The A Team Week 1: Getting Acquainted Part 1

With the birth of Avery, Toddler Tales is finished...sort of.  You see, I will still be telling stories of our rambunctious toddler Asher, but will also be telling stories of our new little bundle of joy right along with them.  Thus, I needed to come up with a new name for these posts.  I have been thinking about this for a while, and up until recently the best I had come up with was BLTT (the initials of Baby Life & Toddler Tales).  Then, one night after we got home with Avery, both boys were crying at the same time, while Eric and I both longed for nothing other than some rest.  Eric said, "it's like they are teaming up against us".  At that moment, their names: Asher & Avery both popped into my head and I knew what the new blog posting name should be: The A Team.  So now, I will tell the stories of our little guys and how they team up to challenge us and bless us all at once.

To start it off, Week 1 has been broken into two parts: Getting Acquainted Part 1 (at the hospital) and Getting Acquainted Part 2 (at home).  Hope you enjoy the stories and the (abundance of) pictures!  :)

Getting Acquainted Part 1

A few hours after Avery was born, it was time for him to meet his big brother Asher.  Eric's dad brought Asher to the hospital and we both were excited and nervous to see how the meeting would go and what Asher would think of his new baby brother.  We had hoped to take Avery out of the room, to give Asher a little time with Mommy and Daddy before the introduction, but due to the timing of nurses and Asher's arrival, that didn't happen.  Asher was very excited to see Eric and I, but as soon as he heard Avery cry, all his attention was on the baby.  Eric took Avery down to Asher's level and introduced the two of them, and the bond between brothers was born.

Despite my anxiety over the meeting, Asher did very well and seemed genuinely excited by Avery.  Every time Avery would cry (& quite often still, even though Asher is much more used to it), Asher would ask, "what happen to baby?, what happen to baby?".  

After meeting Asher, Avery also got to meet our two other guests while in the hospital: Grandpa Migrin and Pastor Dave (who briefly popped in to say hello, meet Avery and pray with us).

Asher meeting his baby brother Avery

Grandpa Migrin holding Avery for the first time.

Avery's eyes...we are still teaching Asher the art of being "gentle"

Migrin boys.

Asher and Eric's dad stayed with us for a little while, during which time Asher enjoyed some stolen fruit from the patient fridge and got to open his big brother gift from Avery (I forgot to get a picture of it, but he got some little snacks, a couple of big brother books, a big brother shirt, the Planes movie and a big boy Camelbak water bottle, like Mommy & Daddy's bottles).

Before Asher and Grandpa headed back to the house, we took a few quick family photos of our new (larger) family.

 

The rest of the day, Eric and I enjoyed our time getting acquainted with Avery alone...and with the nurses that came in to check on us.

I love looking into those dark baby blues!

Video: Avery & I

That evening, our nurse came in to give Avery his first bath before her shift was over.  He HATED it and screamed the entire time.

VERY unhappy baby!

When bath time was over, Avery had to spend some time in the warmer to get his body temperature back up and quickly fell asleep.  Eric and I decided to enjoy that time watching a couple of the season premiers of our shows, but before long exhaustion kicked in and we had passed out as well.

Me passed out in bed.

The first evening went pretty well.  Avery continued to nurse well and since he was born during the day, we were left mostly alone during the night (unlike with Asher, who was born at night so we had a constant stream of nurses bothering us throughout the night).  We woke up the next morning to our snuggly little man and I quickly figured out what I wanted for breakfast and had Eric call in an order for us (I was STARVING!!).  Then we enjoyed a few more hours of "getting acquainted" with our new little guy.

Morning newborn snuggles are the best!

Video: Avery (I never really saw the similarities between him and Asher until I watched this)

A little bit before noon, Eric's dad and Asher came by for another visit.  Before I could even see my other little guy, I heard him in the hall asking for Mama.  It brought me great joy to hear that he was looking forward to seeing me.  He immediately came into the room and greeted Avery ("baebae!") and I with kisses!  Man do I love these boys!!

One of my favorite pictures!!  They are going to be the best of friends I'm sure!

