Part 3: Life at Home

When I last left off, we were leaving the hospital. Here we are now - home sweet home! When people say that it's hard, they aren't just kidding with you. I meant to post this blog about 2 hours ago, but life happens and I'm just now getting around to it. (And now it's been 30 more minutes since I typed the past sentence and I'm sitting down again for attempt 3 at this).

Cosby Meeting Eva for the 1st Time

If you've met Cosby, you know that he is the most chill dog ever. He walked up to her when Ryan took her out of her carrier, sniffed her, and then walked away. He seems interested in her, but not at all jealous or weirded out. He is actually staying with my parents for a few weeks since I can't go up and down the stairs at our apartment any more than necessary and we are exhausted enough without worrying about him too. But he will come back.

A newborn baby is one of the most precious things God ever created. We love to snuggle with her and talk to her. It is a pure joy to have her fall asleep against my chest. When she is awake I just want to play with her and cherish the moments we get to see her tiny little eyes gazing around the room....

This is one of the other precious things God created. SLEEP. Aww, she looks so cute taking a nap in her bouncer. But did you know that sometimes babies choose not to embrace this wonderful activity? Sometimes, they choose to stay up and scream. All. night. long. I knew this would happen, but when you are living it, it is incredibly hard. Thankfully we have only had one terrible sleepless night so far. She is mostly a decent sleeper at this point and is even in what resembles a pattern of eat-snuggle-awake-sleep. I know this can change at any moment, so I'm not taking it for granted or expecting it to last. Just praying that it does! We have also had some grandma sleepover nights where our loving moms take care of her at night between feedings.

She has only slept in her crib a few times while the grandma's were sleeping in the guest bed right next to her. I can't believe how tiny she looks in her crib! It's like a baby doll that someone wrapped up to convince us that we have a child.

We bought these pajamas right after we found out I was pregnant. We wrapped them up for our parents to open as our way to tell them we were having a baby. They are a newborn size but so big that she can wiggle her legs out of the individual leg parts.

Besides the whole "this is your baby that you now have ultimate responsibility" thing, the hardest part of being at home is recovering from my c-section. It is still difficult to get up and down and when I walk very much my feet ad legs swell adding to all of the other pain. I know that recovery takes a while and I'm doing everything I can to rest and let my body heal. Ryan is a good helper and encourages me to stay on the couch or in bed as much as possible. And friends and family having been AMAZING at bringing us food. THANK YOU to everyone so far who has brought a meal and everyone is planning to do so over the next few weeks. This is one of the best gifts we could receive right now. I'm pretty sure that if it was just me and Ryan trying to make sure we had food at every meal we would be eating mostly cereal and hot pockets. I will make every effort to bring every new mama I know food in the future. Along with disposable dishes so that cleanup is easy. We are well stocked now and look forward to giving our dishwasher a break. If only our washer and dryer could be as lucky :)

It's hard to be a diva!

Another fun part of having Eva is dressing her up. Most of her clothes are huge on her, but we play around anyway. I love to put bows on her even if it's just for my entertainment. Her feet are almost too tiny for socks to stay on. I think that dressing her in cute clothes balances out changing diapers.

At her first doctor's appointment.

Yesterday we took her on her first trip out of the apartment. She is still healthy and has regained a little bit of weight. She is now 6 lbs, 3 oz and jaundice free. Hooray!

We will keep living out our new life as a family day by day. Every time I have a wonderful moment I remind myself to remember that during the next hard moment. Tomorrow she will be 1 week old!!! And now it is time to snuggle.