content

It's been one and a half weeks filled with smiles, poop, burps, poop, lights, poop, grandma, poop, laundry, and some more poop... I may have left out a few things...and I've possibly understated the amount of poop.

I was induced on the 17th and our sweet little Bridger joined us at 9:26 in the morning. They didn't need to flip him, he was still head down, and no c-section was needed. I must say that this was a much easier labor and delivery than with Porter. I was only in hard labor for about 2 hours and only had to push for about 10 minutes (yay me!).

I've had a lot of questions about his middle name. Kyle and I are big on naming our kids after family members. Porter was named after Kyle and Bridger was named after my great Grandpa Dime. My great grandpa's name was actually Lyman, but he was called Dime. That's what I knew him by... Grandpa Dime. Nobody knows why that's what he was called. We've tried to find out what the story is behind the nickname, but to no avail. If anybody does know, please share. Bridger Dime just seemed to fit, and he's named after an amazing man.

The night of the 17th, I had the nursery take Bridger while I got a little bit of sleep. My nurse came in at about 2 am and they hadn't brought Bridger back to me to feed him. I asked my nurse and she reassured me that they would bring him in when he cried.

About an hour later the nursery room nurse brought him in. She looked at me and said, "I'm sorry that I didn't bring him in earlier...but he hasn't cried. I've been watching him and when I saw that he was awake I thought I would bring him to you so you could try to nurse him. But he hasn't cried." And he didn't...all night. And he doesn't...unless he's really hungry. He's such a good baby, the most content baby that I've ever seen. Carri mentioned that it isn't fair that I've had two content babies in a row...I guess I'm due for a fussy one next time.

We only stayed in the hospital until the next afternoon...I didn't want to stay any longer than necessary and Bridger and I were both doing great. We headed home and were greeted by Gramma C. who had been watching Porter while we were in the hospital. We are so grateful to her for watching Porter while we were gone.

We then enjoyed a weekend full of family stopping in to meet our new little addition.

On Sunday we were blessed to have my momma come to stay with us. She stayed for the entire week and helped us adjust to life with a newborn and a 20 month old (a life that will take more adjusting than I had thought). She made us wonderful food, cleaned the house and took care of Bridger and Porter while Kyle and I got some sleep. I don't know what we would have done without her.
My favorite part was just having her around... chatting, laughing and watching Gilmore Girls til all hours of the night. I miss being around my momma and wish I was closer to her to see her more often. It was great to have her here and she is greatly missed (by all 4 of us). Thanks Momma for coming.

Sunday night, we not only had my Mom show up, but Home Health stopped by to drop off this. Yes, to the untrained eye it appears to be a suitcase, but if you look closely you will see a baby in that suitcase.

Bridger was a little jaundiced and his bilirubin kept climbing for several days after we left the hospital. So they dropped off bili-lights and we had to keep him under the lights round the clock. We were only allowed to take him out to feed him, change him, burp him and bathe him. It's not an easy thing to do...for a mom. I had a rough time putting the eye patches on him and leaving him naked in the suitcase all day. It made me cry. I hated not being able to hold him whenever I wanted. Luckily, it was only for one night.

We apparently did a good job because he was allowed to come out the next day. The doctor had expected it to take at least 2-3 days for his level to come down but we didn't even have to keep him under lights for 24 hours. It's a good thing too...I don't know if I would have been able to do it any longer...but, Bridger didn't seem to mind. He just took it as an opportunity to catch some rays. It made it a little easier for me to see him sprawled out, enjoying the warmth.
Porter has been adjusting pretty well. He gets so excited about "baby Bidjo, Bidjo". So excited in fact, that we're amazed "Bidjo" still has both of his eyes. Porter likes to hold him for about 10 seconds and then he normally gets distracted by something and tries to shove Bridger off his lap. I'm sure it's a big adjustment for Porter, but he seems to be handling it really well.
(See how yellow Bridger is in comparison to Porter?)

Also, I'm pretty positive that Porter grew about 10 times bigger in the two days we were gone. I don't know how it happened...maybe Gramma C. gave him some kind of growth hormone while we were away. But, bringing home Bridger made Porter seem massive.
Just look at the size of Porter's hand compared to Bridger's.

And I think that about sums it up. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but we're all settling down into a good routine. We're all pretty content.