Life on the Space Coast: We have survived

Since coming home from the hospital 10 days ago...

- Eleanor got a bad yeast diaper rash that required prescription cream. We had to call 3 pharmacies before we found one that carried it.

- Eleanor also got a virus that gave her a fever of 103 and made her cough so hard at one point that she threw up...on Hunter. And all over her bed. And on her special bear that she MUST have to sleep. (Thank goodness we have a backup Osito!)

- Hunter and I both also got the same virus, though neither of us were as sick as Eleanor.

- We've made 4 trips to the pediatrician's office (2 for each kid), and have another one scheduled for Friday

- So far I've made two trips to the lab at the hospital to get Arthur's bilirubin levels checked and we have to go back again tomorrow and Monday. Yes, my first outing alone with both kids involved needles.

- We lived with only one car for a while and got Hunter's car towed and repaired. Thankfully it was very inexpensive.

- We had an unnamed storm that dumped about about a foot of rain here in one weekend and was definitely as bad as a tropical storm.

- Hunter unexpectedly had to work all of this weekend.

- And of course, we have been sleep deprived and dealing with the stress that comes with having a newborn. Is he getting enough to eat? Does that umbilical cord stump look right? Does that cry mean that he's hungry or needs to burp or is just tired? Has he pooped enough? Oh man, he just peed on me again! :)

- Oh yeah, and the cat left a headless squirrel on our back porch. Okay, so that's not quite up there with everything else on this list, but even the squirrels around here had a tough week.

Whew! Of course, we've had plenty of good moments too though! Arthur is gaining weight just fine - by 10 days old he was already about 5 ounces over his birth weight. He's also been a pretty awesome sleeper and usually goes 4 hours between feedings at night. (There has to be some advantage to giving birth to a 9 pound baby!) Other than the whole jaundice thing he is perfectly healthy. Nursing was a little painful for the first week, but it's going really well now. We've had lots of friends bring us meals which has been SO nice! My in-laws were here for a little while after we got home from the hospital, and then my mom came down for a few days and we had a nice visit. Now we're just ready for things to calm down a little bit around here. Let's hope Arthur gets over this jaundice quickly and we can have an uneventful week.

Leaving the hospital