C-Section Day

In the alternate reality where Olivia doesn't decide to be born 5 weeks early, today would have been her birthday. We would probably just be wheeling back into our room after the c-section. She's swinging in her swing right now and enjoying her really cool "Wubbanub" pacifier (see photo - practically in real time and then find these as baby gifts for new moms, they are wonderful). She has sure changed a lot in the past 4 weeks.

Our weather is entering day 3 of yucky, so I'm not sure what Abby is going to do today to keep entertained without driving me crazy. We played a sorting game yesterday with her teacups and M&M's, but you can only do that one for a short time and with a limited number of M&M's unless you want a wild child running around on a sugar high. She is getting really good at matching the color of the candies to the color of the teacups. And she knows the names for pink, blue, yellow, and green really well as a result of our game. I'm not too sure that it was a Dad approved activity, but it is survival mode for me until the weather is nice enough again to get that girl outside. She is also reminding us about her birthday and that she is going to be 2 - as if the terrible two-like behavior isn't enough of a reminder. She's been to enough birthday parties in the last few months to understand the whole birthday thing and she is pretty excited about it.

Olivia learned an important lesson about over-eating last night. Unfortunately it was at the expense of my shirt, the sheets, and her pajamas. She decided that she wanted to enjoy some extra milk right before bed, but filled her tummy too much and ended up projectile vomiting all over the two of us. She must have still had a pretty full belly after that because she still slept 3 1/2 hours after the incident. And she has been regulating her portions better since then. It must be one of the lessons in an infants life that must be learned the hard way - a full belly is nice, but too much of a good thing is not something you want to try. And now I have two extra loads of laundry to do as a result of her lesson. I guess the lesson for me is to put an over-full baby in her bed, even if she is wide awake and wants to snuggle.

Day 4 - Going Home

Abby and I were discharged from the hospital this afternoon and Steve, Abby, and I made it home at 1 pm today to start the adventure of life with baby. Abby seems to like her new digs, including the bassinet. She's been too sleepy to check out much beyond that and the couch.

Abby has some mild jaundice, so even though they sent us home, Abby has to be on an ultra-violet light pad as much of the day as possible. She doesn't seem to mind when she has to lay on it to get the light on her back, but it is a trick to keep it on her belly, since she does like to wiggle her little arms.

Abby had some firsts today. Since she is very sleepy from the jaundice, we've had to pump milk for her and give it to her by bottle. She really loved the bottle, so we are hoping that we will be able to transition back to breastfeeding when the jaundice is passed without too much struggle. Since Abby has been chugging down the bottles, we also experienced the first throw up. She got me good, and herself, and the arm chair, and the area rug. It was quite the mess - and my white sweater may never be the same.