finally!

Henry's bilirubin level is finally back to normal, and he's enjoying life without a light blanket. He especially enjoys not having blood drawn every day or two. And now that his cord has fallen out, he's had his first bath (sorry, no bath pictures -- wouldn't want that to turn out like it did for this poor family), and Sunday, we gave him his first session of tummy time. I have to say that tummy time was NOT a big hit with him. However, the tummy time play mat was a huge hit with the big brothers (what is up with that?), who immediately crawled under the arches to play with the hanging toys. Henry joined them for a while, and it was sweet to see Liam and Max try to get Henry to interact with them.

photos of the day

more changes

After six years of happily driving my Civic into the ground, we finally decided that an upgrade was in order. Actually, Henry decided it for us, because all five of us wouldn't fit in either of our vehicles at one time. We did all of our research, and talked to people about their minivans, and the week before Henry was born -- you know, back when we thought we had plenty of time -- we test-drove a Honda Odyssey and really liked it. We also learned from our semi-local dealer that Odysseys were in short supply. That dealer only had one, and it just wasn't our speed (so to speak). They promised they would have more in the next couple of weeks, so we decided to wait, but then Henry came along and complicated matters. So we went online and checked all the dealer inventories until we found one that we wanted, and Monday morning, after dropping Liam and Max off at school and taking Henry to the lab for blood tests, we hit the road and drove to not-so-nearby (90 minutes away) Highland, Indiana, where we proceeded to spend the ENTIRE day purchasing our new minivan. Why does it take so long? It's a complete mystery to me. All I know is that we had to lay down the law about when we had to leave in order to get back to pick Liam up from school, and they got us out of there about 30 seconds before our deadline.

I know a lot of people are just plain philosophically opposed to minivans, but I have to say that so far, this one is great. It's fun to drive, and we all have plenty of room (we can even accommodate other passengers now!). The safety features are tops, and the boys will be the first to tell you how much they absolutely love having a DVD player in the back (which will come in very handy if we take that long road trip this summer). Overall, I'd say we're really happy with our choice ... at least until we have to start making car payments again.

henry meets people

circus forticus by request

For Aunt Marlene, who for some reason wanted to see a picture of an exhausted mom. This is the day we brought Henry home from the hospital (the first time). As you can see, Max is totally thrilled to have him home.

progress report

Henry spent all weekend on the hated light blanket ... only to see his bilirubin level go up by a point and a half by Monday morning. Sigh. We kept him on the blanket again yesterday/last night, and took him back to the doctor this morning, and he went up a little bit more to 16.8. So now we're under orders to keep him on the blanket until Thursday and feed him as much as possible. Thursday morning, I'll take him in for a weight check and to check his bili level again. And right after that, I have to take him to the fancy schmancy breastfeeding clinic at the hospital so they can figure out if I'm really producing enough milk for him (this is puzzling to me since they want him to gain an ounce per day at this point, and he's gained 12 ounces in the past 7 days, so it seems obvious that he's eating well, but if it makes them happy, then whatever, I'll do it). So that's where we are right now, sort of in limbo while we wait to see if he will get better or worse. The nurse practitioner says the risk of him having to go back to the hospital is low, unless he goes back up into the 20s, so that's some reassuring news. I have some new pictures, but I'm on the wrong computer for that right now, so we'll save them for another post.

home

Henry and I finally got to come home from the hospital this morning. His bilirubin is down enough that he just needs to have the light blanket on at home for the weekend, and then we go back to the lab on Monday to make sure it's still down, and then he won't need any further treatment. We're so glad to be home! My theory is that Max had to outdo Liam in his debut (Max had a too-fast heartrate and a little jaundice and had to stay in the hospital an extra day or two), and Henry lulled us into a false sense of security by coming home, but really he just had to outdo both of his big brothers with his high jaundice and three-day readmission to the hospital. But we're hopeful that things will settle down a little bit now.

yellow

Well, we're back at the hospital again. Henry's got jaundice. It's not a great surprise since both Liam and Max had jaundice, though neither of them had it to this extent. Poor Henry. We had a peaceful weekend, and then we headed to the lab Monday morning just to get his levels checked. They were pretty high, so we were assigned a bili blanket to use at home. It made Henry look like a little glo-worm:


So he spent a full day and night with the light blanket, and this afternoon we headed hopefully back to the lab and the doctor's office, only to find out that his levels had risen instead of fallen. The doctor immediately had him admitted to the hospital for treatment, which should take two or three days. And since I'm the food source, I'll be here at the hospital with him for the duration--a fun way to spend the rest of the week. But seriously, we won't complain if it means that he's getting better. He seems pretty peaceful right now, wearing his little eye mask, with a light under him and one above. Let's hope he stays that way, because he's going to be in that position for quite some time...

