The best picture I could get of Rose in her Halloween outfit for school
On Halloween morning, we took some pictures of Rose and Zoe in their Halloween shirts and then headed to the party at Waverly Place in our costumes (thanks to my friend Katie for passing them on to us). We got lots of compliments as Rose enjoyed the playground, checking out the booths, and walking down the catwalk. At the end of the event, we shopped and enjoyed lunch outside on the patio at Whole Foods.
Rose and Zoe smiling for the camera
The Miller ladies
Daddy and his little girls
Fisher(wo)man and our lobsters
We hadn't been able to find time to carve pumpkins this past week, so after Rose decided she wasn't going to nap, we carved some pumpkins in the driveway. It was getting late in the day, so we wanted to be available to the trick or treaters in case anyone came early. Plus, it's easier to clean up outside. Colin is very artistic, certainly more than me and impressive for someone without any training. While he looked for some inspiration for his design online, I used my store-bought stencil set to design my pumpkin. With Rose wanting to help, there was no way my stencil outline was going to work out. Thankfully, Colin drew a face for me and Rose to carve. Rose managed to let me cut and then we both worked to clean out the inside. Meanwhile, Colin designed, cut and cleaned out a second pumpkin. I was surprised that Rose was so helpful at (and into) cleaning out the pumpkin, but once we were almost finished, she wanted to put all the seeds back inside.
You'll notice in the pictures below that Rose is in a cat Halloween costume that she only wore about 30 minutes. It's nice to have friends to give you costumes...she had choices to be a cat, a flamingo, or Winnie the Pooh, and ultimately didn't end up being any of those. We trick or treated in our fisher(wo)man/lobster outfits for about 30 minutes on our street only. Rose enjoyed trick or treating once she realized that you went to people's door, got to socialize a bit, and then they give you something to put in the bag. She didn't really get the whole costume bit and was terrified of daddy's scary mask (and a few scary costumes). Zoe slept the whole time in her stroller.
Zoe in her gifted pumpkin outfit while we carved pumpkins
Rose wanting to help mommy design her pumpkin with the stencil set
Rose helping to scoop out seeds and pumpkin filling
Daddy's amazing creations
Our many pumpkins from several farm trips this fall
I love that Colin's pumpkin is eating a little pumpkin
I was bummed not to have any pictures of trick or treating this year, but after pumpkin-carving (and Colin cutting his hand), the night was more of a challenge than it was fun for us Millers. Rose skipping her afternoon nap was the driving factor, coupled with her teething, a cold (runny nose) that won't quit, and our trying to fit too much in late in the day. It was a challenge to get her dressed, I couldn't find part of Zoe's outfit as we were ready to leave (which fell slightly under the couch), Zoe generally wants to eat/nurse longer most evenings, Rose dropped the iPad on the concrete while skyping and cracked the screen, and she was overtired when we finally managed to turn the lights out on trick or treaters to put her to bed.
Colin had set up the fire pit with our chairs in the driveway to greet trick or treaters (as many others in the neighborhood do), and it would have been nice to hang out there for a bit for the two hours most people come by. It probably would have been an enjoyable night if Rose had slept her 2 hours during the afternoon (and if her teeth didn't take so long to come through!). She's been teething for the past few weeks and I'm only now starting to see the two upper canines come through. We had a rough time in July with the four molars and are again experiencing challenges with teething. The poor girl is miserable when she's teething. I sure hope we get through this phase quickly and that the second molars that should come in 6-12 months won't be so hard on her.
The big news with Miss Zoe is her growth. She is growing like a weed and the statistics prove it. In just one month Zoe nearly gained two pounds and one inch. At her one month visit, she was 9lbs, 3oz and 21 inches long, putting her at the 52nd percentile for height and 54th percentile for weight. It didn't take long for her to outgrow her newborn clothes (length-wise). I can't say I'm surprised at her growth...Zoe eats like a champ! Not only does she nurse often, she takes big gulps and seems to eat quickly. Thankfully, I don't have any problems producing the milk she needs, and she is often satisfied after a full feed.
