Hannah Grace Homecoming

This blog will probably be mostly photos as 1) Hannah Grace is napping and I don't want to leave this post in limbo land for too long, and 2) Let's be honest, all you care about are the photos anyway! She is so teeny tiny in these pictures.  It almost makes me want to go back. 

...then I remember the two nights in a row and 3 days that we had to do round the clock two hour feedings.  It went like this: 1) Wake up. Pinch your cheeks because your alarm is going off and this is the 30th time you've had to do this. 2)  Look over at sleeping baby and get a big goofy grin on your face. 3) Pick up sleeping content newborn. 4) Change diaper of sleeping, content newborn to wake her up. 5) Feed sleepy newborn while taking her clothes off, rubbing her feet, and doing anything short of harming her to get her to eat. 6) Stumble back in bed and set your alarm for one more hour since that feeding took you an entire hour to do.

...then I remember the stomach virus that swept through our house from days 6 to 12.  It went like this: 1) Kidding. You don't want me to explain how sick we were.  But it did go like this: 1) Daddy on Tuesday afternoon, 2) Mommy on Saturday night, 3) Hootie (Sara's Mom) on Monday morning. 4) Hannah Grace on Monday night (much milder version that only lasted a few hours).

...then I remember the pain associated with after birthing a child. Epidurals are wonderful things like I said in Hannah Grace's birth story. BUT after they turn that thing off...yeah, we'll leave that to the imagination.

...then I remember a multitude of other things that went wrong the first few weeks that I don't want to discuss on the blog.  Let's just say if you know me well, you KNOW what I'm talking about!

And all of a sudden, I'm so thankful that WE MADE IT THROUGH THAT!  I'll just look at the cute baby Hannah Grace photos and remember the happy things associated with them!

We thought we would get to leave the morning after Hannah Grace's arrival. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm not much of a risk taker. I've never broken a bone, had a surgery (other than wisdom teeth), and I certainly have never spent the night in the hospital as a patient!  I was EAGER to get out!  The food was gross. Everyone woke you up. I had doctors/nurses and she had doctors/nurses.  I was ready to break out.

I swear if I didn't enjoy my epidural so much, I'd say to heck with it and have a home birth next time to avoid that after days of the hospital!

The morning after Hannah Grace arrived, I begged my doc to let me go home. She had previously told me that I could leave the day after. However, when she came in, she told me that my blood pressure was still too high. It actually had risen since birthing Hannah Grace (and I'm sure all of the stress of the hospital and a crying baby and no sleep had NOTHING to do with that. Right).

So we spent another day in the hospital with visitors for sweet Hannah Grace.

But on Friday!! Glorious Friday!! My BP was back to normal and we. were. free!  Well, we would be after we figured out the car seat and got the cute armbands cut off of us!

First things first, we had to get dressed! Everything I brought for Hannah Grace was too big! Poor girl spent most of her first days in a hospital provided little shirt. EVERYTHING was huge on her. My mom even went to buy Preemie clothes, but surprise, surprise--my sweet girl has exceptionally long legs and the preemie size would not fit!

To go home, Hannah Grace wore the Feltman gown that I came home from the hospital in 27 (almost 28) years ago.  I was an April baby and my January baby looked cute in her Spring time dress. But let's be honest. Feltman Brothers dresses/gowns are appropriate for ALL occasions! :)

We took multiple photos while we waited on our nurses to discharge us. I cannot get over how much she has grown since these photos.

Then it was time to go. Around the hospital and down the elevator we went in the wheelchair (with Hannah Grace screaming the whole time). We put Hannah Grace in the car and drove off towards home!  I think we barely made it out of the parking lot and she was asleep.

You can see the blanket we used to keep her warm for the journey home above.  It was created with love by David's mom. However, it was made out of the robe of my maternal Grandmother.  You can read about her in this post from the other day. Coot loved a good robe and this one was well worn. David's mom also made a little lovie blankie that is Hannah Grace's size.  Of everything in the nursery, I think this is my absolute favorite. {I promise nursery photos are coming}

We left the parking lot of the hospital.  And soon, we were on our street.

There was a big pink bow on the mailbox to celebrate our arrival home.

And a cute sign in the front yard for all to see and know that Hannah Grace had arrived!

Turning into the driveway.

I'm not sure where David is in these photos, but it was time to introduce Hannah Grace to her sister Lacey.  I had so missed my puppy while I was at the hospital and she was definitely more interested in seeing me than seeing her sister!

I think Lacey was looking at Hannah Grace and thinking, what's the big deal? "I've seen plenty of those.  They come to our house and then they leave a few hours later. She'll be gone soon!"

Boy was Lace in for a surprise. I think Hannah Grace left all of 4 times for doctors appointments in the first 8 weeks of life.  We're going lots of places now, but Lacey has slowly figured out that she is stuck with this little girl. There have been many instances of spit up on Lacey. Luckily, we have a groomer who loves us! Haha!

Oh Lace, you just wait. One day, she'll be trying to pull your hair out!

Hannah Grace welcome home! 1/17/2014