Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Bringing Home Baby

Well, it couldn't last forever. At some point, we had to enter the real world of sleepless nights and cooking and cleaning for ourselves (aka parenthood). We snapped a few pics to commemorate the day.

Miss Priss does not like having her clothes changed. She was extremely angry and screamed her head off the entire time my mom and Michelle were getting her ready to leave the hospital. It didn't help that they had to stuff her into this newborn-sized outfit like a sausage. She's no petite thing.


Daddy is laughing because she's screaming louder than he's ever heard a baby scream before.


I didn't realize it then, but that was the first moment we saw her true temperament. Some babies you can swaddle up and they'll drift off to sleep with a coo in their flat, expansive beds. That was not our experience. Evelyn wants what she wants. Around 4 months we let her CIO and things got better, but that's a long time to have a tiny, screaming thing bossing you around. 

We're smiling in these pictures, but Evelyn was still fussing through this whole process.




We went outside for a second to get to the car, and she stopped crying for a few moments. It took her until 4 months to tolerate her carseat as well. She definitely was not calmed by the car. And of course she wasn't sleeping if she wasn't being held. There's far too much in this world to observe to sleep through anything.


We finally got home, and I left the bustle to steal away in her dark, quiet room. It took about a minute before she looked like this.


Alice thinks Evelyn is great because she's always on the floor, very smelly, and perfectly lickable. And now there's the bonus of E acting as Cheerio supplier.


Wildcat, like any good cat would do, tries her hardest to pretend that Evelyn never came into existence. She's in complete denial. Conversely, E tries to squeeze all of her excitement out into the cat. She thinks Wildcat is the most amazing thing and just can't get enough. 


There's a certain peace you only get from being at home. Somewhere in all of this, we didn't document the can of soda that fell on the floor and exploded in the kitchen. Forgotten are the words I yelled at anyone and everyone in sight (hormones, y'all). We just caught these sweet snuggles and first meetings as our lives changed forever. I'm glad it took me six months to get to writing about it because I can appreciate it all so much more now!

Hospital Stay with Baby

I started composing this post immediately following my last post, and here it still sits, months later...this is my reality. 

Just a few more things to share from Evelyn's birthday story. After all the excitement and frenzy died down, we were able to move to our room and spend time resting and visiting with family. Amazingly, we were gifted a hospital suite from Chase's parents, and it was perfect. We had LOTS of people there, but we could have privacy in our own room and separate, gorgeous bathroom. Chase had a comfortable, queen-sized bed to himself, and we ate gourmet meals. It was worth every penny...that we didn't have to spend. THANKS BOB AND DONNA!

Everybody wanted to watch as Evelyn had her first bath.





And of course EVERYONE was so excited to get their hands on her! We had a visit from Kylie at some point as well, but I couldn't find a picture anywhere! She will be in many future pictures with Evelyn, though!

Mrs. Val



Aunt Susan




Danny, Ronda, Ty, and Taylor




Aunt Ronda must've been operating the camera.


I was sad we hadn't gotten a picture of the three of us together, so Chase took this selfie.



Uncle Dustin and Jane




We asked Jane, "What's the baby doing?" Her exasperated reply to our obvious question was, "Sucking!" No pun or irony is lost on us; there have been many moments since when she has been quoted.

Aunt Michelle



Beth stopped by to say hello, and it was really special to see her!



Daddy with his fun t-shirt. I mean, it's so true.



And our food...



So...much...food!



Our stay there kind of spoiled us. Everyone talks about having difficult birth experiences for one reason or another, but the hospital was the easiest part of having a baby for me. Maybe I expected the worst and was pleasantly surprised. The all-night childcare was definitely a perk! We had a great time in the hospital and made wonderful memories there that we will cherish forever.