The first week home

Me and my birthday present!

Naomi is home! And we think she likes it! Even though she's spent most of the time sleeping (most of the daytime, anyway).

Day 1: We arrived home on my birthday! What a present! I'd celebrated myself last weekend--now it was time to celebrate Naomi. The big sisters had been kept up from their nap to greet their new little sister, and did so with appropriate exuberance. I learned that while I was away, Kalina had mastered Daddy's dart gun, which she could fire with surprising accuracy as Elise darted among the darts retrieving them. I was pleased to see that the girls were alive and well, although it took me a bit to get reacquainted with the fridge and pantry.

Ready to go home!

Day 2: Naomi's first visit to the pediatrician! At 8:15 a.m. Why this cruel timing? Because it's safer for the newborns to arrive before the germs do. I threw a few things in a diaper bag, and Naomi and I headed out just the two of us (our first mommy-daughter date!). We discovered that she weighed 5 lbs. 11 oz.--the same as she had the day before when leaving the hospital. But this was a good thing--many babies are still losing weight at that point. I no longer felt quite so bad about the long stretch of time I'd allowed her to sleep the previous night. Naomi is perfectly healthy! We discussed how to keep her that way, and the doctor advised me to be as pushy with hand-washing as a first-time mom. But he also said that now's a pretty good time to have a newborn--not to many germs floating around yet, and we can always go to a park if we need to get out. We scheduled a bunch more appointments (the next one is at 2 weeks), and headed back to the safety of home.

Home!!

Having slept relatively well the night before (owing to the ultra-sleepy newborn stage combined with the fact that since we're not first-time parents, we can nod and smile at the nurses' commands to wake our baby every three hours to eat), I began to put myself and the house back in order while Naomi slept, and slept and slept. I did wake her often to eat in the daytime, and I did hold her a lot. Who could resist?

And we hit a milestone! Not one that's on any of the books, but since it was cute, I'll write it down. Naomi started smiling in her sleep: big, goofy grins, no less! What was she dreaming of? Couldn't have been puppies, ice cream or snow on Christmas mornings, but it must have been something special to her. Milk? Being swaddled? The adorable outfits she's been wearing? Mommy???

The big girls continued to want to hold Naomi, the only downside being that Naomi cries almost every time they hold her. Both big girls are very understanding, however--even Elise knows that babies cry all the time. She is quick, however, to have me take the baby back. As is Daddy at times.

The baby is just hanging out,
happy and awake. I had to
get a picture.

With a sleepy baby and an extra pair of hands at home, I made dinner! Actually, Naomi woke up just as I was about to start, so I started dinner and directed Matt through the rest of it. Regardless, we had a real meal, and Naomi joined us.

Day 3: Daddy and the big girls went to church. Naomi slept, and I continued my quest to make the house look decent again. The big girls decided that diaper changes are worth dropping everything to watch, and that the swing makes music. Now, swing music plays on repeat for hours every day. They are not yet sick of it. Nope, not them.

I'd noticed that the baby, for the most part, spent her time during the day sleeping, eating or crying. There's more to life! I wanted to tell her. But for one of the first times today, Naomi's eyes were open and not tearing up--and in this moment, she noticed something really cool waving in front of her face: her hand! She was entertained for at least a minute, and I even caught it on film.

The baby first spots her hand
Cool, she thinks.

Daddy babysat Naomi for the first time on his own, while Kalina, Elise and I got frozen yogurt! All went well until it came time for Daddy to take off a Band-Aid the nurse had put on Naomi after her Vitamin K shot. Poor Daddy gets all the tough jobs. It was stuck tight (an alcohol swab helped), and fortunately I arrived home just in time to pick up the pieces.

Day 4: I was tired, probably having overdone it the previous few days, and so was the baby. While the more intrepid family members enjoyed a trip to the zoo, Naomi and I put our feet up and rested. We needed it: I'd been on my feet too much, and Naomi was, after all, less than a week old.

We've learned by now that Naomi prefers being held. Sometimes she's too sleepy to notice, but the rest of the time she'd like to be warmly cuddled in someone's arms. She's not too picky most of the time, but has been known to play favorites (sorry, Daddy).

I really like this hand!

We started tummy time, an unpopular attempt to make sure Naomi doesn't end up having to wear a helmet to reshape her head. She managed to roll herself over, having had enough of that silliness (you'll thank me later, Sweetie!). It doesn't help that anytime she's awake, she's hungry.

Nights had been deteriorating, so we may have purposely tried to keep Naomi up a bit in hopes that we could help her learn that daytime lasts from about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., not 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Day 5: Our re-education process may have paid off! Naomi slept several very healthy chunks of time last night all by herself. I slept so long (2 and 3 hours at a time!) I was almost disoriented upon awaking, and Matt got his third full night since the baby was born, a fact that he doesn't feel like discussing. :)

Nursery sweet nursery. Couldn't
resist doing a little decorating for my
newest little girl!

Matt, Kalina and Elise spent much of the day at Grandpa's house and a children's museum, while I tried to relax on my last day of "maternity leave." Naomi tried to relax, too, mostly in my arms.

Day 6: We decided that our first day without Matt should be a "Big Girl Fun Day!" We dressed Naomi in a cute outfit, made chocolate chip cookie bars, enjoyed a few "big sister" presents, had a friend over in the afternoon and ordered pizza for supper.

Naomi and I learned that newborn sleep is random. She spent a good 24 hours needing to be held in order to sleep (including the previous night), or simply not sleeping but choosing, instead, to remain in a "fussy wakeful" state. I spent about the same amount of time typing things like, "Newborn sleep patterns" and "Why should it be this difficult to get my 1-week-old to sleep?" and "WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!?" into Google. I learned that it's me, not her. Newborn sleep is, for all intents and purposes, random.

In other news, Naomi's umbilical cord stump came off! It's no less weird and unsettling the third time than the first. Fortunately, the friend who visited is a nurse, and she assured me that everything looks great.

Day 7: Continuing the theme of random newborn sleep, Naomi drifted off to sleep in her crib, with only a little Mommy help, for her first nap of the day. I learned that she likes to be petted on the forehead, like a kitten, to help her relax and close her eyes. She spent the rest of the day peacefully napping acting like last night, another tough one in which we couldn't set the baby down if we expected her to sleep, never happened--I'm hoping it bodes well for tonight. When Kalina woke me up in the morning, it took me a good two minutes to realize she wasn't Elise. Ah, sleep deprivation--my old constant companion! But Naomi sure is cute. I dressed her for success in one of her most adorable outfits and carried on with the day.

The big girls visited their new preschool classrooms with Grandpa and met their teachers, a day I hated to miss but couldn't justify risking my newborn's health for. After all, what's germier than a preschool classroom?

Kalina and Elise remained excited about their new sister, and are always happy to check on Naomi, shush her, sing sweet made-up lullabies to her, wave toys in front of her face, swing her in her swing and turn on her infernal swing music (and, more often than not, leave the room right afterward and stranding me with it). Every diaper change is a spectacle sport, and the goodwill they feel toward their little sister has not yet faded into the jealous resentment I'm keenly watching for.

I'm grateful the weather is hot now (it switched from gorgeous to blistering as I entered the hospital) because it gives us a good reason to hole up inside. The girls are playing wonderfully together, and I even get to put my feet up now and then. Having nearly driven myself into labor with all the preparation I did in July and August, I think I've earned as much of a rest as I can possibly get. In fact, it's almost cozy having a newborn!

And that concludes our first week at home! Here's hoping they can all be so sweet!

Some of the highlights of Naomi's photo shoot in the hospital: