Week One

Our first week as a family of four has been both exhausting and so incredibly fulfilling. Ironically enough, moving and the logistics surrounding that have led to more complications and stress in many ways than bringing Juliet home. We've been trying to juggle unpacking boxes and completing necessary home repairs along with all the regular "new baby" stuff. My sister gave me a hard time because within the hour after Juliet had been born, I was already dictating to people, "The water heater repair guy will be at the house by five. And the drywall guy will be there tomorrow at eight..."

We're trying to constantly remind ourselves of what's most important right now--the boxes will still be there weeks (and months...or years...) from now, but this time with our two girls is precious.

We brought Juliet home on Friday, two days after she was born. From the get-go, she was an easy baby. She slept great and rarely cried. I was definitely anxious to bring her home but was also loving the "break" that being in the hospital afforded me. I didn't even care that they woke me up every few hours to give me meds or take my vitals. As any veteran mom knows, its a real luxury to be the one being taken care of, so I was going to soak up every minute of it.

Right before we left the hospital on Friday, they checked Juliet's bilirubin levels and realized she was jaundiced enough to warrant us having a special UV light (a "bili blanket") at home for her for a few days. Tom and I both had jaundice as babies (as do a lot of other otherwise perfectly healthy babies) so I wasn't super concerned but I did become very vigilant about tracking feedings and diaper changes, since those are two key components in getting rid of jaundice.

We decided that we wanted to spend our first day home together as just our little family of four, so we came home to a quiet house and had a low key night. Surprisingly, things felt very normal with Juliet home with us. It was as if nothing was really all that different and she blended seamlessly into our lives and routine.

My mom arrived first to help, followed by Tom's mom later in the week. They were both invaluable and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to manage on my own.

Juliet had two doctor's appointments during the week and we learned that her bilirubin levels were low enough that we no longer needed the bili blanket (oh happy day!).

I know this could change at any moment, but she is really an easy, easy baby. She reminds us so much of Libby, both physically and temperament-wise. Both girls were great sleepers from day one, rarely cried and loved to be held.

Libby is doing great as a big sister. I thought there may be some early adjustment issues, but so far, so good. She adores Juliet and talks to her in "baby talk" all the time. She loves to give her hugs and kisses and jumps at the opportunity to help with anything she can.

Things I want to remember from this first week: Juliet would love nothing more than to find her thumb (in fact, she was born with a blister on her hand from sucking in utero)! A paci does the trick for now, but I have a feeling we have another thumb-sucker on our hands. Juliet senses the moment she's not being held. Its one of the only times she gets fussy. Juliet hates diaper changes way more than Libby ever did. She also gets the hiccups all.the.time. I forgot how much newborns sleep--this girl is seriously only awake for like ten minutes a day it feels like! Our first outing with Juliet was to Babies R Us and Menard's. She did great!