Back home with our two boys

Well here is the obligatory first picture of Benjamin with his big brother Daniel. As you can see, they are quite sweet together, and in fact, I also want to share this picture which we took a few minutes after arriving home with the baby. When Danny saw Benji asleep on the couch he decided that he needed a nap too and climbed on up to lay down with his brother. Beyond cute right?

 

Everything is going great. We did manage to have Benji in the midst of one of the biggest blizzards we’ve seen in DC in a long time, and were basically trapped at the hospital which went into a big lockdown at 2 pm on Saturday. This means that the thousands of workers there could not leave and had to bunk down and take over shifts for those who could not get in. Patients were also basically prohibited from being discharged as the city had declared a state of emergency. The roads were horrible. In a way it was kind of a cool, “we are all in this together” sort of mentality and it was fun hearing everyone tell their story of how many hours they’d been there. One nurse joked that it was sort of like a slumber party, except with no music, and bland food.

We actually arrived there on Thursday not even knowing a storm was heading our way. By Saturday though, there were 18” of snow on the ground and it was still falling.

We were not concerned about being trapped there for two reasons. The first being that Benji was born via an unplanned C-Section so Su needed a few days to recover. And secondly, becaue Danny was in good hands with his Nana who got here from South Carolina before the first snow fell. Good timing Benjamin! I was actually able to get home every night except one to put Danny to bed which I think helped, and he did a great job on the night that I was unable to get home because of the storm (thanks Nana!)

Back to Benji. I think it is safe to say that his birth was rather stressful. He was stuck very much like his brother Daniel had been, and after hours of pushing, it was decided that for the safety of the baby it would be best to do the C-Section. It was not the birth we imagined, but it was the birth we got, and I know that we are both just so grateful that he’s okay and that Susanne is okay too.

The baby also had jaundice which is pretty common but it also means that he had to be nursed every two hours to keep up his hydration. He was also put under big lights in the nursery for about 20 hours. The lights work to break down bilirubin in the blood. We knew the procedure since we'd gone through the same thing with Danny, but you do forget how tiring it can be. Since you time the feedings to be two hours apart from the start of one feeding to the start of the next, you don’t get much rest.  I can’t complain though. I’m not the one who had major surgery and then has to do this over and over again on little rest. I’ve been there every minute, but Su’s job is much harder, bless her heart. She is amazing.

We are still doing the feedings every few hours but everything is just easier now that we are home.

Anyway, just wanted to post a bit more about the birth of our beautiful little boy. Happy Holidays everyone. We are happy as can be that Benjamin came in time for us all to celebrate baby's first Christmas this year! Yes! -M