1 month!

Abigail is a month old already. I would have sworn we just got home from the hospital.

At one month she's:
Around 12 lbs.
Wearing 0-3 month old clothes.
Wearing size 1 diapers.
Likes to be held.
Likes to look out the living room window at the big tree out front.
Likes to be in her car seat if it's moving--hates red lights.
Loves to be in the wrap (& this makes me feel like I'm still pregnant).
Goes to sleep "for the night" at around 11:30 PM and sleeps until around 9:30 AM (just briefly waking up 3-4 times to eat).
Spits up, belches & farts a lot.
Has a really cute squeak in her cry.
Is often fussy in the evenings before she falls asleep for the night.
Loves to be held. Doesn't really like to sit on her own.
100% breastfed (& no bottles yet either).
Loves to take baths a have water sprayed through her hair.
Grunts a lot. She will grunt back to me when I talk to her sometimes.
Has an occasional hint of a smile.
Can roll up onto her side to eat while laying in our bed (since ~1 week old).
Can move around by wiggling.
Loves looking at our big wedding photo on the wall by the glider just like Lily did.
Sleeps in the co-sleeper next to our bed at night and in her bouncer, swing or on someone during the day.

Abigail is a joy as we expected. She still sleeps for a large portion of the day but this also means a lot of cuddling time, which is so nice. She's a big eater. It's nice being the only one that can calm her sometimes (although I'm sure that's frustrating for everyone else at times). The plan is to pump some milk so other people can feed her if necessary. It would be really nice if Scott and I could go out at least once while my mom is still here (but we only have 10 more days). I can't even remember the last movie I saw in the theater. I know we haven't seen one since we've been in New Haven and that's been 8 months. (An aside: a friend told me to see a lot of movies before Lily was born because I probably wouldn't get the chance as often. I didn't realize how good that advice was. We never saw a lot of movies in the theater before kids but now I miss it.)

This should be a post about Abigail, but I have to mention Lily briefly. She loves her sister so much. This may all change soon, so we're enjoying it now. She wants to hold Abby all the time. She soothes her when she's crying. She uses the same nicknames for her that we do ("sweetheart", etc). Although occasionally she does tell me to put her down in her bouncer if she wants to do something with me or needs my help with something.

Being a family of four is definitely different and definitely more difficult. Abigail gets neglected at times; much more than Lily did. I'm sure she has to cry more than Lily ever did because sometimes I have to attend to Lily at the same time. But hopefully we're a little better at parenting this time around so maybe we're a little better at soothing her and figuring out what she needs. Our car is a lot tighter on space now. We only have space for one extra person now and with our new double stroller, the trunk space is really limited. We'll have to upgrade at some point. But it's wonderful having a baby around again. And seeing Lily as a big sister. And having this little person in our lives that we're getting to know.

I should mention that we haven't really had to adjust to two kids completely yet. My sister, Melody, and niece, Bella, were here for Abigail's birth and a week or so afterward. Unfortunately for her that meant she was here when I was really huge and uncomfortable and then when I was recovering from childbirth so she got to do a lot of hanging out and not much fun stuff. Shortly after she left my parents arrived. My dad for a week and my mom for a whole month. By this time I was feeling more myself so we were able to do a few fun things while my dad was here. This also means I've only done a couple loads of dishes since Abigail's birth and barely any laundry. Obviously I'll have to figure out how to fit these things into my routine once my mom leaves. Maybe the biggest help has been with our morning routines though. Abigail doesn't go to sleep until around 11:30 each night, which means I usually don't get into bed until around midnight and then I'm up every 3 hours to feed her. She is willing to sleep in each morning, but Lily isn't so much. Lily is usually up some time between 7:30 and 8:30, but thankfully I haven't needed to get up that early. Lily gets up and plays with Grandma for a couple of hours while Abigail and I sleep in. And even with all of this I'm still tired, so I can't imagine what I'd feel like if I had to get up with Lily every morning. I foresee morning cartoons in mommy's bed in our future (after grandma leaves). This has also been a big help to Scott. He finished one fellowship application right before Abigail's birth and it working on another now, so he's been leaving a little after 8 every morning and hasn't needed to come home until later since I've had help cooking meals and doing other things. Cooking was difficult enough with just Lily, especially since she's at the age where she likes to help with everything and our kitchen really isn't big enough for this. So we've been really lucky to have my family here to make the transition easier. And the grandparents on the Pope side will be out at the end of the month to help out even more.

