We're Home!

After 5 days in the hospital, I am super pumped to be back at home with all three of our kiddos together. I loved the hospital where Jane was born... the rooms were huge and beautiful, the nurses were on top of things and a lot of fun and we couldn't have asked for a better experience BUT we were so excited to finally leave!

I haven't had a chance to blog much recently and I must admit, I'm not sure what to write about next. I haven't documented Christmas or the first part of Nate's family's visit or the rest of my homemade gifts, but I also have a precious new baby to write about... do I write in order of when things happened, or skip to the baby and come back to Christmas later? Decisions, decisions :) Well, for now I'm just going to write down a few things from the hospital that I want to remember~

~ Unlike previous labors, this one started in the late afternoon. This meant that the kiddos actually saw us leave for the hospital (they were less than thrilled). When Nate met them on their way into the hospital the following afternoon, they sprinted to him and hugged on him like nobody's business. They had a hard time with the separation and I'm glad we're all together again.

~ Jane had a strong personality in the womb, so it's no surprise to me that we have already begun to witness her individuality. Because of the concerns over her breathing, Jane was not allowed to nurse at first but instead was bottle fed. I was in her NICU room feeding her and she was dutifully sucking down formula from a bottle for 5 minutes. I put the bottle down to see how much she had eaten and she had not actually taken a single sip! I looked down at her and she was frantically straining and trying to latch on to breast feed... HA! She had been faking eating, quite convincingly I might add, until she got her opportunity to strike. She also will pretend to fall asleep if she doesn't like what she's being fed and when the bottle is removed she's suddenly wide awake and trying to get to what she does want to eat... silly girl.

~ On our second full day in the hospital, Nate's fam brought him lunch (I could order room service for myself). Micah overheard someone mistakenly say that the food was for me. I was out of the room and Nate started to eat the food... apparently Micah went a bit nutso on him for eating "Mama's food". It's good to know I have someone out there looking out for me!

~ On New Year's Eve, Nate and I noticed something out our window. We turned the lights off and stood at our 4th floor windows that had views from I-10 and Barker Cypress south of I-10 all the way to Katy Mills and a good amount of area north of I-10 along this same corridor. Because fireworks are legal in Katy, we got a panoramic views of hundreds of people setting off their own fireworks at midnight. The sound was unbelievable and it was so cool to be completely surrounded by fireworks!

~ On my last night in the hospital I was supposed to vacate my room as insurance would not cover a 4th night. I was going to sleep in a recliner in Jane's NICU room. I had only gotten about 7 hours of sleep over the previous 3 nights combined so this was not a fun prospect. I called a nurse in to help me move some things to the NICU that evening. She told me that because I had been discharged, she wouldn't be able to get me any medication or anything after midnight, but that the nurses had been talking and the floor was rather empty and they wanted me to stay in my room so that I could have the bed to sleep in in between feedings in the NICU. So I would be there but the hospital would kind of turn a blind eye to it. I broke down crying when she told me from relief and gratitude and I imagine hormones ;-) God was so gracious to me by giving me Francis and Carmen and the other nurses who recognized my exhaustion and offered me a life line. Even with feedings every 3 hours, I had a very restful night and I felt God's peace.