two-week review

A lot has happened in the last two weeks! Things are definitely easier on the baby end with the second baby, since you kind of know what you're doing, but this time around you also have a toddler clinging to your every move (in her words, "i like to follow you where you go"), so I think it all evens out.

Highlights of the last two weeks:

• Calling the midwife at 4 o'clock in the morning, two hours after my water broke, and being told the hospital was full and we'd have to choose somewhere else to deliver.
• The hospital deciding they'd find room for us at the last minute.
• Arriving at the hospital with "the urge to push", and delivering Oscar twenty-five minutes later.
• Shaggy holding Oscar for the first time, and Oscar immediately grabbing a fistful of beard. 
• Lucy beaming as she met the little brother for the first time, and her exclamation when she held him: "His nose is sparkly!"
• Lucy not wanting anyone else to hold the little brother.
• Introducing everyone to the new addition.
• Beautiful sunny weekend weather.
• Lucy interpreting for the little brother. (He says: "I have such a good mommy!" and "What a pretty big sister I have!")
• Sibling snuggles on the couch.
• Oscar regaining his birth weight!
• First outing as a family of four, to the zoo.

friday cute shot

faces of Oscar at one week old

i heart yellow babies

Oscar followed in his sister's footsteps, developing the yellow tinged skin and eyes that come with newborn jaundice. Apparently Broughtons all down the line have had problems with jaundice, so even though there are no other risk factors (mismatched blood-type, bruising during delivery), our babies still need a little outside help to kick the thing.

On day 5, after daily pediatric office visits during which Oscar's heel was repeatedly pricked and squeezed, the doctor sent us home with an order for a portable biliblanket called a Wallaby. At-home phototherapy means that your baby has to be wrapped in a blue light and plugged into a wall 24 hours a day, but you can still snuggle with him and keep him at home.

Oscar's soul shines out of his bili-briefcase.

After 20 hours with the blanket, his bilirubin level was down by a point and a half, and 24 hours later it was down 3 more points. Oscar was pooping like a champ, so we got to send the blanket back.

Lucy still holds the title of Jaundice Queen, since she had to be fully re-admitted to the hospital and given tiny goggles for her space trip to a blue moon.

Lucy, fighting jaundice with her eyes closed.

friday cute shot