Sarah - Center Stage

OK...time to put a story to the pictures and get them into some sort of order.

These first pictures are all of the kids on their second visit to the hospital. They all wanted a turn holding Sarah. You can see that Joseph found a way to stay in the chair, regardless of whose turn it was! Such a sneaky boy.

These next few pictures were taken one quiet morning before the sun came up. The nursery would keep Sarah until she got hungry and then a nurse would bring her to my room for a feeding. If it was past 6 AM, I didn't bother sending her back (it takes her an hour to eat anyway) and chose to enjoy a little pre-dawn bonding time. That doesn't mean I was able to stay awake the whole time, but we bonded anyway. :)

Here she is, past ready to eat. Her tongue is working and looking for food. Hey! No starting without me!

Ahhh...! Contentment comes in a good swaddle and a full tummy. You can see the sunlight is starting to gather and is reflecting on the sheets behind her.

Here is what you get if you are not swift enough with getting her majesty into a good, solid feeding latch!

Such peace. She stopped liking that pacifier. We'll have to convince her eventually that she likes it again.

The hospital provides a "Stork Dinner" for the mommy and a companion on the night before her release from the hospital. I chose Chad as my companion. :) Here is our dinner. It was really yummy, especially in the shadow of being labeled "hospital food." I couldn't eat very much and wasted about 3/4 of some very good cheesecake. That's probably a good thing, but when am I going to get cheesecake again?

Here is Sarah on Sunday afternoon. She's all dressed up and ready to go home. I've learned that "newborn" sized clothes don't give much room to grow when you start out at 20 inches long. The outfit is not too big!

Here is Chad, dressed down from his church clothes of the morning. Maybe if I was an expert photographer, I'd be able to snap a picture of him with his eyes open. Sarah was upset at the delay and was letting us know her feelings.

We finally made it home and have had to hold the kids back ever since! They all want to hold her! Joseph has had a cold the whole time. I'm hoping Sarah has enough natural antibodies to keep her safe during this round of germs. Short of isolation, I don't know how to keep her from being exposed.

Here, Rebekah and Joseph are loving their baby. Such a cute bunch of kids!

These last two pictures are to show just how tiny and adorable our new baby is. She only sleeps this soundly when the sun is shining. I think she's part owl. The last picture is Sarah sleeping on her blanket, which is spread over my pillow (it has a green pillow case). It's just a standard size pillow. She fits on the pillow with more than enough room to spare!

These videos were taking during an early morning bonding time. Moving pictures are always so cute.





Even when they're just videos of a crying, hungry baby.