3 Weeks Update

I’ve not made time to post recently. We’ve been preoccuppied with some rather frustrating nursing issues, among them a nasty and rather stubborn case of thrush. Thankfully this situation, despite being both painful and irritating, has not hindered young Josiah’s growth. Yesterday morning, on his 3 week birthday he was a respectable 9lbs, 12 ozs. Very nice, indeed! This picture was actually taken over a week ago, but he looks so blissfully at peace in it that I wanted others to enjoy it too:

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Abigail versus the trampoline

Last night, Abigail and I went to an informal father-daughter event for the first graders at her school. While the daughters played together, the men made some tentative plans regarding something the others referred to as “camping”… it involves tents or some such. Then we had a fun activity involving everyone, followed by some informal hanging out among the fathers and more playing for the girls.

Much of that playing involved this fantastic trampoline that had one of those nets fully enclosing it that more or less turned the whole thing into a bounce house. Right about the time I was wrapping up a last conversation and getting ready to extract Abigail, I heard a terrific scream that immediately transitioned into hysterical wailing. I ran for the trampoline… isn’t it odd how you can immediately recognize you own child’s scream?

Abigail had severely twisted her ankle, was in significant pain, and couldn’t bear any weight on the bad foot. I got her home where we treated her with Ibuprofen and ice and finally managed to get her asleep in bed. Today, at Tricia’s prodding (as I thought the ankle was improving quickly), I took Abigail to her pediatrician. From there, I was thankfully able to get in directly with an ortho specialist. We arrived home around 5:30 pm with Abigail sporting a new “shoe”.

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Turns out she had done some minor damage to the growth plate on the end of a bone (i.e. she had a minor break). The good news, the very good news, is that it is a walking cast, and she is getting around great.

One Week Old

I’ve been waiting to post this entry till my “Picture Guy” can doctor and upload a new photo of Baby Josiah to go with it. But, the days roll by and “Picture Guy” just can’t seem to find the time. Maybe it’s because he’s driving kids to school, giving baths, doing hair, making lunches, cooking spaghetti, cleaning the dishes, oh yeah, and there’s that little detail of a job at Alcatel which he is somehow managing to keep up as well. heheh! Well, “Picture Guy”, you are off the hook for now, and doing a great job! Perhaps, dear Readers, we’ll have some more photos of our darling little man in the near future to share with you. For now, I’ll just give everyone a bit of an update on the runnings of our household now that we are six instead of five!

I’d say that for being home only a week from the hospital, with four children under the age of seven, things are going fairly smoothly. Jay went back to work (some part time days, some full time days) last Tuesday. He doesn’t have a ton of vacation to use to stay home. But, as I alluded to in my rather sarcastic opening paragraph, in the times he is home, he’s been excellent about caring for the older three kids and their needs, and somehow allowing me to sleep in most days. He has kept up with quite a lot of different things this past week, and I am very thankful for his hard work and support.

We’ve had a few family members (Jay’s Mom, and the Aunts Sandra and Jamison, as well as Uncle Andrew) in and out some days to help with the children and things like laundry, which has been really appreciated. And friends from school have begun bringing delicious meals to us, which I find so comforting after welcoming a new baby into the house. Thanks so much to everyone who has been chipping in to help around here.

For his part, Josiah is absolutely wonderful. I am so in love with my baby boy, and I think I am enjoying him more than I’ve ever enjoyed a newborn before (and I’ve enjoyed all of them very much!). He is generally a very contented baby, and there are certainly plenty of people here to make him feel quite loved! He’s having some trouble getting to sleep at night, yet while he doesn’t sleep for long stretches at night, he nurses well and goes back to sleep pretty easily after each feeding. This is a blessing for it means I get to go back to sleep pretty easily too!

The children are mostly adjusting very well, though our little Nicolas is feeling a bit displaced as evidenced by his behavior of late. While he loves his little brother, and is very gentle with him, he is often very sad and cries a lot about most everything. I am hoping that with extra measures of love, and ongoing reassurance that we love him very much even with this new addition to the family that he will begin to seem more himself again soon.

Thank you to all of you for your warm welcome to Baby Josiah, and your calls and notes of congratulations over the last week. We feel God has blessed us abundantly with our four children and we are full of joy and thankfulness.