We're home!

The couple of days in the hospital were a blur of getting checked by nurses and trying to get a hang of nursing. I was excited to be released and get home on Tuesday, but also very nervous and scared. Would I be able to do this? Bill was able to take Monday and Tuesday off but needed to return to work on Wednesday. My dad is a teaching assistant so he is off in the summer and would be able to come over to help and my mom was taking Thursday and Friday off of work to be available to help me too. Thank god for family.

I took Tommy to the pediatrician on Wednesday and his jaundice was still in full force but the doctor just said to get him in the sun and keep feeding him and have him poop it all out. Tommy had also lost another 2 ounces and was down to 7lbs 2oz so she wanted to see us back on Friday. By Friday, his jaundice had reduced considerably and he had gained 6oz! He was up to 7lbs 8ozs! I was so proud of my little piggy!

We also have figured out sleeping at night. It's not exactly the way I envisioned but it works. See, Tommy doesn't really like to sleep flat on his back. He fusses and squirms and just wants to be held. Thursday night, I was holding him in the living room so he wouldn't wake Bill up when I decided to try to put him in his bouncy chair. He had slept in it a lot during the day for my mom and needed to try to sleep some. I put him in the chair at 9:00 and we both fell asleep. I woke up in a panic at midnight because he was still quiet. He was still asleep! I woke him up to feed him and put him back in the chair. He then slept until 3:00 when I woke him up to feed him again, then slept until 7:30! I couldn't believe it! I mentioned that he slept well in the bouncy chair to the pediatrician and she told me that if he wouldn't sleep otherwise, then go ahead and let him sleep in the chair. She also told me that as long as he is eating every 2-3 hours throughout the day, then to let him sleep as long as he wants at night. We've been getting 3.5-4 hour stretches! I'm still tired, probably because I'm still recovering and not getting a full, uninterrupted night, but it's MUCH better. I'm hoping that once we get him on a semi-regular sleep schedule, we'll try putting him back in the pack n' play but for now, I'm good with him sleeping in the chair!

So that's what's been going on so far. Today Tommy is one week old! The doctor told us to expect a growth spurt between 7 and 10 days. They said he would want to eat constantly and not to get frustrated. I'm anticipating this with some trepidation. At least I know it's coming and won't freak out that I'm starving my baby!

Tomorrow will be interesting. It will be my first day completely on my own. Well, kind of. I know my dad is around if I need him and will drop everything to come help, but I'm going to see if I can do this on my own for a day. Tuesday my friends are coming to meet him and Bill has a softball game that I might try to bring him to. Wednesday we go back to the doctor and my uncle's political fundraiser. I haven't decided if I'm going to go or not. There will be A LOT of people there but if he doesn't mind the Moby Wrap (still have to try it out) I might give it a try. The hardest thing is knowing whether I should take him places or not. We were going to try going out to breakfast this morning but Tommy was fussy and wanted to eat every hour from 7:30-10:30 so we decided to put that trip on hold. I do know that I need to start going somewhere from time to time because I'm starting to feel pretty cooped up!