Photo Montage

We said goodbye to Gigi tonight, and while I know she will be glad to get back to her house (and her own bed!), we will surely miss her. She helped us out a lot these past few weeks and she snapped some awesome photos of our kiddos. I will try to keep up as the weeks go on and Caroline changes by the day, but I can't promise any this good!!

Silly hat!

Vogue.

First family photo of four!

Jack playing with the sprinklers in the "back-a-yard."

Seriously?? What is this face?!

Giving baby sister kisses. He calls her "baby bumblebee." It's adorable!

Yes, that's her thumb, and yes, she's very good at sucking it! Oh no.

Jack's super dorky outfit. Does he look like Justin or what?!

12 days old!

Why hello there, so nice to see you here.

Jack = super adorable. Caroline = absolutely terrified.

We love our little girl!

Pretty little one.

I think she looks like Mommy here...talking talking talking!

Pretty pink skin. I can't get enough!

Handsome little man.

Please excuse me, I need another nap!!

Caroline... all the guys would say she's mighty fine...

Here are a few videos of Caroline just doing her thing. I am pretty sure she was trying to get to the Taggies on the mat, but maybe I am just being overly ambitious in my assumption :)
She's so adorable!!!

Life with two.

We've been home for almost a week now (time is flying!!) and life with Caroline is great. She is the best baby - so relaxed, calm, and happy most all of the time. She rarely if ever cries (only during cold diaper changes or if she's really, really hungry.) She's sleeping pretty good - I haven't yet established her true "schedule" but for the past few nights she's been going to sleep for good around 11:30pm or midnight, waking up at 3 to eat, and then again at 6:30 or so to eat. It's pretty manageable for me - we get to have morning cuddle time in bed with Jack while we watch TV which is normal for him so that's good!

Jack has been his usual bubbly, loving self. He loves Caroline and always asks where she is or what she's doing. He gets a little rough at times with his petting or wanting to hold her, but he tries his best to be gentle. He has been exceptionally ornery with us - ignoring our requests, saying "no" a lot, and generally being, as Justin puts it, "a pill." I find it hard to have patience with him when I am trying to nurse the baby and all he wants to do is pull on her legs, crawl on the pillow, or his personal favorite, beat me in the back to "help get the milk out!" (??) I know it's an adjustment so I am hoping that every day will get a little easier!

Personally, I seem to be healing well. My incision looks great - I just wish I could take a bath! I would love to soak in a hot tub for awhile, but that's not in the cards until I heal more. I am still on high blood pressure medicine and antibiotics for my UTI, and regular doses of ibuprofen, but I stopped the heavy-duty pain pills on Sunday. Every day I feel much better and much more like my old self. It's so nice to not be lugging around a baby in my belly! I told Justin that I feel like a miniature version of myself. I still have a lot of fluid weight and my belly is definitely round, but I am beginning to be able to wear normal shirts. Yay!!

We have been thankful for all of the help Gigi has provided. She's done wash, cooked lots of meals, done every single dish for 2 weeks now, helped Jack to nap and bed, done bathtime...etc etc etc! She's been a trooper because I know it's not easy to deal with a two year old and a newborn and a moody tired Mommy :)

Justin is back to work and seems to be adjusting well to new fatherhood (times 2!) Overall it's been a week of big adjustments and I know next week will be too, when I have to do everything on my own again. We couldn't ask for a better baby though and we are excited to watch her grow and change every day!

9 days old!

ABCDEFG

Here is a quick video of Jack waiting on the front steps for baby Caroline and Mommy to come home from the hospital. Thought you'd enjoy!!

http://youtu.be/y2wJ-BcPBsc

We are blessed.

Today, we got to come home from the hospital!! While I really enjoyed the royal treatment of nurses getting and doing everything for me, I am excited to be home (even though we are in the middle of a historic heat wave and its about 85 degrees in our house today....sigh.) Justin and I packed everything up (okay, Justin did) and loaded it all into the car. My doctor came and discharged me, with prescriptions for my pain medicine, heavy-duty ibuprofen, and a new script for blood pressure medicine. My blood pressure (surprise surprise) has been high on and off, making my doctor a little nervous. I was on it Friday and Saturday and it helped a little (although it makes me feel kind of high.) I also had some problems (TMI I am sure) with engorged milk ducts and an overactive letdown, but those seem to slowly be resolving themselves as Caroline gets bigger. 

One of the other doctor's in Jack and Caroline's pediatrician practice came by to discharge the baby. She was - shocker! - sleeping. We had a long discussion about how she may be still recovering from delivery, she may just be a sleepy newborn, or if we are very lucky, she may be a truly mellow and calm baby. (Fingers crossed!) Either way, we are going to take it what we can get! If it means I can sleep and still have a semi-normal life during the day, I am all for it! 

