Smiling

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are home from the hospital. We got home on Monday. Courtland is doing very well – gaining weight better than any of the doctors expected he could do so quickly, especially with having the RSV. After a lot of stress at the hospital (and trying several different options with pumping and supplementing), we decided that breastfeeding wasn’t going to work – they determined that he hasn’t been nursing efficiently from the start (even for those first 3 weeks when he seemed to be doing it alright), and so getting my milk supply back after 5 weeks would be almost impossible. And the idea of continuing the routine I had in the hospital – nursing him, bottle feeding him his formula, and pumping every 2 to 3 hours all day long – just wouldn’t be practical at home even if I only had one baby to care for, let alone with all five boys. So, in one way that was a disappointment for me because I had hoped to nurse my last baby for several months, but at the same time it is somewhat of a relief because I know he is getting the nutrition he needs and I no longer having that feeling that it is my fault that he wasn’t gaining weight. So, anyways, Courtland is doing well now. He is mostly over his cough and he was gaining weight well when we left the hospital. He is continuing to eat well, and has a weight check tomorrow morning (I’m sure he will continue to have these frequently until they are sure he is fine). He has also been sleeping well at night, and it is nice for me to be able to let Michael do some of his bottle feedings too – it has been working well the last couple nights for me to stay up to feed Courtland before we go to bed at night, and then Michael gets up to feed him when he wakes up in the morning so I can sleep a little longer. But the best thing is that he has started smiling. We caught him smiling a few times before he went to the hospital, but now he smiles several times a day, which I think means that he must be feeling better.