In the Hospital

There's not much to say about our stay in the hospital.  It seemed very chaotic because none of the three of us knew what we were doing or had a routine or was running on adequate levels of sleep.  We stayed in the hospital all day Sunday and were discharged around lunchtime on Monday.  It was so short because Ella came before midnight Saturday night, so our "next two days after birth" were Sunday & Monday.  If she had come just 20min later and been born after 12:01am Sunday, the two days would have been Monday & Tuesday.  Go figure.  I'm still not sure if we would have benefited from that extra day in the hospital or if we were just ready to go home.

Ella had great complexion until she started to scratch herself.
Apparently babies are born with raptor talons. Who knew?

John's family was great while we were at the hospital.  They helped take care of our house -- feeding the cats and taking out the trash (Remember that futon? We hadn't even had a chance to take the boxes to the dumpster yet!) -- and they came to visit bringing breakfast and goodies for us.  My mom was able to take a whole week off to come and help us, too.  If there's one thing I've learned with a new baby, is that it really does take a village to raise a child.  Even if "all" they do is bring dinner or hold the baby while mom takes a nap, the extra help is invaluable!!!

My mom came just in time to help us get home.
 Ella thinks having two grandmas is pretty cool.

Sunday night going into Monday was the toughest part, I think.  I wanted to feel better and I wanted to get into a routine with Ella, but apparently it was still much too early for all that.  I was tired and sore, and Ella was not sure about this "being outside the womb" craziness, so we both struggled during the night.  A lot of doctors and nurses and visitors had come through our room during the day, so daytime napping had not occurred as much as we had hoped.  To make sleep even more elusive, our hospital does "rooming in" instead of taking all the babies away to the nursery.  (It's supposed to be great for bonding and all that).  This means that even when John and I were taking turns getting sleep, there wasn't really anywhere the one could take her so that the other could sleep.  It is hard to sleep in the same room as a fussy baby!  I think the night nurse took pity on us.  She definitely saw each of us trying to soothe Ella over an extended time, and finally she offered to take Ella to the nursery for a few hours.  That really helped us both get a decent nap in before we were back on baby duty.

Monday was much more relaxed as all we really did were final wellness checks on Ella, take a shower (gasp!), and review discharge procedures.  We left the hospital around lunchtime, and realizing that we had no real food in the house since we'd been gone several days now, we decided to grab lunch on the way home.  And what better way to celebrate Ella coming home than the way we started to greet her Saturday morning?  Why, back to the bakery, of course!  (Also, John and I were a little concerned that the girls working had suffered trauma or something because of that crazy pregnant lady. Haha)  Well, the girls weren't working Monday, but the owner was there and he was just tickled with our story.  I'm pretty sure he created a "new baby, free loaf of bread" policy right then and there, but I'm not going to complain.  So, loaded down with sandwiches and tasty snacks for a few days, we finally arrived home.

Yes, our pushy cat, Martin, was not affected by Ella at all.
No one was surprised.