(Maureen's Post)
Happy Valentine's Day! James turned 7 months old today!

Well, we made it through our first 24 hours together! I think the hospital forgot to give us the instructions (don't all babies come with them?) so we've had quite a bit of trial and error today. Last night wasn't too bad. James did wake up once in the middle of the night and probably got about 6 and 1/2 total hours of sleep. As Sean reported yesterday, it took me so long to get him down to sleep, but I think a lot of it has to do with the new environment. I'm a lot faster at getting him down to sleep now, plus I've gotten more savvy at it. Before, he would just pitch a fit if I tried to lay him down when he fell asleep, but I'm now able to do it with minimal jostling with him not waking at all. I feel like a slight-of-hand magician when I do it, kind of like pulling a tablecloth from a fully set table without disturbing the actual place settings.

Feedings are getting easier, too. We knew it was going to be frustrating for James to start drinking out of a regular nipple instead of the ones with the huge hole cut into the tip, like at the hospital. The reason the holes in the nipples are so huge in the hospitals and Baby Houses are because the caregivers only have a limited amount of time to feed all the babies, so with the holes cut larger into the nipples, the feeding time is shorter. It's all about efficiency. Needless to say, before today James' ability to suck from a bottle was nonexistent, so our first couple of feedings today were pretty trying. However, by midday James started getting the hang of sucking the formula out of the bottle vs. just letting it flow into his mouth without any effort. We had brought the Playtex disposable nursers and found that the cross-cut nipples worked great once he got the hang of it. We especially liked it because it allows for thicker fluids as we are adding rice cereal to his formula bottle. We also added the Poly-Vi-Sol with Iron to his first morning bottle today, and he drank it without a problem. So, adding the vitamins to his formula is not a problem so far.

We played a lot today, and he is beginning to feel more and more comfortable with us the more he's around us. We got more smiles out of him this afternoon than I've seen coming from him in the past few days. The fact that we visited the hospital and then left him still probably affected his trust in us, but now he has no choice but to see us 24/7! We let him watch one of the Baby Einstein DVD's we brought, and he seemed to like it. Then again, he didn't seem to mind watching "House,"either (yes, we finally completed "24" last week).

Sean got to change his first poopy diaper ever in his life today! He thought he was so slick, as I've had poopy diaper duty since we got home yesterday (he doesn't mind changing just the wet ones), But I smelled one being manufactured and immediately told him it was his turn! Sean also went out for about an hour this afternoon with Jodi Mechem, the Sullivans, and Joan Mesker to a different pick-up store that's not too far to walk to. He picked up groceries for us, including frozen chicken nuggets and frozen crinkle-cut fries which we had for dinner once he figured out how to light the gas oven. They also sell baby food there, so either this weekend or early next week we'll pick up some jars of baby food for him to try.

James had his first bath today, too, but we didn't take any pics of that. As we expected, it was pretty traumatic for him. We figured the babies at the hospital never really got full baths, and if they did it was pretty rare. If anything, they may have gotten sponge baths, but that's it. We had brought an inflatable tub with us, and Sean had blown it up a couple of days ago. James sat in it for a little while this afternoon (got that idea from the Chase family) and seemed okay with it. So, then we put warm water in it this evening and began his bath. He was fine with it until it came time to wash his hair and pour water on his head, then all you-know-what broke loose. You would've thought we had poured molten lava on his head the way he was screaming. Plus, it didn't help that Sean accidentally gave me too much shampoo and it took extra dousings of his head to get all of that out. We did figure out that shampooing will be the last thing at bathtime we do since it causes him the most grief. Lesson learned. I'm sure someday we'll all have a good laugh about it. Not today, though! However, once we had him dried off and in a clean diaper and oufit, all was forgiven and he was ready to play. Of course, bathtime precedes bedtime, so after a few minutes of playing I got to tussle with James over going to sleep; it only took about 30 minutes tonight, though.

So, that's our report today. Overall, it was a good day, and we can only expect each day to get better. I hope James stays asleep tonight, but our neighbors upstairs are having some kind of party - maybe a Valentine's party? - with a bunch of little kids running around (and at the time of this posting it's almost midnight on a school night). They seem to have a LOT of parties, too, with lots of loud music, mostly club-type music...better get the glowsticks!

Paka and love to all!