After the craziness of delivery was over--our baby was snuggled and our kiddos and families were called--they took me upstairs to a nice little room that was to be ours. They brought me something for dinner (I don't remember what it was) but it was pretty gross, so Steve went down to the cafeteria and retrieved us pizza slices and breadsticks, which tasted like heaven after the liquid diet.
I practiced nursing our girl (and had to fight to get the nurses to bring us formula to supplement her afterward--Walton babies are hungry) and was unfortunately a little cold to the poor lactation consultant who came in to talk to me more about nursing. I am usually very nice, but I guess after labor and delivery I wasn't really in the mood for a lecture about the benefits of breastfeeding. Sorry, lactation consultant. It wasn't your fault!
We had planned to have Steve go home and relieve our patient and wonderful babysitter, Amanda, from kiddo-duty for the night, but the closer it got to the time he was supposed to leave, the more anxious I felt. I was wiped out and in pain, and since they'd changed hospital policy to "rooming-in" (they don't take the babies to the nursery anymore) I was terrified at the prospect of having to take care of our lovely when I couldn't even really walk well yet (pain, epidural numbness in my legs, etc.). So we got in touch with Amanda who so so so sweetly agreed to spend the night at our house so Steve could stay with me. He slept on the couch and helped whenever Juliette needed a feed or a change. It was so comforting to have him there.
He left early in the morning to go home and get the kids up and ready. He fed them breakfast and got them dressed, and then brought them over to meet their new sister for the first time!
Gracie was enamored with Juliette from the first moment, and Charlie was intrigued enough to climb up on the bed and examine her.
I had mentioned to Grace a few times (as I explained what would happen while I stayed at the hospital) that after Juliette was born the nurse would wrap her in a blanket and put a little hat on her. So when Grace arrived to a blanketed but bare-headed baby sister, she wanted to know where the hat was. So I put it on for her perusal before she got to hold baby girl on her own. :)
And Steve took the opportunity to make sure the older two had grown since they last slept in a bassinette.
Once they'd had their fill of sister-watching (or, in Charlie's case, messing with all the buttons in my hospital room) Steve packed the kiddos out and dropped Charlie off at our friend Nicole's house for the day before taking Gracie to school. She had been giving her teacher the baby-countdown every day for the past week or so, so when Grace walked in late to class with her daddy, her teacher asked, "Did your baby sister come?!"
Grace was so excited to tell her that she had, and Steve said that a bunch of Gracie's little girl friends got up from their seats to give her hugs of congratulation! It all sounds pretty adorable to me.
Meanwhile I got to admire the sweet toes of this cute thing.
And snuggle up with her in bed.
That evening Steve took the kids out for (an unfortunately eventful) dinner at Chipotle and then brought them back to visit again. This time Charlie got to hold Juliette, too.
And then they got kisses and said goodnight and headed home to bed, and it was just me and my pretty baby for the second night. We had dinner together and watched HGTV and then slept as much as the nurses would let us. (Luckily since this was my third time around, I was brave enough to ask the nurses if I could just call them when our girl woke up to eat--so they did most of our checks when we were both awake anyway instead of waking us over and over. So much better!)
I woke up early the next morning. I don't remember if it was the sun, the nurses, a hungry sweet baby girl or the visiting pediatrician. But it was sweet. I love sunlight pouring through windows. I love this girl.
I talked to Steve on the phone and we made plans for the day. He dropped Gracie at school and took Charlie to our friend Karen's house for the morning, while I conspired with the pediatrician and our nurse to get us out as soon as possible. Juliette had her last checks and we were cleared to go home by eleven!
Steve and I took turns holding our lovebug while the other packed, and then a very nice, very old man came to our room with a wheelchair and a cart for all our stuff. He wheeled me to the nurses' station to get Juliette's tracker removed and then wheeled me downstairs to wait for Steve and the shiny black minivan. I held my baby and thought about holding Charlie in the same waiting room, and about taking her home to her very own house.
It felt so good to bring her home. Steve took her on a tour when we came in, and I almost started crying when he showed her her bedroom. I had spent many tired pregnant evenings sitting in a chair by her crib trying to imagine what it would be like to see her in the room we'd made for her. It was heavenly to have her there.
We took a little time to settle in, just the three of us, before Steve retrieved her big siblings. It was so good to be home, and so sweet to have our lovely Juliette there with us at last. It felt like the most delicious sigh of relief to settle into my bed with my sweetheart and our baby girl.
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