Getting settled

Guess it's been a couple of weeks since I posted on here... Been a little busy with the babies! Life is going really good for me and my family right now. I'm adjusting to being a stay at home mommy to two wonderful and cute babies. And Shawn is liking his work schedule, 7 days off out of 14 days. So he gets plenty of time with the kiddos on his days off and doesn't see them on his working days.

Dominique is adjusting to Warren being here. I think more than anything she likes having her mommy and daddy around a lot. For those couple of weeks that Warren was in NICU she really didn't see me much, and I hated that! Whenever I ask her where is her brother or where is the baby, she goes over to him if he's in the same room, otherwise if he's in another room she goes looking for him. It's really cute!

Warren is doing a lot better! Shortly after bringing him home he pretty much stopped eating! He ate on average less than 10oz a day for well over a week! Come to find out that he no longer liked his bottles. They were the typical slow flow stage 1 nipples, narrow though. So daddy and I went out and bought 5 different bottles to see if he liked any, we found two of those five to be fine with him. So now he's eating 3oz every 3-4 hours, though sometimes longer. We'll find out tomorrow of he's gaining any weight. His doctor has him on weekly weigh-ins right now. Last Friday he was only 8lbs 8oz, that's only 7oz above his birthweight. Small for a 1 month old.

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Random words

I can't believe my Lil Man will be 3 weeks old tomorrow! I feel like I've missed out on so much. He still seems so small, still wearing newborn clothing and newborn size diapers. At 3 weeks old Lil D was already starting to wear 3-6 months size clothing and size 2 diapers. Now she's wearing 2T clothing and size 5 diapers, and she's only 15 months old!

Today we went looking at some apartments, some close to Shawn's job and some not. We found one we like that is less than a mile from his job. We're gonna go check the inside of it out tomorrow. It's in our price range, 3 bedroom, 2 baths, and best of all it's all on one floor! We've pretty much decided that if we like it we're gonna go ahead and get it. It'll save Shawn gas money, and best of all his commute to work is a few minutes so he'll have more time to spend with his family! Not to mention that he can actually come home for his lunch break and not get fast food. That'll save money I the back and keep the fat off of his stomach, and give me some cooking practice. I'm really hoping we'll like the inside if it!

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One week home

As of today Lil Man Warren has been home for one whole week! It's been an awesome week too! The first couple of days were difficult trying to figure everything out, but since then we've been able to pretty much have a schedule in our lives. I've learned how to get my shower in the morning, how to play with Lil D even if Lil Man is awake, bath time at night, bed time, and both babies going to sleep in their own beds at night.

Lil D adores her little brother, you can see it in her eyes. She's pretty good to him for the most part, every now and then she is a little rough with him but I don't think it's on purpose. He just checks her out whenever she is close enough to his face.

Shawn hasn't gotten to spend as much time with Lil Man as I would like him too but that's mainly due to him working now. He has the next two days off so he'll get some time with him.

I'm so glad that we're together as a family now. Those two weeks Lil Man was in NICU were very hard and very trying. My mind was mesing with me some and playing on my emotions. I felt horrible for always leaving Lil D, and I felt horrible when I had to leave Lil Man. A mom should never have to leave her newborn baby in the hospital! I was robbed of his first two weeks and I still feel like I'm catching up on them. There are not enough hours in the day for me to hold and cuddle with him to get those two weeks back. I know he needed to be where he was at, but he also needed his mom with him. My greatest fear is that he'll get sick again and have to go back into the hospital. I couldn't take it again! He just needs to stay healthy and star home with his family where he belongs!

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One last goodbye

I didn't get to spend the night with my son tonight. They have 5 babies being discharged from NICU tomorrow and only 3 mother and baby rooms. So they had to pick the two most qualified parents to not stay the night, I of course being one of those parents. I'm sure us having a 14 month old daughter has a lot to do with it since she's basically a baby still and that I'm pretty active in his care during the time I'm up there visiting with him. I guess I should good that they think that highly of my mothering skills but I feel robbed out of spending time with my son. I truly thought yesterday was my last goodbye, it hurt like hell tonight when I had to say goodbye to him yet again! I have no idea how my heart has made it through this whole ordeal. I wouldn't wish this experience on my worst enemy! I wish no mother or father had go to through NICU experiences. But I'm thankful there is a NICU to care for babies like Warren and babies worse off than him.

Bring on the sleepless nights! I'm ready for them! Tonight is my
Last night of sleeping pills, nights are rather hard to clear my mind with Warren away so I needed some help to get some sleep. But after tonight, no more pills, just cuddle time with my son!

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Robbed of cuddling time.

Tonight is my last night sleeping in our home without our son. The next time I lay down in our bed our son will be sleeping in his crib at home where he belongs! I feel like I've been robbed of his first two weeks of life. All that cuddling time I never got to do. I can barely remember the detail that dayhe was born cause of everything that happened. I know I got to hold him for about a minute before the NICU doctor showed up and whisked him off to NICU. Shawn didn't get to hold him tip he was three days old, that was the next time I got to hold him as well. And even then it was for a very short amount of time due to him having trouble breathing. Once he's home I'm gonna have a hard time putting him down or letting someone else hold him. I do know I need to have him sleep in his own area and not on me or anyone else. Or we'll be starting the and bad habits we did with Dominique. And we don't want to do that!

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Less than 48 hours, but who's counting!

Well today is hopefully my last goodbye to Warren! I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight, I'll be so excited to bring him home! Tomorrow I'll be rewashing all of his sheets and blankets in a mild detergent since he has sensitive skin. Eventually we'll start using Tide on his stuff just like ours, until then Ivory it is.

I just watched an infant CPR video, one of the requirements to bring him home, even had to show the nurses what I learned by demostrating it on a doll. Another requirement for us in order for Warren to be discharged was to bathe him. So here he is, 10 days old and I finally got to give him a bath and wash his hair. It was a little tricky since he still has an IV in his arm. But we managed. Now if only all the sticky stuff would come out of his hair from when the IV was in his head!

Today is Shawn's Friday at work so he'll be home for the next two days! Then he goes back for two days of work and then has a three day weekend! Doubt we'll go anywhere, we'll just spend time as a family, a family of 4! We'll be spending a lot of time at home the first couple of months so that Warren doesn't come into contact with any bugs or viruses. We are not repeating our NICU stay or trying out a PICU stay!

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Ready for the new normal!

Here I am with my son laying on my chest, he couldn't be more content. You can tell he needed some mommy time like this. Now if only his daddy and big siste were here I'd be more content. But I'll settle for this for the next few days.

Shawn's next day off is Monday, so it's going to be a long weekend. I can either spend my days at the hospital or spend then with Lil DD. Come Monday night I'm supposed to room in with Warren and take him home the next day. I wish Shawn could room in with us too but he's gotta stay with Lil D. But he'll be picking us up on Tuesday as soon as Warren's last treatment is done.

I miss my husband more than I realized. I'm so used to having him around everyday. Now that he's started working I've got to share him with Butler County Jail. Out of 14 days he's home 7, but those days he's at work are long ones, 12 hours long, so we don't get to see each other much. I'm sure I'll get used to it, it is just re first week.

Maybe my hormones arejust going crazy, but this has been a tough last several days. Shawn started his new job, our son joined the world, been spending my days away from Lil D (first time I've done that since the beginning of August), spending by days in NICU waiting to bring home our son, and yeah, also hormones. I'm ready for things to get back to normal, I know we have a new normal coming our way, but it's got to be better than this.

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