I've Survived...

...the first week.

Charlie has been home with us for almost 2 full weeks now. Perhaps it's because I was expecting having twins at home, but I haven't felt that huge "change" everyone has told me to expect. Don't get me wrong, the late night feedings are tiresome and instead of getting up before 8 I'm lucky to roll out of bed before 10, but much still seems the same.

Kevin went back to work this week leaving Charlie and I to get accustomed to TCOB (taking care of business) on our own. One thing that was nice having Kevin for was the morning feeding, around 8. Then I could make up the hours I missed while he could spend some time with the bubs. But with Kevin out of the house by 7:30, that leaves me to get him fed and changed. I feel like such a bum sleeping until 10 or 11. My days seem to disappear since there's less of them to have. But, so far I've been able to take care of my work responsibilities, keep up with the laundry, feed and change the baby and even do some light cooking and a load of dishes here and there. Not bad considering I'm only awake for a few hours a day!

Charlie has the worst case of hiccups I've ever seen. The funny thing is, for the past 3 weeks while I was pregnant with him, he would ALWAYS get the hiccups. At least twice a day, sometimes more. This has passed on to external babyville, too. Kevin told me his mom used to have a trick for getting rid of them when he was little. She would give the kids a cap full of lemon juice and the hiccups would magically disappear. We thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that you were just focusing on the hiccups (kind of like the spoonful of sugar thing), but whatever the reason, it really does work! We just dip his binkie into some juice and have him suck on it, and voila: No more hiccups.

He is full of character. I love just watching him make all of his faces when he's awake. One minute he looks like he's about to burst into tears and the next, he's making a Blue Steel face (see photo on left for those that are unfamiliar with Zoolander).

He has started crying more the last couple of days, but I think much of that has to do with his increasingly sore bum. His poor cheeks just keep getting more and more red. I use the bum cream every time I change him, but it just seems to be inevitable. His diapers barely fit onto his tiny little body right now making leaks harder to control. Sometimes I'll go to change him only to discover he's got a big ol' pee spot on the back of his jammies.

Kevin is in charge of baths and he gets them every other day. I got a tip from one of the NICU nurses to throw their towel and PJ's into the dryer so they'll be nice and toasty warm after the bath. Charlie seems to appreciate this so far.

He's getting more baby acne on his forehead but I'm not worried about it. I'm sure it'll calm down in the next few weeks and he doesn't seem to mind it. Keeping his nails trimmed is difficult. I try to trim them while he's sleeping to he isn't flailing his arms everywhere while I'm using sharp clippies. If he's wearing something that doesn't cover his hands, he seems determined to scratch the living crap out of his face. The hand mittens, although a great concept, never stay on his hands for more than a few minutes at a time and are more trouble to put on his hands than it's worth. I wonder how many more of those "baby inventions" I have yet to discover that seem like a good idea but are really more of a nuisance.

My sister in law posted on her blog about the amazing baby shower she put together for me. I want to talk more about this later, but if you want to see pictures and see how awesome she is before I have a chance to write about it, visit her blog here.