A week ago today, January 9th, a new guy came into my life. His name is Caleb, and it was love at first sight. I’ve spent the last week learning his every feature, his every sound, and I fall more in love with him everyday. He has truly captured my heart. All my concerns of my love for my daughter having to be divided with my son are gone, and I can now say from experience that love only multiplies.

The c-section went remarkably well. Everything was calm and controlled and peaceful. I had gone with a plan to ask that he stay with me as long as possible so that I could nurse him as soon as possible. I thought this was something I was going to have to fight for, but when we arrived to pre-op, the nurses informed us that they had changed things. The baby stays in the operating room with daddy and then goes with the mom to recovery. The only downside is that family would not get to see him in the nursery soon after. I was so relieved that they recognized that it was more important for the mom and dad to spend time with their baby, especially those first few moments. As you already know what a miracle this entire pregnancy has been, even the surgery had its sign of miracle. As the doctor made her way to bring Caleb into this world, she said that “there was no internal scarring”. Later she told me that it looked as if I had never had a c-section. This is yet another sign of God’s complete healing over my body.

The first week has been wonderful. Our few days in the hospital were somewhat relaxing. It was nice to have him with us in the room, especially when we had friends and family come to visit. When we had visitors with Savannah, all we could do was show them pictures. This time they were able to meet and hold him! Although I did take the advice of several and have him stay in the nursery at night. I thought I would be one of those moms who kept him with me as much as possible. Friday night, pure exhaustion hit me and I knew that someone who was being paid to stay awake would be more attentive to him then either of us could.

Savannah first got to meet her brother on his ‘birth’ day, and was somewhat ambivalent towards him. With two sets of grandparents, new toys, and a new environment to explore, the bundle of blankets that mommy was holding wasn’t too exciting to her.

The next day she came and paid a little more attention to him this time. She actually gave him a kiss and laid her head on him to “give him a hug”. It wasn’t until we tried to get a family photo and one of us was holding Caleb that she decided this new situation wasn’t such a good idea. Eventually we were able to get a decent family pic.

We were able to walk out of the hospital on Monday WITH our baby. That first drive with a new baby is always so surreal, but it was so nice to finally be home and have my babies together.

Our first couple of nights home were kind of rough.  I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times that I was up trying to console him.  Then we figured out that he needed a much warmer environment than we had given him, so the third night was a great improvement.  Last night, I put him down at 11:00, he woke up at 3:30 to eat, and then slept until 7:30–WOW!  If only that would happen every night, but we all know that won’t be the case.

Today he went to his first doctor’s appointment and he is already back to his birth weight of 7 pounds 15 ounces, after only 7 days.  The doctor said he was perfect!  I’m glad she agrees with us.