An Update From Home

I know I have left you high and dry for the last few days. After we got the news last Friday that our Discharge Day was quickly approaching, I quit writing because I didn't want to risk jinxing anything. One thing I've learned from Tera (and all babies really) is that when you say something out loud, babies make it their duty to do the exact opposite. I'll update our last few days in the hospital soon, but until then, I wanted you to know that we are safe and sound and all under the same roof.

It is much less scary being at home than I thought it would be. By the time we left the hospital on Tuesday, I felt so ready to go. I was worried about Tera's choking episodes, but I didn't feel like it was anything that could be fixed by staying at the hospital. It was just time to go home.

And home has not disappointed. Since we've been here, Tera has been doing a lot of the same things that Canon liked to do when he was a baby. She sits in her rocker . . .

She loves her swing, which I love as well. I've been able to get at least a few things done while she swings.

Yesterday, I gave her a bath for the first time. I watched her get a bath once in the hospital, and she did great. The same behavior transferred to home. I know she had to be at least a little bit cold, but she just laid there and let me scrub and pour luke warm water all over her.


After her bath we took our first outing to her first doctor's visit.

I wasn't expecting to have one so soon, but I was glad to have someone check her out to make sure she was still doing great. She is! She now weighs 6 pounds 10 ounces, up one ounce from when we left the hospital on Tuesday. The pediatrician says that everything seems fine, and we won't need to come back until her four-month immunizations in mid-July. He did say that I could bring her back if I wanted to make sure she is still gaining weight.

Tera has been spitting up nearly every feed since Wednesday afternoon. It usually happens about two hours after she eats, and it's never very much. Of course, with all of her choking scares in the hospital, I worry that she could choke on this as well. I try to be good about burping her and holding her for awhile after she eats to make sure everything gets down to where it needs to be. By the time she spits up, I've usually already laid her down in her rocker or her bassinet, usually turned slightly to the side, just in case. So far, the spit up hasn't caused any choking problems, and the pediatrician says that it's not a concern for him either. We'll start to worry when she's spitting up half of her milk or when it turns green!

I also asked the pediatrician about supplementing Tera's milk with formula. She'll need to take Similac NeoSure for the first months, until her weight gain is really substantial. Then, we can move on to something different if we need to.

What else do you want to know about Tera at home? She is still eating about 70cc at each bottle. Her nights have been hit or miss since we got home. The first night, I kept with the hospital schedule and woke myself up every three hours to feed her. She seemed to do well with this . . . until the next night. I set my alarms again, and she did great until after her midnight feeding. Sometime in the 2:00 a.m. hour, Tera woke up grunting and crying out. I think I got her to burp before she went back down. She then ate about 3:30. She was up again around 4:00. Sometime around 4:30 I gave her a little more milk, which put her back to sleep. She was up to eat again at 6:00. After feeding her this time, I was completely wiped out. I know you haven't read about it yet, but I have been up A LOT since the night before Tera came home. I've been going on about four or five hours of sleep each day for the last three days, and by 6:30 Thursday morning, I was pooped! We both slept until 8:00 when I got up to get us ready for her doctor's appointment. He told me there that I should probably start feeding her more On Demand than by a schedule. Her pediatrician at UAB had also mentioned feeding her more during her night feeds so that she would sleep longer. I tried this last night and . . . there's a reason these people have medical degrees! Tera slept four hours between each meal, and so did her mother.

What About the Rest of the Family?
Poor Canon is adjusting to so much right now. First, he's getting used to having himself and the rest of us back under the same roof. Then there's the new baby, of course, and having to share his mother's attention with her. He is so loving towards her. He likes to bring her a blanket or try to give her a pacifier (I don't let him do that just yet, but he tries!). When he's home in the afternoons after school, I bring Tera in the den with us while Canon plays with his trains. He'll walk over and check on her every once in awhile, just to see how she is.


As sweet as he is, though, he's also a tyrant. Every little thing can turn into a big dramatic ordeal in no time. Eating dinner, taking a bath, going to bed, putting his toys away, running errands with Barry. All of these can turn my sweet and affectionate son into the Terrible Two that I hope he is not truly turning out to be. Instead, I hope it's just his way of adjusting to life and that this phase, too, shall pass. Barry and I have both been very adamant about not giving in to his outbursts. No matter how loud he screams or how hard he kicks, he eventually does what we set out for him to do.

Barry has been absolutely amazing! He takes Canon to school in the morning and does pretty much whatever I need him to do at night. He took Canon to the grocery store yesterday and has been putting him to bed at night. He cleans up the kitchen, washes clothes (but never folds them!), and takes care of the yard. I would go on and on, but he'll read this one day and wish that I hadn't even said this much.

I have been keeping busy getting my house back in order. It's amazing how much stuff I've accumulated over the last three months, not to mention the abundance of gifts that people have brought to our house here. The Wiregrass Children's Home - an organization Barry has been involved with for a few years now - is having a yard sale to raise money for their house in October, so I'm getting together a large pile of things to donate. Besides just the normal Mommy stuff, like holding and feeding Tera and entertaining Canon at night, that's really all there is. I love being at home!