Living a Dream

This past week has been a dream.  I have never been so happy (and so tired!) in all my life.  I keep pinching myself and wondering if this is real life.  Yes, Alex, it indeed is.

I say this reality has been like a dream because everything seems so perfect right now.  We have two beautiful, healthy, amazing kids--a boy and a girl--a lovable dog, jobs, and the best friends and family we could ever ask for.  Rosie's birth has put a lot of things in perspective, and I don't know if it's still the raging postpartum hormones talking or what, but this life I'm living is amazing, and definitely seems like a dream.  I'm going to really try and remember this feeling I'm feeling right now, because I know this attitude and outlook probably won't always be there (although I hope it is!), but I need something to look back on and remember how great our lives are and how much we've been blessed with.

With that said, Rosie coming into our family has been incredible and amazing.  I think I've told all of my friends how crazy it feels to actually have a daughter.  I know I speculated for most of my pregnancy that we were having a girl, but I guess I just never thought I'd actually have one; that #2 would come out a boy.  Almost a week after her birth I am still in shock and awe that we have a little girl!  One of each.  Just perfect.

Since I penned Rosie's birth story, a lot has happened!  Okay, not really, but we were discharged from the hospital on Friday, and had our first night home as a family of 4 (5 with Scoots).

Rosie had a touch of jaundice in the hospital, but luckily since we got a 5-day stay due to my c-section we were able to knock it out with a lot of breastfeeding and a bili light.  Her numbers came down almost immediately and she was way low on the scale the morning we were going to leave.  So no more jaundice for our little lady!

We had a lot of visitors in the hospital, which was awesome and so different from when we had Patrick.  Most of them seemed to come armed with an adorable girl outfits, which was fantastic since we had zilch to start with (again, back to the thinking she was probably going to be a boy!).

Patrick came up to visit his little sister every day.  He was so good -- for the most part.  He only had a meltdown after he seemed to be cooped up in my room for too long (hey, I don't blame him!).  But he was definitely my favorite visitor all week.  I cannot wait to see how his little personality and relationship blooms and develops with his new sister at home as she grows up!  

My c-section recovery is going leaps and bounds better than it did with post Patrick's.  I am so thankful for this, especially since there's an almost 2 year old at home who doesn't understand too well that mom can't pick him up and he can't jump on her.  2 days after my c-section I was up walking the halls of the hospital, albeit very slowly.  This felt really good to do, and I've been trying to get up and walk a little bit each day to help with my recovery.  Earlier today we even took a short family walk in our new jogging stroller down the path!  Scooter perched himself ON HIS OWN underneath Rosie's seat for the entire ride.  We officially have the world's laziest dog.

I had Mike snap a pic of my fabulous doc who delivered Rosie so I could include it in her baby book.  Even though I wasn't crazy about the guy who delivered Patrick, I wish I'd have done this with him too.  Oh well.  So glad I have one with her!  She's my absolute favorite doc and I'm so so so glad she was able to deliver Rosie!

We took Rosie for her day after discharge check up at the pediatrician this morning and she rocked it.  Not only did she get some nice comments for her fluffy butt, she also is only 2 ounces away from her birthweight and all signs of her jaundice are gone!  Woo hoo!  The doc said she looked amazing (and didn't even shed one tear through her exam) and we will head back next week for another check up and weight check.  Hopefully she'll be well past her birthweight then; girl loves her some mama's milk.

At home and the hospital, Patrick seemed very smitten with his little sister, even if it only lasted for a few seconds.  I just love these two to pieces and can't wait for the many feuds, fights, and friendships they will form in the coming years.  Ahhh, mama heart melting again!

To say I've taken many pics of Rosie is an understatement; I've taken HUNDREDS already.  I think I did the same with Patrick?  Maybe?  I can't remember.  I'm sure I did.  I love me some pics.  And, if you follow me on Instagram, I'm sure you're probably sick of all of the baby spam pics I've shared.  I'm sorry.  I really try to resist posting every.single.pic, but dang it, it's so hard.  She's so darn cute (I'm biased, I know) and I like sharing her with others!  Plus, I have so many family on IG that wouldn't see her if it weren't for pics, so I use that to justify it to myself to post away like crazy.  

Anyways, I hope to take some newborn pics of Rosie tomorrow (or next week) so I can order and send out her birth announcements.  That's actually my one goal for the week!   

Parents of the year here have ZERO newborn disposables (I only bought size 1 disposables cause I thought he/she would be huge!) so we're doing cloth now that we're home, and it's going awesome!  we're using Applecheeks only for now because they can fold down and stay away from her cord.  So far, so good!  Hopefully her cord will fall off soon and we can use the other brands we've got as well.  We do love cloth and even though we planned on not starting till after her cord fell off, we're happy that we are doing it now since we got home and we officially have TWO in cloth!  Oodles of laundry for us :)  Haha, but we're managing.  Stay tuned for matching toddler/baby dipe pics to come!

Rosie's first meeting of Scooter went about like this: they both slept through it!  Haha!  Minus trying to lick attack her face every .2 seconds, Scooter really hasn't minded the new little human in the house.  He probably appreciates someone new in the house who shares his love for sleeping 23 hours out of the day.

SLEEPING!  Rosie is a great sleeper for a newborn.  I mean, the girl likes her milk, and won't go more than a few hours day or night without it.  She'll cluster feed (aka want to eat every hour) during the day and night, but for the most part goes a solid 3 hours before she wants to eat again.  Thanks to my friend Tiff's recommendation, we got a Woombie and it's been great (thus far!) for her to sleep in.  I actually ordered a second one just in case little miss has a pee accident in the middle of the night and leaks out of her dipe, we'll have a backup.  I really hope she takes after her brother and is an excellent sleeper...but only time will tell.  I'm preparing myself that she won't be and we'll just get crappy sleep from here on out...so whatever she does different than that will be a bonus!

Wow.  What an oh-so-choppy-jump-around-all-over-the-place blog post!  I'm sorry about that.  We'll blame the new mama again baby brain.  But yeah, things are going great now that our little family got a tad bit bigger, and life is good.  It's really a dream, and I feel like I'm just livin' it!  I really hope this feeling lasts, or if it doesn't, I at least can come back here and read this post and remember the joy and happiness I am feeling right now in my life.  I am so blessed, and I am trying to savor every minute, good or bad, in this life I'm living.  

I'll leave you with this ah-dorable video of Patrick saying "night night" to his Ro Ro (what he calls Rosie).  I dieeeee.  This might be the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Seriously.  Have a great one friends!