Her schedule is fairly predictable. She wants to eat every 2.5-3.5 hours most of the day, and generally nurses more often (like every 1-2 hours) in the evenings (dinner until 10:30p bedtime). She's been fairly consistent with a 10:30pm feed, a 1:45-2:45am feed, and a 5:15-5:45am feed. Like her sister, she sleeps well in the mornings, sometimes going 4 hours. She does great going out and sleeps well in her carseat. She also generally likes to swing and has no problems sleeping through the various noises in the house. I'm surprised when she sleeps through Darwin's barking and Rose's loud chatter (and poking and prodding).
Unlike Rose, Zoe is not as fussy during the evening witching hour. It could be that I nurse her much more in the evenings, or it could be her personality, I'm not really sure.
During the day, we've been trying to keep Zoe in the main room(s) of the house with us, or with her car seat shade open if we are out, and I've been swaddling her only at night. She often fights the swaddle, unless she has already passed out when I put her in it.
Another characteristic of Miss Zoe is that she is extremely vocal. She squawks and grunts more than any baby I've ever heard (not that I've heard many). Both the midwife and pediatrician commented on how vocal she is. She'll make all types of noises for 15-20 minutes sometimes when she's waking up. Unfortunately, Colin is a light sleeper, so her noises keep him up much of the night. I can sleep through some of the early ones and start getting myself ready to feed her when they get louder and it seems like she is almost awake.
During Zoe's first month, she got to spend a lot time with her Avo (my mother), and we had visits from Vovo (my dad) and grandma and grandpa (Colin's parents). She's gone to a few story times and has been out and about quite a bit. She'll often come grocery shopping or run errands with me while my mom or Colin stay with Rose. In some ways she is easier to care for than Rose. I can pop her in the moby wrap and run errands with only the occasional stop to feed her (every 3 hours or so) during the day. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do much in the evenings because Zoe wants to nurse so often. I'm hoping that the evening cluster feeds are preparing her to sleep longer at night.
Rose still loves her sister, showering her with kisses and showing Colin how to hold her when he appears to be doing it wrong. Whenever Zoe cries, Rose yells "mommy, Zoe crying." She has also started suggesting "Zoe milk" - that I need to nurse Zoe to stop the crying. We've been trying to redirect her to practice what we do with Zoe on her babies. Sometimes it works and other times she still wants to help. I can't put Zoe in the swing when Rose is around because she wants to push the swing and she does it pretty hard. We also have to be careful when Zoe is in the car seat or on the floor mat. Rose often wants to pick Zoe up to hold her.
During Zoe's one month appointment, she received a clean bill of health. She doesn't appear to have any problems hearing or with her development. Over the past few days, I have noticed her really focus on our faces like she can see them better. She's also been following the cars on the musical mobile above the changing table. Going into her doctor's visit, we were concerned about a very severe-looking rash on her face, but were relieved to have a confirmation that she just had a bad case of infant acne. She also has significant cradle cap, which Rose also had. After almost two weeks, the acne appears to be disappearing, with a few spots still on her neck, but the cradle cap remains.
I can't really tell if she is losing more hair, but she definitely still has a significant bald area on the top of her head. Her eyes are a deep, rich blue, so Colin and I predict she will be a blue-eyed girl. You can't tell from any of the photos. I probably need to take one in the sun/outdoors with natural light. Only time will tell us what colors her eyes will be. Now that she is filling in, I think she looks less like a Miller. We aren't sure who she looks like now. Her face is much fuller and her arms and legs are filling in a bit more slowly.
I'm again grateful for a healthy girl and look forward to the next four weeks. Hopefully they will include longer stretches of sleep, resolving acne and cradle cap, and some first smiles. We just have to get through any fussiness, which is supposed to peak at 6 weeks.
Here are some pictures from weeks 2-4. The final picture is the most recent from this period. Who do you think she looks like?
