Sunday, October 12, 2008

She's Home!

At 1:30 today, as I was taking a nap, the hospital called, and I got the good news that we could fetch Elizabeth. I bolted straight out of bed and dragged B off the back porch.

When we got to the hospital, I nursed Elizabeth to the sounds of all the beeping machines one last time as B and I watched the mandatory CPR and Shaken Baby Syndrome videos. The nurse cut the rest of the check out short since she figured we already knew how to change diapers and swaddle babies. As one nurse said, "There's a benefit to being a four-time mom."

When we got home, knittergran and the girls were waiting on the front porch. The girls could barely contain their excitement. Campbell just wanted B to go in the back yard with him. We made the girls scrub their hands and then let them hold Elizabeth.

Lily needs to work on keeping Elizabeth's head higher than her feet. She also needs to work on sitting still while holding her. Every time Elizabeth got comfortable, Lily would wiggle and move her.

Ella needs to practice keeping Elizabeth on the pillow. Elizabeth kept sliding down between Ella and the pillow, and I'd have to fish her out again.

Campbell eventually came in and studied Elizabeth for a while. He finally held her hand and jabbered at us about her. Then he brought toys in for Elizabeth, including his new favorite train. I had to stop him from driving the train across Elizabeth's belly. Later he got very concerned when I took Elizabeth's hat off while I was nursing her. Campbell handed the hat to me and pointed at her head - I think he figured that since she came home with the hat, she always has to have the hat on.

And now we start the fun of waking up every three hours to feed the baby. I'm so grateful to have her here that I don't even mind the impending sleep deprivation.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hooray hooray hooray!!! Welcome home Elizabeth!

The girls look delighted to have another sister. She looks sooo tiny in that seat!

Anonymous said...

Oh that is so exiting!! I'm so glad everyone is home!

Seamus O'Pine said...

Yea!!!!!!

Barb Matijevich said...

Oh. Oh. Oh, I'm crying.

Oh, wow. She's soo, so beautiful and she looks so, so good at home...

Anonymous said...

She looks positively perfect and I'm so glad she's where she should be now...

Cathy said...

That's so great! What a relief. Those pics of your older daughters holding their new baby sister are so great.

Unknown said...

YAY YAY YAY!!!!!

(And now, if she feels like sleeping instead of eating she can do it, ha!)

Shelly said...

Great news!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! So glad she's home.

Anonymous said...

How sweet. Max wanted to hold Odessa once so we placed her on his lap. She started crying and he threw up his hands and yelled: "take her back! Take her back!"

The Kretzings said...

Yea! Everyone is all together in your wonderful warm home. I bet there is no better feeling than that.