The Early Days

From mom's perspective, the first few days at home have been a blur. Most importantly, Ben is a happy, healthy, thriving little boy. He has already brought immeasurable joy to our lives - we are in love :)

He smiles in his sleep a lot, he is very content and hardly cries at all. So far he seems to be a very patient, mellow baby. We hope he stays that way! Dad has become an expert diaper changer, burper and swaddler practically overnight. Mom and baby have been trying to get the hang of nursing, and we are doing feedings every 2-3 hours, leaving small 30-90 minute windows for sleep. Despite the lack of sleep, we are feeling good and enjoying the day to day experiences of being new parents. We ooh and ahh over every expression and squeak that Ben makes, and are in awe of the miracle of this new little life.
We have SO much support from our parents, Patrick, Chris and Shannon who have helped with meals, cleaning, shopping, errands galore and anything else we needed. Not sure how we would have done it without all their help. Here we all are on 12/28, celebrating Christmas :)We decided to have Ben in our bed with us for these first few days so we can clearly hear his breathing, and be ready with the suction if he had any breathing problems (typically paranoid new parents!) He makes so many funny/suspicious noises in his sleep, but we are learning that it's normal and to be expected.

He had a visit to his pediatrician the day after we got home (5 days old), and he was almost back to his birth weight already, weighing in at 7lb 10oz. We had a whole list of questions for the Dr., and left the appointment feeling a lot more confident about life at home with Ben. We went for a walk with him and gave him his first sponge bath 2 days after we got home from the hospital.
We celebrated New Year's Eve as a family, played games and had a great time toasting the newest addition to the family :)He had some early visitors too ... my Godparents, Lou and Kathie, as well as our friends Katie K., Katie O., Marisa, Meredith, Megan and Angelo. It has been so much fun to introduce this little miracle to our friends and loved ones!