Life at Home with Kate

We are all having fun getting to know this special little spirit. So far, this is what we have learned...

Kate LOVES her hands.  She loves to suck on her fingers, and hates it when we bundle her with her arms in the blanket.  She wants to have her arms loose to keep them up by her face.

Kate is a great sleeper during the day when there are people around to hold her.

At night when it's just Mommy, Kate is not such a great sleeper.  To say that I'm a bit sleep deprived would be a huge understatement.  And she won't sleep anywhere but right next to me in my bed.  And she likes to eat all night long.  Here she is the first morning home, trying to wake up.

There is always someone willing to hold Kate.

Kate has a powerful set of lungs on her, and she uses them whenever she isn't happy.

Kate has the same sensitive milk protein intolerance that her brothers had.  Kate's mom is not enjoying the very strict no dairy diet.  On the bright side, it forces me to eliminate eating chocolate, ice cream, pizza, cake, cookies, butter, and everything else good, which should help me lose the baby weight quickly.  On the down side, we've had a pretty fussy baby this week while dairy works it's way out of my system. 

99% of our time revolves around Kate, but the other 1% is spent doing fun things like dressing up like a cowboy.

Owen is not a Kate fan.  The first few days home, he refused to have anything to do with me if I was holding Kate.  Each morning he would wake up, and come out to see me feeding Kate on the couch.  He would throw himself onto the floor crying, as if to say, "She's still here?!"  Finally this week he's warming up to her.  My parents went home on Monday and Scott went back to work on Monday.  Tuesday morning Nate went to preschool, which left just me, Kate and Owen at home together.  He finally sat on the couch next to me while I fed Kate, and snuggled with me.  I think he finally decided that Kate was here to stay, so he might as well get used to it.

Kate likes her bouncy seat in moderation.  It buys me a 10 minute break to change Owen's diaper or feed the boys lunch, when I need two arms.   But most of the time, I do everything one handed with Kate in my arms.

And the biggest thing I've learned this week with Kate, is that I am extremely blessed.  I have amazing kids, every single one of them.  And I have an awesome husband who goes above and beyond when it comes to helping out around here.  He's such a great dad and a thoughtful husband.  I'm truly lucky to have married him.  On the third or fourth day after Kate was born, I was complaining that I had nothing to wear that fit me.  So, when he went grocery shopping, he bought me clothes--a couple of shirts and a couple pairs of capris (he didn't know for sure what size I was, so he bought two sizes).  I was so grateful the next day to have something to put on that fit.  He's such a great man.

And the last thing this week has taught me...babies grow too fast.  A week went by in a flash.  I'm trying to hold her and cherish her every minute, knowing that this newborn stage is so short and fleeting.  If only I could freeze time and just enjoy this a bit longer.

Our Days in the Hospital

Monday afternoon, after we got moved up to the 8th floor and settled into our room, we had just a little bit of quiet time with Kate.  We thought we would escape having to check her blood sugar like we did with Owen, but after the nurse talked with our pediatrician, she told us we needed to check her blood sugar because I'd been on a drug that controls blood sugar while I was pregnant (Metformin for my PCOS).  Thankfully, Kate passed all 4 blood sugar tests (the last one was the middle of the night).  But, because we were doing blood sugar tests, I had to feed her every two hours until she passed her last test.  That feeding schedule didn't leave much time for resting.

The kids arrived later that afternoon and Owen finally got to meet Kate.  He wasn't sure what to make of her, and got bored really quickly.  Scott ended up taking him for walks around the halls of the hospital while the other kids all took another turn holding her. 

Just as the kids were getting ready to head home, Uncle Marc and Aunt Kenna came to visit.  It was so fun getting to show off my cute little baby.  After they left, the pediatrician visited our room and checked Kate.  He said she was perfectly healthy, and that he'd be back in the morning to perform a more detailed checkup.

And then we had quiet again, just me, Scott and Kate.  With all our other kids, Scott has stayed the night in the hospital with me.  This time, I had planned to send Scott home to be with our other kids overnight.  I wanted the transition to be as easy as possible on the kids, especially Aaron, and thought that having Dad there to put them to bed and get them up the next morning would be a good thing.  So, at 8:30 that evening, I said goodbye to Scott and sent him home. 

And then it was just me and Kate.  She would eat, then we'd snuggle, then she'd eat some more.  I didn't get much sleep that night, because the nurses woke me up to feed her every 2 hours, but I didn't mind.  It was really nice having her all to myself.  I did miss Scott, though.  I wished he could be there to enjoy her with me.  And I found myself wishing the kids could be there to share her too.  I had planned to stay in the hospital till Wednesday, but by the time Tuesday morning came, I was ready to go home.  I was so homesick for the rest of my family, that I wanted to go home to them.  And I was feeling so good.  The delivery was so easy because she was smaller.  I didn't tear at all.  I had no residual pain, and just felt like spending another day in a hospital bed would drive me crazy. 

My doctor came to visit me at 7 that morning.  I told him I was ready to go home, so he signed my discharge papers.  I got teary as I thanked him for helping me get this baby.  He brushed it off, and said it was nothing.  I told him he went above and beyond with this one.  All the appointments and ultrasounds in the beginning, making sure Kate survived those first few weeks.  He didn't even bill me for all those ultrasounds.  He really is a great doctor, and I love that he has been there for every single delivery--all seven babies!

Next was the pediatrician's visit in the nursery.  Once again, he found her to be perfectly healthy.  After her newborn checkup, I took her back to my room and fed her again.  Then I sent her to the nursery while I took a quick shower.  Scott arrived just as I finished getting ready (around 10), and we both headed to the nursery to see Kate.  With Scott back, we were able to finally give her her first bath.

 She didn't love the bath, but she did love lying under the heating lamp.

Later that day Aunt Jamie came to visit, and I got these cute pictures of Kate sleeping in Aunt Jamie's arms.

After Jamie left, I let Scott have some snuggle time with his little girl.

All day we worked to get all of our paperwork and all of Kate's testing done so we'd be able to go home with the kids when they came to visit after school.  When the kids arrived we surprised them by telling them that we were going to bring Kate home a day early.  They were all very happy.

We loaded our baby into her carseat to bring her home.  She looked so tiny in it.

Of course, when we got to the parking lot, we had fighting and tears over who got to ride with us and Kate in the truck, and who had to ride with Grandma and Grandpa in the suburban.  Nate, Sara, and Josh were the lucky ones who got to ride with us, and Savannah agreed to ride in the suburban with the promise that she would be the first to get to hold Kate when we got home. 

And so at one day old, Kate came home and joined the chaos of our busy family of 9.