sleep where have you gone?

we are at day 13 of harry's adventure in the miller family. and so far the biggest change is the sleep or lack thereof. greg and i are both running on fumes but making it through our days.
harry is enjoying more awake times.

harry at almost exactly one week old

we learned at his day 3 doctor visit that mister harry was down to 6lbs 5 ounces from his 6lbs 15 ounce birth weight. with doctor's orders we had to set the alarm and get up to feed him about every two hours.

ya, we spend a lot of time sorta like this

unfortunately at his day 10 visit harry had only gained 2 ounces and he still had jaundice, the yellowy skin that indicates the body's little waste management system is not working completely yet. (insert tears and discouragement here) finally last friday we called in the expert. barbara helped get harry on track with eating, instead of the fake out not eating he apparently was showing us.

but still the sleep is fractured.

where have all the zzz's gone?

finally today we got good news. Harry is up 5 ounces since thursday and his jaundice yellowy color is minimal and no longer an immediate concern. whew! i bet we all sleep happier tonight, even if we don't sleep very much.

before there were four

here's a quick pic from our last family outing before Harry was born. We took jude to the chicago children's museum at navy pier. we had free admission thanks to our local oak park children's museum membership. we enjoyed it but not sure i would pay full admission price and parking to see it.

family under construction

first visitors

a neat story from our induction...
Brittany Stanski is the sister of Kenny, who is married to Kara's stepsister Jamie. She is a sweet person who has mutual friends with us through Chicago Cru, a group that helps college students consider questions of faith and spirituality, and also a labor & delivery nurse at Prentice Hospital. The induction was scheduled only the Friday prior and Kara did not expect Brittany to be available to help, as she has her own baby and works just two days a month now.
But praise God, Brittany was scheduled to work on our induction day.

our favorite nurse Brittany

Kara was able to talk through the process with Brittany on the saturday prior. She offered great tips about how labor goes so differently with the second child and even offered to hide Kara's IV because of her needle fear. You can see the sock on Kara's arm that hid the IV placed just above the wrist. It was also nice that jude didn't have to see the needle in mom's arm when he visited.

The epidural process took a few minutes longer than normal from the enthusiastic residents. but brittany was a great support holding kara's hand and helping her get through several more contractions as they worked. What a treat to share this special day with nurse Brittany.

checking harry soon after birth

Grandma Carole came up the night before to help with jude while kara and greg went to the hospital. she got to hold harry soon after he joined us.

meet harry

mom and grandma

Grandpa Chuck also came along to help with jude and provide the jokes. We are grateful he is loaning us Grandma Carole for a week to help everyone recover at home.

jude checks out harry close up with greg and chuck

jude's a big brother

We are happy to announce a second edition of the Oak Park Baby...Jude is a big brother!

Harrison "Harry" Nathaniel Belt Miller joined us on Tuesday, July 19th at 4:57pm. Here's the 411...he was 6lbs 15oz, and 19 inches long. Thanks to the generous help of Grandma Carole and Chuck, Jude arrived at the hospital moments after birth and was able to visit his new sibling

first family photo

A doctor suggested we set Harry in the baby warmer so he saw his parents and then could be introduced to his baby brother. This is the first moment Jude saw Harry. He said "wow" and giggled.

jude meet harry

Baby Harry was induced because of concerns about him being jumbo baby after jude came out a 9lbs 4oz. Turns out Harry came in tiny, in Miller terms, at under 7 pounds.

moments after birth

We are home from Prentice hospital now and slowly teaching Jude the difference between a tickle on baby harry and an overly aggressive push, which to his three year old brain are the same thing. Jude keeps saying how cute his baby brother is, and how happy he is that we got to meet him.

learning to handle harry