First Weeks with Wyatt - us getting to know one another

Our littlest angel has been home for 2 weeks now. The adjustment has been hard, as we expected, but so far nowhere near as difficult as we thought. Wyatt being in the hospital for 17 days just might have something to do with us being more patient with the changes!





He is basically on a regular routine now: eats, is awake for about 1.5 hours, naps for about 2 hours, then it starts over. It has been a full two weeks, unfortunately for me, as I was hoping to do some good resting and relaxing. But it has all been enjoyable. Here is a (not-so-quick) recap of what it has been like for us:

Day 2 of Wyatt being home (June 23rd) - we had to take Wyatt back to the hospital for a weight check and his hearing test. He wouldn't stop wiggling during the hearing test, so they asked us to nurse him so he'd be still long enough for the check. He passed in both ears! I was so nervous during the weight check - what if he didn't gain appropriately, would they make him go back into the hospital?! - but he passed that as well. Huge relief!

Day 4 - Wyatt has his first appointment with our pediatrician. I made Art come along too, so he could listen to what the Dr. had to say. In a nutshell, he thinks that Wyatt looks just fine. He did a lot of physical tests with him to evaluate if he thinks Wyatt needs any additional physical therapy. His decision is "not now". He thinks that Wyatt is doing fine - he does still favor his right side, and his spine is curved that way a bit (from favoring it), but he thinks with a few simple exercises that it will correct easily. He said he'll re-evaluate in a month. The Dr. also said that it is best for Wyatt to be on a 3.5-4 hour schedule for nursing. This is a huge relief, because the Dr. in the US recommended every 2 hours for the first months, and it took FOREVER to get Zach off the 2 hour schedule. He also reassured me that babies suck ('nuf said) on their hands etc. for reasons other than hunger. Wyatt basically does when he is getting sleepy and needs a little extra help falling asleep.

Day 5 - PARTY! I was so very exhausted. Today was the first day that I was not able to get the boys to nap at the same time, and I was about to fall over from exhaustion. Luckily, Art came home and took both boys outside; I put my earplug in and took a good hour nap. THEN it was time to party. The party at MPI was hosted by 4 people for 4 reasons to celebrate: Art for the birth of Wyatt, Helge for the birth of his daughter, Patricia for her going away, and one other person for his birthday. It was a cook-out with lots of food. It was a real nice time. Zach loved it because Philip & Anne's kids were there, and Luca (3 yr old girl) and Kieran (5 yr old boy) like to play with Zachary. He had a blast.

Those were the major outings for Wyatt's first week home. I had planned on taking the next week a little slower to get adjusted to things, but that didn't really happen either.



Mon - Wed: Janneke and Annemieke came for a visit. It was great having them here. Annemieke was suffering from a medical issue and had to take things slowly which was good for me since I wanted to continue taking things easy as well. We went to the park w/ Zach a few times, went to the Zoo Park, where all the water and sand stuff is, and went to ANOTHER party at the MPI. This time the party was for the entire MPI, so there were tons of people there I did not know. Zach had a blast playing on the bounce house while Art gave the ladies a tour of his work.


Wed: Janneke and Annemieke had to leave us on Wednesday afternoon. That evening we took our first dinner outing with Wyatt. We went to dinner at our friend's Jake and Maddy Shaw. Both boys did pretty well actually. Wyatt had a minor melt-down before his evening nap. This was also the first time we took an outing with Zach in the stroller and Wyatt in the baby sling (compliments of Monica Battaile!). It worked out very well. We got home at nearly midnight though, so the next day we were pretty tired! Zach went to bed at their house like a pro, no crying, and no crawling out of their bed to come join the fun.

Friday was 4th of July!! Wyatt was a month old! We celebrated the birth of our home country by going to Katrina & Heinze's for a 4th of July party - again w/ Zach in the stroller and Wyatt in the baby sling. It was a very nice party. Zach got to play with Steven and Hannah all evening - so nothing could have been better! :)

General stuff:
Wyatt mostly seems fairly content - he doesn't cry much, but he does generally have a furrowed brow and eyebrows. It's odd really. He still has bad gas, and is quite grumpy when we can't help him get rid of it. He has this awful high pitched squeal that he does when he is in pain - it breaks my heart. It is amazing how much he has improved since birth. It is hard to believe that the first few days we were not even allowed to touch him because, even asleep, his respiration rate would soar from a healthy 40-50 to a scary 120-150. It was terrible to not be able to stroke his cute little arm for the first 2 days. Then came all the mini-milestones that meant progress: he is wearing clothes!, finally strong enough to be given breast milk through a feeding tube, content enough for his air mask to come off, content enough to be held while being fed through the tube, the day we finally saw him awake (he has eyes!), the day we first heard him cry, the day he got moved from his high-care bed to a "big boy crib" (no more heated bed), when he was finally allowed to attempt nursing (not so great those first few times), no more weighing his diapers, when I first got to bathe him, he being awake and alert for longer periods of time - long enough to watch some of the EuroCup with the NICU nurses, his arm and leg getting stronger and full range of motion, then - banner day - the day he got moved from the NICU to the medium-care nursery. There he also had mini milestones that we grasped to with hope: the day the monitors were taken off, the day he pulled out his feeding tube and the nurses didn't put it back in, the day he finally ate an entire meal (80ml) from the breast, and finally the day he came home.

Wyatt has come a long way in his first month of life. We know we are lucky and blessed to have him, and hope that the rest of his months are not filled with so much drama. It is wonderful to have him home and start to get to know him.