It's Been... One Week

... plus a few days. We finally got out of the broom closet disguised as a hospital room last Monday, and so far, things have been going well. Ben continues to be a wonderful baby. He really doesn't cry all that much, just when he needs something. We haven't experienced many inconsolable crying jags so far. His weight dipped down to 7-4, but was back up to 7-12 on Monday, so he is doing great in that department. We did discover that he has a clogged tear duct in his left eye, so he's getting some ointment in his eyes until that clears up, nothing major. He is sleeping very well at night, much to our delight.

Joshua is doing better than we ever imagined he would. He LOVES his baby brother, constantly wanting to give him hugs and kisses, especially when he is crying. He hasn't shown a hint of jealousy yet, and hasn't intentionally done anything to hurt the little guy (although he did go Three Stooges in an attempt to point out that Ben has eyeballs). Josh loves to help us out, wiping away the bubbles during Ben's bath, throwing away diapers... now if we can just teach him to change them too!

With one small exception, Brenda is doing well. Her incision did end up developing that seroma, as we had feared in the hospital, but it appears to be healing quickly, about 1/2 cm in each direction each day. Please keep this in your prayers that it will continue to heal rapidly (the last one took about 8 weeks). They are treating it differently this time around. Last time the doctor opened a large portion of the incision to allow drainage, and packed it with gauze every other day. This time the doctor (a different one) opened a much smaller area, less than an inch, and we are packing gauze 2X per day. That task is actually falling to me, and while it may sound gross that I am using a long Q-tip to stuff gauze ribbon into a hole in my wife's abdomen, it really isn't that bad. Still, if you had told me a few weeks ago that I would be doing what I am doing, I would have laughed at you. So anyways, apart from this minor setback, Brenda is doing well. She is choosing to keep an upbeat attitude about everything, focusing on the many blessings that God has given us in this situation. She is also happy that she is already only 10 pounds away from her pre-pregnancy weight, just 11 days after giving birth (and she's lookin' darn good if I must say so myself).

Not much to report about me or Copper. I feel like I am bonding a lot more with Josh the past couple weeks, as I have pretty much been his primary caregiver. We have been able to play a lot more together, and it has just been really cool to spend this much time with him. He is growing into such a cool little dude in so many ways... but more on that later.

Don't forget to check out the photo site, we'll try to keep it updated as often as possible...