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!"