Zoe at 2.5 weeks - still fairly scrawny
At 3 weeks she is filling in and the baby acne starts
Rose trying to help daddy with Zoe
Out to dinner with the family
Rose likes checking out Zoe's toys, even though it's Zoe's 1 month birthday
Zoe at 1 month
All dolled up, but not too happy
Startled by the flash
1 month photo shoot with the giraffe Aunt Karen gave her
It's difficult to sit up when you are only a month old
Baby acne resolving, cradle cap and male pattern baldness in full effect
We expected that a new baby with a 19 month old toddler would be a challenge, and it certainly has been an adventure. Rose loves her sister so much and gives her lots of hugs and kisses, but she doesn't know her strength and has a difficult time communicating her needs and feelings sometimes. We have tried to find a balance of allowing her to participate in the care of Zoe, but setting limits and boundaries on what we allow her to do. She tests those limits and that has led to several tantrum outbreaks. For the most part, she wants to give Zoe kisses, helps mommy burp Zoe, and covers Zoe with a blanket. Colin and my mom are often practicing the technique of distraction when it seems she wants to be involved in the care of Zoe when it is not appropriate (like when Zoe is drinking her milk).
Thankfully, my recovery has been very quick and complication-free. I continue to have minimal problems nursing Zoe and seem to produce an adequate amount of milk for her needs. Before delivery, I had been looking into getting Milkies Milk Savers since I had a strong let-down with Rose. I finally picked one up this week after two weeks of soaking through nursing pads. I've already bottled up 15oz of milk in two days! That is the amount of milk I was losing on the non-nursing side over the past two weeks. Now I wish I had bought them before I had Rose.
I probably wrote about the "period of purple crying" with Rose when she went through her fussiness each night from 5-7pm from the first month through the third month or so. Thankfully, we haven't noticed that with Zoe so far, but we are just getting into the third week now, so there is still time. I've been very diligent to nurse Zoe on demand fairly soon after she starts fussing. We've had a few days where Zoe will essentially nurse non-stop for almost two hours. With Rose, since I was inexperienced and we had trouble with her latch, I probably didn't nurse her as often as she wanted in those first few weeks (or even months). Now, I wonder if her nightly crying was actually her request to cluster feed in the evening before bed. I guess it's not something I will ever really know.
I mentioned that Zoe is a good eater and has a pretty good latch. I will admit that we've had a few painful sessions and I've had to coach her a few times, but overall the nursing experience has been good. We only had one night with a 5 hour stretch of sleep in the two weeks, and most nights I get at least one 3 hour stretch. For the most part, I'm up every 1.5-2 hours. Thankfully, Zoe can nurse in about 20-30 minutes, so it is somewhat manageable. Similar to Rose, Zoe seems to sleep the best (ie longest) in the mornings.
After the first few days, we also started Zoe on cloth diapers. With Rose I had used the newborn g-diapers, but didn't love the way they fit and they were difficult to get on. I was able to sell them on craigslist and recoup much of the cost I paid for them. This time around I invested in a variety of newborn diapers like xs bum genius, newborn grovia, lil Joeys, and prefolds with thirsties size 1 covers. While Zoe still had the umbilical cord stump, I was limited to the lil Joeys, but when the cord fell off around day 5, we were able to use the other diapers. I really like the fit and ease of use of the bum genius (we've used the one-size bum genius with Rose since about 6 months). I also find myself using the prefolds and thirsties covers as a second option. The only thing I hate about the prefolds is that they seem soaked every time I change her. It makes me feel like I'm not changing her enough. I'm hoping we can get Rose potty trained by her second birthday so that we can use the one-size diapers on Zoe when she is ready for them.
On Friday, September 25th, Zoe had her two-week checkup at the Women's Birth and Wellness Center. The target at two weeks is for babies to regain their birth weight. Not only did Zoe reach her birth weight, she also gained 1lb and 0.5oz, putting her at 7lbs, 11.5oz at 16 days. The midwife was very impressed and I'm glad that all the nursing I feel like I'm doing is showing some results. My mom jokes that you've got to watch out for the little babies...they tend to be the bigger (taller, stronger) kids when they grow up!
