The Robison Round-Up: October 2013

This post is a little delayed, but as everyone knows, Harrison Scott Robison has arrived! He's been here for a little over six weeks now and I truly can't imagine life without him. We are so lucky to be his parents. I had no idea the heart was capable of growing this huge and feeling this fierce of a love, TWICE. We love our two boys so much it consumes me at times and is almost hard to handle. I get a dizzy, butterfly-in-the-stomach feeling several times throughout the day when I think of how blessed we are.

Mason has taken on his new role as big brother like a champ. When he came to meet Harrison in the hospital we made sure Harrison wasn't in the room when Mason walked in so that Mason didn't feel like he was walking into a new family. That step ended up not being necessary as the first thing out of his mouth was "where's baby Parrison?" After he opened his big brother gift full of things to occupy him in the hospital, we brought Harrison in and witnessed an immediate bond. Mason got this look of love in his eye that I've never seen from him before and he was constantly hugging and kissing Harrison. That love continues now, which is usually really sweet, except for when Harrison is sleeping and Mason wants to see his eyes open. We've had several talks about how Harrison needs his sleep and we need to be a little more considerate. :)

Harrison's delivery went off without a hitch and my recovery has gone really well. We got to the hospital at 2:00 and had a baby in our arms at 4:40! As much as I struggled with the idea of having a scheduled c-section, I am glad that everything went so well and everyone is healthy. I was up and walking on day two and reduced my pain meds then too because I don't respond well to those and kept getting sick. The second we took that IV out I started feeling better!

Ok, now for the good stuff! Our sweet Harrison was born on Tuesday, September 17 at 4:40 pm weighing 6 lbs, 11 oz, and was 19" long. He is a bundle of dark-haired perfection and has the most captivating, soulful eyes. His disposition in the hospital (and still now), was very calm. He doesn't really cry unless it's for one of the obvious reasons. He loves to be cuddled and loves snoozing in people's arms. He's so opposite from Mason's red-headed hospital personality that I had to ask the nurses if it was ok for him to be so sleepy and quiet! They assured me that Harrison was fine and said it sounded like Mason was maybe the anomaly. :)

On day two of Harrison's life we noticed a pretty nasty blister on one of his feet. We figured it was from rubbing or sucking in the womb and didn't think much of it. Then the next day we noticed the blisters had spread pretty rapidly over both feet so we clued the nurse in. It puzzled the nurses, pediatrician, and neonatal doctor. A pediatric dermatologist was consulted and an educated guess was made that he has Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare connective tissue disease causing blisters in the skin. Most people have a protein between their epidermis and dermis, but that protein is missing in people with EB, and there's nothing they can take to replace it. Just a slight rub of the skin will cause a blister and adults who have it describe it as feeling like a third degree burn. Obviously we were very nervous, confused, worried, and saddened by this news (if you google it you'll see why we were scared!). The next week we took him to actually visit the pediatric dermatologist and she downgraded his diagnosis to Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex, or EBS, because it appears to be localized to his hands and feet (thank goodness!). We came home with marching orders on how to treat him (a daily ritual he does NOT like at all), and are so thrilled to say that we have not seen any severe blisters in about three weeks now. What a relief. We learned that this is a genetic disorder and Sean's sister's two daughters also had it as babies (it occurs in 1 out of 30,000-50,000 births so this was no coincidence!). In both Anna and Ella's cases it went away by 10 weeks of age and they learned they had been misdiagnosed - turns out they have epidermal fragility, or fragile skin. Our fingers are crossed the same news will come for Harrison! We're hopeful that it will given how mild it's been the past few weeks.

Here are some pictures from our hospital stay. I'll update the blog about life since then but it would be too long of a post to include all that now! Just know that he's thriving and growing perfectly!

We love our little boy so much are are so happy to have him in this world with us.