was unable to drive for 4 weeks, so he drove me every morning to the hospital and read his book while I visited and bonded with Sam. Then Ma Anderson made a quick visit in when Sam was born to take care of me primarily and then returned for a stint when Sam came home. The second trip I'd say she was Sam's primary caregiver as Luke was very intensive at first, so I was dedicated to him during the daylight hours. And of course, Ma did everything else too...she just gets it. So to all of the Grand Grandparents, James says "thanks", Laura says "thanks", Luke says "thanks", and Sam says "thanks"! We couldn't have made it without you!








Aug 26, 2008

We're Making It

It takes everyone pitching in to get us all feed.
Meal time independence - he wants to do it all himself! So...we let him and then clean later.
Luke, refusing to sit any closer to the baby than he absolutely has too.

It's getting a little better around here. Luke will tolerate you holding the baby, although he whines a little and never lets up on the evil eye. Ma and Pops Anderson just left yesterday, so now begins the real test...Can we do this solo? Time will tell.

Aug 20, 2008

Latest Stats

Stats on Sam...sorry, not the Olympics...

She is 5 lbs 15 ounces as of today and 18 and a third inches! That's a 3 lb gain and the doctors are very pleased with that. She's in the 9th percentile for weight adjusted and the 7th for height, so again they were very pleased with that. In fact, she was bigger than they expected at this point. You can't underestimate our Sam. Her retinas also checked out as "mature" yesterday so no more eye appointments.

Aug 18, 2008

Just because he is cute...

Just after getting introduced to his new home-made fort, Luke points to his next demand. He thinks the world evolves around him, and I guess it does.
Joe Cool arriving in full force at the hospital to visit his little sister, who at this point he liked rather well...he didn't realize she was coming home at some point.

She's Home!

The ride home.
Ma and Sam.
Look Great-Grandma Anderson...eyes wide open!
Sleeping peacefully.

Sam came home the Thursday before last (29 days old at the time). She was 4 lbs and 8 ounces at the time and now, 11 days later I'd guess she is very close to 6 lbs, so she is still packing on the pounds! We have a peds appointment on Wednesday, so we'll see what her official weight is then. She also, for the record, has her first cold. She has a weeping eye and is stopped up, but seems to be doing fine otherwise. Now, as for Luke, he is another story. He did not take her arrival very well at all and is still adjusting a bit. He liked her the first night, but then when she was still here the next morning it went downhill. He is whining nonstop, wants to be carried everywhere, and for a week had going to bed problems (which he NEVER had before). We had successfully dropped the daytime bottle the week prior to her coming home, but we are temporarily back on it to smooth the transition and facilitate nap time. He also had one MAJOR meltdown where he was completely inconsolable for about an hour, with real tears. I felt so sorry for him, but I just keep reminding myself that he won't even remember any of this in a few months. The next hurdle, I'm afraid, will be when Grandma goes home. We are busy all the time with 3 people here around the clock, I can't imagine going to just the two of us or just one during the day! Also, I am afraid Luke thinks that Grandma and Sam are a package since Grandma basically has her all day while I tend to Luke in all his clingyness. When she goes home and Sam's still here we may have wave number two of unleashed anger...say a little prayer for him, please.






Aug 2, 2008

Not Again!

Just a quick note - little Sam was supposed to come home today. They even were able to get enough towels around her bottom and neck to get her to pass the car seat challenge (took 3 times though). I watched all the videos and signed all the boxes...we were ready at home, no stopping us. I called at 6:40 a.m. to make sure she made it through the night. The cut off for 5 full days was 4 a.m. and sure enough she made it without any episodes. So...I walk in at 9:30 to feed and wait on the discharge paperwork only to find out that she had an apnea episode at 8:00! So the clock restarts, we have at least another 5 days now, so we won't have her home until at least Thursday, assuming she has no more episodes. I wouldn't say we were terribly disappointed though. Like I told James, that morning when I hung up the phone I said a quick prayer to plead that if she was going to have anymore serious breathing problems, that she have them within the next 2 hours or else no more at all...and he answered. We just don't want her to have any such thing at home. And seeing how is the last two times she went the full five days and then had an event I think it is kind of scary anyway. They say that statistically if a baby goes 5 full days without an event then she won't have anymore. Well, our Sam goes 5 days, plus a few hours, so do the statistics not apply to her and if not, then the concern is how do we have any confidence in the five day plan to start with? So, anyway, we are glad she had it there and hope that we'll get her home, but not a day sooner than she is ready.