Ollie & Lola, A Beginning

Life has been moving fast these last two-plus weeks. I want to try to catch you up to speed on the latest news so here goes a data dump. You can also take a look at My Albums for some recent pictures.There are so many topics that have crossed my mind over the past two weeks that I couldn’t possible get them all down - or expect your patience to read them all if I could. But let’s step back to that first day in the hospital:EmergencyAs you may recall, Ollie was born twenty three minutes past midnight, Thursday morning. Almost right after he was out and about, I (Papa) started to feel a tightness in my chest and a little bit woozy. By midday I was hurtin’. Fortunately we were in a postpartum room that had an empty bed and I tried to get some sleep but the pain in my head had become too unbearable to even sleep. Julie finally called a nurse in at 6:00pm and they took my down to the hospital’s ER. Where I sat...for about 7 hours. No joke. It was the worst 7 hours of my life that I can remember. By the time they were done with their stupid tests, they concluded that I had bronchitis with a touch of pneumonia. The gave me a shot, some antibiotics, 800mg Ibuprofen, an inhaler, and prednisone. By the time I got back to Julie’s room at around 1:00am I was feeling much better (relatively) and tried to help out as best I could. But I was basically worthless and Julie took charge of the situation and got us through that horrible experience.

Sister, Meet BrotherThis is a tale that will last a lifetime and many future posts but, suffice it to say here that Lola loves the “bebe.” While he is nursing on the couch, she will stand on mama’s footstool and gently pat his head or give the sign for milk in case mama wasn’t clear about what to do next. She is not so keen on my holding brother but she has been a real champ so far.Ollie’s First Doctor VisitWhen Ollie left the hospital his weight had dropped to 7 lbs., 13 ounces (from his birth weight of 8 lbs., 1 oz.) which is all perfectly normal. That was on a Friday afternoon. By the time we had our first doctor appointment Monday morning, he was back up to 8 lbs., 4 ounces. It was amazing. After all the concern and extra attention we had to give Lola as she tried to regain her birth weight and flirted with jaundice, we were prepared to do the same for Ollie. But, nope. He is a milking machine. Everything else checked out excessively normal so they told us we didn’t need to come back until he was two months old. I’m not sure what he weighs nowadays but the little man is healthy.OK, that’s all you and I have time for today. Stay tuned for reflections on the future world Ollie has waiting for him, Lola gets two new bikes, the family has a new mode of transportation, and the latest news on what we are all learning at lightning speeds.