All the girls hanging out in bed.

Team 1 in helping mommy.

Day trip to Boston.

First bath. Look at those bright eyes!

Abby's first bath

Abby's sleepy noises.

Then and now

Then (August 2008):

And now (June 2010):

Funny how we still think this toy is pretty exciting, although we haven't seen it in about a year and a half.

Great-Great Grandma Flora Cora Smith April 25, 1912-June 17, 2010

Four generations - July 2008.

Abigail and Lily's great-great grandmother passed away on June 17, 2010. She was 98 years old. She was born in 1912, the same year the Titanic sank. She saw Mount Lassen erupt as a young child. She was a major part of my life growing up. Outside of my immediate family, she was probably the most influential person in my childhood. When I was young, she lived (with my great-grandfather) on an 80-acre cattle farm in Cottonwood, CA about 25 minutes from our house. Us kids visited often and spent many weekends there. We spent a lot of time in her huge greenhouse re-potting and watering plants, taking walks to the end of their property to look at Cottonwood Creek and eat figs from the trees, feeding the baby cows with huge bottles or the bigger cows crab apples that had fallen to the ground. She had an organ in her den that I don't remember ever playing and Pac Man on Atari that we did play once or twice. We sat on the floor in her dark, stuffy living room and were so bored watching Jeopardy and other game shows. We sat at our kid-sized table with our tea set at the end of the kitchen counter. We stretched our imaginations playing in an old truck camper shell that was on the ground in the yard. We climbed bales of hay up to the ceiling of the barn. We even briefly had a pony that bucked us off and then soon after found a new home. We had our own room where we slept on a daybed with pictures of sailboats on the walls. We went to early dinners at North's Chuck Wagon where they charged kids by how much they weighed (maybe not so PC these days) and loved getting to choose what we wanted to eat from the buffet (hand carved roast beef!). We did all the things that kids should do with her.

We played games. Grandma Smith loved to play games. I'm pretty sure she gave me my competitive nature. She never threw a game just because you were younger than her, she wanted to win just as much as anyone else, but never in a mean-spirited way. Right up until 98 years old she played games with us. I remember her playing pinochle with her friends weekly when she lived with my parents (in the late 1990s and early 2000s) and being on a bowling league well into her 70s. She loved to play dominoes with us kids and RummyKub and Phase 10. But she was always willing to play any game and was deeply offended if she wasn't invited to play. I'm sure this helped keep her mind sharp until the very end. She was also a big baseball fan. She loved the Braves, but I don't recall her having any ties to Atlanta. We went to many Giants games in San Francisco growing up and she often came along to see the Giants play the Braves. She also liked the Lakers, which never went over well in our house. But she enjoyed watching all sports.

It is for all these reasons that we chose to name our second daughter in her honor. Abigail and her great-great grandmother share the middle name Cora. Growing up in our family she is sure to be a lover of games like her great-great grandmother. I'm sorry that they were never able to meet in person but I know she's still here in her daughter, granddaughter, and 4 great-granddaughters. And we'll make sure her great-great granddaughters know her.

Meeting Lily for the first time - July 2008.

Lily and Grandma Smith - September 2008.

September 2008 with Lily.

