Wow - it feels good to be home!

Thanks so much to my friend Allison who stepped in to keep everyone updated while I away. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers for our family. This past week has been a whirl wind and this is finally the first opportunity to write on my blog. I was so thankful to get a 3 hour nap today, which is the longest stretch of sleep I have gotten since Sunday night last week.

I plan to share Jaelyn's birth story in the posts to follow. But for now I am happy to share that she was taken off of the bili-bed today which she has been on since Wednesday night. That cursed bed has made it hard for her to sleep at night because we can't swaddle her - we all know how newborns LOVE to be swaddled (and I am a huge fan of it too!) The bilirubin still has her sleeping most of the day, although she seems to have trouble sleeping at night (hence the less than 3 hour sleep stretches for me and my husband).

My parents have been here since we came home from the hospital. They have been a God sent to help out so much, mainly with Jackson. He has gotten so much Deedee and Papa time and just eats up the attention. My mom will be here until Tuesday night, so that means Wed. will the first day on the job for me - a stay at home mother of TWO. Jackson seems to be getting more interested in Jaelyn with each day, although for the most part he is quite indifferent. When he has someone to play with him all day long, what's so interesting about a sleeping baby, right? ;)

Nursing has been a huge hurdle for miss Jae and I. I have been through this difficult time with Jackson once already when he was born and I was hoping that Jaelyn and I would catch on faster. Unfortunately that isn't the case. Currently, I am expressing every 3 hours and bottle feeding her. My nipples were so damaged from 4 days of improper latching, that even when she does properly latch - the pain is still so great that I can't tell the difference.  I wasn't too keen on bottle feeding a 5 day old baby running a risk of her not breast feeding again, but when the lactationist explained that she will mostly likely go back to the breast without problem and in order to solve our latch on problems - I need healed nipples... I really don't have a choice. They are healing now however I don't like taking twice as long to first - express and second - feeding her the bottle. But she's taking about 2-2.5 oz. every 3-4 hours and she is gaining weight really nicely so I can't complain when the plan is working. :)

I will be back soon to share more pictures. Thanks again for your thoughts and lovely comments.