March 5 - MacGregors South and Back to Memorial Hermann

On Saturday Aunt Melissa, Uncle Chris, and Ben's cousin Chelsea came out to meet Ben. They were gracious enough to stay with Jackson when we had to head back to Memorial Hermann to get Ben's bilirubin level checked. The idea of taking a newborn to an ER terrifies us with all of the disease that might be floating around. His levels weren't good, but they weren't high enough to require admitting him...so we thought. Later our pediatrician told us he would have admitted him at that level, especially since he hadn't regained any weight. But for the time being Ben was able to go home with us. We learned that people in the ER are much nicer to you when you have a newborn. Everyone wants to see the baby. They don't forget that you exist and they get you out of there much faster!

2nd Day Home - March 4

Friday, March 4 was our 2nd day home. Grandma and Granddad MacGregor came over to visit and Jackson got a little more comfortable with his baby brother, Ben. He especially likes Ben's feet. Whenever a little foot pokes out of the blanket, Jackson will exclaim "foot" from across the room. Jackson is doing fairly well and luckily is still getting a lot of attention from all of our guests.

First Night Home

On our first night home, Grandma Stockman stayed with us to help with the adjustment. Our friend Nichole brought us yummy dinner so we wouldn't have to worry about food. All in all it went well despite Noelle's upper respiratory infection, we thought Ben was doing well. Later looking back at some pictures we can tell he was already starting to get pretty yellow...

We learned that due to the recent onslaught of spring birthday parties, Jackson LOVES cake. Not only did he sneak icing, but he shoved his whole piece in at once and threw a fit when he didn't get more.

Catch-up

We will attempt to play catch-up. We haven't had much time/energy to do much posting these days with 3 out of 4 family members with a health issue... oh yeah, and one of them being a newborn. So, let's go back in time. On Benjamin's (of course at that time he still didn't have a name) second day, he met a friend of Mommy and Daddy's. Bethany came to the hospital to meet little no name and she took some pictures for us. I think they might be the only pictures of the three of us! Thanks again Bethany!

We're Home!

Ben's bilirubin levels were good at the 48 hour mark and my blood count was "high enough" so we were cleared to go home today around noon. After we finished all of our paperwork, it was about 2pm when we finally got to leave. We forgot how awkward it is putting such a small baby into a car seat. It also reminded me of how Rob drive like 10 miles an hour on the way home after Jackson was born. This time we had a much easier time getting Ben into the car seat, and while Rob was still cautious going home, we did get above 10 mph. It's amazing how much easier everything is the second time around. If I wasn't sick and coughing (bad combo with stitches!) I would say my child birth experience was easy this time. We're very thankful that everything went well and that we have such a sweet little boy. Here's Ben taking one last nap before we left the hospital.

Drumroll, please...

Benjamin Parker MacGregor was born on March 1, 2011 at 2:50 a.m. He measured a mere 7 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches. This picture is from his first day of life, but soon we'll post some newer ones. Under that hat he has dark brown hair! Mommy has been cleared to go home and now we're just waiting for Ben to be cleared.

Big Brother

Jackson definitely has had mixed feelings about having a new baby. He played the ignore game for a while. He fussed a bit. He wanted to poke the baby's eyes out. And then he gave some kisses.

Here he is a little unsure about the baby.

And he hides and watches the baby.

Finally a close encounter.

He was most happy to see his Uncle Stephen.

Here he is running around the room ignoring his brother.

Here he is completely tired, but it's a good picture of his Big Bro shirt from the Kemps!

Same silly monkey.