Our first week home

I can't believe she's a week old already. Why is it that the end of pregnancy is endless but once the baby is here time speeds up at an exponential rate?? It's been a wonderful week home and I'm so happy with my life, I'll share a bit of it with you.

I've really struggled with how poorly I handled the pitocin and contractions while I was in labor. It seems like I know a lot of women who have been on it that didn't even need pain meds, or at least lasted longer than 3 hours. I felt like such a pansy for dealing with it how I did. However, I've realized some things that have helped me to feel better about it all. 1- My water had already broken BEFORE I got the pit. Any time I think about others who have talked about it usually their waters get broken farther along down the road, and at this point their contractions pick up. Because mine was already broken it made the whole experience much more intense right from the start. 2-Again because my water had broken they wouldn't let me move around. Being confined to the bed is about the worst position to labor in without meds I've decided and I had no choice. When they went to administer the epidural and had me turn to the side of the bed and hang my feet off and curl over, I felt MUCH better. After thinking about and understanding my situation a little bit more I've decided maybe I'm not such a wuss after all. But even if I am, so what. That epidural MADE my experience. I don't think I would ever go for a med free birth because it was so enjoyable with it.

Before I was discharged from the hospital I had a bit of a scare. The pediatrician had come in to assess Leila and I had been given my lunch tray, so I figured I'd hurry and eat. It was baked chicken and some sort of broccoli cheddar rice. I didn't think I was shoveling it in too quickly, but when I went to take a drink of water all of a sudden I felt like I was choking. At the base of my throat I could feel the food was stuck and I couldn't get it down. I felt like I was getting light headed and told Kolt's dad I thought I was going to choke. He yells over to Kolt, "she's choking!" but Kolt was staring at the baby and thought Terry was talking about her. Kolt replied, "she can't be choking, she's crying." At this point I'm starting to get really scared thinking that the Heimlich would REALLY hurt since I'd just had a baby. Thankfully at that point I started to cough and it came back up. Gross. Now I'm spitting up just like my baby. I was SO embarrassed, but glad to be ok. New mom lesson #1, take time to CHEW your food.

Coming home was wonderful, I got discharged after 24 hours. The normal policy is 48, but Leila and I were both doing so well there was no need to keep us :) The first thing Kolt did when we got home was introduce the dogs to the baby. It was very sweet and they are doing really well with her.

This week has been so relaxing and enjoyable. I'm getting a fair amount of sleep and what I'm not getting mommy power is making up for. I never would have been able to survive prior to having Leila on less than 5 hours a night, and now I thrive on it. She is such a good baby though. If I could relax enough to take advantage of it, she usually gives us at least one three hour stretch each night. If not four.

Having Kolt's parents and my mom here has been such a blessing. They seem to take care of everything for me from the meals to the cleaning. I try to help out when I can but it's nice to have to. They've helped to make this transition so much easier and I'll never be able to make it up to them.

Seeing Kolt with Leila has been something else. He's so rough and tough around the edges that seeing him melt for that little girl has been heart warming. He takes such good care of her and loves her so much, it makes me love him that much more. The other night he came to bed and hadn't gotten to hold her much that day thanks to all the grandparents. He looked at me and said, "Give me my baby, I haven't gotten to hold her all day. She needs some daddy snuggles." (sniff). He's a much better father than I had ever anticipated (not that I didn't think he would be, he's just SO much more than I ever hoped for) and has been an amazing help around the house. He's cleaned and organized and cooked and made sure to remind me to go nap even if I don't want to. He's incredible. And we just found out today that he doesn't have to go back to work until an on call shift of the 12th of September, and a real shift on the 13th. That gives him three full weeks off, and I don't think he's being charged for any of it other than his paternity leave.

We've taken Leila out quite a bit already. To the store, the Alamo, and just around to run errands. A few people have made comments about how young she is and their shock that we have her out of the house, but it's warm, we're careful, and I think getting out is a good thing for her and me as well. She does amazingly well in her car seat, even if she's awake. She also will take a bottle and breast feed perfectly. She is such an amazing child, we're so blessed.

I plan to try and blog about our little family once a week. My entire pregnancy I looked forward to Fridays because that meant I was another week closer to meeting my baby, so now I'll look forward to sharing our lives with our sweet child with you.