First Days Home and a Tale or Two of Chaos

First things first. Friday was our first day home from the hospital. Here are some going home shots:




Here are pictures of Ethan and Grace with the baby. They were very excited to finally have baby Sophie -- and mom -- home.






For the first few days home, we noticed a pattern in her sleep habits. Basically she has two modes of being. She's either can't-wake-her-up-for-anything-asleep or won't-let-you-put-her-down-no-matter-what-asleep. Unfortunately, she's got the day and night mixed up, so its during the night that she won't stay asleep in her bassinet. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. She'll be fast asleep in my arms, and I'll carefully transfer her to her bed, and JUST as I'm settling back in bed and getting comfortable, the crying starts. And of course, as soon as I pick her up and hold her, she falls right back asleep. And so the pattern continues until FINALLY she stays asleep.

So, basically as far as recovering from the delivery, I feel great but understandably sleep-deprived. On Saturday night, Sarah's boyfriend, Drew, offered to make dinner for us. How nice is that? Sarah helped, and Laura joined us as well. He made "french burritos." In case you're wondering what exactly that is, Drew explained that on his mission -- in Paris -- they are sorely lacking in the mexican food department. So, the elders would improvise by making their own tortillas and gathering up the rest of the trimmings. They were so good, and I still can't believe how what a kind gesture it was for him to make dinner for us!

Here's a picture of the spread.

And here's a picture of Sarah and Drew (with Sophie).

Here's a picture of the aforementioned can't-wake-her-up-for-anything-asleep mode. Isn't she a doll?

A lot of people have asked how it is having 3 kids to take care of now. Well, below is a picture that's a metaphor for what my life has felt like from time to time over the past week.



Monday was our first day back to reality. Scott had school, and it was one of his long days, so he was gone from 8 till 5. It was surprisingly not as bad as I was expecting it to be. Sophie was still sleeping pretty much round the clock, so it wasn't too difficult dealing with the other 2.

On Tuesday, the above pictures are what I woke up to in Ethan's room. Apparently he had a very busy night trying to fall asleep. The rest of the day was still fine, though. Sophie had to go in for a check-up and she is my first child not to be jaundiced enough to have to go under the bilirubin lights! So that's good. She's lost more weight since being discharged from the hospital, though, so I guess all that sleeping is interfering with her eating. She weighed only 6 1/2 pounds at the doctor's office! Thats so TINY! I'm not used to such small babies.

Seriously, look at how skinny those little legs are!

Now on to the chaos. For those of you who may check the blogs on my sidebar, you may have heard mention of the 5 Days of Valentine on my sister Emily's blog. This is a completely made-up extension of the holiday that I started a year or two after Scott and I got married. I decided that one day was not sufficient enough to celebrate love, so I decided to create the 5 Days of Valentine. Well, the week in between coming off bedrest and actually having the baby, I went into total nesting overdrive. I got all the little trinkets and Valentine gifts for the kids and I decided to include my brothers and sisters this year, too, and something for the girls I visit teach. Ethan has been REALLY into Valentine's Day this year, so he was more than excited to put together the packages and make cards, etc. and we managed to get everything sent out 2 days before Sophie was born.

However, the one thing Ethan was really looking forward to was decorating cookies to take to "the loved ones." So, what did I find myself doing the night before Valentine's Day? Well, in between trying to get Sophie to stay asleep in her bassinet, I was finishing up making cards for the girls I visit teach (I had already assembled a little tin of treats for them the week before) and making sugar cookies so that Ethan would be able to decorate them the next day. I figured it would be FAR easier for me to just make the cookies than to deal with Ethan "helping" me to make them the next day.

Here's a picture of the cards I made for the girls I visit teach.


And a picture of all those cookies I made.

Well, I think I'm probably insane, because I didn't get to bed until almost 1 in the morning. And Sophie was up almost every hour during the whole night. And Wednesday is Scott's other long day at school. And Scott's mom and dad had gone up to Salt Lake the day before for a PEF conference and wouldn't be home until that evening. And Ethan and Grace were out of control fighting with each other off and on all day long. And basically it was the worst day ever.

There were moments of okay-ness. The kids really liked their Valentine shirts I got for them and they really liked decorating those cookies. However, sleep deprivation makes me a very mean mom, apparently, and around 2 in the afternoon, I absolutely lost it with Ethan. He had been picking on Grace and hurting her for about 20 minutes -- all while I was trying to get Sophie to wake up so I could feed her -- when he finally pushed me over the edge. He pushed Grace behind the baby swing and then ran around to the other side so that he could push the swing as hard as he could at her and the swing smacked her in the mouth and busted her lip and it started bleeding everywhere. Well, I screamed at him so hard that I'm pretty sure he was scared out of his mind, and then just for good measure I erased about 5 of his kid shows off of Tivo. He was not happy about that and threw a fit, but finally after we all calmed down, I felt really guilty and decided we should get started decorating those cookies so we'd have time to deliver them to "the loved ones" -- i.e. Sarah and Laura -- before we had to pick up Scott from school. This was actually one of the happier moments of the day, and I have the pictures to prove it!

Decorating the cookies

Eating the cookies

One of the finished products.

Anyway, the day finally ended, and I was able to get more sleep last night. And as they say, "tomorrow is another day." And today was indeed MUCH better than yesterday (see the below pictures for the extended metaphor of my life today). Most likely because I got to bed before midnight.

Now for some more light-hearted fare. Here are some pictures of the kids in their Valentine jammies (one of their 5 Days of Valentine gifts). They REALLY like them. Scott thinks the jammies are hideous, but I think they're cute because they match.

A moment of loving kindness.

Here are the kids on Valentine's Day in their new shirts.

(Do you like how drugged Grace looks in this shot?)

Here is a sweet gift that Sarah and Drew brought by for Sophie for her birthday/Valentine's Day.

And finally I was so excited to discover that Sophie has dimples in each of her cheeks! Now why does this make me so excited, you may ask? Well, I have this theory about people with dimples. I think dimples give people certain advantages in this world. I'm being serious. Think of every person you know with dimples. Didn't you find them to be immediately likeable? Anyway, that's just my opinion. I tried to get a picture of Sophie's, but its kind of difficult since she doesn't smile on command yet. Below is the best shot I could get.



Well, that's all folks. Sorry for the gratuitous kid pictures. We really are enjoying Sophie. She's starting to wake up a little more in the last day or so, and she really is a sweet baby. I still can't get over how tiny she is! In closing I'll leave you with one more picture of her. This is the most recent, as it was taken just this evening when she was actually awake.