1 week

We survived week one...of course we still have a three grown-ups to three kid ratio thanks to Grandma.
Riker had an appointment with Dr. Hall and so far we get to keep him. He's gown 1/4 of an inch, and we need 12 oz by next week to be back up to his birth weight. Heart and lungs are great and Dr. Hall said he's very glad that my tubes are tied because its very stressful delivering my huge babies who hate to breath.

Riker seems to be a pretty content little Dude. He eats about every 4 hours, excepts in the late evening when he'd rather eat non-stop. He sleeps very well almost anywhere in the house and doesn't seem to be bothered by the noise of Maeli and Tucker living here. He hates having his diaper changed and seems to be very sensitive to the cold of wipes. He has a pretty strong neck and likes to check out his surroundings. He poops a ton and likes to chew on any of his fingers. So far, we really like him and I think we'll keep him for a while.

I'm doing very well too. Dr. Hall took a look at my incision and all is well. I'm feeling pretty good, which I attribute entirely to the fact that Gramma has taken the night-shift every night since we got home from the hospital. I wake up to find a hungry Riker all changed and ready to eat. I'm down to just Ibuprofen once or twice a day, so I think that's pretty good. I today I put on some fat-girl pants instead of maternity pants, so I think that's pretty good too.

Miss Maeli...

I was eating my breakfast and heard Maeli saying her letters, and then in the middle she said "chicken" then more letters, and then "pig butt" I turned around and she had all of our leapfrog magnets from the letter factory and the farm and lined up on the washing machine. There was indeed, some chicken and the second part of the pig in the middle of her letters. She's so funny sometimes.

Lets Wrestle!

Dad invited the battle by laying on the floor. Tucker waits until he's unsuspecting, and then pounces like a cheetah.
Maeli jumps in to tag team, just as Tucker is bounced off of Dad's shoulder.
Who will win?
I think we have to declare Tucker the Ultimate Champion, but he was a gracious winner and gave his opponent a big kiss.

Bath Time

After a while, we got to thinking that maybe this boy needed another bath (he had one in the hospital)...especially after some serious kisses from his big brother. He wasn't really a big fan of the actual bath part of things.He did like being snuggled up in a towel though...all my babies used this towel...sigh.
All clean! A little self-soothing while mom get some clothes on this boy.

Siblings

Tucker is so crazy about his brother. He just wants to snuggle him all the time. Unfortunately, Tucker's snuggles involve laying on his head, and kisses are a full open-mouthed slime fest somewhere on Riker's face. But the boys are so darn cute together.And here's Tucker trying to climb into the baby chair to give Riker a little snuggle. We quickly decided this chair is for night-time, and when Tucker is napping.A few failed attempts and it would seem that Tucker is unable to get into the baby swing. But he's always keeping a close eye, and often re-tries to swing with his brother.
Maeli has taken on the role of silent protector. She always bringing Riker a toy (hence the Piglet) or a blanket (hence the purple) or telling Tucker to get a way from "the new baby." She doesn't like it at all when he's hungry, or sad and always blames Tucker for disrupting the peace (which is often accurate).

Homecoming

Jeremy got Riker all ready to come home from the hospital. He picked the outfit that we got from his sister Dannell, which was actually the outfit we were going to bring Tucker home in, but then didn't have it with us in Spokane. Riker looks pretty spiffy though. We could have stayed at the hospital until Thursday, but I figured we might as well come home and face the inevitable craziness of the McLain household.
He was sleeping so nicely, he didn't even know what was about to happen...
Maeli had been anxiously anticipating our arrival since Dad dropped her and Tucker off after school. She was so excited to see her new brother at home that she tried to pick him up out of the car seat before Jeremy even had time to unbuckle him.
Tucker came a runin' to see what all the fuss was about. I think at first he was just super excited to see Jeremy and me at home.
Then we had to start the turn taking so that everyone could get the snuggles out of their system and poor Riker could get back to his nap.

Best Dad Ever

Jeremy has been trying to give the big kids some extra attention. I'm not exactly sure how this scenario came to pass, but I've never seen Maeli so excited. I'm so blessed to have a husband who loves being a Daddy.


I love when Jeremy reads to the kids...he's all gusto and funny voices. Sometimes I think he likes it even more than the kids do.

Maeli's Wisdom

"I'm not weird...I'm beautiful. Only boys, Daddy is weird, and Tucker is weird. Girls are not weird."

Hospital Highlights

It looks like we're going to be heading home later today, so I thought I better post something before we get into "check-out" mode and things get crazy. Here are some of the Riker's favorite moments of life so far.

First snuggle with Mom

First Diaper with Dad

Big Snuggles with Dad
Meeting Maeli who will be sneaking Riker all kinds of treats because she's very aware that crying means he's hungry...No Maeli, Riker is too little for doughnut holes.
Meeting Tucker who was very intrigued for a few minutes and then moved on to destroying the hospital as quickly as possible.
Finding his thumb!
More diapers with Dad
We got some good sleep again last night, so we're feeling up to heading home to the craziness. Jeremy and I are going to have our "special dinner" for lunch and probably head out after 2:00 or so.

Good Day

Doing good. Grandma got some snuggles, kids are coming tonight. Dad is back from work so mom is going to try and take a nap.

