The most wonderful time of the year

We have been having so much fun learning how to work as a family of 5! Mathis is an absolute dream baby! It is true what they say...it is SO much easier to go from 2 to 3 than from 1 to 2! The boys are incredibly sweet with him and love to inform me of every little thing he is doing...especially Tanner. "He crying...get him Mommy!" "He have hiccups...that funny!" Pretty much everything he does is funny to Tanner! Landon loves to hold him and burp him...all of a sudden he is so big! Of course, we have had the occasional outburst and selective listening...but I'm not sure how much of it is new baby related, or holiday related or just plain "two" or "four" year old testing. None the less...Greg and I are pleasantly surprised at how Mathis just eased on into the family...who knew one little person could add so much! :)

Mathis is growing...though he still seems so tiny compared to Landon and Tanner at this same age! Although he was born at 7.14, he was down as low as 7.3 in the hospital and they were threatening using formula...but I begged to give me until discharge and by the time we left he was working his way back up to 7.6! On Thursday the 18th we took him in for his first well check at the doctor and he was already up to 7.9. The doctor also felt that he was still looking jaundiced and sent us to the lab for a check. We discovered that his bili count was at 14 which is not crazy high, but pretty high, especially for a 6 day old. He didn't' feel like we needed the bili lights but suggested we try to get him in the sunlight to try and break down the bili...and we would have, had it not rained for the next 4 days! When his eyes still looked yellow, I took him for another weight and bili check. Great news was he was 7.15 (a good goal is to regain birth weight within the first 2 weeks of life, which he did!), not so great news was his bili was still 10.5...very abnormal for a 14 day old. When the doctor called she suggested that I stop nursing for 24-48 hours and just use formula and that would break down the remaining bilirubin (sp?) in his gut and take care of the jaundice. Ugh! Why would anyone want to use bottles and formula? It is an incredible amount of work and I am soooo thankful that I have been able to nurse Mathis and the other two boys! So, after 48 hours of pumping, making bottles, washing bottles, sterilizing bottles and feeding...and LOTS of burping...we finally got back to normal. He already looks so much better and his beautiful blue eyes are so clear and bright!! We are so thankful!

We are really looking forward to tomorrow. Chadd and Topaz (my brother and his wife) and their two girls, Gabby and Farrah drove down from Michigan to spend the holidays in Atlanta with our family and Opelika with Topaz's parents. Lord willing, we will all (Mom, D, sister Lisa and her husband Scott and their 4 and Chadd and Topaz and their 2 and us) be together at my parents on New Year's Eve and will celebrate our Christmas morning on New Years Day. The kids are pretty much insane at the thought of spending 2 whole days with each other at Grandmommy's and Grandy's! Oh yeah, might also have something to do with opening more presents! :)

We got our biggest Christmas gift on the 12th and are so thankful for our healthy, adorable son! We are so proud of and thankful for our two big boys and are having a great time getting into our new normal! I am so appreciative to still have help from Millie and Cori, as I am still having some pain...though less now from the surgery...I think mostly from the 17 weeks of being in the bed! But each day is getting better, and I am looking forward to the day that I don't look at the trip to Target as a workout!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Love, The Powells