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August 15, 2006
By Margot | August 15, 2006
Charles Matthew Hutchison arrived on Friday, August 11 at 1:27 pm. He was 8lbs, 13oz at birth and 22 inches long. He looks so tiny to me but every nurse who came in to our room said, “Wow, he is a whopper.” or some equivalent of that. His delivery was very easy. They gave me the epidural before I even had a contraction and Neil and I pretty much just hung out until he was ready (about three hours after they started pitocin) and then the doctor needed to show up so we waited about an hour to push and when the doctor came in, I pushed three times and Charlie was born. Neil says he’s going to hire me out – I don’t think so.
Charlie is beautiful and sweet and amazing. I love him so much already. I was worried that with all that’s been going on I wouldn’t connect or bond with him but I needn’t have worried, he’s the sweetest little guy and I love to stare at his little sleeping face and smell his newborny smell and listen to his little noises. He looks like the boys and yet has his own distinct features and though his hair is darker than both of the other two and he has much more of it than they did, it’s got a reddish tinge to it. I think it’ll turn red. The pediatrician picked him up and said, “Oh man, he looks just like his brothers. Do all your kids come out looking the same?” Charlie had his first doctor’s check today and has gained back almost all of his birth weight already (just an ounce short) and is in great shape according to Dr. Arch. He’s on a pretty regular schedule during the day – sleep for two to three hours, wake up change, eat, burp fall back to sleep. In the hospital he did that all day and night and I thought I finally had a regular sleeper. However, now that we’re home, and for the last three nights between the hours of 10pm and 2 am, he’s become a cat-napping, arm flailing (he worms them out of his burrito wrap), desperate milk sucking, don’t put me down insisting, raving lunatic – or wait, maybe the raving lunatic part is describing me and not him. I discovered last night that he is soothed by my walking up and down the stairs. He almost falls asleep by the time I get to the bottom of the stairs and then when the downward motion stops, he let’s out his little high pitched squeal. I imagined in my delirium last night that it was his drill sergeant squeal saying,”Get back up those stairs, recruit! We have twenty more sets of stairs before I fall asleep.” And though I really could use my own personal stairmaster at this point, the hours are not the greatest. Hopefully tonight I’ll figure out whether it’s that he’s too cold, hot, hungry, overfed or some other factor. I ruled out a few last night and the boys and the doctor kept him up a bit more today so I may get a bit more sleep.
Sammy and Andrew have been wonderful. They are such enthusiastic big brothers. Andrew’s enthusiasm is best described as unbridled enthusiasm. He likes to get right up in Charlie’s face and say “HELLO BABY! I LOVE THE BABY!” and then not so gently rub Charlie’s little head. He and Sam take turns holding Charlie but Andy though he likes it, loses interest after a few minutes. Granted, he is three and is dealing with some jealousy issues, so really I’m not comparing here, Andy’s doing great. Sammy is sweet and gentle and helpful and so proud to be a big brother again. He helps feed and hold the baby every chance he gets and it’s the best picture to see him lying back on pillows with a big smile on his face with Charlie’s head on his chest. He’s been staying up late to help me with Charlie and takes his helping jobs very seriously. Both boys have been hanging out with Grandpa and Stephanie and they’ve taken them to aquarium, the beach today boogie boarding, and karate. The boys have had a fabulous time beating up on their grandpa and have really bonded with him on this trip. Dad and Stephanie have been such a huge help making dinners and lunches and hanging out with the boys.
Sam and his tutor and doing very well together and though he says he hates writing, his writing is looking good and Diana says he’s pretty much right on track. She is great with him and I can tell he really likes her. I’m working hard to make sure Andy doesn’t get lost between the arrival of Charlie and Sammy’s scans and to make sure he feels special and loved. Neil is downstairs holding Charlie and telling him all about his brothers and his dad. We did our highs and lows at dinner tonight and Sammy said his high was “catching waves” and his low was having to do handwriting. Andy didn’t get past his low because his low was that a big wave knocked him over and scared him and he got so involved in his reenactment of the wave tumbling him over that we couldn’t get him to tell us his high. Sam and Andy and I were talking about our favorite things the other day and Sammy said his favorite thing was getting new shoes and testing them out to see how fast they are – this is so typical of my speed loving boy. Andy’s said his favorite thing was riding his big boy bike which he is getting very good at. He can make it around the block twice in a row and as he goes he says, “I’m the ranger for the job. Super Fast Speed!” and he pedals as fast as he can go.
Sam’s MRI is tomorrow and his MIBG is on Thursday. My own personal happy bubble of denial and rationalization was burst last week when Sammy said his leg has been hurting. He says it hurts behind his knee and is off and on. This is not the spot on the femur but it’s pretty coincidental that it’s on the same leg. When we asked him yesterday when the last time it hurt him was he said, “when I told you about it last time” (about five days ago). We are scared of what we will see on the screen on Thursday and though it still may be nothing, we also need to be prepared if it’s not nothing. Oh, who am I kidding? We’ll never be prepared for it. He is here and so full of energy and fun it’s just hard to wrap our minds around the fact that he may be sick again. I find myself making constant deals in my mind with God so that Sammy will be all right.
(later)
I lay there and listened to Sam giggle with his dad tonight when he should have been sleeping and then he came in and said Mom, I can’t get to sleep, you need to read me a chapter book. We read a little from the abridged version of Oliver Twist (I edit out all of the really bad parts) and then he said with his eyes half closed, “I really hope I can sleep now because I’m so tired and then he promptly fell asleep. He’s such a funny boy.
Please pray for Sammy or send a good thought his way tomorrow and Thursday. I promise pictures of Mr. Charles Matthew and the boys this week.
Margot
Topics: Progress Reports | Comments Off on August 15, 2006
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