What a month we've had!

I intended to start this post with the first four weekly pictures of Everett, celebrating his first month of life (which is still what this post will be) but what I did NOT expect was to be sitting here typing it in a hospital room with my little four week old guy lying next to me hooked up to oxygen and an IV drip while I wrote it.

Unfortunately he came down with a bad cold last Thursday (RSV, in fact, unbeknownst to us) which turned into a cough, which by Monday night had settled itself into his lungs and a nice case of pneumonia. After a scary, prayer-filled drive to the ER at 3 a.m. early Tuesday morning with a teeny tiny baby who was fighting to catch his breath, we're extremely grateful that God has indeed been gracious to us again!  Our prayers have been answered so immediately, as he's very nearly been weaned off the oxygen already and we're hopeful to head home tomorrow after only just fulfilling the mandatory 48 hour minimum they put on him upon admission!  Well, at least that's our hope, based on the reports we've been getting today!

We're not pleased, obviously, that our poor little guy is going through this so young, but to a certain extent we are grateful we've been through it before with Asher's hospitalizations (with RSV at 4 months and with pneumonia at 17 months) and kind of know what is going on and what to expect with a respiratory infection in the hospital.

So that said., let's celebrate his first month!


Here he is at 1 week...

My failed attempt to prop up a one week old. :)

2 weeks...  What a difference one week can make!  :) 

3 weeks...

4 weeks...  : (.

We technically didn't come to the hospital until the day AFTER his one month birthday (which just happened to be exactly four weeks because February is short) but we didn't get the picture taken on the day of and now we're no where near the yellow chair for a few days, so this will have to suffice unfortunately.  

Everett has been a huge joy and blessing in our lives.  I'm still adjusting to two and what that means in our daily routine, but he has done what he could to make it easy on me.  He's an awesome sleeper at night.  3 1/2 hours has been the minimum length between nighttime wakings and feedings, thus far!  Naps have been a little more stressful just trying to balance getting him settled somewhere semi-quietly while also not denying Asher too much attention when he's trying so hard to be patient and good.  I feel like I spend an hour trying to get him to sleep, and then an hour giving up on it while he chills and intermittently fusses and then finally puts himself to sleep.  I debate giving up the "trying" portion, but seriously should a newborn be awake for 2-3+ hour stretches and then absolutely crash for 3 hours?  Not sure about that one, but we'll get it figured out eventually, I'm sure.  Asher loves his little brother so much and has adjusted to him being around and needing mom's attention sometimes too... but it's still been a bit of a steep adjustment period for me.  I guess that has more to do with just their ages, and balancing things like disciplining and potty training, with newborn nursing and napping, and not feeling guilty for needing to love on and attend to one more than the other from time to time.   It'll settle down with time and experience, I'm sure... or at least I hope.  :)

Well I'd better go attend to my littlest.  We'd appreciate your prayers for Everett as he continues to heal. We're also extremely grateful for Grandma Anderson for driving three hours at a moment's notice to hang out with Asher this week... even though it's already her fourth or fifth time here since Everett was born four weeks ago.  She is a servant-hearted lady, that is for sure, and I'm so blessed to have her as my mom!