Bringing Home Baby

December 19, 2007. At the time, it seemed amazing to me that the hospital would just let us leave with a baby. With, what I thought an absence of any skills whatsoever to care for a newborn, they assisted us to our car and said goodbye. What the heck do we do next?

We arrived back at home to a warm welcome by my parents and our two chocolate Labrador Retrievers. Let the games begin!

The first diaper change at home. What a fiasco! We hadn't completed Zeke's room before he was born. There was too much to do for the holidays, so we set up his crib in our room and had yet to set up any sort of changing station. So onto the dining table he went for his first change since arriving home. There was no sort of organization going on, which absolutely drove me nuts. Off came the diaper, there was poo everywhere. We had him circumcised and were told to clean it by squirting it with water, and after what seemed like shooting a half a gallon of water at him, the poo would not come off. We gently tried to dab it, but just ended up in irritating the little guy and Zeke started screaming. I had no idea what to do. For the first time, I felt the effects of an emotional post-partum roller coaster and started crying. Ian called the hospital that we had left only half an hour ago with our first problem. I knew they shouldn't have let us leave. But crisis averted, just put on more Vaseline and it will be okay. We soon found this to be true because as soon as we got the next diaper on him, he pooped again, we took off that diaper and, lo and behold, the poo was gone! Was everything going to be this action packed?

Things finally settled down and we got situated to nurse. Zeke got the hang of it almost right from the start. I think it took me longer to figure out how to position and hold him correctly. But what at joy! To be able to single-handedly provide everything he needs to grow made me feel so happy.

Every day got a little easier. Sleeping got better, feeding got better, we started to be able to figure out how to do this parenting stuff. The fact that he was truly here to stay didn't really hit me until about a month after he was born. It took me ten and a half months from when we found out we were pregnant to fully realize that we were parents, but I'm there now. It doesn't seem possible that there was life before him. And now, three months later, he can interact with us and is a little person learning about the world.

Just last week, we heard his laugh for the first time. My heart just about melted. We had heard him giggling as he fell asleep a few times, but this was an all out laugh. And he has started to repeat sounds that we make, in particular, the closed-mouth raspberry. He's close to sitting up and he has mastered head control. His aim for grabbing things is right on target about 80% of the time. He tries his darnedest to crawl, such frustration with himself. He can roll over from his tummy to his back and is real close to going full circle. It's amazing how fast they learn. He was just a little rag doll that just laid there and stared at you just a few weeks ago.

Day by day, I fall more in love with him. He is by far been my greatest accomplishment. I am so proud to be a mommy, Zeke's mommy.