We had a good first night in the hospital - we both even got to sleep a little bit. We had to wake the baby to feed her even. The longest the hospital will let them go at night is 4 hours between feeds. Overnight we began the big debate over the name selection and didn't really get anywhere. John preferred one name, I preferred the other. We finally decided we needed to sleep more than we needed a name for the baby and agreed to revisit the problem in the morning.
We had a busy morning. The baby had her hearing screening done, had another visit from the pediatrician, a visit with the OB and had her pictures taken all before lunch (I'll post the hospital pictures separately because there are a lot of them)! We also had a visit from the cutest big brother and his Grandma! The hardest part about being in the hospital was being away from William. Up until the baby was born, the longest I was ever away from him was roughly 7 hours. Even though I was overjoyed about our newest bundle of joy, I was fiercely missing me some big boy.
William and Grandma coming up for their visit - William is carrying his present for the baby. How cute is our boy?
William giving the baby "pats". He was surprisingly gentle with her - I was so relieved!
Still calling her his "baby brother", he also says "cute!" when he's looking at her!
Helping Mama hold the baby and looking at her little hands/fingers.
A favorite activity: playing cars with Daddy on the windowsill and watching the cars drive by the hospital
Hmm...turns out when babies cry, they are LOUD! So funny that he did this on his own!
After the big boy left and every one else quieted down, John and I tackled the name problem again. In the end, we put the two top names on pieces of paper and put them into a hat. Same story as what we did when William was born and we were trying to name him. The name that came out of the hat: Amelia. And so she was named.
For the record, this was not the name I had already given her in my head during our special moment the day before. However, John did not really like my name very well...and in the end he was right about her being a girl...and the paperwork was filled out and turned in...so the name stayed. But, I will tell you that I struggled mightily with the name for the first week or so. I'm guessing largely due to hormones, because Amelia was one of our top names and a name I really like. But, I was having a hard time telling people her name without feeling like throwing up and I cried about it almost every day. I didn't want to blog about it because I didn't want to write her name. It just didn't feel like her name. We talked about it quite a bit and even made some phone calls to different offices and looked into officially changing her name. And then we didn't. For a lot of reasons that are probably also hormone related and not very interesting. In the end, I wanted to give you a heads up about my feelings about her name, especially if you are planning on talking about it with me in person. If you're looking for me to be all...warm and fuzzy about it, I'm not. I love her name and we're keeping it.
I've rewritten the last few sentences 100 times now and they still sound crabby. I don't really feel crabby about it anymore - you'll just have to take my word for it.
PS And no, I won't tell you the other name.
More Easter cookies!
They baked and decorated birthday cupcakes for Amelia's birthday
and ate some of the decorations...
Look at all the pretty cupcakes!
They rode bikes in the neighborhood
They went to our music class together on Wednesday morning!
William and Grandma coming up for their visit - William is carrying his present for the baby. How cute is our boy?
William giving the baby "pats". He was surprisingly gentle with her - I was so relieved!
Still calling her his "baby brother", he also says "cute!" when he's looking at her!
Helping Mama hold the baby and looking at her little hands/fingers.
Hmm...turns out when babies cry, they are LOUD! So funny that he did this on his own!
It was raining outside, so we went to the Mills inside play area. Good thing Aunt Megan was with (her first trip to our house) - she didn't mind climbing up, over and around with William!
Sometimes it is nice to just watch your energetic kid play from afar...
Buying tickets for the....
Merry-go-round!
Weeee.....! Who is having more fun?
We also stopped by the NASCAR store for a quick picture
But ended up staying for awhile to admire the cars.
Playing house with Grandpa...ding dong! Who is here?
Sunday afternoon, Grandpa and Megan had to leave. After dinner, William and daddy went out to work on their lawnmowers to get them ready for mowing season!
William loves to be a helper, so he would carefully watch what John was doing and then do his best to mimic with his own lawnmower...very cute!
And then Sunday night we got this before bathtime! Perfect time to start potty training, right? Five hours before the baby is born? For the record, I ask him if he wants to use the potty every time we're in the bathroom. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. Usually he sits for 6.2 seconds before hopping up to do something else. Tonight he sat and sat...and revealed something pretty exciting when he finally got up. Has he done it since? Nope, but that's okay. We're going to go full force with the training late this spring/summer.
Look! The baby brought you a present!
How did the baby know you like cars?
Helping Mama hold his new baby sister when she was just a few hours old(or "baby brother" as he likes to call her)
Grandma Kim gets her hands on her new grandbaby
Grandma and her grandchildren
Look baby! Cars!
A family of four!
