Our First Week at Home with Little Brother

When we got home from the hospital, the girls couldn't wait to hold brother! 

Felicity was still trying to figure it all out!

Avaree was immediately in love!!

Look at those tears!

He got lots of sister kisses!

…and we all had fun doting on him!

He wasn't the star of the show for long, but that first day he certainly was the center of the girls' attention! ;)

He sleeps in his Rock 'N Play! (Thank you, Maw Maw!) It's so easy to move around, and we started off making him a little nest like we learned in the NICU with Felicity, since he likes to be snug!

Speaking of Felicity, the next morning, she was very interested in this little person that was now staying at our house! ;) Avaree was sick the night we got home. We're talking more vomit than I've ever seen come out of a small person, so I spent the next 24 hours washing and sanitizing everything, while changing clothes and taking a shower every three hours so that I could feed little brother. It was crazy, but thankfully it was isolated to Avaree and didn't last more than 24 hours! I didn't take many pictures that day!

On that Thursday night, we gave brother his first sponge bath at home! He wasn't a huge fan!

…but he loved getting warm and cozy afterward!

The next morning, little sister asked (gestured) to hold him for the first time! :) 

Brandt is our first real paci baby! Felicity took one occasionally, but she was never consistent with it and quit wanting it at all around 6 months! The paci helps this little guy if mama needs a break from cluster feeding!

Friday afternoon, Mrs. Laura and Pastor Eric stopped by! Avaree was SO happy to see them! Pastor Eric prayed over brother, and we so enjoyed our visit with them!!! :)

Brother enjoyed some Daddy cuddles that afternoon too!

I love his long toes!!

He is such a LONG little guy! 

(Update: At our two week appointment (one week after this picture), he measured 10 lbs, 10.5 oz and 22 inches, so he is a growing boy!!)

The girls were pretty obsessed with him our first weekend home!

Sister smooches!

Sweetest little guy! He loves his wubbanub paci! However, Felicity has an Ellie Wubba, so she thinks his is hers too. In fact, she has gotten into pacis again, and she wants to put all of them in her mouth! We have to really watch her! ;)

More snuggles with his sisters!

That next morning, Uncle Spencer, Aunt Shannon, and Evy came over to meet our little guy! We were SO happy to see them!!! Felicity and Evy are three months apart, so sometimes they have trouble sharing, but they played well together that morning! Aunt Shan is "helping them share" here by keeping the little piano on the floor! ;) Notice the plethora of stickers that Felicity put on her shirt!

Avaree enjoyed some cuddle time with her Uncle Spencer!!

Uncle Spencer, Aunt Shan, and all the cousins! :) 

I love my brother and our babies!

Later that morning, Uncle Darrin, Aunt Jamie, and Blair, and Gigi and G-Pops came to visit! When Felicity woke up, she was so excited to have Blair to play with on the floor! :)

Sweet girls!!

Playtime on the floor!

Daddy loved playing on the floor with Blair! It has been awhile since we had a baby that stayed in one spot! ;)

G-Pops got some Brandt-lovin'!

The girls crawled all over Gigi!

Daddy gave brother lots of kisses!

Barton family picture!

Felicity kisses!

I love just love this little guy! Thank you for this sweet little onesie, Liz!

Five days old! :) 

Aunt Jamie and Brandt with a photo bombing Ave in the background! ;)

Avaree with her Uncle Darrin and her baby brother!

Uncle Darrin with our babies!

The Barton boys, their girls, and one baby boy!

Daddy and his boy!

One week old! Daddy's home from work--yay!

Talking to his Daddy!

My two littles: Brandt (one week) and Felicity (21.5 months)!

Felicity, the paci police! She thinks he always needs one!

Daddy and Brandt talking!

Our first week with our little guy was full of transitional emotions and lots of love! :) Much more to come, but I have no more room for pictures on my phone, so I've got to dump them here! hehe! I plan to write a whole post on our transition and the girls' reactions, but a girl has to sleep sometimes!

Happy One week little buddy! We love you! 

Brandt Ryder: Four Days Old

When Brandt was four days old, I got out my big camera and snapped a few pictures! I just adore him.

 My fave.

We love our handsome little guy. 

Brandt Ryder: Our Time in the Hospital!

Brandt was born at 1:39 pm on Monday afternoon, and we went home on Wednesday morning around 11:00 AM. I had originally wanted to just stay one night in the hospital (for several reasons), but Dr. Neal and Brandon made the executive decision that we would stay one more night.

The remainder of Brandt's birth day went really fast! We got to visit with our girls and our parents some more, and our little guy got lots of loving!

G-Pops and Gigi with Brandt!

Pop Pop with Brandt!

Pop Pop and Mom Mom with Brandt!

Mom Mom with Brandt!

Daddy, Brandt and G-Pops! No resemblence at all, right? ;) Handsome boys!

Mom Mom with the girls and little buddy!

These pictures of Brandt from the hospital crack me up! He looks SO different now. He was SO swollen for the first few days, and he lost "down" to 9'1 before we left the hospital. Amazingly, my milk came in at the end of Day 2! It's come in faster with every baby! That was a huge gift for my hungry little guy! :)

We got to eat Jimmy John's for supper, and it was SO good!! Huge thanks to Gigi and G-Pops for feeding us while we were in the hospital! 

This picture is so funny!!! I promise he wasn't about to punch anyone! ;)

Our sweet Lala came by to visit us on Monday night!!! 

Little buddy and I had a long night, and I was drinking coffee by 6am (thanks, Daddy!)! :) You can see it in my eyes that I was so tired, but look at this sweet little guy blowing bubbles!

Then, we had a visit from our favorite Dr. Neal!!! He took our little guy back to do his circumcision. He brought him back within fifteen minutes and told us he didn't even cry! I really didn't have a peace about who would do this procedure for our little guy or which "version" they would perform, so I asked the Lord to just make it a clear decision for us. Then, out of nowhere (we had never discussed it before), Dr. Neal offered to do his circumcision, and we knew that was the right decision! 

Three amazing guys--Daddy, Brandt and Dr. Neal!

Family photo!! Little brother's face looks HUGE here! :) Daddy had to go find him a bigger hat that morning! 

We dressed him up in his sweet "little bro" outfit from Lala! 

He didn't love being messed with!

Mama and baby! 

Around mid-morning, our big girl came to the hospital! She looked adorable, and she was ready to hold her baby! :) She got to spend the whole day with us at the hospital!

She enjoyed her special day with us!

Look at this sweet face!!! Oh, how I just want to hold him all the time and protect him always--neither of which I can do. 

He and Felicity have the same mouth!

That evening, Alise came to see us! I think this was Brandt's first time to hug Landry, who will be born tomorrow at our same hospital!! So happy for our precious Alford family!!! 

Avaree got to be there for the pediatrician's exam! She had to make sure her baby was okay the whole time!

Daddy, brother, Ave and G-Pops hanging out in our hospital room!

The next morning, we got to go home!!!

On our way home with three car seats in our back seat and happy hearts! Actually, I slept all the way home--ha! :) I only slept two hours the night before, so it was a good little cat nap, and Daddy had done this twice before, so he didn't mind! ;)

Thanks to Gigi for taking this picture of us driving away from the hospital! I was so ready to get home and get our lives as a family of five started!

My time is even more limited now, and if I get time, I either want to spend time with Daddy, shower or sleep, but I will continue to try my best at updating the blog. I treasure it, and I want to keep it going! 
Since being home, we have enjoyed some precious time with our family. Many more pictures to come!