Home and Beginning to Settle In

Finally, we are all home and beginning to get settled in to this new life of ours - although I'm sure it will take a long while before it begins to feel normal. Emerson has had one night in which he slept pretty soundly. Otherwise, he tends to wake up for some reason or another about ever 30-60 minutes. Last night, he had violent, total-body moving hiccups for over two hours. That seriously wiped him out for a few hours but it wasn't very fun trying to deal with him for that stretch of time. We need to do a better job of "sleeping when he sleeps" - which would probably help to rid me of the perpetual headache I have!

Thankfully, though, all the expected changes are occurring and he's gaining weight. We even gave him his first sponge bath a couple of nights ago. He's becoming incredibly alert, looking around and lifting his head up. Occasionally even, we can get a smile out of him.

But now the other side of life sets in. After skipping work and classes for a week, I have to manage to get up tomorrow morning and go to school while Amber has to manage to hold down the fort on her own while I'm gone. We've been spoiled having my mom here the last few days doing all the household chores and making meals! Again, we have to be thankful that meals have been lined up for us by other church members for the next couple weeks and Amber's parents are probably going to come out next weekend as well.

So here we go. A new chapter of our lives. Its exciting and terrifying at the same time. Emerson is a huge joy and wonderful addition to our family and we so look forward to all the memories we get to make with him. But it's also exhausting and frustrating at the same time, as I'm sure many other first time parents could share. So, while I'm 0 for 6 in PhD applications at the moment, I have been accepted into "Fatherhood University". The language requirements are pretty easy, but the comprehensive knowledge required is endless!!