Wonderful Baby Livin' on Love — Mc.Mastering Our Life

Jul 26

Jul 26 Wonderful Baby Livin' on Love

The first week of life with a child was …. Weirdly natural. Other than the severe lack of sleep, Daniel and I both felt like nothing in our lives had really changed. It wasn’t as difficult as a shift as I thought it would be. Like getting married so young. I just tell people, well, we’re not doing anything now that we wouldn’t have been doing before… Other than the many Doctor appointments, that we probably would NOT have been doing so much of prior.

We got home from the hospital on a Thursday afternoon and the first couple of days after we got home we spent just by ourselves. (We were greeted by the greatest welcome home! Thanks to my mom and brothers. It was reallyfun to drive up, and the neighbors kept driving past our house super slow trying to figure out what was going on.)

Our surprise waiting at our house when we got home

No one was allowed over. (Thank you Heather for the brilliant idea!) It was really good for us because it allowed us to take the time to get to know Ruby, and to understand her and the new dynamic she brought into our daily routine and home. The dogs loved her. To be honest they didn’t really care about her. I had spent all this time reading about how to prepare ones dogs for the arrival of a baby; I spent time training them and getting them ready. They didn’t even care. They were more concerned about all of the new furniture, than what was now living in the new furniture. Spending time just the three of us (or more like 6) was super fun and relaxing. We spent a lot of time just looking at her, and holding her, and sighing. It was really fun to be back in the house and actually using all of the CRAP we had stressed over purchasing and slaved over putting together.

While in the hospital the nurses discovered that Ruby had a case of minor jaundice. As a new mother this was incredibly stressful. The nurses at the hospital made it sound like it was this horrible, awful problem. At her very first checkup (which was the day after she came home) her Doctor explained to Daniel and I where she sat on this curve, and that all babies are born with some jaundice, but that her’s was just a little higher than normal; this was something they had not mentioned at the hospital. Watching the doctors and nurses test your three day old child for jaundice is really no fun. They have to poke the bottom of their feet and squeeze out blood. Ruby, like any normal little person, screamed through the whole thing, and we discovered that when she gets REALLY mad she turns a beautiful shade of…ruby. She had gone through this process twice now, and her Doctor wanted us to come back on Sunday (her first checkup was a Friday) and have her checked one last time. He felt that she was most likely going to be ok, but he just wanted her checked to make sure it didn’t spike for some weird reason. DREADING having to take her back to have her foot poked and squeezed one more time we did everything we could to make sure she was getting better. Feeding her every 2-3 hours, watching her poop, and praying. When we took her back to the doctor Sunday, she didn’t even need to poke her foot because she said Ruby looked just fine. I cried.

Sara, Daniel’s sister, and her family drove down from Seattle to meet Ruby and spend time with her. It was fun to see them and to let the kids meet their new cousin. Elijah really wanted to hold her, and give her kisses… Which lasted for about 2 minutes and then he was over it. Gotta love little boys

That first Sunday (July 21, 2013) we took Ruby to meet her great grandmother Joan, whom she is named after. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon. My grandmother became instantly enamored with her great-granddaughter and spent the whole time just staring at her. It was adorable to watch. I was really glad and grateful that I was feeling well enough to take Ruby to meet my grandma.

Monday, July 22, 2013 started off like any other day. Daniel had left for work, which left Ruby and I alone for the first time. Everything went swimmingly. She took a decent enough morning nap that I was able to get a shower in and get ready for the day. My mom called around 11 and asked if her and Iverson could come over and visit, to which I replied of course. While I was finishing up getting ready in the bathroom my mom came in the house, and I heard her putting the dogs away, which I found slightly out of the ordinary but I didn’t care.. She came to the door after she finished and informed that she had some guests with her just to let me know. While getting dressed I was kind of pokey, I wasn’t really sure who the guests were, but I figured it was probably my Aunts (my mom’s sisters). What I was not prepared for was to come around the corner and see my Uncle (my mom’s brother) and his beautiful daughter standing in my entry way. They had driven all the way up from California to come visit Ruby, and the rest of the family. It was incredibly fun and exciting to see them!

Craig and Cata stayed until early Wednesday morning. We got together as a family Tuesday night, whereupon Ruby got to meet her great Aunts as well, except they all decided that instead of being great Aunts and Uncle, they were going to be awesome My Uncle Craig took some super cute pictures of Ruby… And shared with us pictures from his and Cata’s trip to Italy. (Jealous?! Indeed. I was.)