It's a boy!

Well, we KNEW we were having a boy, but it's still fun to say so. My goodness, what a beautiful little child. I'm SO in love with him, I can't even tell you! Okay, here's the scoop: Donovan James was born on Dec. 27 at 8:29 a.m. He weighed 9lb. 7oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. I had him via C-Section, so I got to stay in the hospital for five days (they say it's four days, but they start counting that recovery time on the day AFTER the birth of the baby). I LOVE that hospital food (not to mention the tea cart, with the awesome cakes and other desserts), and it was great having people take care of me as well as my baby. I think the nursing staff at St. Elizabeth's Hospital is fantastic--they were all so wonderful. (Okay, not ALL of them... there was one nursing assistant from the nursery who didn't quite "click" with me, but then, I was very emotional at the time, too, so I'm sure I didn't make her life easy, either. I mentioned it to my nurse right away, though, and she had another -- far better -- nurse assigned to me for the rest of that shift.) Beyond the one incident, I felt totally spoiled and was completely and totally comfortable with the care I was receiving and the care Donovan was receiving.
The girls are, as you can imagine, GREAT helpers now that Donovan and I are home. We are on about a three hour cycle--he's nursing about every three hours. When I need help with changing diapers or bathing or even just trying to reach my water bottle when I'm in the middle of nursing, the girls practically fall all over themselves to help me (except when Nickelodeon is on!)... and as for holding Donovan. Well, they are not only excellent at that, but they are getting very good at being patient about taking turns.
I think this has been a particuarly trying time for Josie, going all-of-a-sudden from being the baby in the family. She's handling it pretty well, for the most part. And, of course, Lindsay continually demonstrates on a daily basis her heart of gold, not only doing what she can to care for me and Donovan, but also taking Josie even more under her wing than before. Jim and I are so blessed to have such wonderful children! As for Jim, I can't begin to list the ways he has taken care of me and spoiled me. He's not only a rock for me, emotionally, but he does anything and everything he can around the house to keep life flowing smoothly, PLUS he gets up in the middle of the night with me to help get Donovan changed so I can just sit down and feed him (or, as he did last night, he'll get up just to calm Donovan down and rock with him for a while after eating, so I can catch a few more winks).
I will continue posting pictures as I get them taken and downloaded. Donovan has already changed so much from those pictures of his first days. He's 12 days old now and has already filled out so much and has way better coloring. I can see it's going to be a challenge for me... as a congratulatory card we received says, our camera will have a hard time "keeping up with all the cute". Too true!
Thanks for checking in and thanks to all of you who have called, written, come to visit, or brought (or are bringing) food. We appreciate all the well-wishes, and it warms our hearts to know so many people care for us!