Meeting the Sisters!

Olivia and Ellie came down to the hospital with Allison to meet Adam that afternoon. They were very excited to see him, and generally curious about exploring the hospital.

My first 24 hours in the hospital were really difficult for me, because of pain. I had an incredible amount of pain throughout my hips and my lower back. The first time I stood up I thought I was going to collapse. It took a good 24 hours and lots of pain medication to get the pain under control. It took several weeks after the birth for the pain to go away, as well. It was definitely my most difficult recovery, and I was not prepared for that.

We also struggled with nursing (again!). We could not get Adam to latch on, and when he did, he would fall off quickly. He had a poor latch, so I was getting bruised and sore from nursing. Because it took so long to get him to nurse, his blood sugar had dropped, and he had to have it continually testing over the next couple days to make sure he was maintaining his blood sugar. His poor little feet were so cut up, he probably had about 10 poke marks on each of his feet. We continued to have nursing troubles at home for the next several weeks.

Adam was a great sleeper in the hospital, though. Our first night he slept for 5 hours straight, and probably would have slept longer if we didn't try to get him up to nurse.

We were excited to get him home, and the girls were happy to have everyone back. When we got home, Olivia asked me when the other baby was coming out. I realized she thought I was still pregnant, since I still had a tummy, and I told her that Adam was the baby, and that there wasn't another one in Mommy's tummy. She still couldn't process that, and kept telling me that my stomach was big, so I finally told her that I was just fat, and there wasn't another baby. That seemed completely reasonable to her, and she didn't ask again :) She loved to hold him, and would go running onto the couch and ask us to put him in her arms. They were so sweet together, and once she even fell asleep holding him.

Ellie seemed to struggle with having a new baby around. She was never mean to the baby, but she seemed concerned that she was being replaced. It just took some extra attention from us and extended family to reassure her that she was, indeed, still absolutely adorable and loved.