Coming Home

Hard to believe its been nine days since we've been home from the hospital. Things are moving fast!

Two Thursdays ago we were discharged from the hospital with both Mommy and baby in good health.  Being home was a relief, although with a steady stream of guests we found ourselves quite busy.  Add in OB/GYN, pediatric, and home nurse appointments and our schedule has been rather full; hence, the lack of pictures and updates this past week.

Despite everything, we’ve managed to keep up with household chores during the day, while getting decent sleep at night.  Initially we were instructed to feed Leah every three hours until she returned to her birth weight.  The first night, Leah woke us up every three hours by calling for food; every subsequent night we have had to wake her (or attempt to, anyway) for feedings.  During those first nights, Karrie and I took turns feeding Leah, yielding us over six hours of sleep each night apiece.  A few days ago, Leah had her first pediatric visit where she weighed in at a half ounce over her birth weight; this meant that we could go to four hour feedings.  Luckily for Karrie and I, Leah is OK with that schedule and thus only requires each of us to get up once each night.  This means we are each getting around eight hours of sleep each night; while not consecutive hours of sleep, this is still way more than we expected at this point.

In addition to her excellent night performance, Leah has handled a few outings as well.  We started with a trip down the street to the mailbox, which she slept through.  Then we went to an acapella show at Deering Oaks that lasted nearly an hour—she slept through that as well.  Today we visited some friends and attended an anniversary celebration back-to-back—our first feedings and diaper changes “in the field”—which both went well.

I’ve uploaded more pictures than will fit in a blog entry; the thumbnail at left is just an example, so head over to Leah’s photo album to check out the rest.