Survived our first week home!

If you didn't catch it, Peter's version of Colin's arrival is below this one.

We've been home since last Tuesday evening, adjusting to a new routine. I am eternally grateful to Peter for taking off time to be home with Colin and me. I underestimated the difficulty I would have in getting around after my surgery, particularly getting in and out of our bed. Our first night home was excruciating. I used my arms as much as I could, but it was still rough. Thank goodness Peter was able to bring Colin to me and take him back to his bassinet between feedings at night.

For the most part, Colin has been sleeping in 2-4 hour stretches during the day and at night between feedings. He's eating really well, and he really only cries when he's hungry or uncomfortable. He has bouts of gas that seem to make him really uncomfortable, and we spent one night sleeping on the couch with him in the swing, which seemed to help a lot. I've been very cautious about what I'm eating to avoid upsetting his stomach.

I checked back to when I last updated, and it appears I failed to mention that Colin spent Monday night and all day Tuesday in the NICU in the tanning bed. I was completely distraught by this, and he was only in there for about 24 hours and for something completely treatable. He had to wear only his diaper, and I could only hold him for 30 minutes to feed him every 3 hours. I spent Monday evening going to the NICU, feeding him for 30 minutes, going back downstairs to my room, sleeping for 90 minutes, then waking up and doing the whole thing again. We had an amazing nurse that evening, and she took me upstairs at 1:00 am when I was in too much pain to walk myself up there, and Peter was resting. We also had to supplement his feedings with formula initially until I started pumping (only had to do this 3x), and then we gave him an extra 10-15 mL of my milk to try and help bring down his bilirubin levels. He peaked at a 15.7 level, then came down to a 13.3 from Monday night to Tuesday morning, and down to a 9.9 Tuesday evening, so the visiting pediatrician felt comfortable letting him go home with a bili blanket (I loved our pediatrician from the hospital...I wanted to hug him every day). Here was Colin's get-up in the NICU:

That makes me sad, just looking at it!

We went to the pediatrician on Wednesday after returning home, and our substitute pediatrician (Dr. W is also on maternity leave for a few more weeks) discharged Colin from his bili blanket. He set up for us to see a pediatric urologist for Colin's hypospadias in the beginning of October.

Saturday we had Colin's newborn photos done; he was very alert for the first bit, and then he was tired and ready to go home! Our photographer was in love with him, which, let's be honest, it's hard not to be :) Here's the link to his photos:

http://juliecurry.zenfolio.com/cnichols1week

And here's my favorite:

Holy dimples.

We got to go for our first walk today, in some great weather. Unfortunately, we probably walked a little too far, and I was ready for a pain pill by the time we got home. For the most part, I feel back to normal and am moving much better, but long walks should probably be built up to! It kind of bummed me out that it hurt as badly as it did; I've been hoping to start running in the next week or so. 

We've had a few visitors: my family, Brad and Lauren (our friends who are also expecting), and Grace (Peter's co-worker). We've been thankful for all of the food everyone has brought us as well!