Our teeniest member turns four weeks old today. We're pleased to report that he is as easy going personality wise as his older brother was. In fact, he is even easier than Sully because he does not require the lugging of heavy oxygen tanks and annoying monitors!
As many of you remember, Sully was a NICU baby and was hospitalized until he was 3 weeks old. Although we were there in Salt Lake City with Sully everyday, we were not his primary caregivers in those early days, so we're feeling enormously blessed to have gotten that time with Eli.
Of course, the advantage of a NICU baby, is the highly skilled nurses who get their babies on amazing schedules and who make themselves available to teach the parents every possible skill needed to care for a newborn. When we left Salt Lake City we were well trained parenting ninjas with a perfectly trained baby. All that we had to do was maintain the norm. This time around, it was a little more chaotic, especially the first week or so as we were mastering nursing and attempting to sleep enough. But we got through it just fine. Things have most certainly settled down now and a manageable routine, while still being tweaked, has emerged.
Eli is already noticeably larger than he was 4 weeks ago and of course, he's become much more alert. He spends the majority of his awake time gazing at the lights, the trees outside the window swaying in the breeze and practicing his Tai Chi. Yesterday, during a nap, I heard what I am sure was the beginning of laughter followed by some definite smiling (see video for the adorable evidence). We're very much looking for the next phase of babyhood: the emergence of personality and expression.
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