Home at last

If you have kids, I'm sure you experienced the ups and downs of bringing home a newborn for the first time.  If you don't have kids, I'll explain ours.

It all starts on the drive home from the hospital.  Jon and I chatted excitedly via the rear-view mirror because I obviously sat in the back with Peanut.  We talked about how psyched we were to finally get home, take a warm shower in our own bathroom, use real shampoo, introduce Peanut to the puppies.  We were thrilled to spend time as a family without any nurses or doctors interrupting us.  We couldn't wait to relax on the couch together and set up many of our awesome gifts. 

Then we pulled in the driveway.  The panic started setting in.

You mean we would be home all alone with no doctors or nurses checking up on us?  What have we done?

We walked in and nervously introduced Peanut to our house.  Our friend brought back our dogs and we followed all the right steps to let them meet the new addition to the family.  Then we started the routine of changing, feeding, and burping the baby.

Our changing table didn't have the high bars like the hospital so we had to be more cautious.  Peanut didn't like how much colder our house was than the hospital, so she started wailing the second that her little bum was exposed to the cold.

She didn't like the feel of the wipes either.  We managed to change her and I marched her to the living room to attempt to feed her.  I say "attempt" again because the second that we left the hospital we forgot how to feed her.  Everything hurt.  Nothing was going right.  Peanut wailed out of hunger while I struggled to get her to latch on.

Then she threw up her entire meal in one big burp.  It was my turn to cry.

The evening didn't go much better.  Peanut fussed and cried most of the night, letting us snooze for 30 minutes at a time.  But there was no one in our hallway that could help us.  There wasn't anyone to give us guidance.  We were both in panic - our perfect sleeping angel wasn't sleeping.  What were we doing wrong?  Did she sense our fear?

By morning we were exhausted and defeated.  Nursing the baby wasn't going well at all and I was crying every time she latched on.  The baby seemed to hate everything in the new surroundings.  We were so lost.

Then a new day started.  I pulled ouy all the information from the hospital and books on nursing and reread it.  I tried every tip and hint they mentioned, reading it over and over again before nursing.  I called a lactation specialist at our Pediatrics practice and she walked me through some of my mistakes.  Peanut and I seemed like we were on a way to recovery.  Jon plugged in the wipe warmer and Peanut seemed to enjoy the warm wipes a lot better.  She even stayed awake for an hour or so and "played" with us.

That evening we decided that we weren't dressing her in enough layers for bedtime and put on an extra layer.  She slept beautifully.

We successfully survived the first couple of days at home and even figured out how to keep our first kid happy.  We were on our way to becoming parents.