September 3, 2012: Part 2 {the first few days}

When visiting hours ended at 9:00 the night of the 3rd, it was back to just the three of us. Our new little family (and yes, Cash was missed!). We chose to have Claire room-in with us meaning she stayed in the room with us the entire hospital stay. She did have to go to the nursery for a few things such as a bath and tests, but either J or both of us were always with her. This also meant we kept her in the room at night which means we got hardly any sleep. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't trade sleep for spending every minute I could with her brand new. And I had never been away from her in her entire existence...I wasn't ready for anyone to take her away from me for any distance! By the way, it's so strange going from being pregnant for nine months to not being pregnant in a matter of a split second. Anyway, I have never been as tired as I was in the hospital. Between nursing Claire, staff coming in for stats and meds for both Claire and I, doctors and residents starting rounds before the sun came up, and not wanting to put her down or being able to stop staring at her, I got hardly any sleep. I probably averaged 2-3 hours of interrupted sleep a night! Luckily, this has been the only time I have felt sleep deprived since Claire was born. Not too bad if you ask me! J says he was exhausted, but he could have fooled me. He was sleeping so hard the first night (before I was up and walking around), after saying his name as loud as I could without yelling and waking up Claire and our neighbors, I had to throw a pack of crackers at him to wake him! (luckily I had good aim and the crackers hit him right in the head! ha!!) Claire would fall asleep in my arms and I just wanted to stay awake to listen to every little sweet sound she made and memorize her sweet face and all her tiny features. Plus she didn't like being in her bassinet, so twist my arm, I'll just hold her! ;) I must have been on a prolonged adrenaline rush because even when I tried to nap during the day, I had a hard time falling asleep! We had family and several friends during our stay (I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures of all our visitors...). I am really happy with how we handled visitors. I never felt too overwhelmed that we had too many people or that anyone stayed way too long. It was just perfect. Midway through our stay we only had two visitors who came in the evening, so we had the entire day just to us. I think that was a perfect break. Our stay in the hospital flew by. I normally hate being at the hospital, but with Claire, I didn't care where we were as long as I was with her. Even after we were given the ok to go, we stayed to eat lunch and I took a shower! Again, I am going to just tell the rest through photos :)


Monday, September 3

Daddy duty: first diaper change!



first night spent in my arms and not in my belly <3>

How do babies have THE softest skin?! And smell so good? Gah, I could just eat her up!

daddy & daughter <3>

Tuesday, September 4 

first bath



well hey, mom

crazy Sadee and Lulu

Wednesday, September 5th

sweet little bean

Thursday, September 6th

with Dr. Ransom who delivered Claire

heading home as a family of three!

leaving the hospital!

When we got home, we introduced Claire to Cash. I went in the house first to greet him like normal, then J brought Claire in. I went to the kitchen with Cash and we proceeded with caution! There were lots of treats involved ;) Cash was very curious about Claire and it made me really nervous. The first few days at home were a little stressful and I think Cash could sense my stress. But after the first full week home, we all adjusted and Cash has accepted his sister :) Most of the time he doesn't care too much about her, but when he does, he just wants to lick her. If he's in the other room, he always comes to whatever room we are in when he hears her cry. Usually he is curled up on the guest bed or perched on his usual spot on the couch looking out the window. We are all able to coexist really well now! Although, I feel pretty guilty at times that I'm not able to give him the attention I once was, but I'm able to give him more attention now than I was when we first got home. Everything gets easier little by little :)
After the initial introductions, we took Claire to her room and I nursed her while J hung out with Cash. Once she was done, J took over baby duty and let me take a nap (and cuddle with Cash :). We were actually able to sit down and have dinner that evening while Claire hung out in the stroller. The rest of the night was filled with feedings, diaper changes, and about two or so hour stretches of sleep. We got so lucky that Claire had her days and nights figured out from day one. I think that has been the key to us not being the typical sleep deprived new parents. SO grateful for that!!

rocking Claire in her room

first night at home

Having Claire home has been so wonderful. It just feels so right. I also think that keeping her in the room with us at all times helped prepare us for bringing her home. I didn't feel stressed or worried at all about taking her home and caring for her on our own. Since she never left the room without us, we had gotten a little used to the crying throughout the day/night, comforting the cries, changing her diaper around the clock, and since I'm breastfeeding, feeding her every couple of hours. So while we didn't get much sleep in the hospital and were exhausted, by the time we left the hospital we had a pretty good trial run and taste of what to expect when we got home!