Our hospital stay

After Isaac's birth, the next few days were spent savoring our sweet little one.  

Even though he might be our fourth, we still loved taking in every detail of his firsts and capturing as much with our camera as we can so we don't forget any of it. Here he is getting his first bath:

Nope. No one will say there's not as many pics of this little fella as there are of our others - that's for sure! Mommy even talked Daddy into buying her a new Nikon just for this occasion. Isn't he precious?

Look at those tiny, scrawny little legs.

After my mom left, we didn't have any other visitors the first day, which gave us such a nice opportunity to get in quality time with our newest addition. Isaac had to have blood tests done frequently the first 24 hours because he was so small, so we had lots of nurses in and out, but for the most part we had plenty of time to snuggle. 

He was such a tiny thing! My other kids were all in the seven pound range, so I didn't know what to do with this preemie-sized five pounder. (Oh, yes I did! Lots of snuggling!). 

We had to work on nursing some at first to get this little guy off to a good start and growing. Isaac wasn't quite sure how to get a good latch our first go around, so I ended up having to hand express at first and then pumped a little for the second feeding. After that our boy got the hang of it and was on his way!

When my Aunt Beth heard how tiny Isaac was, she went out and bought him a bunch of extra newborn outfits. We tried on a pair of the pants she got him, and this picture shows just how big even the newborn clothes were!

Thankfully, my cousin Stacey came to the rescue our second night with a bag of hand-me down preemie clothes from when Daniel was born. They fit perfectly! Plus, we got in a little visit with her as Stace met Isaac for the first time.

Earlier that same night, the hospital did was a celebration dinner for us, which was a nice upgrade from their typical cuisine. All the food was pretty decent though and I definitely appreciated being waited on. :)

While I'm typically in a hurry to get out of the hospital and head home, this time around it felt like a nice break from all the hectic busyness we'd had at home in the weeks prior, so we were pretty content to just stay put for a bit and try to catch up on as much rest as possible. I really enjoyed the stillness, and in some ways it felt like a vacation.

Both Mommy and Isaac got in lots of snoozin'.

Reid had been extremely sick in the weeks leading up to Isaac's birth and was still recovering when I went into labor, so we were nervous about letting the kids visit the first couple days. I was missing them though and was so anxious for them to get to meet their baby brother, so I asked Dave to drive home on the third day and bring them for a visit. These pictures are some of my favorites from the whole stay as their faces say it all.  Hadley and Reid were complete enamored, and even though Caleb is a bit more reserved, you can tell that he was super excited to have his new sibling here too. Granny got to come along for the ride as well, and her face shows just as much joy as the kids'.

How thrilled Reid felt to get to him!

Proud big sister!

Reid just wanted to kiss and kiss on his brother.

Here Caleb is hanging back but just look at that smile!

Moving in for a closer look...

 

I hated to see them go home, but I think Isaac was ready for the stillness again and to have Mommy and Daddy to himself for a bit longer.

The doctor had said I had could head home if I wanted earlier in the day, but I was still having some trouble physically as well as with nursing, so I opted to stay one more night, which turned out to be a good decision. We got a good night's sleep and were ready to take our sweet thing home the next day.

Before we left though, I had to get a few pics of Isaac in his coming home outfit. I'd purchased a special little set just for this occasion a while back but hadn't expected him to be so small. My mom spotted the exact same outfit in a preemie size and picked it up so that Little Boy could don exactly what I'd planned for him on the way home. It was a perfect fit! The hospital didn't offer newborn photos, so I tried to so my best despite the poor lighting in the room. The pics just don't do justice to how adorable he was.

Finally, all the paper work was done and it was time to release us.

We had been a little worried that Isaac was going to be too small for the weight requirements on the carseat we purchased, but thankfully he just made it!

And we were off...

Welcome home, Isaac!