The down side of this is that sometimes (every time), someone has to wake her up to make her eat. This involves stripping her naked, changing her diaper, wiping her with warm wet wipes, talking softly in her ear, and rolling her from side to side. There are days, like today, when this just doesn't work. I mean, she slept through her heel prick test for jaundice yesterday! Yes, really. 

Here are a few shots from our day. Gigi got some more good ones once we got home so I will post those later.

Sleeping Beauty!

The middle of the wake-her-up routine...yup, still asleep!!

Awake for Daddy (for once!) 

Is she serious with this pose!?!?? So adorable!

Waiting to have our hospital bands cut off to leave!! YAY!!!

 We drove home and I had forgotten (but remembered quickly) how every single bump in the road made my insides feel like they were falling out. Ouch! Thankfully it's a short drive. When we pulled up, Jack was outside waiting with a big flower in his hand for Mommy. Of course, I started bawling. My pregnancy hormones!!!!! Sometimes Jack just makes me melt.

Helping "my baby sister" put her binky back in her mouth.

SO. HAPPY!!!

In the hospital.

Tonight wraps up our third day in the hospital. I have heard from various doctors that I may be discharged tomorrow, or Saturday, depending on a lot of different factors. I am begging for every extra minute here, because I get to rest, have people bring me medicine at regular intervals, and heal. I know that once I get home, Justin and Gigi will be super helpful but Jack will want his Mommy's attention and it will be very hard for me to slow down enough to recover! 

Justin has spent most every minute with Caroline and me here in our room, but tonight I sent him home with little man to get some rest in a real bed. Poor guy had been sleeping on a pull-out recliner! (Not even a pull-out bed!) I felt bad and I hope he gets some rest too. He told me that he's been waking up every 45 minutes or so at night just to check that she's still breathing, because she's so quiet. He's such a great Dad!

Anyway, lots of things have happened in the past 48 hours. Jack enjoyed quite a few visits with his little sister, and his love and adoration for her grows every day. 

His favorite assessment? She's "so tiny!"

He's been fairly good about understanding why Mommy has to stay here (I showed him my big boo-boo) but he really doesn't get why the baby has to stay too. He keeps asking "can I take her home and play with her now?" It's really adorable.

Caroline has been a completely different baby than Jack. We got about 24 hours of lethargy with him, and then he turned into Mr. Active, even getting kicked out of the nursery at Newton Wellesley because he yelled too loud and woke up all the other babies. His sleep-wake schedule was erratic but also short - he gave me intervals of 2 hours of sleep here or there for the first week or two. 

Miss Caroline (or as I call her now, Miss Prissy Pants) is a sleeping CHAMPION. Seriously, if there was  a baby sleep Olympics, she'd win. She is pretty much only interested in nursing, getting swaddled, and sleeping until she's hungry again. She's yelled a little bit, but not much, and only when we do mean things like change her diaper or her outfit and make her cold.

Angry face #1. 

The "what the heck??" face. 

She's lost a few ounces and was down to 6 lb 4 oz this morning, but I fully expect that to bounce back tomorrow because my milk finally came in! And it came in FAST. I felt it starting at about 9am and by 9:30, I had a full milk supply ready and waiting for baby girl. I had a few problems getting her to latch properly, but she got the hang of it, and now my only problem is that I am making waaaaaaaay too much milk. Hopefully it regulates itself soon and I don't get an infection... we will see!

We learned today that she's a thumb sucker. While Skyping with Pop-Pop and SuSu, I undid her hands from the newborn mittens to show them her super long fingers. Within seconds, she had her right thumb in her mouth and her fingers splayed all over her face. Something tells me that she did this in the womb, especially when Pop-Pop pointed out that the "birthmark" between her eyes is where her pointer finger rests while she sucks. Hmm. Maybe he's onto something! Either way, I am trying to get her to take her binky more now, because getting a little one to stop sucking their thumb is hard (right Uncle Colin?!!) :)

Proud Big Brother! All the nurses love Jack - they give him
stickers and popsicles. :)

 Gigi has enjoyed holding her and working on photographing her, and I can't wait for her to do family pictures once we get home. (Holy cow, how do we have two kids??? It hits me randomly a lot.)

Copyright Annette Crosby, 2012. Doesn't this look professional??

Overall she's been a great baby! A cool, calm, and collected little girl who loves to sleep and eat her hands. :) I look forward to getting to know the little personality that's behind this because I am sure she will be just as awesome and funny as Jack is turning out to be :)

A few parting shots until later...

The tag from her bassinet. 

Doing her best Jack pose. Nighty-night family! Love you all!