It Comes in Threes

Marshall has been a great baby. His first few days in the hospital, he slept a couple of 4-hour stints. Contrary to his brother's ways, he actually spent some awake time not crying or eating. He's very chilled out and will spend good chunks of time just checking out the scene. He mostly cries when he needs to be fed or needs a diaper change.

Depsite the good luck we've been having with Marshall's disposition, we had a few not-so-joyous happenings since his birth. Thankfully, as of yesterday, we're in the clear now...but the last week has been an adventure.

First, Miles came down with a cold the evening that Marshall was born. He was luckily able to visit him that first day in the hospital, but his fever and coughing meant that he couldn't come any time after that. Pretty disappointing for big brother, but especially disappointing for Mommy and Daddy who missed seeing the big brother.

The next event made the little cold pale in comparison. While Miles was at home with Nana and Papa, Papa's appendix ruptured. Nana decided to call the rescue squad, who brought with them not only the ambulance but the fire truck as well. It certainly made our neighbors curious! Papa is doing better now, but it was obviously very serious and required surgery. Pops and Mommy are now comparing abdominal surgery notes...

And finally, Marshall developed jaundice during his last day in the hospital. Just yesterday afternoon, we got the all clear on him...8 days later. Marshall spent the majority of that time connected to a bilirubin light. That meant he was tethered to a 3-foot cord for most of that time, making the normal newborn activities (nursing, burping, diaper changing, snuggling) more difficult than usual. Part of the regimen was also to feed Marshall every 2 hours, which meant no more than 90 minutes of sleep at time for the parents.

Marshall's "dragon tail"...and this was the extra-long hospital version, longer than the home light on which he spent most of his time.

In an even weirder occurence, we had snow last week! View from our hospital room:

Yesterday's 68-degree day was the one I had packed to come home to...my dress got tossed to the bottom of the suitcase for the pair of sweatpants I came in wearing. Marshall's coming-home outfit still remained cute:

More of the good stuff to come soon...