my new swing, a life saver : )

derricks mom picked up a new swing for john on saturday at once upon a child and he just loves it! its great cuz now i have somewhere to put him down while he is awake and i need to get some stuff done around the house. i used to just lay him down in his cradle or bassinet, but he definitely enjoys the rocking much better : )

he gained how much?!!?

so yesterday john started getting very congested and he did not sleep well at all last night. we ended up sleeping in the chair in his room so he could sleep upright and it seemed to help a little. but the poor kid had snot coming out his nose every time he ate! he was so cute ... he would eat for a few minutes then pick his head up and take a few deep breaths and start eating again cuz he couldnt breathe out his nose : )

we went to the doctors on this afternoon and thankfully his ears and lungs sounded great ... he just had a cold. but the biggest shock came when they weighed him ... he weighed 7 lbs 5.5 oz! he had gained just over 1 lb in 11 days!

derrick has mentioned the last couple of days that his face is changing - filling out more - but i dont see any of it. he looks the same to me. i remember with the girls the same thing happening - i am with them 24/7 so i dont notice it at all. im definitely not complaining one bit - i am so thankful to spend all my time with them. i cant imagine being anywhere else. life is great.

fancy nancy tea party

madison had her "day with my mommy" today : ) she and i went to the daisys fancy nancy tea party in south burlington. she had so much fun making fancy plates and wands. she even made her little brother his own fancy nancy name tag! i really loved spending time with my little girl.

mad boy

i know, i am the first to not let john cry, but he was just so darn cute i had to take photos!! : )

green milk

madison, derrick, my dad and brother, as well as tina shapiro and her son luca, and i all went to mccarthys on st patricks day for lunch. this is a photo tina took just before madison threw up all over the table! the leprachans had turned abbie and madisons milk green that morning, so the table was covered in green throw up! she then threw up on the floor, on derrick, and in the bathroom ... and kept throwing up for the next couple of days.

john with his great grandmother lemnah

he's growing!

we went to the doctors today for john's 2 week check up. he now weighs 6 lbs 5 oz, so we are heading in the right direction! he has also grown an inch, too - he is 20 inches long.

our doctor, clea, said the we will look back at john's photos from the first month and he will be yellow - his blood type is A positive (or as i called it, A plus) and mine is O positive, so because our blood types are different, it causes jaundice.

as it turns out, the jaundice causes john to sleep a lot, and that is why it takes us 15 minutes (literally) to wake him up to eat ... and then he falls asleep about a minute after he starts eating! clea says that we need to be prepared that he might not sleep this well once the jaundice goes away - NOOOOO!!! : )

i, on the other hand, seem to be going backwards a little. my shoulder is horrible and my right arm is still numb. i was on steroids for 6 days, which ended yesterday, and it hadn't gotten any better. i am now on 800 mg of ibuprofen and percocet (as needed) and will be starting physical therapy as well. thankfully my feet are no longer swollen, my boobs aren't engorged, and my hemoroids have gone away : )

snowboarding

abbie snowboarding during the friday program : )

you can't see me

john loves to sleep with his hands over his face or beside his face.

madison pointed out that it is exactly what he used to do when he was in my tummy - the last 3d ultrasound we had at fletcher allen, we had trouble getting a good profile shot of him cuz he was constantly having his hands over his face!

9 days old

1 week check up

john had his 1 week check up today and has gained some of his weight back.

when we left the hospital on thursday, he weighed 5 lbs 13 oz, and today he was back up to 6 lbs 1 oz. he just needs to be back to his birth weight by 2 weeks, so we are almost there.

he still has jaundice, but that was expected. so everything looks great for him ...
we are just so lucky!

together as a family, finally!

big sister, madison, holding john for the first time!!

biggest sister, abbie, holding john for the first time!!

abbie and madison are finally home!! this is the first time they had seen john, since they were with their dad for february vacation.

i called them minutes after john was born, so they were the first to know about their new baby brother ... but we missed them not being home to meet him until now.

we are finally together as a family ... i missed them sooo much!