While Zoe's weight is going up, my weight and waistline is going down. The weather was so nice the first two weeks that we went on lots of walks. Coupled with nursing Zoe a lot and eating fairly healthy, I'm down ~18 of the 30 pounds I gained during pregnancy and actually just fit into a few of my more giving pre-pregnancy shorts/pants. I still have what looks like a small(ish) beer gut, but I expect it will go away over the next 2-3 months like it did with Rose.
Some personality traits that we've noticed with Zoe so far are that she: often has the hiccups; hates being burped and laid on anyone's shoulder; likes the Moby Wrap and going for walks; loves to stretch out when she's waking up, but loves her feet crossed and/or tucked under her when she's relaxing; seems to get hungry for mommy's milk when meals are ready for the family to eat; and when she wants to eat, she wants to eat now.
I think she looks like a Miller and most people that see her agree. Her face is more of a heart shape, whereas Rose's face is very round. Both Colin and I have longer faces, which I don't really see in either of our daughters. Her eyes are currently very blue, like Rose's were at birth, and she has more (dark brown) hair than Rose ever did. She seems to have the same "male-pattern baldness" that Rose had and her eyebrows and eye lashes are very blond. I think she is going to be blonder than Rose, but only time will tell.
I'm so grateful for another healthy baby, with no medical complications at this point of her life. I'm grateful to be able to meet her nutritional needs and to have so much support from Colin and my mom so that I can rest when I need to while caring for a new baby and spending some time with my older baby. I do look forward to a time when Zoe doesn't need me quite so much so that I can more evenly balance my time and attention with both girls. As Colin says and I repeat often, "the days are long, but the years are short." I want to be sure I don't skip through this precious phase too quickly. While it's not my favorite age since it is so demanding on a mother, I know that we'll never have this phase again.
Here is the photo recap of the first two weeks...
First afternoon at home
No problem sleeping in the bassinet or co-sleeper at home
Content in the baby swing
First Full Day at Home
Rose wanting to help with Zoe
Usually, she says "Mommy, Zoe crying" (even she knows who needs to feed Zoe)
Taking our first of many family walks on Friday September 11, 2015
Zoe is in the Moby wrap
The First Week
Distracting Rose with YouTube music videos while mommy feeds Zoe
Rose enjoys trying to make bubbles on her own (she is somewhat successful)
Zoe is looking very blond with the nightime lights in the house
Zoe attends her first story-time at the library at just one week
The Second Week
Zoe is so hungry and mommy is not coming, so she sucks on her fingers
Our sleeping beauty
Zoe takes her first trip to Wrightsville Beach, NC at 10 days
Rose has a great time with the sand and water buckets with daddy and Avo
Mommy spends most of the afternoon nursing Zoe :)
Between cloth diapers and growing quickly,
Zoe will be out of her newborn clothes very soon
A family photo at 12 days. Rose loves to hold her little sister
I'll be posting about our first two weeks with Miss Zoe soon, but wanted to share some big events in the interim. We've had some good days and bad days in the past two weeks and Monday, September 21st was a very good day. Rose was in great spirits, Zoe cooperated with her eating and sleeping schedule, the weather was fantastic, and overall it was just a very good day.
One of the major highlights happened after breakfast when Rose came over to me and said "mommy, diaper." We've had her sit on the potty a few times over the past month or so, and I assumed she wanted me to take off her diaper. I did and she proceeded to go sit on the potty. After a minute, she got off and yelled "yeah" while clapping. Sure enough, she had a little pee in the potty. After rinsing out the potty in the bathroom and wiping herself, she said she needed to do more two more times, and she did! It was the first time she asked to go to the potty and went completely in her toilet. We still have her in diapers, but she's been sitting on the toilet and going a few times a day now. Yesterday (Tuesday), while she was sitting, she was so relaxed that she even pooped in the toilet. I'm not sure we will have a repeat of that event because she acted pretty upset and traumatized. We tried our best to celebrate it as a success, but I don't think she was convinced.
