And Baby Makes 4, Life at Home

We are home!! Jason and I arrived home with Amelia Thursday afternoon. We were very happy with our stay at Methodist, but it's nice to be home. (The one thing I missed last night was the option to have the nurses take Amelia down to the nursery so Jason and I could catch a 3-hour block of sleep!) Last night went well. She's a good feeder--a natural nurser from the moment the delivery nurse laid her on my chest after birth--latch and suck; my kids seem to know how to eat!

We had several visitors in the hospital (which was a change for us. Nate was born on a weekend so the grapevine didn't spread the news as quickly and he was born overseas in Okinawa, Japan so it was a little hard for family to just stop on by.) Of course Bill & Jeanie (Amelia's Granna & Papa) were there, later Nate came up to meet his little sister, several members of our church dropped in to wish us well, our neighbor who works at Methodist, and Wendy and Charles who are on their psych rotation--so they had nothing but time Jason says! Now that we're home, we've had many more visitors (some bearing hot meals, flowers, gifts or well-wishes)--mostly friends from medical school and our great neighbors.

To answer the 3 most-commonly asked questions:

1. How did you find the name Amelia? It's the name that we picked out for Nathaniel if he'd been a girl. We both liked it (which for those of you who've gone through the naming process as a couple know is a feat in itself). It means "industrious, striving." Of course we like that; but I think the fact that both of us were pilots in that phase of our lives influenced us a little more (you might have heard of an aviatrix named Amelia Earhart!) ;) When we first shared the name with Nate, he couldn't quite say Amelia (he's much better now). He would say "A-meeya;" hence bestowing her nickname, Mia. Grace is a family name--my great aunt's name on my mother's side.


2. Who does she look like? When she was first born, I thought she looked exactly like her big brother, Nate. Now that she's unfolding a little more, she definitely has her own look. I think she'll also be a good blend of both me and Jason. She seems to have my darker skin tone with Jason's long eyelashes and his mouth & chin. We'll see if she gets his dimples, too!


3. How are things going? (tied with, "How do you feel?") I think so far (and I almost hate to type this), she's an easy-going personality. When she was born, the nurse exclaimed, "That's not a cry; we need to get this baby to cry soon." But the shrieking, wailing cry expected in the delivery room has yet to surface. I know babies don't wake up to the world for a few days and even then can pull a fast one on you for a few weeks--changing their needs & personalities overnight; but I would currently label her "easy-going" (if I were into labeling, that is). Sleep--eat--poop--change--repeat...what's to be fussy about?
4. As for me, I'm a lot more sore "down there" than I remember being after my first delivery. And the uterus cramping back down to size while I'm breast-feeding...ouch! I'm glad a girlfriend warned me of the increased cramping the second time around. The pain is about a 4 on the hospital's pain scale--right up there with my early labor contractions on Wednesday! Oh, and suddenly it's not so fun to have hard, laminate floors. I could use a donut cushion (like those hemorrhoids pillows). We'll see how I feel mentally once the sleep deprivation catches up with me; but so far, I actually feel like I might pull this two-child-parenting-gig off (or at least fool them for awhile).

Nate loves his baby sister. He's very cooperative at diaper changes (he gets to pick out the diaper--he seems to like Baby Oscar and Baby Grover), he lets Mia feed when "it's time for her breast milk," and gives her lots of hugs and kisses (unfortunately he's a three-year-old brute and doesn't understand his own strength). We're trying to tone down the lay-your-full-body-weight-on-top-of-her hugs. I'm waiting for the tide to turn, but don't want to focus too much on what might happen!

Here are some cute quotes from Nate:

• "She is such a cute baby."
• "I'm glad Mia is home, she's fun."
• "She sleeps a lot."
• "Look, Mom! Mia is looking at me. She likes me."
• "I like her."
• "I just give her kisses."
• "I like her to be back!" (big grin on his face)
• "When she gets bigger, she gets a pink bow in her hair."
• "Look at her teeny, tiny fingers!"

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Baby survived the Christmas chaos at the Goodwin home in New Braunfels! It was a full house--she was surrounded by Great-Grandmother & Granddaddy; Granna & Papa; Uncle Todd; Uncle Scott, Aunt Heather, cousin Katie & cousin Skyler; and Mom, Dad & Nate! She made quite a haul, too! My mother-in-law enjoyed looking at cute, frilly baby girl clothes (she's a purple gal). Then she had fun wrapping them and addressing the pretty boxes to her top choices for Baby girl names:
*Jeanie Ranae: Baby's grandmothers (Jason's mom, my mom)
*Jewel Louise: Jason's two grandmothers
*Victoria Lynn: Lynn is my middle name
*Naomi Ruth: a cute Biblical name to match "Nathaniel"
*Callie Rae: Bill's Grandmother & 2 of Baby's great-grandpas
*Melody Faith: Jeanie's girl's name when she was expecting

Baby Girl also received a purple baby blanket that her Granna hand-crocheted and heirloom white silk booties & sandals that her Great, Great-Aunt Ree knit. The inside story is that these were actually passed down from Jason. Jeanie was SURE Jason was a girl--granted she didn't have an ultrasound, but was going off pure instinct. So sure, that she brought a purple dress to the hospital (with said baby blanket) to take "Jason" home in. How many little girls can say they inherited their purple baby layette from their Daddy?! :) (And like my Dad said, "How many Dad's would want that known?!")

I've been in intense nesting mode lately! We decided to put Baby in our "extra" room when she arrives (currently a 10'x11' area serving as a guest room with queen-size bed, craft room and extra-large storage shed!) So, the day after Christmas, Jason and I took a road trip to the IKEA north of Austin (about 90 miles) to help this plan come together. We were looking for some smart shelves to help with this transformation to nursery/craft room. The guests will have to sleep on the futon out on the landing. And this clutter I've been storing? We've been BUSY cleaning & purging! We brought several big boxes of extraneous clutter to Goodwill, several boxes to consignment, a big trash bag of garbage to the curb, etc. (This process is hard for a baby pack rat like me!)

We did find the shelves--two black and a pink shelf. Jason let me buy a PINK shelf! My grand vision is to keep the walls white, use black furniture and splashes of light pink as an accent color (crib bedding, storage boxes on the shelves, lighting, etc.) I think the look I'm going for is shabby-chic-boutique. (I made that up...I'm still not sure what the official label is.) Cute story: while we were putting together the shelves, Jason told Nate we were setting up sister's room. Nate responds, "Not sister's room, it's both our room. We going to share."

All is well with Baby--still kicking her way around my belly. As you can see from the countdown bar, I'm in double digits! Baby will be here before you know it! After our trip to Minnesota for "The Holidays: Part 2;" it's work, work, work! My ultimate goals? To finish the nursery (though we're opting to keep the bed up for a little longer so Jason will have a separate place to get a good night's sleep during his upcoming (and demanding) surgery rotation for the next three months), finish Nate's baby album (I'm half-way through), and start walking more while keeping up with my yoga routine. I think that's doable.

Well, we're leaving on a jet plane Saturday morning for a proper winter in Minnesota. Our bags our packed and we're ready to go. Unfortunately, it's an early morning--7:00 flight, 4:30 wake-up (after a night of celebration for my father-in-law's big 6-0 Birthday Bash)! Arghhh. Now? We just need to make sure the DVD player is charged up for the airplane! Enjoy!

HAPPY 2008!