Fletcher's first week

Since my last post, we achieved another major milestone in Fletcher's life.  We came home.  While this may not sound like a major occurrence to some, let me assure you that leaving the hospital where you have people who basically wait on you to return to your house where you have 2 other children to care for and only your spouse to help manage it all is not as easy as it may seem.  The hardest part for me is the fact that I am not at full operating capacity, so I frequently find myself sitting around and watching Billy do all of the grunt work.  Each day, I am feeling better and better, but I am a little apprehensive about Billy returning to work a couple of days next week. 

Since leaving the hospital, we've gotten to know Fletcher better.  So far, he seems pretty laid back.  He doesn't like being hungry or having a dirty diaper, but other than that, he seems to just go with the flow.  His second night at home, he let us lay him down after feeding him and didn't fuss again until it was time to eat; so we were able to get three chunks of sleep 2-3 hours long between feedings.  If you do the math, that is a full night of sleep.  The next night, however, was a pretty sleepless one, and then last night was somewhere in between.

 

The dogs have reacted to Fletcher the same way they did with the other two.  Jack is very concerned when he cries, and Stella could care less that he's around.  Jack loves to lick his face when he can reach it too.

Audrey and Barrett have both been vary good so far.  Despite some rough moments, I think they understand that we need their cooperation, because mommy and daddy are really tired right now.  They both are very quick to jump in and help out with Fletcher. I think it also helps that we've tried as much as possible to keep their routine basically the same.  Billy took them to the park for a couple of hours today to help Audrey learn to ride her bike without training wheels and just let them get outside in this gorgeous weather.  He has also been playing a lot of hockey in the garage with Barrett.  I am pretty limited with what I can do physically right now, so I am thankful that he has been able to participate with the kids on some of those more physical activities.

 

All in all, Fletcher's first week at home has gone well.  I am looking forward to the coming weeks as we continue to get to know him better and start to establish some sort of a routine.