Rose trying to pee on the potty
The other highlight of Monday was giving Zoe her first bath. With Rose, she was bathed at the birthing center before we left and we gave her a first sponge bath within a few days. This time, I wanted to wait a little bit, having read that babies may benefit from the bacteria on the skin during the first few days of life. I didn't mean to wait 12 days, but it seemed that we could never get a bath set up while she was awake and when the A/C wasn't on too high. On Monday, we finally got around to it. My mom captured some video footage. It's a bit long and has some very cute Rose interjections.
Zoe Lucia Miller
9/9/15 at 3:35am
6lbs, 11.1oz and 20"
I left many of you in suspense about Zoe's birth story with a vague announcement on Facebook regarding an unplanned home birth. The short version of the story is that I was laboring at home, waiting for contractions to get closer than 10 minutes apart and had called the midwife about 3am to let her know I was in labor and to seek guidance. We decided to wait 30 minutes since they were intense, but still far apart. During one of my contractions, right around 3:30am, I felt the urge to push and thought it was my water breaking, so I rushed to the bathroom. Sure enough, my water broke and out popped the baby's head, followed by the body. Thankfully, I felt the head coming out and grabbed it one with hand and her body with the other, avoiding her fall into the toilet or onto the bathroom floor! I guess you can say I delivered my own baby hovered over the toilet in our half bathroom and received post-delivery assistance from Colin and my mom, followed by the Cary fire department and EMT, and later by the hospital labor and delivery team.
Now that the experience is behind us and everyone is okay, the story is pretty amazing. At the time, it was a stressful and adrenaline-filled night.
The week leading up to my due date was a little stressful as I tried to wrap some things up at work and we had family visiting on their way to and from Disney. Since Rose was born three days early, I thought that I might be early with my second baby too. I asked her to wait until the Labor Day weekend so I could leave my work a little better organized. And, I wished she would wait until after our family (of 4 adults and 3 kids) made their trip through Cary. I didn't care as much if she came before or after their visit, but I definitely didn't want to go into labor while they were with us.
On Tuesday afternoon (Sept 8), around 4pm, our family departed for upstate New York and I had not yet gone into labor. For most of the day, I had been experiencing stronger Braxton-Hicks contractions, but I was on my feet most of the day, walking to and from the local playground (about 3/4 mile each way) and helping with meals, etc. I don't know if my body held out until the stresses of hosting were over, or if I finally started paying better attention to my body, but around 6 or 7pm, I had my first painful contractions that stopped me in my tracks. After putting Rose to bed, I downloaded the contraction timer app on my phone, and while doing a little work and watching the Brazil-US soccer game on TV, started timing the contractions. I didn't really think there was any pattern to them, but with the timer, I realized they were about 10-12 minutes apart. The labor was so different than my labor with Rose, so I didn't take it that seriously. The pain was centered in my lower abdomen, and didn't radiate to the back at all. With Rose, I had painful back labor for about 18 hours.
Colin went to bed around 10pm, my mom around 11pm, and I went around 12am, not expecting to sleep much. Surprisingly, I slept about an hour or hour and a half before waking to much more painful contractions. At 1:30a, I started timing contractions again. For about an hour, they kept coming about 10 minutes apart. I'd have one or two contractions that would come a little closer (like 7 minutes), but would then go back to 10 minutes. Around 2:45a, I called the midwife's answering service to check in, and the midwife called me back by 3am. She asked what I wanted to do, but I didn't really know. The contractions were very painful, but I assumed labor could continue like that for awhile. In hindsight, I do recall a few contractions being so painful that I wasn't sure I could do labor without meds again. I should have realized this was the transition period and that I was getting close.
