Family of Four

Our family of four has been home together for almost a week now and things are going really well.

Barrett was born at 10:03am on Monday, April 18. He weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 21" long. Here he is that night:


We went into the hospital around 9pm the night before he was born, and didn't get to come home until Wednesday afternoon. It felt like I was away from home forever! But, we needed to make sure that Barrett was ready to leave, and after almost a dozen heel pricks to monitor his blood sugar we were finally released. He was a bit lazy and enjoyed sleeping a little too much those first few days. We had to wake him frequently to feed him and maintain his blood sugar, otherwise it was dipping too low. Once we figured that out we were finally released.

Hanging out with Daddy in the hospital:



One week old:


Harrison has been a great big brother! He is very interested in anything to do with Barrett. If I am feeding Barrett or changing his diaper Harrison wants to be a part of the action.

He has already shared his toys with Barrett, asking him to play cars and choo-choos, and even giving him some toys to hold. It is really sweet to see Harrison be so accepting and loving, because I was a little concerned that "baby away" would be his favorite phrase for awhile. For the first day or so, Harrison didn't even want anyone other than me to hold Barrett. Harrison is over that now, but if he can't see Barrett he wants to know where he is and what he's doing.

Anytime Barrett is sleeping in his papisan, Harrison says "wake baby" quite loudly and wants us to wake him up. If Barrett cries (which thankfully he doesn't do much so far) Harrison says "baby milk" and wants me to feed him. So far he understands that Barrett can only have milk, although he has offered him a few Cheerios.

While Mark and I were at the hospital, we were lucky enough to have both of our moms stay at the house with Harrison. He has had a lot of fun with them, and is going to be very sad next week when they are gone.

Harrison is still really into "tools" and anytime he sees Mark get the tools out to do anything, he wants to help. Here they are assembling an umbrella base for the back deck:





He's been really into coloring lately too, which is great, because he'll sit in his high chair to do so, so he's held captive for a bit :-)




















His talking has come so far in just the past few weeks. He is finally to the point where he can repeat just about anything, and is saying new words every day. He gets so pleased when you understand the point he's trying to make--it's like a little lightbulb has gone off in his head telling him how great communication can be.

We are still big fans of "Dinosaur Train" around here, and I've learned quite a bit about these creatures in the past few weeks. Harrison has too, and if you ask him what a T-Rex eats, he will tell you "meat". He will also tell you that a Brachiasaurus eats "leaves". He stomps around and pretends to be a T-Rex and it is quite entertaining.

Overall things are going well and we are thrilled to be a family of four now!