Lets see. The first month in Justice Ignatius Barber's life...
He was born at Columbus Regional Hospital on January 22, 2009 at 7:30am. He weighed 7lbs and 11oz, and was 21" long. His parents are Dana Kay Kraft (That's me) and Christopher Ezekiel Barber. Justice was born via c-section, so we spent his first 4 days in the hospital. His grandparents (Christopher's parents) were there waiting for his arrival, and were his first visitors. Our friends Dan and Lacey were in the hospital across the street with their new born baby girl Lily who was born just 15 hours before. Justice's next visitor was his big brother Noah who is 4 years old. Noah didn't quite know what to think of his new baby brother. Unfortunately he had a cold, so he couldn't really get close, or touch the baby. Next came Uncle Eduardo. He stopped by to marvel at our new addition. Grandma and Grandpa Barber were there every day. I was surprised and pleased at how comfortable Grandpa was with Justice. He held him right away and beamed with pride. The stay in the hospital was a challenge.
The trip home was kind of comical. The nurse wheeled me out to the car in a wheel chair. I realized too late, that I was under the care of a doctor who does not believe in pain medicine, so I was barely able to move and stressed to the max. I could barely stand up, and every movement hurt, so squeezing myself into the low to the ground 2 door Acura was a real challenge. That was the least of our worries. The car seat was all out of whack. Chris had to lean into the backseat and adjust all of the straps and I just stood helplessly by and wondered how in the world we were going to get the baby in and out of the car. The first thing to go on our "list of urgent needs" was a bigger car! Thank goodness it is tax time. I don't remember what we did when we got home, but I will never forget our first night! Justice would not even give his bassinet a chance. Even with the super soft velour sheets. We spent 3/4 of the night in agony, exhausted, and running out of ideas. He just wanted to be held and be close to us. Finally I said "There is one thing we can try", and that was it. From then on Justice's bed was our bed. He goes to sleep nursing and wakes up in the morning when I do, snuggled up against me.
At first he struggled to nurse. He was born tongue tied, and jaundiced and those two things affected his ability to latch on and be satisfied. We had to take him to the doctor every morning first thing to have his foot pricked and his Jaundice checked. We actually made an appointment to have his tongue membrane clipped to help him latch on and nurse better because I was determined not to switch him to formula. We even had to have a "billi blanket" delivered to the house that he had to wear for 24 hours. It was attached to a machine that shined a special light directly onto his skin to break up the biliruben in his body and help him expel it. The first week was emotional, and challenging in every way, but we kept praying and we got through it. Justice's grandparents even came over to our house to pray with us.
When Justice was born, so was a whole new family. Things will never be the same, and things have never been better.
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