With the midwife, we decided to wait 30 minutes for another check-in. In those 30 minutes, I got back into bed and Colin helped me breath through the pain. I had one contraction that made me push, so I did, and then a second made me feel like my water was about to break, so I pushed a little as I made my way to the half bathroom on the main floor. With Rose's bedroom next to the upstairs bath, and my mom sleeping in the master bedroom, the half bath was the best choice. Once I got to the bathroom, I pushed more fully and felt a huge gush of water as my water broke. I also felt something else and when I reached down, I felt my daughter's head. This is when the adrenaline kicked into high gear and I popped up off the toilet and reached my second hand down to catch the body.
Yes... it was crazy, and I am so glad for productive instincts. I immediately called for Colin, who was upstairs already getting dressed because he had assumed it was time to leave for the birth center. In his version of the story, he heard my slightly distressed call and started walking to the stairs and then heard a baby cry and flew down the stairs. As I stared down at the baby in my hands, I was concerned about getting her to breath, so her cry was very welcome. As soon as Colin arrived, he pulled the umbilical cord from her neck and went to get my mother. I kept her close to me as my birth team got me towels and grabbed the "what to do in an emergency" fact sheet that I had packed in our bag. Colin called the midwife and gave the phone to my mother, while he called 9-1-1 and received instructions from the dispatcher. I was helped down to lay down on the floor, my mom got a shoelace for Colin to tie the umbilical cord, and the first responders arrived within 5-10 minutes or so. At the time, I didn't realize it, but Zoe had a "true knot" in her umbilical cord, which Colin noticed and loosened when he pulled the cord over her neck. Based on my Google research (and not confirmed by any medical professional), this could have been a problem, especially if labor had been long.
When the fire department arrived, they checked my vitals, Zoe's vitals, and cut the umbilical cord (after asking me if Colin wanted to do it). Colin was busy throwing a barking Darwin back in his crate, and I knew he'd prefer the "professionals do it". With our stable vitals and a cut cord, the firefighters said there wasn't much left for them to do, so they passed us over to the EMT team, who got me up to the gurney and into the ambulance (because they said there was nothing they needed to do since we were stable). The trip to the hospital was leisure (no lights/sirens) and only about 10 minutes. Colin followed in our car with our "go-bag" and my mom stayed home with Rose, who slept through all the commotion.
The scene at home when first responders arrived
Leaving home on a gurney, keeping baby Zoe safe and secure
Arrival at the hospital around 4:30am
During the ~30 minutes the first responders were attending to our needs at home, the two concerns I had were the delivery of the placenta and giving Zoe skin-to-skin time to encourage successful breastfeeding. I'm so glad I had a natural childbirth with Rose and knew what to expect or at least what to do. I asked my mother to massage my belly/uterus, and kept Zoe close to my chest while at home, and then offered her the breast as soon as I was able to maneuver it on the gurney. The time it took from the first responders arrival to arrival at the hospital did feel like a long time, mainly because I didn't know if there would be negative consequences if the placenta remained in the body too long. Thankfully, Zoe latched very easily and nursed about 15-20 minutes during the transport to the hospital and another 10-15 minutes while in labor and delivery.
Once in the hospital, the labor and delivery nurses attended to our needs, gathering information as they waited for the arrival of the midwife. Once the midwife arrived, she guided me in the delivery of the placenta, gave me a few stitches where I had a slight tear on the same line as I did with Rose, helped break up a few clots behind the placenta, and massaged/checked the uterus (all of it very painful). During this time, Zoe was weighed, measured, and checked, while Colin took some video footage (of her and thankfully not me!). With both of us receiving good news on vitals and overall health status, I think Colin and I finally were able to breath more easily. I was cleaned up and given a hospital gown, and Zoe, Colin and I were all given admission bracelets. We had to stay in labor and delivery for two hours (starting from when my vitals were taken at 5am) before we could be transported to a maternity room. In those two hours, we had vitals taken and my uterus massaged/checked every 15 minutes. It was not a comfortable or relaxed continuation of the night.