Update

My biggest Dude and my newest dude are both sleeping nicely this morning, so I thought I'd take a minute to update, however, I can't reach the camera but I'll upload more pics when Jeremy is up and about.

Jeremy got to bring Riker to our room around 4 yesterday, shortly there after I got to get up out of bed, so I was able to sit and rock him for quite a while. I think he looks a lot like Tucker, but his head and face are a perfect circle, he's really not that chunky at all, but he does have a big head. Super cute. Its hard to tell by the first day, but so far he seems to be very mild-mannered. Gramma brought the kids over again last night so Maeli got to hold him. She's going to be a super-helper because she was trying to bring him things to eat and drink the whole time she was here. Tucker checked him out pretty good, but has a bad cough, so we tried not to let him get too close. Gramma didn't get much of a turn since they did not design the Birth Place to accommodate a curious one-year old boy. Good thing she'll get to have some serious snuggle time while the kids are at day care today.

Little Riker is doing great. We've been able to nurse a few times and he seems to be anxious to get the hang of it. We're not there yet, but he's already way ahead of Maeli and Tucker in that department. He had one fluke bought of rapid respiration's last night, but for the most part has been able to keep him self nice and calm. He hasn't had to have any more oxygen and only visited the nursery so that mom and dad could get some rest last night.

I'm doing good too. I have had some excessive post-op bleeding, so they've given me a few different drugs to try and stop that. The drugs seem to be working, so its nothing to be worried about. I've been impressing my nurse all night with my "amazing kidney function" so they think around 8 this morning I'll be able to get up and get unhooked from everything and probably take a shower. Dr. Hall should be in sometime in the next hour or two to see how we're doing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll let them take up the post-op leg pumpers....better than a blood clot, but my word, I forgot how itchy they are.

Jeremy got a lot of snuggles in yesterday, which is good because it looks like he'll have to go into work for a while today. He wasn't feeling super last night, so he checked out the jacuzzi tub and seemed to feel better. I don't think he got much sleep though...it might be along week for Daddy.

waiting...

we're still waiting for little Riker to be breathing steadily enough for him to leave the nursery. He's getting enough oxygen, he's just breathing too fast. Jeremy got to hold him for a few hours, but I'm still not mobile, so I haven't seen him since the operating room. The other kids are here, but there's no baby. All is still well, we're just waiting...at least we're all in Pullman.

He's Here!

9# 2 oz and 20"
Baby is doing well, he's having a little oxygen in the nursery, but he's nice and pink and is getting more stable. Nothing to worry about. Surgery went great, blood loss was minimal and everything looked good inside. Jeremy hasn't been able to snuggle yet, and I haven't had a chance to try and nurse because Riker has been needing the oxygen, but it should only take a few hours for him to be ready for us. Grandma survived the morning and is now here at the hospital with us....its going to be a race to see who gets to snuggle first.

At the Hospital

We have been at the hospital for an hour now. Beth is all hooked up to her IVs and monitors. We'll start the c-section in an hour.

Get Set...

It seems that we all had a great night's sleep...unless Grandma has a lot of stories we don't know about. We're off to the hospital in just a dew minutes to get things started. At this point, lets keep our thoughts on Grandma and hoping that all goes well on her own this morning. Her eye looks terrible.

On Your Mark...

So Grandma was gracious enough to provide us with our "medical fiasco" for this baby. On our outing to the park today she biffed it in true Grandma fashion and had to get 5 stitches. She handled it like a big girl so I took her to the store for a treat (diet Pepsi). The cut is on her check,I think its from her glasses which got scratched in the fall, and a really nice shiner...other than that she's unscathed from the event. Its nice to have our surprise out of the way so that things can go as planned tomorrow.

We have to be at the hospital around 5:30am, and I still need to shower with the "special soap," pack, take my sleeping pill at least 8 hours before I'm supposed to wake up, and gather all our cameras, laptops, and their respective cords so that we can let everyone see our sweet and breathing baby. I've felt a lot more calm since Grandma arrived yesterday, probably because at this point, however things go we can deal with it and now the other kids are fine. And its always comforting to have your mom near by. The kids are wearing her out and loving every minute of it, and I think we're all more excited than nervous at this point.

Jeremy is going to give me a blessing when I get out of the shower...I've been reflecting on those that he gave me before Maeli and before Tucker. With Maeli, he gave me a blessing on my Due date that "in the days to come I was have strength to endure" which at the time I thought meant we'd have a rough first few days with the baby and I'd be pretty tired...In fact, it was 10 really long days later before we even got her. With Tucker, he blessed me the night before we went in for the c-section that "in the weeks to come I would have faith and courage" which I thought meant that it would be rough adjusting to 2 kids at home...in fact it was 2 of the longest weeks ever before we even got to bring him home. I'm curious to see what will be said tonight.

We'll post news as soon as we can, but I promised Jeremy that he could take some time to enjoy the snuggles that he didn't get last time...and my surgery will take a little longer because we're getting the tubal too. Assume that no news is good news and that the three of us are enjoying each other. The kids will be visiting after they get out of daycare (around 2) and we're open to other visitors but Tuesday might be better so that I've been up and around a little. Feel free to give us a call though and see how we're doing if you just can't stand it. :0)