New Member of the Family

I can tell I'll have to break anonymity eventually, as there are becoming too many J's in our life. We recently added our first child, JF, to our family.  Like the peasant woman in J's family, she had a swift 6 hour labor, the last hour of that mostly asleep with an epidural.  He's a cute little dickens, and at this early point in his life is quite easy to please.

Like his father before him, he's got elevated bilirubin levels to eat and poo away unless we need to put him under UV lights again to break it down faster, but outside of that he's got a clean bill of health. The sharp transition to 2 hour sleep pulses for breastfeeding him is an adjustment, but manageable thus far. I can proudly say my wife thinks I burp him and change his diaper better than she can, so gents, I'm living proof that men are also great natural caregivers. :)

People have been so generous with baby gifts. Both with time and materials, we have been well prepped for caring for this little guy. I'm sure I'll gush with pictures from here on out, but I'm fine with that.

 Here he is! He loves having his hands by his head. He in perma-ponder mode.

 Hard to see, but during his UV tanning salon moment he enjoyed sleeping with his feet straight in the air.

From the military angle, J now has 6 weeks of maternity leave with however much personal leave she chooses to trow in after that. Then, she goes straight back to work full time with gearing up for her PT test that happens 6 months after that. We'll try to continue breastfeeding as long as we can, but it will be a challenge. The book, Breastfeeding in Combat Boots, is going to be a resource for that game plan. She is allowed to breastfeed while at work, but I'll still have to transport the little guy there and back in between.  Just our little family challenge.

So many other details, but I won't bore you with them. Feel free to ask for more if you like :) Time for sleep.