Welcoming Baby Ian to our Family!

On Tuesday, April 5, 2011 we welcomed our newest addition, baby Ian Gerard to our family!  It is so amazing to be a family of four now.

Ian was born at 4:15pm, weighing 8lb, 8oz and was 21 inches long.  We left the hospital 26 hours after he was born, since the delivery was so smooth.  The following day we took him to the pediatrician for his first appointment and he was down to 7lbs 13oz.  They gave us some hypoallergenic formula (hypoallergenic formula since Isabel has had growth issues, possibly related to food intolerances, so they wanted to be cautious with Ian) to supplement with a syringe, and he hated it...threw it all up.  The next day he was down two more ounces (I cried at that appointment, I was so upset), so they changed the formula to Enf.amil Ne.wborn and we fed it to him from a bottle.  He had no problem drinking this and no problem switching back and forth between the breast and the bottle.  By his next appointment 3 days later, he was back up to 8lbs 2 oz, so the doctor was very happy.  At his two week visit, he was back up to 8lbs 11oz, so he is back on track with growing well.  Today at 3 1/2 weeks, he is over 9lbs according to our home scale!!  At this point he is mostly on breastmilk (both from a bottle and the breast) and every now and then we give him a bottle of formula out of convenience.  We are starting to notice that the formula seems to make him a bit more gassy and cranky than breastmilk, so pumping breastmilk to bottle feed seems to be the better choice. 

Isabel just adores him.  She has been so helpful.  She wants to help change every diaper, and will even try to leave the dinner table to come check out the diaper contents, because she is so interested.  She was thrilled when his umbilical cord fell off (at 3 weeks exactly).  It melts my heart because she will spontaneously say things like, "Oh he's sooo precious!"  and Ian responds to her voice nearly as much as he does mine...she has a way of soothing him.

It has been much harder than I expected as far as making sure Isabel gets quality time and is entertained.  I feel guilty when I can't play with her, so quality time is now acheived through those moments where I get to bathe her or tuck her into bed.  My mom was here for the last 2 weeks and that was indescribably helpful in being able to do some special things with Iz, just one on one...or just Mommy, Daddy and Isabel. 

A friend asked me how homeschooling was going with the new baby???  Hahahah...well, we have done just a few school things, but it is severely lacking these days.  Right now we are on "Ian time" as he does most of his sleeping in my arms (yes, it's hard to put him down)!  I know that once we get into some sort of routine, this will get better and there will be more time to do more school work.  I plan on schooling a bit through summer too, so we shouldn't really get behind. :)

I have not had any of the anxiety problems that I had after Isabel's delivery....thank you Lord!  3 days after he was born, I left him with my mom and went to church with Rob!  What a change from the last time when I was so nervous and did not leave the house for the first 6 weeks, much less leave her alone with anyone.  We took Ian to Easter Mass with us and he slept through the entire thing!  I was amazed. 

I had gained a total of a whopping 53lbs with this pregnancy (but nowhere close to the 70lbs I gained with Isabel, so I was pleased!)...and I lost 35lbs within the first two weeks.  How??? I'm not exactly sure...I guess breastfeeding and lack of sleep?? ;)  But now I'm stuck with 18lbs left to go....and it's not really budging ;)  But at least I had a good start LOL! 

More pics to come!  Right now Little Bit is waking up again ;)