Day in the life of the kids...

Baby's first sponge bath outside. It was about 100 degrees and baby felt that he probably was being cooked. I thought he would feel a little less chilled outside as oppossed to the air conditioned house.

I love sleeping babies and their little hands. The shaved parts on his head are from where the nurses tried to insert PICC lines.

Lela has felt a little out of sorts and curled up next to me on the bed for a little nap. She's my big baby.

Having lunch on the stoop with dad.

Watching netflix with dad on the kindle. Something they both can enjoy together!:-)

First real bath when his colostomy bag fell off. It comes off every couple of days. You can see his little red stoma on his lower left belly. He liked having a nice warm bath.

So precious! He'll be three weeks old tomorrow.

July 5th

When I brought baby Stuart home from the hosptial Thula had got Lela and herself all gussied up for the occassion.

We did our fireworks later that night because I was at the hospital on the 4th.

Father and son have a snuggle.

Last days in the hospital

Baby is getting ready to go home soon. They took Stuart off his cushy mattress and gave him just a pillow. He was able to bypass the feeding tube (yeah!) and started pedialyte on Saturday night. I was able to feed him his first bottle of that. Then on Monday afternoon they let me actually nurse him for his afternoon feed.  

Taking baby's temperature.

Baby likes wearing clothes now!

Saying goodnight to brother

binky boy

The last night in the hospital. Baby Stuart is tolerating my pumped breastmilk and gaining weight so he can be discharged now. They moved him to a new room and then I stayed the night with him. We practiced nursing all night to the tune of the 'beeps' and 'dings' of his monitor. Stuart was discharged Thursday afternnon, July 5 nine days after birth. We feel so blessed that he could come home and be with us.

Faces of Little Stuart

5th day for baby

sweet dreams

Stuart devised this little cap for baby

Oh, sad face!

Fourth day in the life of baby

When I cam to the hospital (at this point I have been discharged and Stuart and I each come once a day) I found these IV's stuck in his head. Babies don't keep IV's very well and so they kept having to find new places to find veins. Before my visit for the night was over, the left vein had blown and they had to remove that IV and stick him in his arm. The doctor's thought they were going to have to run a PICC line through his body so that they wouldn't have to mess with the IV's, but we really didn't want that. It's painful and it runs a high risk of infection. Miraculously it never came to that.

What are you thinking about baby?

Thula accompanied me on this visit. She's a good big sister.

Are those horns on your head little baby?

Before I left I covered his head and now he looks like a little angel. The red splotch on his face his from the tape they were using to hold down his oxygen tube (since removed). He also has a smaller GI tube at this point so they are pulling out less stomach bile. We are on our way to real feeding!

Third day of Stuart's life

Somebody likes his binky! The next day after surgery baby looked much better.

Wake up little guy we want to play with you!

Big yawn! He yawns just like his dad.

Cry face!

Groggy face!

Sleepy face!

My three kids!

When we were getting ready to leave the nurse covered him all up and then he stuck out his little foot. Cute!