I'm A Big Sister!

I am overjoyed to be able to post something as wonderful as this for my daughter! She is absolutely the BEST big sister that ever was. She is legitimately ecstatic to be a big sister. As we left for the hospital she kissed my belly and said "We'll see you soon, Sawyer" and my heart melted. She also told me that when I got home from the hospital my belly would be flat again and shouted out "Yay!" - maybe because that meant, in her mind, that Mommy would be able to get down on the floor to play again! The day after he was born she arrived at the hospital with her Grandparents. She was proudly carrying a big blue teddy bear balloon that said "It's A Boy" that she picked out at the hospital gift shop as she tiptoed in the door and cocked her head to get a first peek at her new little brother. She was wide eyed as she walked up to me to see him, wearing her "Big Sister" shirt. She asked to see his feet and hands, then looked up at me and said "He's beautiful!" - I was in a puddle of happy tears. I didn't expect that from a 3 year old, she is the sweetest little girl. She was so excited to get to hold him for the first time with Daddy's help. With each new person holding him, she wanted to explore his feet and hands, she has been fascinated with them for two weeks. After the visit, she got to go to the hospital cafeteria with Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa for lunch and I heard she got complimented by a stranger for how well behaved she was.

I ended up needing to stay in the hospital an extra day for a test for a blood clot in my leg (luckily, no clot was there), so my Husband had to run home to take care of a few things. He said when he got home she hugged him then ran down the hall saying "Where's my baby?" and she was so disappointed that Brother and Mommy were still at the hospital.

The following day we finally got to come home. She was waiting at the door as we came in and she was almost vibrating with excitement when she saw her baby brother. She checked him out, then started squealing "I'm a big sister now!!" It was like it was official in her mind now and she couldn't wait to scream it from the mountain tops! After getting settled in a bit, she sat down beside me, rubbed my belly and said "It's flat again!" (which it isn't, just more flat than it was), then she got a little grin on her face and said "Hello Nobody" to my belly, which had us all cracking up! Smart little girl realized there was no longer a baby in there.

The past two weeks have been mostly good. I have a lot of anxiety and worry that something is wrong with him. We had to have ultrasounds done on his kidneys and hips because of the single umbilical artery and the breech position. Luckily those came back completely normal. We have his two week pediatrician appointment today. He sleeps a lot, which I worry about even though the pediatrician says it's normal for some newborns to sleep 22 hours per day. My milk production is poor, so I'm hoping that will boost up. I started back on my anxiety medication and I'm hoping that will give me some relief in the next week or so. Right now I have some chest congestion, so I'm wearing a mask and trying to breast feed as much as possible because I can't even think about how worried I'd be if he caught this! I'm grateful my husband is home to help until Monday. Our daughter is adjusting well. Mostly all good things and she really loves to help and play mommy to her baby dolls and stuffed animals. Every once in a while she acts up a bit when she isn't getting play time with us when she wants. All in all we are settling into a little family of four groove and life couldn't be better!