11 days have flown by!

Vinny is now 11 days old and I’m already sad. The time is already going too fast, I want him to stay small for a long time. I will gladly get up several times a night to feed him if he just stays small lol. He is doing great. When we left the hospital he was 6lbs 12oz and at his appointment when he was 1 week, he weighed just under 7lbs so his weight gain is very good. Also his bilirubin numbers are low so no worry of jaundice. We’ve already seen him smile a bunch and not just those little smirks while he is sleeping. We’ve seen several big open mouthed smiles while he was awake and looking right at us. I don’t care what anyone says, he was smiling at us, there is no way he was THAT happy because of gas! Lol.

We found out that Vinny is not the astounding 23 ½ inches long that we were told he was. He is only 20 inches long. Apparently the corpsman, the one I already didn’t like for so many reasons, measured him wrong. For one, he measured him to his toes instead of his heel and somehow added another inch and a half to that! I’m very upset that he told us wrong. Now the card we kept and all his papers are wrong but luckily we hadn’t marked his baby blanket (since it has measurements on it) and we haven’t done his announcements yet.

Friday night I called the hospital to try and talk to a lactation nurse because I was concerned about a couple of things. After talking to the nurse and telling her my concerns, she told me I needed to go into the ER to be seen. When I got to the ER they checked my blood pressure and it was high (bottom number was 98) and my temp was almost 102. The doctor checked me out and said I have mastitis. When I had talked to the nurse she told me I couldn’t breastfeed until I was seen so I left Vinny with Anthony when I went. I am so thankful there was a bottle of frozen breast milk in the freezer so Anthony was able to feed him while I was gone. Anthony apparently liked feeding him and said whenever I want to pump and give him bottles; he will gladly feed Vinny again lol. I’m on antibiotics now for the mastitis and some pain meds since this type of infection is very painful, especially during feedings. Although I’m clenching my jaw when Vinny latches on, and even with the pain meds I still have a lot of pain, I am so glad I can continue to breastfeed.

Blake and Owen absolutely LOVE Vinny. They always want to rub his head and check on him. I was really worried about Owen since he would get jealous every time I held a baby and was always wanting on my lap and to cuddle. But, since the first time he saw Vinny, he can’t get enough of him, he is always staring at him and wants to help with him. Every time I walk into the room holding him, Owen will point at Vinny’s swing and say “down” because he wants him down low enough where he can see him and check on him. If I pick Vinny up, he will go and get Vinny’s blanket for me. Both Blake and Owen seem to still be a little bit confused about the fact that there is no longer a baby in my belly lol. Blake loves Vinny and will tell anyone who will listen about his new baby brother.

We got Vinny’s pictures done on Thursday and should see them within the week , I can’t wait! I love the photographer; Amanda, she is the same person that took the pictures we got done a couple months ago. She is so patient and takes a TON of awesome pictures. After trying to get a couple pictures of the boys with Vinny and them not cooperating, Anthony took them to go play so it was just Amanda, Vinny and I so we got a chance to talk. Her and I were talking about weight loss during the shoot; she told me about her losing weight and I told her about my weight loss goals. I had told her that we plan on getting family pictures done in October and she came up with some great incentive for me to lose weight. I want to lose about 40lbs, the sooner the better but my goal is by the time Vinny is 1. She said if I can lose 15lbs by October 1st that she will do our pictures for no session fee, if I can lose 25lbs we won’t be charged a session fee and we’ll get the CD for free and if I can lose 35lbs we’ll get the session and CD for free plus get any prints at cost for us and our families. She is so great! I’ll let everyone know how I do.

A few days ago we got a letter saying that the preschool we signed Blake up for, will not be opening for the 2010-2011 school year. The building failed a safety inspection and because it’s a government owned building, they can’t make the necessary changes. Sadly, it’s now too late to get Blake into another preschool and we don’t want him going to a Japanese school so he won’t be going to preschool at all. We’re disappointed about this but he will continue to go to CDC (I might even increase his hours) and they teach him things there and he gets to socialize. I am also hoping that there will be some kind of program I can get him in when we get back to the states in April but we’ll have to wait and see.
The only picture we got of him not crying
He was tramatized after his bath
He is a skinny little thing!