Arrival in Labor and Delivery
Zoe's check up in Labor and Delivery
At 7:30am, we were finally transported to the Maternity room where I would spend the next 28 hours. We were very clear with the maternity unit staff (nurses, doctors, midwives, etc) that we wanted to spend the least amount of time in the hospital as possible. We were told that Zoe wouldn't be cleared to leave until her 24 hour labs checked out, so we knew the soonest we could leave would be Thursday (9/10) mid-late morning. I did my best to walk around the hospital unit and keep myself occupied. Sleep was difficult on the uncomfortable bed and was always interrupted by hospital staff or a baby that needed to be fed. As the day progressed, I got more tired, and unfortunately did not sleep much the night I spent there. Zoe apparently needed to cluster feed every hour from about 1am-5am. When we both were in our best sleep Thursday morning, we had lots of hospital staff visits.
Maternity room
Maternity room mid-morning
Zoe fills newborn pajamas lengthwise, but is a bit skinny
Our birth plan was to deliver at the Women's Birth and Wellness Center (WBWC) in Chapel Hill like I did with Rose, and we expected to stay 6-8 hours. In that plan, we didn't expect to have any visitors since our stay was going to be short. With a 28 hour stay at the hospital, we decided to have Rose come meet her sister in the hospital. When we were first offered our choice of hospital transport with the EMT team, we checked in with midwife to see if there would be any benefit that made going to the hospital in Chapel Hill worth it. Since there is a hospital just 10 minutes away from our house, and it seemed we were all doing ok, we decided to go to the closer hospital so that Colin and my mom could easily swap out or check in/out as needed. It meant we'd be on our own and separated from the WBWC team since they do not have hospital privileges at the hospital closest to us. On Thursday afternoon, my mom brought Rose to visit her sister for a little bit and at the end of the visit, I sent my team (Colin and my mom) home to sleep for the night. I knew I could call on the hospital staff if I needed anything overnight, and I needed my support team rested for our arrival.
Rose meets Zoe
In the video, Rose first points out that Zoe is making "bubbles" and that she is a "baby" and her name is "Zoe"
On Thursday morning, Zoe was cleared by the pediatrician after her labs checked out and I was easily cleared by the hospital midwife. The pediatricians had been concerned about how much cord blood Zoe may have received since we weren't exactly sure at what point the cord was completely clamped/tied off. They also noted a 5% weight reduction, down to 6lbs, 5oz, which was within a normal range. By 11am, after fixing some issues with the car seat fit, we were packed up and ready to go. I'd had enough of those four walls, not-so-tasty meals, and poking and prodding by hospital nurses and nurse aids. Colin and I were tired, but ready to start our adventure as a family with two young daughters.
Colin holds his youngest daughter as I prepare to leave
Very tired, but ready to go home
As we arrived home, Rose and my mom were also outside. Rose was so excited to welcome her sister. We also brought Darwin outside to meet Zoe as we did with Rose 19 months ago. Colin had brought one of Zoe's baby blankets home the night before, so Darwin did get to sniff her scent before meeting her in the driveway.
We had our first walk on Thursday afternoon, and it's amazing how some fresh air and movement can really do wonders for the soul. Even with a newborn baby who wants to eat every few hours, we all slept so much better once we were back at home.
On Friday, we continued our care with the WBWC team and had a home visit from the nurse. Zoe once again passed all her tests with flying colors and Rose had a great time showing the nurse the new baby and observing all that transpired during the visit. We'll have another check up with the WBWC team in Chapel Hill at 2 weeks post-partum and then will start Zoe's care with her pediatrician at one month.
Rose carefully observing how the nurse checks our Zoe
As I said before, I am glad I had a natural childbirth with Rose so that I could react with some confidence in delivering and caring for Zoe as she was born. I'm grateful for a husband who was quick to act and offered as much support as he possibly could, and am grateful my mother was around to help us, clean up after we left, and care for Rose during our extended hospital stay. I echo Colin's sentiments in that I'd prefer to never have to be responsible for the birth of a baby again.
I look forward to all the adventures Miss Zoe has in store for us and know I will recount her birth story many times over the years. It is truly unique and her own, that's for sure.
