life with a newborn

I've been working on my birth story, and updating on Facebook, or I'd have been posting here.

Elijah was/is upside down on his days/nights. Of course Friday night we were up all night. I went to bed about 7am Saturday for about 2 hours. Saturday night Elijah finally went to sleep about 3am, and I had to get up at 6:30 with the other children. It was pretty much the same way each night until last night (Thursday), when he (and I) slept from about 11-3, and again from 4-6. What a relief!

People from church have been bringing us dinner each night, and that has been a great blessing. We are getting behind on the eating of it, actually.

Wednesday we went to Bury St Edmunds to the registry office to get Elijah's long form birth certificate. It was kind of odd how that worked, as I didn't have to show any ID; just gave info and paid the 3.50GBP. But he's now on record in the UK; Jo says he IS a citizen, though I haven't looked it up yet to make sure.
After supper we went to RAF Mildenhall to borrow the ballroom at the community center to set up our studio and get pics of the children.

Thursday Bob went to work to fill out leave paperwork (he gets 10 days, but they let him have Mon and Tues as well - Wed being a federal holiday). After that was finally done we went to the place to get Elijah registered with the US government. We sent off for his US birth certificate, passport, and VISA, and SSN. TO get this application in we had to provide my passport, Bob's birth certificate and divorce decree, our marriage license, Elijah's British birth certificate, photos of him, signatures, and $65. Then across the hall to DEERS - the military system that keeps track of all beneficiaries. Then upstairs to outbound assignments to add Elijah to Bob's orders. But they need his birth certificate, which we just sent off (for 12-16 weeks!) and some other stuff we didn't have. THEN over to the hospital to sign up with the military insurance. They also wanted his birth certificate, but Bob nearly came undone and they signed him up anyway.

This morning I called the hospital and got Elijah his "2 week" well baby appointment and circumcision scheduled for Monday. It will be his 9th day rather than 8th or 14th, but it's close enough, I guess. :-p This afternoon Bob took the bus to Royston to get it inspected. I decided not to go, because I'm still sore from the last two days driving around. He'd gone Monday to have it done in Lakenheath, but they don't do "class 5" vehicles - anything over a certain weight or passenger count. He then called the base auto center, and they don't do it, but thought a place in Brandon did. He called them, and THEY don't do it, but gave the number of a place in Downham Market. He called them and got an automated telephone system. So we thought of taking it to the place that did the previous inspection; called and made today's appointment. He's still not back.

Tomorrow we are supposed to do pictures for the base football teams, since we canceled last Saturday. But the weather is looking pretty bleak, so we'll have to see what happens.

And I think that catches us up.

oh, Jo came today for a little check up. Elijah is nearly back to his birth weight already. My blood count (taken on Monday) is better than expected. So that's all good and we only have one more checkup next week.