Bringing Evan Home!

It has been almost a week since Evan joined our family and the adjustment has been just amazing! We had a couple bumps along the way but we are getting into a good routine. Just this morning, since Charlie had to go back to work, I managed to get all three boys out the door in plenty of time to drop David off at school!

Bump number one post-delivery was that around 10am on Saturday morning, 9 hours after Evan was born, when a water main pipe burst in Weston, MA affecting the water supply for the Boston area. There was a boil water order issued and water was not to be used for cooking or drinking. They even went as far to advise people to use hand sanitizer after washing your hands. That made things interesting while at the hospital. Even though the water was "safe" for showers I decided it was better not to shower since I was doing so much skin to skin contact with Evan. I also couldn't drink my ice water, since all of the ice was "contaminated".

Bump number two was trying to get discharged on Monday. We arrived home around 4pm, but we were expecting to be discharged a lot earlier. The Pediatric department was concerned about the amount of weight Evan dropped. Newborns normally drop on average 7% of their birth weight but that morning Evan was weighed at 9lbs 1oz, which put him at a 10% loss of his birth weight. I was a little surprised by this because nursing was going so well and Evan was latching like a pro. They even had a lactation consultant come by to make sure. I was even more surprised when the Attending suggested that I pump in between feedings so that they could mix it with formula and feed him using a dropper. First of all, I was nursing him on demand, and the last thing I wanted to do in between frequent feeds was pump. Second, adding formula when my milk hadn't even come in was something I was just not going to do. I have nothing against formula feeding, but give my milk a chance to come in before you start suggesting that he needs formula. I said that I didn't want to do that, all I wanted to do was go home.

Thankfully I have the Doc around. He told the doctors that we were pretty much leaving, no mater what they said. I had been there since Friday night, I missed my other boys, and I just wanted to be back in the comfort of my own home. I knew that once my milk came in, Evan's weight issues would disappear so I just wanted that chance. Besides, as the Doc said, changes in weight of an ounce or two are within variation of the scale. They had scheduled an appointment at our pediatricians office for the following morning for a weight check and we told them that if there were still problems with his weight we would re-evaluate it at that time. Well, sure enough, my milk came in late that night and at his weight check the following morning he was weighed one ounce off from his birth weight.

Now that isn't to say I have Weight Gain 3000 in my breast milk, but more likely that there was a difference in the scales. Needless to say, it was pretty near impossible that he was continuing to lose weight, so that made me feel so much better and I didn't have to supplement!

Here is Evan ready to go home!


He is just such a good baby, he nurses well and he is starting to learn the difference between day and night, which means that I get a little more sleep at night instead of having our marathon nursing sessions like the first couple of nights.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we took the boys over to the park to play. We are trying to make sure not to disrupt the boys routine. While David loves his new brother, Shaun is taking a little longer to warm up to Evan. We felt that by keeping things business as usual, it would make the adjustment period easier on everyone! And so far so good!

Below are some pictures of the boys from the park yesterday!