Life goes on, even with the cutest baby in the world in our house.

Isaac's first meeting with his new brother

Roman takes a long time to finish his bottles.  He's eating 3-4 oz every 2.5-3 hours, but he often takes 45 minutes or even an hour to drink his bottle so that makes for much of my time being on the couch feeding him.  The girls and Brian help when they are home and able, but mostly it falls to me.  The little boys can't really feed him like they had hoped because it's a two handed full attention tedious job.  He'll choke if you aren't watching and he prefers his head/neck to be supported with your other hand.  He's only awake about the time it takes to feed him a bottle and sometimes up to an hour and 15 minutes.  His nap times are extremely short, almost never longer than 45 minutes and sometimes not even that.  Occasionally we can hold the pacifier in his mouth and he'll go back to sleep in his bed for a little longer.  He sleeps amazing at night, but for a while there I was waking him at 4am.  (Since I am writing this months in the future, I can say that after I saw his weight gain was on track at several doctor appointments and he increased to taking 4oz most feedings, I did start letting him sleep from 11:30pm/midnight until 7am.  That was only for a period of time though.)

Feeding Roman a bottle is a tricky, two-handed job.

If you're a long time reader of my blog, you know that I train my children from the beginning to fall asleep on their own by doing a consistent bedtime routine, swaddling, and laying them down drowsy from, literally, the day we come home from the hospital with the exception of when I couldn't keep them awake long enough to get through the routine (which happens often the first month).  This "putting down drowsy, but awake" process does sometimes involve fussing or a few minutes of crying.  Roman just gets too exhausted from crying because of his heart, breathing hard and having to catch his breath, and therefore we haven't felt comfortable letting him do more than fuss.  He was very accustomed to being held while he fell asleep and potentially being held during his naps as well so this hasn't really been a plausible method of sleep training for him.  He was pretty easy to rock to sleep and lay down with the exception of sometimes he wakes up a few minutes after being laid down.  After trying many things, I have just succumbed to holding in the pacifier until he settles back down and goes to sleep.  My general policy is "Start as you mean to go on," so that I do not have to undo any bad habits.  I decided the best way to handle this situation was to not pick him up, but put in the pacifier, because at some point in the future, he'll be able to put that pacifier back in himself and it shouldn't have to be retrained out of him.  Only time will tell though.

Luna has been super interested in Roman and tries to get as close as we allow.  She's been very good with him so far even allowing him to kick her repeatedly with his wild kicking legs just so she can stay cuddled up at his feet.

Bobby told someone when they asked if he was excited to have his mommy back that he was really excited to get Roman the most.  Other than being a tiny bit more teary, he's had zero problems adjusting to the new baby in the house.  We are really playing up the whole "Now you don't have to be the last one to get privileges" angle and he reminds us frequently that he'll get to watch Star Wars before Roman does.

Such a peanut!  This onesie was given to us by his birth parents the day we met him and them. 

He never startles and doesn't seem to ever be bothered by the noise in the house.  He failed his hearing test in the hospital and was scheduled for another on here pretty soon after we got home and settled.  He failed that one too and was referred to see the ENT and get a more extensive hearing test called an ABR.  He failed the ABR because of fluid in his ears, but by the time the ENT appointment came around the fluid was cleared.  Then he went back for another ABR and passed this one in one ear, but had fluid again in his other ear.  The ENT said we'll reevaluate in a few months after he has his heart surgery and such because it looks like his hearing is still in the acceptable range with the fluid at this point.

Judah is always willing to help me with his new baby brother.  He can't do much to console him when he is really upset though because he can't carry him around.  Roman is extremely floppy and had zero head control when he came home with us.  

 

Trying the one handed feed, but he needs constant readjustment or re-latching when we do it that way.

Hannah and Genevieve were really great at the beginning at feeding him effectively.  

He totally sleeps with his eyes open oftentimes.

Brian took the oldest three boys to Houston to see a car show thing and Judah lost another tooth.

Losing all his teeth!