Johnny....Johnny came home from the hospital May 22, 2002, he was 2 days old. (technically he was 1½ days old since he was born at night on May 20th!) I was TERRIFIED! I also, innocently, was looking forward to bringing him home so I could finally get some sleep because I couldn't sleep at the hospital. HAH! Little did I know! I was about to begin my carseat mania and quickly learned that the infant carseat I purchased did not have a harness adjuster in the front. So, I learned how to tighten the carseat straps from behind and began 7 months of complaining about it. As we left the hospital we turned on to the main street and saw a young woman standing at the bus stop wearing a black "half" tank top and black pants. She had a HUGE pregnant belly sticking right out there and her shirt was over her belly and her pants were below her belly. Gabe and I started laughing really hard; which then made me wince as I was terrified I was going to pop out my stitches! When we made it to the four way stop by our house a car turned left, towards us, and almost hit us. It was an older woman driving so painfully slow, right at our car. In my memory she was so close - like centimeters away from us; but I'm sure it wasn't THAT close. When we brought Johnny in the house Rufus could not sniff him enough. Our beloved cat, who had calendars dedicated to him, wore homemade ties, had his own chair (the best one in the house) was quickly kicked out of his chair and ignored. Johnny was very small so the "going" home outfit I had originally planned for him to wear did not fit. Luckily, Uncle Darrell got him a preemie outfit while in the hospital and he wore that home. We were home for about 2 hours when the crying began. Momo brought us over dinner that Aunt Kim had made for us and we took turns eating it while Johnny screamed. The rest of the evening and night, and then morning looked exactly like this... screaming Johnny. Gabe and I were wondering what we had done to our life! We went to the lactation therapist the next morning and learned the reason behind the crying...we'd been starving our baby! We got all set up with tubes and pumps and syringes and we were good to go! We also learned that we wouldn't need to set our alarm in the middle of the night to wake Johnny and feed him....he'd let us know when he was hungry. (ya, we actually thought we'd need to!)
Maisy...Maisy came home on December 22, 2007. She was 18 hours old! Grammie and Grandpa brought Johnny to the hospital and he rode home with us. He was so excited to have his new sister riding in the back seat with him. It was actually very surreal to arrive home with her because it hadn't even been 24 hours since we left the house to go to the hospital to have her. Gabe made me go to the midwife at 2:30 pm the day before because I was insisting it wasn't time yet. (In my mind, when we left the house we'd be back shortly and I could proceed with my plans of taking a load of trash to the dump. Guess it's a good thing I didn't!) Before leaving the hospital I received one of my proudest parenting compliments as I strapped Maisy into her carseat. The nurse checked her out and informed me that in all her time working I was THE FIRST person to strap her child into the seat correctly. (it was a proud moment and I quickly called fellow carseat nut Tracey and shared with her. I'm pretty certain I heard her wiping her tears as she beamed with pride fully appreciating the honor that had been bestowed upon me! Gabe rolled his eyes and laughed at Tracey and I as he's been privy to 4 years of very in depth carseat discussions between us!) Maisy arrived home to a spotlessly clean house (thanks to a last minute nesting kick!) and Christmas decorations. Maisy was bigger than Johnny so she got to wear Johnny's "going home" outfit. Don checked her out and sniffed her and decided she was his favorite member of the family and instantly took up residence anywhere that she was. I took pictures of Maisy in her stocking they gave us at the hospital and then put her to sleep in her bassinet while Johnny jumped off the bed like a monkey. We instantly knew this baby would sleep very differently than Johnny. She would have to learn to sleep with noise and chaos going on, or she would never sleep. Since we weren't so new at breastfeeding, eating went much better and Maisy was able to settle in a little easier. Later in the day, Aunt Kim, Uncle Adam and Bailey came down to meet Maisy. We have some adorable pictures of Bailey holding Maisy and looking so lovingly at her...the secret is that her mother was holding a candy cane under baby Maisy that Bailey would receive after her successful photo shoot! My friends Tracey and Michelle came to visit and Michelle brought me dinner and flowers. Oh and I sent out an email to 70 of my closest friends announcing Maisy's arrival! We actually slept pretty well that first night! And this time we knew we wouldn't need an alarm clock!Ok...your turn....share your memory of the day you came home with your baby!
And congratulations Tricia and Nate. Your story has been so touching and your faith has been so inspiring. I hope you continue to share as I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Gwyneth grow.
1 comment:
Thank you!
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