Phillips Family: Baby Christian

My journal entry from Sunday, April 13, 2014:

I am a mother of 4! 4 seems like a lot, doesn't it? 4 children! Christian is an angel. I love having a newborn! I think each time I appreciate having a newborn more than the time before. I love holding him. I love staring at his tiny features. I love making him stop crying. I love my new little baby!

He was born last Friday. So, he is 9 days old. Today we are staying home from church. He fell asleep in the bathroom sitting in the bouncy chair while I was taking a shower. As long as the fan is on, he won't wake up.

We have had a couple of rough nights. The second night in the hospital was awful. I didn't get hardly any sleep. And, Tuesday night at our house was even worse. I didn't get any sleep. He was up fussing and wouldn't latch on to feed. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and I just broke down in tears. I was just so tired. She noticed that his frenulum was close to the tip of his tongue, so she clipped it. Ever since then, we have been doing a lot better. (That and the fact that my milk came in.) I think both of those reasons were the cause of Christian's troubles.

Christian was born with a hematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues). My doctor had me "labor down" for awhile after I felt the urge to push. She asked if I could wait and he would descend down the birth canal by himself naturally. It would make delivering him easier, and it did. I think this may have caused the hematoma to happen.