brothers

Liam and Max finally got to meet Henry today after school. They were both really shy at first. Max just wanted me to hold him, and Liam didn't want to touch Henry or have Henry touch him at first. Happily, a couple of chocolate milks and pop tarts from the hospital kitchenette, along with a little bit of time playing with the controls on the hospital bed, did the trick to break the ice for the boys. First, they both came over while Mike was holding Henry and touched him and kissed his head. Then Liam decided he was brave enough to want to hold Henry. Once he had him, he didn't want to let him go. He kept commenting on how soft Henry's skin is and how small he is. He even counted all of Henry's fingers and toes just to make sure everything was all right. Max was pretty jealous, I think, but both boys agree that they can't wait for tomorrow, when Henry and I can come home.






For a full album of pictures from this afternoon, go here.

henry

it's henry!

11:20 p.m on 9-9-09

7 lbs. 4 oz. (what a lightweight)

19.5 in.

yes, it's a boy! named henry.

mom and baby are doing great.

we'll know something soon

Greetings from the hospital! We had some excitement early this morning when my water broke. It's looking like we'll have a baby fairly soon. Much sooner than we anticipated [Note to Amazon.com: We're going to need you to hurry up and ship that carseat now!] but hopefully everything will be fine. Stay tuned!

UPDATE by mike (4:15): things are progressing here, but no baby yet. i'll try to keep you posted, but that may get difficult very quickly...

ANOTHER UPDATE by mike (7:00): ugh. still waiting. at least holli is comfortable, for the first time in months...

YET ANOTHER UPDATE by mike (9:30): UGH. still in a holding pattern. things have plateaued for some reason. our hopes for a kid born on 9-9-09 are fading.

max learns a new skill: lying

In the car tonight on the way home, Max had a book about firefighters that he made and colored at school. The boys then had this exchange:

Liam: Max, can I please read that book one time?
Max: No way!
L: Come on, Max! Please let me read the book.
M: No.
L: Why not?
M: My teacher said ... brothers cannot share books with each other.
Holli: Max, did your teacher really say that?
M: Yes! All the teachers say no sharing with brothers. Really, Mom!

I think his storytelling needs a little bit more in the way of believability, but his delivery was definitely sincere. This does not bode well for the future.

labor day? don't i wish.

It was a long weekend in many senses of the word. Fortunately, there was a little something fun there for everyone. Mike got to put new tires on his car. I got to go to a yard sale at the home of a fellow collector of Fiestaware, and I picked up some pieces in retired colors. As for the boys, they got to have fun at the Blueberry Festival, our town's annual carnival/fair/celebration. Sunday night, Mike took them to see the fireworks, and Monday, they got wristbands and had the pleasure of riding all the rides they could cram in (with Klaudia along for the fun!) before they gave up from sheer exhaustion and actually ASKED to come home to take naps.

waiting game

Hi there. Posting will probably continue to be pretty erratic as we wait for Baby #3 to arrive. I'm busy trying to wrap up some work projects in time to take a whopping three weeks off to give birth and recover, and Mike is busy trying to cover for me in all the household stuff I'm getting less and less able to do, and we're both busy trying to give the boys plenty of love and attention as they go through their school transitions and start adjusting to the fact that there really will be another person here soon, probably even this month. It's been especially hard for Max, who seems to already resent the new baby for making me unable to pick him (Max) up anymore, and for always being "in the way." I'm sure things will work out just fine once the baby is here, but right now we're all sort of stuck in a holding pattern.

In other news, Liam is doing very well in kindergarten. He loves telling us every day about the new things he's learning and the new friends he's making. Last night, my brother and his friend Steve came over to haul a bunch of furniture around for me (making room for baby) and Liam learned that J and Steve have been friends since second grade. I could see the wheels turning for him as he realized that maybe some of his current friends will still be his friends when he's a grown-up, too. I hope that is true for him.

Max moved into the preschool program at daycare, and he's having a great time, too. He's working hard on learning his letters and numbers. He's also eliminated his nap, which is sort of bittersweet for us because on the one hand, it makes him go to sleep easier at night, but on the other hand, it makes him (both of them, really) very cranky and irritable during the period after school but before bedtime. Hopefully they'll both adjust to their new routines soon (you know, just in time for us to throw another curveball at them by adding a sibling).

Anyway, be patient with our lack of posting for the next few weeks. We promise to let you know when we have some exciting news to share. The hospital has free WiFi, so we'll even be able to post a picture right away if we find the time, as long as we remember to bring the laptop. Which reminds me, I should get busy packing a bag and doing the hundred other things we still have left to do...