Two Weeks

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day and we all got to enjoy a picnic at Hanes Park.  We seemed to have the park to ourselves.  Seth played fetch with Bella, we ate Jimmy Johns and Jane took in all of her surroundings.

Heather, Morgan and Penny brought dinner.  Penny loved holding Jane herself, but she wasn't so fond of Heather holding her :)

Monday, Claire was in town and was able to stop by on her way to the airport to meet Jane.  I'm so glad she came early enough that it worked out, because I don't know if we'll get to see her again until Kelly's shower in November.

Tuesday night James and Paula brought us some delicious lasagna and got to meet Jane.  We had a wonderful time catching up with them.  We always have the best time with them, but wait too long to see them again inbetween!

Wednesday night Serah, Mat and Kevin were coming over to eat dinner when Andrew called and said that he wanted to bring by dessert to celebrate.  Both Danielle and Anna accepted new jobs and we all have had babies this year.  We had cake, ice cream and champagne.

Thursday night Seth had a Camel City Jazz concert and I wanted to go to dinner since Shannon was in town.  I dropped Jane off at GB and Dama's house and went to Silo at Reynolda Village with Kat, Andrew, Shannon, her brother and his fiance.  I was only away from her for less than 2 hours, but it was really nice to have a little bit of down time.

Friday was a very relaxing day.  That morning Kate and Kathy Gates came over for a quick visit.  Susan Metts, the art teacher from KES, also dropped a gift off while they were there.  It was wonderful catching up with them and talking about the new school year ahead (especially since I don't have to go back yet)!

Christin and Mary brought a delicious dinner by after work, but unfortunately Seth missed them and we didn't get any pictures.

That night, Joe and Susan came by and hung out for awhile.  It was so nice to see them and just chill.  Of course Bella loved the attention as well.











This morning we got up early and headed downtown to cheer on Pap, Jules, Court and Jonathan in the Mission 5K.  It was Pap's and Jules' first 5K and I could not be more proud!

Cheerleaders (Jane is passed out in the sling around Seth)

1st Time 5K Finishers

                                      

        

Pap coming up on the finish

The Tuckers

I love that Court and Jonathan are setting such a good example for Jules.  I hope Seth and I can do the same for Jane.

Splish, Splash I Was Taking a Bath

Jane's first bath at home

One Week

How can one week drag on and fly by at the same time?  Seth and I were awake this morning around the 7:20am hour and I reminded him that she was being born exactly a week ago today.  How crazy!  I'm so proud of us for making it through our first week as a family of four.

Monday we left the hospital and got home around lunch time.  Our families had cleaned our house, stocked our fridge and left flowers and wine for our arrival home.  They have been so helpful!

The rest of the week was filled with doctor's appointments and trying to figure everything out.  We went to the pediatrician twice, Seth went back to the ENT and we visited the lactation consultants at the hospital.  I was so thankful that Seth was able to take the week off of work to be with us.  Even though we had a lot of extra hands, it was nice to have him here.  He has done such a wonderful job of keeping the house clean, the dog exercised and entertaining visitors.  He also had Andrew help him finish re-plumbling the basement yesterday (because that's what normal 1st-time dad's do during their first week with a newborn :))!

This morning we took Jane to Colfax to have her newborn pictures taken by Christina Evans.  I won a free session a couple of months ago and we could not be more lucky.  Christina was incredible!  Jane was precious!  I cannot wait to see the finished product.  The story behind the contest is a good one as well.  Christina had been gifted a set of new lights for her studio from a man whose wife passed away and she decided to "pass it on" by offering a free newborn session.  Now Seth and I need to find a way to pass it on ourselves.

Visitors this week:
At the hospital:
Our families
Steve and Ben
Justin
Drew and Danielle
Anna and Terry
Amanda, Addie and Eva
Emily
Joe and Susan
Mama Lou
Amy Zwiebel's mom
Dr. Pollard
Nell
Kate and Ryan
Josh and Kelsey

At home:
Kate
Serah, Mat and Nathan
Emily, Joe and George
Jeep and Aurelia

Jane's Official Due Date

Well, today was Jane's official due date, but I guess she wanted to be a July baby instead.  My sister kept telling me all along that the labor and delivery was not the hard part, but bringing the baby home would be the difficult part.  I continued to be petrified of labor and boy was I wrong.  She was so right.  This has by far been the most difficult week of my life.  I could not have ever even imagined how I could function on so little sleep and how much my body could handle.  I told Seth today that I would go through labor again in a heartbeat if I could trade it for one good night's rest.

There's Something In Her Ear!

Jeep and Aurelia came by today to see baby Jane and brought us some food from Salem Kitchen including some meatloaf, baked potatoes, and peas. We decided to eat in the den while we watched tv and Whit breastfed Jane. As we were finishing up, Whit leaned into the light and screamed, "Seth, there's something in her ear!" I'm normally the chill one when it comes to stuff like this, but given recent circumstances this response was at least expected, if not completely warranted. I've been experiencing ear problems for the past 2 months and the doctors haven't been able to find the cause, nor have I seen any improvement. My ear has been painful, I've had some nasty discharge, and I've lost much of the hearing on my right side. Surely our child is not experiencing what I've been gong through. Is it contagious? Is our daughter going to lose her hearing? Is it the same discharge I've been dealing with? Nope, it was just a piece of Whit's meatloaf.

Follow-Up with Dr. Stewart

We took Jane back to Dr. Stewart today and she had definitely gained some weight.  She was back up to 5lbs, 11.6 ounces and he was happy.  He was still a little concerned about her coloring so they pricked her foot (hopefully one last time) to check for Jaundice.  The test results came back negative so she doesn't need to go back until her 2 week check up.

Epic Diaper Change Failure

We ventured over to GB and Dama's so we could get out of the house for a bit and let them visit with Jane. They cooked us a nice dinner and afterwards, I could tell (smell) the baby needed a diaper change. I got this. I took our fancy diaper bag - complete with a fold-out, waterproof (remember this) nylon changing pad - upstairs and laid everything out on Serah's old bed. Just before we walked out the door to leave earlier, I ran back upstairs and grabbed an extra outfit just in case. I'm not sure why I did this, but I sure was glad I did. Jane had blown her diaper completely off with a poop so explosive it had sprayed all over the inside of her outfit. She hadn't pooped in 2 days and this was the wrath building inside of her. My commotion must have been a give away that I was in trouble and/or had no idea what I was doing up there because Whit soon entered the room and saw what was unfolding. She helped me get the one-piece outfit off Jane and we laid her on the changing pad. In our haste, we forgot the fabric top for the nylon pad and Jane began to pee. All over the place, but mostly onto her diaper which was laying splayed open and covered in poop in front of her. Maybe the room is slanted, maybe the bed is crooked, or maybe there was an indentation in the mattress, but the pee began to flow backwards toward her head, carrying the poop explosion with it. Within a few seconds, our child was completely covered in a indistinguishable mixture of poop and pee and I had no choice but to scoop her up in my arms and off the mattress before it was ruined. It was then that Jane had her first bath. It wasn't special. It wasn't pretty. It was mostly just me holding her under the bathroom sink watching poop wash out of her hair and off my arms and down the drain. There wasn't much we could do at that point but laugh and be thankful I had brought an extra change of clothes. Now we always carry a spare :)