Asher enjoyed another stolen fruit cup and then had a good time pushing the chair around the room while Grandpa got to have some more snuggles with Avery.  When the nurse came in, Asher also got some "Big Brother" stickers, which he was pretty excited about! :)

Pushing the chair around. "Crash, Crash"

Asher getting his "Big Brother" stickers from the nurse.

Asher riding around the room with Daddy.

Video: Asher & Daddy

Asher enjoying his "Hopital Ice"...which Daddy swears is the best!

Avery & Grandpa.  When Eric first saw this picture, he immediately said Avery looked like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man...and I couldn't disagree. :)

 

Asher wondering why Avery is crying.

Big brother trying to calm down his baby brother.

My silly guy, giving Daddy the stink eye.

He's gonna be a great big brother, I'm sure!  :)

After Grandpa Migrin and Asher left for nap time, Eric and I enjoyed some lunch and started getting prepared to head home.  Before we could do that though, we had to wait for the doctor to come to do Avery's circumcision.  Originally, we had thought this was going to happen first thing in the morning, but the doctor didn't have time, so he said we'd have to wait until late afternoon or early evening for him to come back.  We were a bit disappointed to have to stay that long, but understood.  To our surprise though, the doctor came back a bit after lunch saying that he felt bad to make us wait and could do it then.  So, Avery was wheeled out of our room for the procedure.  A little while later, he was brought back in and we could not believe our eyes and ears.  When Asher was brought back to us after the procedure he was TICKED!!!  He was totally red and screaming as loud as he could.  Avery though, was wide awake in his crib, completely silent and just looking around.  Maybe it was a state of shock or something, but we could not believe how calm he was.  Eventually, he seemed to realize what had happened and was upset, but no where near the level his brother had been.

Video: Avery After "The Procedure"

Avery & Eric trying to get a little rest.

Finally, after the newborn care lessons and release paperwork, we were told we could go home.  Before doing so though, Eric and I wanted to have a little photoshoot with Avery to document our time in the hospital and our first 24+ hours with our little guy.

When the photos were all done, we grabbed the rest of our belongings (Eric had already brought most of it out to the van), cut off Avery's hospital bands and baby lojack, and headed down stairs with a nurse to go home.  After Eric got the van for us, we clicked Avery's seat into place and away we went, sleeping baby and all.

When we got home, we were surprised to find an empty house.  We later found out that Eric's dad had taken Asher to get some dinner, so we were greeted only by Emma, who was so excited that we were home she literally leapt into Eric's arms.

When we had brought Asher home from the hospital, we were very concerned with how Emma would react to the new member of the family.  At the time, she was not good with kids and would quickly get annoyed by them.  After two years with Asher though, she has gotten much more patient and no longer seems bothered by children as long as they are not threatening her.  Because of this, we decided that we didn't need to do anything special to introduce her to her newest brother, so we simply set Avery's seat down and let her sniff him out.  She did a quick once-around and then gave us a look like "you had to bring another one home?"  Then she just walked away, completely uninterested and slightly defeated! :)

Since we were home alone for a bit, we settled down in the living room to rest and cuddle Avery.  Asher and Grandpa got home soon after and Asher saw us through the living room window.  I wish I could have gotten a video of his face when he saw Eric and I and then Avery.  First it was a look of pure excitement when he saw Eric and I and realized that Mommy and Daddy were back home.  Then, the look changed to confusion as his eyes looked upon Avery and realized the baby had come with us.  Finally, the his face lit back up to excitement as it (I believe) it dawned on him that baby was staying with us and he immediately wanted to come in to see "baebee!".

Just minutes after we all got home, we were visited by Asher and Avery's honorary Kenoshian grandparents: Pastor Dave and Judy.  They came to officially meet the newest member of our family and also brought us some AMAZING chocolate chip cookies (seriously, these were possibly the best cookies I've ever had!).  We are so thankful to have them in our lives (PD & Judy...not the cookies, although we were thankful for those as well), and I'm sure the other grandparents were jealous that they got to meet Avery first!

After our visitors left, we settled back down in the living room to truly begin the adventure of the A Team...and what an adventure it will be!