The day has arrived... er... had come?... was Wednesday! Yeah, that sounds good! Grayson Stanley "Dobyestos" Harding joined our family on October 21st, 8:03 am. He weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long. He has great vocal exuberance and enjoys a good cry... starting at midnight. I'm currently holding him, and typing one handed, so I may be brief in my writing, but I was verbose in my picture inclusion, and that's probably more of what you care about. Also, if you don't know, Dobyestos is the name that Winry came up with to name her brother, and she has been very adamant about it. Even since meeting her brother and knowing we named him Grayson she still says she is going to call him Dobyestos. Here he is dressed and ready to come home from the hospital.
Last Sunday Jelly helped do final checks on our baby things to make sure we were good to go. One nap at a time everything passed.
Here's Monica ready to have a baby.
We're all together in the OR. Grayson got to come back within like 5 minutes of being born and even got to start nursing right there in the OR.
Here I am burping him. He's a good snuggler and leans right up next to my head. That's great for now, however he'll start spitting up soon and that will be no fun!
And here we are both looking at the camera!
Here's Monica and Grayson loving hospital life.
We got Grayson some carrot cake for this birthday. We ate it for him, though technically, the cake Monica ate probably did get to him. We all did our part.
That night, he had to get his hands up to his face, and he eventually started sucking on his fingers. Things worked best when he found his thumb. He's Brooke's kindred spirit.
After 24 hours, they do some tests. They checked his weight, measured his biliruben, and checked his oxygen levels. Everything looked great!
Then he came back to our room for his first bath, which he... loved? Okay, okay, he screamed the whole time.
He did seem to like his hearing screening though, and enjoyed jamming out to a slightly clicking sound about the level of a whisper. He double passed the test when he jumped at the end when the printer kicked on to print his results.
Here's Grayson sleeping in one morning. He loves his little blanket we brought him, good call Monica!
And here is a GREAT BIG YAWN!!
The girls would come to visit, but the hospital rules were that Monica could only have one visitor per day due to covid, which means there was no swapping for me. I was, however, allowed to come and go from the hospital, so Gram and the girls would drive over and I'd come out to the car and we'd hang out for a little bit. Brooke loved to look at the fish tank outside the baby ward when Winry was born, so I took some pictures of the fish, and even a video to show the girls.
When I'd get out to the car, I'd sit in the front and talk to the girls in the back. The girls were always so excited to see me and we had fun talking and catching up on their days. They even brought me Wendy's for dinner one evening.
Since we had a baby, the weather had to turn as it always has in the past. Overnight on our last night at the hospital it was very rainy and got cold cold cold. It probably snowed a little, and there was definitely freezing rain as the car was coated in ice when I went to pull it around to pick up Monica and Grayson.
We got a few more pictures before putting Grayson in the carseat and heading home. I really liked this one.
The girls were so excited when we got home and quickly crowded around the car seat to see their new brother!
They immediately wanted to hold their brother! Brooke did an amazing job and loved it!
It was a little harder for Winry to hold Grayson, but she still enjoyed it. She didn't hold him for too long before she was done.
However, Grayson did grab Winry's finger while she was holding him, and Winry pulled her hand away and was really excited/surprised. I guess I'm not 100% sure, you look at her face and tell me what you think.
Brooke held him again, and she just looks so cute doing it!
While Brooke was holding him Winry started to rub and pat Grayson's head.
The girls also flooded him with gifts. Winry got Grayson a wubbanub pacifier with a fox attached to it, and Brooke got him a big stuffed fox! We've had to talk to them about not just dropping their presents on Grayson, and they've been good listeners.
Also, as we were leaving the hospital the nurse that walked us out gave us a freezer meal. It was from a meal company that does pre-made meals that you freeze and put in the oven for dinner. It was really good, and really nice of them to do that!
Saturday morning, Grayson was really out in the morning. He was laying completely straight when I unswaddled him!
And Winry wanted turn two at holding Grayson again.
During the day, Winry started listening to books with the reader, and wanted me to help her, so she brought it over and put it on my lap. She looked really cute with the headphones on, and while we were reading books, she kneeled down and started rubbing her chin up and down my leg...
Meanwhile Grayson and Monica were having a snuggle romp!
I took the kids outside to play for a while before dinner. First we went out to the sidewalk to ride the scooter back and forth. The girls took turns, with Brooke riding one way, and Winry the other. When it was Brooke's turn Winry would walk behind and cheer for her.
After some scooting, we headed to the backyard to make another leaf pile. The girls helped rake, and they both did a really good job. I got a new phone this past week (I think I wrote last week about how my phone randomly rebooted and never came back), it's a Note 9, and it has a super slow motion video mode that I was trying to figure out while the girls jumped into the leaves. It will take up to a 0.4 second video, and I basically missed what I was trying to capture every time, however I did get two good videos. One was jumping in, the other throwing leaves in the air. I didn't end up with any pictures or normal videos because Winry came in the house for a minute and fell down the back steps on her way back out and hit her head. That ended our leaf pile play time. Winry was okay, and I don't think she hit her head too hard, but she was still very sad. I scooped her up and we came and snuggled together until she felt better.
Once Winry had calmed down, Brooke joined her on my lap and we played Pokemon Playhouse together. It was almost time for dinner, so I was mostly aimed at cheering up Winry before dinner. The Smiths brought us dinner Saturday night, and it was some super great barbeque! Thanks a million!
I don't remember why anymore (sleeping has been rough the last few days) but I was holding Grayson last night when I sang the girls their bedtime songs. After they were all ready for bed, Grayson helped me say good night to each of them. Here we are saying good night to paci-twin Winry.
And Brooke held him up in her bed to say good night. This picture is a little hard to see, but I'm pretty happy with it as my phone screen looked completely black when I took the picture as there were only night lights on in the girls room, and they are all under Brooke's top bunk.
Sunday morning I woke up to the girls helping Gram make some pumpkin pancakes for breakfast! I have definitely not worried about waking up to my alarm. To be fair, I am usually up before my alarm (Grayson, I'm looking at you) and cancel it, then fall back asleep until who knows when. I think I woke up around 7 this morning, and maybe got as much as 5 hours of sleep last night. Anyway, the girls have also been really good about being quiet when they come down in the morning! I'm very proud of them. And, the pancakes were amazing!
Today it's been snowing all day long! It's quite nice outside, and the girls really want to go play. I told them we could later this afternoon once there was more snow, so look forward to pictures next week! We'll probably also go again tomorrow, as I don't think it's supposed to warm up again until Tuesday. However, the Denver golden rule for snow is to play in it as soon as possible, because 60 degrees is always a day away.
Okay that one where Winry is surprised after Grayson grabbed her thumb... look at his smirk! 😏 He’s already a tease!
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