The Story

It's been 2 weeks and 1 day since Jonathan joined our family and it's already hard to imagine life before him.

He arrived 4 weeks early on Wednesday the 18th, with some minor breathing issues and had to be admitted to NICU. They give them a 4 hour transition period before deciding whether they need to be admitted to NICU or can go to the well baby nursery. After this amount of time had passed they decided he needed to be admitted because his respiration count was too high. (Normal is 30-60 per minute, and he was jumping around from 90-120)
Later that afternoon they took him out of the oxygen dome and he was on regular room air. Not much changed over the next couple of days. He continued to have a high respiration count but was able to stay on room air. I didn't get to hold him until the day after he was born. John snapped this picture the first time I finally got to hold him.

I was released on Saturday and the NICU Drs. were anticipating that he would need to stay just a few more days. We knew he was borderline jaundice which could possibly set us back a day or two. On Sunday morning his billirubin level was high enough that he had to go on the photo-therapy light. After being on the light about 24 hours it came down enough that we were able to bring him home on Monday afternoon. Here he is coming in the door and Abigail's first time to see him other than in pictures.
So the past week and a half we've just been getting used to the new normal around here. Actually I guess we're still a few weeks away from being back to some sort of normal. Our house is a total wreck, and while this does bother me I'm trying to be ok with it. I know I'm still recovering from the C-section and up half the night feeding and it'll all still be here for when I do get around to it! Besides I'm enjoying sitting around holding and hanging out with all 3 of my kiddos too much. (Even if the older two have decided to fight like cats and dogs lately and totally test their new boundaries.)