Makin's First Week Home

Well we have had quite the week around our house! Bringing Makin home has been quite and event and going very well overall.

A few (ok maybe more than a few) highlights are:

Lots of meals from MOMS Group - we can't thank them enough for making it so much easier and not having to cook the first week! Not to mention I need to get a few more recipes to add to my collection! :)

Pediatrician appt Sat morning - he weighed about 7 lbs 14 oz I believe but still 95% of birth weight so not too bad. They told us to feed 1-2 oz every 3-4 hrs...this will change after Tuesday. :)

Appointment at CHKD - Tuesday we found out the surgery date will be the second week in Oct. Also encouraged that Makin is feeding very well. We are not sure if the surgery will involve the palate as well but will just have to wait and see during the surgery. If he is not able to close the palate another surgery will be a month and a half after the lip surgery. Will have to feed Makin with a syringe for several weeks after surgery...hope that will go well, although they say it will be very easy. :) Lets hope! Also found out we are supposed to feed him 2+ oz every 2 hours...basically feed him as much as possible to get him healthy for surgery. This has been going ok. He seems to have gone down on the oz he will eat most of the time, and we are mostly doing every 3 hrs at night for a little more sanity, especially since he didn't want to eat as much when waking him every 2 hours.

Paci - we got a special pacifier from the speech pathologist that we use some of the time. Mostly when he cries at this point we just feed him since they want us to fatten him up as much as possible! He does seem to like the paci though, so glad we have an option that works for him. It has a duck attached so that it will help hold it in his mouth. Great idea!

1st bath - the first bath was a normal newborn's first bath...screaming the entire time! :) We got the bathroom nice and warm, running the shower (at least there are a few things you remember from your first baby!) but he still was not a fan. This became our first major family of four event, as Lorelei was very concerned for her little brother closed up screaming in the bathroom! Thankfully his second bath went much better with no crying! :)

Adventures in diaper changing - well we are certainly learning one major difference with a boy in this department! We have already gotten some artwork on the wall and realized that we needed more sleepers as he is going through about 5 a day after managing to pee on them every chance he gets! I have gotten the diaper cover asap down pretty well, but still manage to end up with a few incidents. We also have the fun "wee wee tee pee" we got from Amanda that is a big help as well! We will get it down pat soon enough I'm sure. :)

Sleep - Makin is still enjoying sleeping much of the day of course. I am soaking up as much cuddle time as possible while Grandma is here to entertain Lorelei as I know soon enough he will be plopped into bouncers and swings as much as possible while I play with her. Its amazing how much more I love just cuddling now that I realize how soon that time will be gone and he will be running around with his sister. :)
Brad and I were taking turns on the recliner sleeping with him as he did not like sleeping on his own, but after a few days of that we tried the bouncer again and he is doing well with that overall. Jeanette (aka Grandma) suggested the bouncy seat IN the bassinet so that Makin is propped up for spit up purposes which was a WONDERFUL idea. As you can see in the picture he has his "room" set up with the changing table, bouncer and hamper. Poor guy! Thankfully he doesn't care at this point. :) As I mentioned earlier we are getting up around every 3 hrs to feed him and sometimes it takes a bit for him to get back to sleep. Sometimes he wakes us up every two and of course we change and feed him then. Definitely have taken up drinking coffee and come up with a home-made mocha concoction for now. :)

Boppy and Swing - he sleeps very well in his swing when we need to put him down somewhere which is great. He loves time on his boppy pillow (got again for the reflux tendency so don't want to lay him flat very often) and loves to look around at all the action from his soft pillow.

We are so blessed to have our little boy home with us. :)