I might have OCD.....

I will be the first to admit that I have been a little neurotic when it comes to the new baby in our house.

When the children come home from school they must de-robe at the front door. There is a new set of clothes waiting for them when they walk in. They must go directly into the bathroom and scrub down their hands up to their elbows, in the sink while repeating the ABC's at least two times. (Think of all the germs they gather in one school day, YUCK!!!!!!) Then they are allowed to come into the rest of the house and maybe, just maybe, if they are lucky I will let them sneak at peak at their new brother snoozing away in his swing or in his bed, both in his bedroom with the door shut to the outside world. If I could I would have Kale cut a hole out of his bedroom door and install 5" thick glass, for interested outside onlookers. That way no germs could possible pass through, right? They could just peak in the window at him like they did while he was in NICU.

This is how he spends most of his day. In his swing or in his bed propped up on his boppy.

Kale and I decided that only we would hold him when we first brought him home from the hospital. That way there would be no discrimination. This has been really difficult to explain to all those loving friends and neighbors who want to come and love on him. Oops- Nope- Did you wash your hands while repeating the ABC's twice, did you shower before you came over, are those clothes clean, do you have a cough, a runny nose, have you been sneezing, have you been around anyone that has been sick in the last 24-72 hours? If you answer all of the above questions correctly I guess you can come in and LOOK at him!!! I know I am completely NUTS, but I can't seem to relax about it. I should feel better since I am paying something like $2,000.00 a month for antibody shots to protect him from RSV, but what if we are the 1% that contract some mild form of RSV, not to mention all the other viruses and germs out there?

Can you say OCD, my family is making so much fun of me. My Dad goes to pick him up and I say "Dad have you washed your hands" and my sisters chime in, "and you have to sing the ABC's". So he groans "Oh brother" and goes to the sink to wash his hands for all of 10 seconds and I say "Dad you seriously have to wash them for longer than that". So he tries again. After being passed off on his hand washing he promptly goes and gets a paper towel and BLOWS HIS NOSE!!!!!! Seriously Dad you have to start again. Everybody is dying at this point, but I stick to my guns. Maybe we should stay with the original plan of only Kale and I a holding him until he is 3 since he seems to be the only one who has my back here.

You should see my children's hands, they are all raw and bleeding from the 20 to 30 scrubbings they get each day. But, they know there is no getting into the house without a proper hand washing and by now they have pretty much given up on getting anywhere near the baby. They have however been able to kiss the top of his head or bottom of his feet.

I think it is so bad because when Addi was 1 month old, I couldn't resist Taeber always wanting to kiss and love his little sister. I didn't want him to not be able to bond with her, and he usually gets what he wants by looking at me with his big blue eyes. So, despite his cold like symptoms, I let him love on her and she came down with RSV and spent 10 days in the hospital. That is not going to happen this time. If we have to spend anymore time in the hospital you may as well admit me to the psychiatric ward. So, if they resent Daxon or me they are just going to have to get over it.

However, against everything I believe in, this past week after Kai had a particularly bad day at school, (he had to go to the school nurse to get some cream for his dry, cracking, bleeding knuckles, going to the school nurse is one of his favorite past times), I caved and let them all take turns holding the baby. They were so excited, it was like I had just told them we were going to Disneyland. But, they were not going to enjoy this once in a lifetime priveledge before they had showered and changed their clothes. (I am not kidding about that.) They all jumped in happily.

I had to take pictures just to prove to Kale that it really happened so here they are...................

After they were done I worried for about 24 hours that he may have contracted some horrific disease......

So far, So good!