First Week Home...

The first week was nothing like I expected it to be.  Let me explain. I had initially hired a baby nurse to help me out for the first few days I was home. I thought this would be a really smart decision considering Steve and I had had very little sleep or rest over the last five days in the hospital and figured the only way to get any is to get some help in the house.  This was a great idea but didn’t really work the way I had hoped it would.  You see, I didn’t expect Spencer to be so incredibly attached to me therefore; having “help” did not in fact help at all. The doctors had warned us it would be like taking a new born home and they were exactly right. He wasn’t napping, or sleeping at night. His eating slowly came back but he preferred to nurse more often than he had been doing in the past and all this required me being with him.

The real juggling act was trying to keep Eidan occupied the whole time as well. I couldn’t do our regular running around as I wanted to keep Spencer at home. So this is where all the family and cousin help came in. We had his aunts and uncles, grandparents, friends, anyone who offered come and take Eidan out to various places like movies, parks, even just trips to the mall or grocery store just to keep him busy and not cooped up in the house. We are very lucky to have such an amazing support system around us who were willing to do whatever we needed. Without them, I can’t even imagine what would have gone on this entire time.  I will talk about this again at a later time.

If you only have one child this time would be much easier, but having a very busy four year old made it all the more difficult. I admit that having the nurse in the house was helpful to get the house in order, keep it clean, do some laundry as we had been away for so long but to get a rest well it was useless.

In terms of Spencer’s recovery, at least it was going really well. It only took about 4 days for him to look like himself again with the swelling substantially coming down.  He still didn’t look perfect although his forehead (that was non-existent before) was perfect. I can’t see drastic changes but I am hoping that we will over time. I do have concerns about his eyes still as they do not look even but I keep trying to remind myself that it has only been a week and these things take time. We are having a follow up with Dr. Philips July 20^th so I will make sure to ask him then, what we can expect.

Spencer's incision site

I have tried to take a picture of Spencer's incision but it is very hard to get a clear picture as he has so much hair. They didn't cut it, shave it or even touch it during the surgery which I am extremely thankful for. I thought that I would be putting Spencer in hats all summer long but as you can see there is really no need as it is barely visible unless you are actually looking for it. This picture was taken one week after Spencer's surgery.

Spencer, one week post surgery