Natalie was born on Friday morning. Kim left the hospital to go pick up Alli from school and bring her to meet her sister. I told Kim that he should go home with Alli and spend the night with her instead of with me, so at 8pm, they left the hospital.
I had a rough night that night. The hospital was packed and the nurse support wasn't there the way I remember it was for Alli. So I was up changing poopy diapers, dealing with Natalie puking up, and gagging on, the amniotic fluid that she swallowed during birth, and breast feeding. All this while having difficulty getting out of bed due to the stitches, the cramping, the just general inability to move easily.
Kim was supposed to show up at the hospital around 9:30 or so. Well, Alli wound up puking at 6am, so he had a bit of cleanup to do. Then he got her back to sleep and we had to decide what to do. When they woke up again around 8, he took her temp. Normal. So he cleaned up and then headed out. He got to the hospital by 11:30.
Meanwhile, Natalie and I got a visit from the Belt family. It was nice to see the kids - they each took turns holding baby Natalie. Kim missed them by 30 minutes. :( Bummer!!!
We asked to be discharged quickly, mostly because we figured Alli would need to get home. This is a much different philosophy than we used before. With Alli, we stayed as long as they would possibly let us. My how things change when you have a sick other child in the picture!
Home adjustment was actually easier this time around, probably because we already had experience with having a kid around. So, the house remained very messy (no worries), I tried to take care of myself and the feedings of Natalie, and Kim took on cooking, cleaning, and Alli duties. Alli wanted to play a lot, but soon understood that there was going to be a new routine in the picture. I found nursing in the rocking chair like I did with Alli wasn't going to work as well - instead I started nursing in the spare bed so that Alli could sit next to me. We could read books together while Natalie ate. I guess now I'm glad we have company coming and we left Natalie's room mostly a spare bedroom! :)
It's fun to see the similarities and differences in the baby's. Alli liked being wrapped like a burrito, but had to have her arms out. Natalie is very similar in this respect. Natalie *constantly* has a hand by her face (she did in the womb too!) Alli had no such habit. The girls look very similar, yet different in many ways.
The biggest concern we now have with Natalie is this bug that Alli had. Alli went from puking on Saturday morning to diarrhea by Sunday. Natalie on the other hand, hasn't pooped since about 3am on Sunday. Here it is Monday night, so that's quite a bit of time. She has plenty of very stinky gas though. We don't know if she caught the digestive bug that Alli has, or if this is something else. So I'm feeding her often instead of trying to get her on a schedule, just to make sure she doesn't dehydrate or anything. I'll work on the schedule next week if we can get her bowels working well. It's weird cause in the hospital she pooped like 6 times within the 25 hours we were there!
It's so nice to have Kim home to help around the house and just be around. And Natalie warms up to him like crazy. Sometimes if I can't console her, Kim has the magic touch. I will definitely miss having him around next week when he goes back to work...
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