the bigs

madelyn and mason could not be doing better with the addition of maddux to our family. probably the only issue is that maddux might be getting a little too much love. and it can be a little bit of a competition to see who can love him most. overall, they are both wonderful with him. even mason is extremely gentle and he loves, loves, loves to hug maddux. he is firm with his hugs but he does not pull on maddux at all and maddux hasn't cried yet from all the affection. the picture shows how mason hugs maddux good morning every day. it is cute because he comes and waves 'hi' first and then gives him a good hug. mason will even be running past the swing and will double back to wave 'hi' to maddux before continuing on his way.

madelyn is enjoying being the "mommy" to maddux and has been working on teaching him everything she knows. this has included instructions on coloring, crawling, walking, and speaking. she spends a lot of time sitting by the swing and talking to maddux. she has been disappointed not to hold him but has accepted that she can't while he is still 'plugged in'. when she does tear herself away from maddux she spends a lot of time essentially following mason around and trying to 'help' him with whatever he is doing which has been reading books over the past few days.

mason and madelyn have both enjoyed checking out all the baby gear. it is funny to see mason do the same things that madelyn did when mason was a newborn. he has even tried to sit in the same one as maddux is but he is aware of maddux and either tries to move him or sits just off center so he doesn't squish him.

the kids have also been very patient with us staying in the house all the time. daddy has been really good about taking them down to the park or downstairs to play since one of us, usually me, have to stay with maddux who isn't really mobile. and today he took them to the zoo! not only that, but he did it without a stroller. i was so proud of him. mason was wearing him out while i was in the hospital by running all over the place and getting into everything. it sounds like they had a great time this morning and mason held matt's hand too. they both sat in the milk truck in the dairy barn. we don't usually go into the family farm section of the zoo (because that is where the playground is and i don't like to stop there while at the zoo) so madelyn had lots to tell me about seeing the cows.

tomorrow daddy goes back to work and big pop and grandma arrive. i won't have my first day alone with all three kids until next tuesday. in the mean time i need to get mason to nurse faster. right now he eats anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. and it isn't like he falls asleep so i just need to try and force him not to take so long between swallows. love.

swiss cheese

poor maddux. between standard state screening, blood sugar, and bilirubin testing maddux' heals are starting to look like swiss cheese. and he gets at least one more poke/slice tomorrow morning but, hopefully, that is going to lead to the removal of the light therapy blanket.

it has been so sad to not be able to dress him or really hold him at all this week because of his need to be plugged in round the clock and the 'blanket' needs to be directly against his skin. the worst has been at night when i try and nurse him with the 'blanket' and miracle blanket wrapped around that. he basically has a huge, heavy hose coming out of the miracle blanket (which i credit with two 8 hour nights so far). it makes nursing awkward for both of us. in fact, i really should take a picture of the night time set up...

we try not to take him out of the light blanket except for nursing. we did finally give him his first bath at home last night and matt held him for a while after that - one of the few times he has really gotten to hold him since we came home from the hospital.

with as much trouble as it has been, it has meant that he could be at home instead of in the hospital. since i am type o blood and maddux is type b his bilirubin levels are expectedly high. but then he is also coombs positive which is another antibody adding to the jaundice and associated risks of high bilirubin levels. (at least this is how it was explained to me.) once we get through this initial period he will have no long term effects and this won't ever be an issue again. the risk is if it goes untreated and the bilirubin levels were to get too high.

tomorrow morning we go for what i hope will be the last bilirubin blood test. they poke/slice his heel and then squeeze it and squeeze it for what feels like an eternity to get a large enough sample for testing. he is still a little yellow looking but much, much better. he actually looks a little like he has a farmer's tan from where the 'blanket' had direct contact on his torso. his torso is white/pink and his chest is yellow.

more to come tomorrow. also coming tomorrow are big pop and grandma. love.

mason play

mason has one of those contagious personalities - you can't help but be happy when he smiles at you and he can be very, very silly. yesterday i caught him 'dancing' his spinning dance to the play phone's music. then he realized that it made him dizzy and was enjoying that. the video is pretty shaky because i just couldn't stop laughing.

and then today he was showing me how he has figured out to swing in the playroom because he can't quite climb up into the swing on his own. (madelyn isn't totally thrilled with the idea of sharing the swing.) i love when his legs are out straight. love.

bye week

it might have been a bye week, but maddux was decked out in his chargers best for church on sunday. mason's head was too large for this hat by the time he got to football season and it was a little tight on maddux.

after having two june babies, i am trying to get the hang of how to layer an infant for winter without overheating him. and even though he is all bundled up i still need to remember a blanket for after striping him down in the doctor's office. let's just say that the diaper bag is stuffed.

i have lots more to post about and hope to get it up in the next day or two but for now i am just trying to get up some more pictures of maddux. love.

welcome home, glow worm

after some debate and uncertainty it was decided that maddux and i would be allowed to leave the hospital last night. the decision came around 4pm so the nursing staff started scrambling to get us out of there. the biggest item that needed to be taken care of was getting a 'bili blanket' for maddux. he didn't have any light therapy at the hospital but they wanted him on it if we went home.

all the hospital staff thought that we would be staying until friday, but matt and i were hoping to be released on thursday. i just like to get home and back to normal as soon as possible. the bummer about maddux' glow worm status is that we have to keep him plugged in 24/7 until we get the all clear from his pediatrician (we meet with her at the office today) so we can't really leave the house yet.

it took a while to figure out the best sleeping arrangement last night because of the tubing off of maddux' blanket. we tried letting him sleep in the swing in our room but after several ins and outs i ended up getting him into the miracle blanket and his crib. between the jaundice and his hep-b vaccine i was having some trouble getting him to eat and that was part of the problem getting him settled. i was so happy when he ate and went to sleep around 11:30pm and even happier when i went in to wake him up at 7:30am! it would have been the perfect night if it hadn't have been for madelyn and mason waking up around 4am and it taking a while (and moving a bookshelf) before they settled back down to sleep.

i loved sitting on the couch this morning and watching a cartoon with all three kiddos this morning! welcome home, maddux! love.

daddy sees trouble

this is just a classic scene for our family and matt couldn't stop laughing. this was not posed at all. really. love.

mommy and maddux

here is a picture of maddux and i that matt took right before leaving with the kids for the night. i thought that i needed to have at least one - i did do most of the work. love.