New Normal

When Finn was in the hospital and Maggie would come to visit we would sometimes treat ourselves to ice cream from the Ben & Jerry's located in the children's hospital. Here's a photo of Maggie's eating her first ice cream in a cone. Why on earth did I get her the darkest chocolate they had?! I'm still trying to get the stains out of those clothes.
We had a great weekend with my sister and brother-in-law in town from Miami. Lindsay is partly responsible for saving Finn's life by telling us that his low temperature was not normal and we needed to take him to the ER. She hadn't seen Finn since he was in the hospital and was really impressed by how great he looks and how strong he is. Seriously, he is extremely strong - he has great neck control and very strong legs. Several times he has stood up in my lap for several seconds with me barely providing any support. We're thinking he may be taking after his dad :)
We have Finn's next follow-up with his geneticist on May 5, and we have his circumcision scheduled for May 12, poor guy. Since he was born at home we didn't have this done in his early days and we thought about having it done at the hospital but they said it would have delayed us a day in getting home, so we're having it done at Vanderbilt as an outpatient procedure. I almost hate to do it b/c he's been through so much already, but we've put a lot of thought into our decision and are moving forward with it.
In other Finn news, he discovered his hand last week and is starting to coo! Hooray for small things!
Maggie has had a better few days with her adjustment (maybe because she had her aunt and uncle doting on her while they were here). I'll pray it lasts and improves even more! She's told me several times how hard it is being a big sister. I think it's helping that we can finally get out and do more normal things like going to the park or the library.
I'll leave you with a funny Maggie story:
Recently when we do something special with her hair or she wears a new outfit she'll say, "We need to show this to Mimi (or Aunt Erin or whoever). They are going to freak out. This is freaking-out cute!"
We agree with her!

Happy Easter! Happy Dr's Appt!

Here's a cute photo of Finn and Maggie at Easter. My mom smocked her dress, although you can't see it well in this photo. She's so talented! Finn is wearing his "coming home" outfit which was never intended to be worn home from the hospital (since he was born at home) but we actually did put it on him to wear home from his stay in the PCCU.

Maggie and her cousin Jack had the best time in the hammock in Mimi and Poppy's yard. I'm not sure who had more fun - Maggie and Jack, or Poppy, who was pushing them. While they were swinging Maggie was telling Jack, "Jack, you're my best cousin. I love you."
Finn had his first post-hospital check-up yesterday with his geneticist, Dr. Summar. Everything went well. He's up to 9 lbs, 6 oz and was given a clean bill of health based on his physical exam. They also did some bloodwork to check his ammonia levels and the level of his isovaleric acid, but we won't get the results from that for a few more days. The best news for us was that Dr. Summar said we can take Finn out of the house now (like to the grocery store or the mall, but not places where people might be touching him), but we still need to be very careful about germs. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but the reason we have to be so careful is not because he is immuno-compromised (any more than the average 1-month-old) but because if he gets sick it's so much harder on his body. I hope I say this correctly but when a person gets sick their body releases protein, and since he can't metabolize protein, it is more dangerous for him. Also, because his nutrition is so important, if he were sick with vomiting or diarrhea then he might be unable to keep his medicine and medical formula down. But anyway, I have a trip planned to Target today with my sister and I feel like I'm planning a prison break! We've been told to wait another month or two before we let people hold him, and I think around that time we'll be given the go-ahead to go back to church, which we're really looking forward to.
Dr. Summar also told us that he expects to see that Finn has had no neurological damage or have any developmental delays, but only time will tell. However, we're just encouraged that we can hope for this.
He's doing all usual newborn things right now and you'd never know from looking at him that he's been through so much. He HATES having his diaper changed or his clothes changed and lets us know how he feels. He's really looking around a lot now and is being awake much more. He eats about every 3 hours during the day and last night only woke us up at 2:30am and then 5:30am. Maggie was about 9 months old before she slept that well, so we feel like we won the lottery. I know everyone feels this way about their baby but about 30 times a day I find myself thinking that he's so cute I almost can't stand it. We're just so thankful and grateful for him and his life!

A quick photo of Finn snoozing!

Here he is in his swing. It was taken with my phone so it's not the greatest quality but at least it's a photo! He's slept great today so maybe we'll be up all night tonight but I'll keep my fingers crossed. It's been interesting for us to figure out the bottle and supplement thing (especially using cc's instead of ounces, and we're about to start using a digital scale to measure out 225 mg of a supplement to put in his formula 4x a day). I think we're starting to get the hang of it. It's amazing what you can get used to, although I do love the feeding times when I just get to nurse him!

As far as Maggie getting used to having a new brother, we've had about 40% stressful times and 60% great times with the two of them. Let's just say I never realized how loud she is until we had a sleeping baby in the house! Grant has only been working a little bit this week and it's been so nice to be all home together but I'm sure I'm in for a rude awakening when it's business as usual and I'm more on my own. I'll just enjoy it while I can.

Homecoming

Well, we are home and loving it! It was so sweet to spend our first night at home with just our little family. Although it's been a big adjustment in many ways, the word I keep thinking about is just "sweet". Maggie has had her moments of naughtiness but mostly it's because she wants to touch him all the time, which is simultaneously cute and irritating! Last night she really wanted to touch his eyeballs and we had to react quickly.
It's been amazing how much Finn looks like Maggie (I'll have to post some photos comparing them soon), but how different he is, also. To me he looks just like a boy version of Maggie. For those of you who knew Maggie as a baby, you know that she was not the world's best sleeper, but Finn seems to really love sleeping most of the time. I'm sure part of that is because we've intentionally been putting him down when he's sleeping, whereas Maggie was basically held constantly for her first few months of life (partially because we wanted to and partially because she insisted!). Don't worry, though, Finn is definitely getting plenty of time in our arms.
Speaking of holding him, I wanted to say that if you live in town please understand that we've been advised to basically not let anyone hold him and also to stay home most of the time. Because of his Isovaleric Acidemia (IVA) any little cold or flu could land him back in the hospital and that is definitely something we want to avoid. So please know that in my heart I want to pass him around and let everyone hold him, but we know none of you want him in the hospital again, either!
He's waking up (Maggie and Grant are at church) so I better go feed him.
Thanks again for all of your love, prayers, and support. We really felt a worldwide embrace (it sounds cheesy but it's true) and were continually moved by everyone's prayers and encouragement.
I hope to put some more photos on here soon (with all of my free time that I have now, ha ha!).