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Sun, 12 Sep 2010

Natalie - 2 Weeks Old

Two weeks already! It is hard to believe. Time has really flown. Of course, I suspect we will be saying that a lot the next 20+ years. Well, here is what has been going on since Natalie was born...

Things went fairly well at the hospital, but we missed Caroline a lot. We were going to come home on Wednesday, September 1, but then Natalie ended up with bad enough jaundice that we had to stay another night. That was really inconvenient and disappointing, but having Natalie on a BiliBlanket overnight helped a lot. We were discharged on Thursday and had Natalie on a BiliBlanket overnight at home. Things were even better Friday, and we received permission to stop using the BiliBlanket after one more night.

Wednesday night at the hospital we started bottle-feeding Natalie milk that Maribel pumped because we wanted to make sure she was getting enough food to recover from the jaundice. (She had very few dirty diapers that day, which was a bad sign.) She has been eating fairly well from the bottle, just like her sister did. I am glad that I can help feed her while we use the bottle, but it is more work for Maribel with all the pumping in addition to the feedings. We will see if we have to keep up this approach.

Natalie still sleeps almost all the time. The last few days have brought more brief periods of awake time, but those were very rare until then. Unfortunately, the awake periods are sometimes at night. There has been no consistency yet, so hopefully as she gets into a routine she will mostly sleep at night. At least we hope so.

And about Caroline too...

Caroline spent a few days with my parents while we were at the hospital. We were told she was very good there, which makes us quite happy. She came home on Friday, a day after we left the hospital. It was so great to see her, but she looked huge to us. Between not seeing her for a few days and spending so much time with a little baby, Caroline seemed so different than we we had last seen her. I have a hard time remembering her as looking little now!

Caroline has been a really good big sister. She has been fascinated with babies for a while, and she really likes having Natalie around. I am sure she is not happy about everything, but she takes most of it pretty well. She shows a great deal of concern when Natalie cries. She likes to give Natalie kisses, and she likes touching her. She has even asked to hold her a few times, and we have helped her do that. It is lots of fun to see her as a big sister. She has shown a little jealousy sometimes, but usually that is not too bad.

And now the downside... Since coming home, Caroline has been acting out quite a bit more. It is hard to tell if this is the result of unhappiness about having a sibling or if it is the natural evolution to the "Terrible 2's" phase of her life. I guess we will see how long it lasts. It has been a bit challenging, but we cannot complain too much. She is still a sweet little girl most of the time. Now we just have to deal with behavioral issues more than before. She just wants to get into everything and no longer likes to do what we ask. Fortunately, she still does all of the same cute, wonderful stuff, so it is not like she is completely different. She is tons of fun, plays extremely well on her own, likes reading books, and has an ever-growing vocabulary. There is not enough room here to describe all the great things about her!

-Keith

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