Christmas 2008. Lily helped her open her stocking and tried to pull out her earrings.

the BIG sister

Lily is a wonderful big sister. She's very concerned about Abigail. She imitates everything we do to soothe her ("It's OK Abigail." while shaking her bouncer). She holds her hand when they're in their car seats next to each other. She'll also tell me if she's sleeping or awake in the car. She's very proud of herself if she can get Abigail to take her pacifier or if she gets her to stop crying. She's also a little jealous. If Daddy rocks Abigail, Lily needs Daddy to rock her. She likes to be called a baby. She needs Daddy to feed her sometimes (despite having been eating on her own for at least 6 months). She will tell you she is NOT a big girl. She is a baby. We heard this would happen. This was one reason we didn't try to potty train her yet because we thought that might regress too and I didn't want to potty train twice (or run up the stairs to the bathroom 80 times a day at 9 months pregnant). So we'll cut her some slack. She's only two. She always seems so much older but she's two and right now she needs some babying. That's OK. The whining though, oh the whining. Hopefully that doesn't last long.

On all other accounts she's doing wonderfully. I'm convinced she's a child genius. :) She is speaking in sentences pretty much all the time. She drops a few words here and there and we try and repeat the full sentence back to her. Her memory is amazing. We can tell her something once and she'll remember it. This can also be a bad thing. Once her Aunt Melody told her she needed to brush her teeth because she had bugs in them (just joking around with her) and now she's convinced there are bugs in her teeth.

She's still very sensitive. If she gets in trouble, she often cries, it seems more like tears because she's sad about being a disappointment (which is really sad to see). She is sometimes afraid of her Papa Jerry (like when he pretends to be a monster). She was nervous about her grandparents in general for a little while. She hadn't seen them in person in 6 months (only over Skype) so it was a little weird for her. But after a few hours she warmed up and let them pick her up. She's so good at sharing. She'll share toys and snack with her friends without being asked. She gets confused when other kids take things away from her though. If it's a prized toy she gets upset and cries but mostly she's just confused.

She can count up to 13 and is working on getting up to 20. She knows her alphabet and she can identify all of her letters and numbers (1-9). Although sometimes when she's saying the alphabet she goes back to A again after P but if reminded about Q she'll finish the remaining letters. She knows all the basic shapes and some not so basic (like rhombus). She basically knows her colors but sometimes still gets some of them confused (red and green). She knows a ton of animals, she must know at least a hundred or so. She's way beyond, cat, dog and rabbit (she knows flamingo and toucan and cheetah). She loves dinosaurs and visiting the "dinosaur museum" (Yale Peabody Museum). She loves books. She reads 3-5 books every night with her Daddy before bed and we probably read a dozen more throughout the day. She likes books about dinosaurs especially right now. She still likes Elmo and Sesame Street a lot.

She's beginning more imaginary play. She makes her animals and toys do things and she narrates what they're doing. She can occupy herself for longer periods of time playing on her own. She mimics what she's seen other people do. For example she was walking around holding her stuffed rabbit over her shoulder bouncing up and down saying, "it's OK, shush, shush, shush," like she hears us say to Abigail when she's crying. She is a parrot 100% of the time. She repeats anything anyone says. Literally every word. We have to start watching what we say and also make sure we're speaking grammatically correct if we want her to. She always wants to know where things or people are, even if they're still in sight. We're not sure if she's hyper-sensitive about losing something or if it's just a phase. If I go upstairs to go to the bathroom she'll say, "Where'd mommy go?" at least three times. Even if I told her where I was going. It was particularly sad after her aunt and cousin left when she asked where they were at least a dozen times the whole day after they left.

Lily pitching to daddy.

Lily and Bella hanging out.

Doing ring around the rosies with cousin Bella, they unexpectedly "all fell down" on top of each other.

Holding her baby sister for the first time.

Lily holding Abby's hand.

Lily's best buddies, Avery (yellow) & Skylar (running), at Skylar's 3rd birthday party.

Walking the balance beam at gymnastics.

Doing a "v-sit" on the balance beam.

Getting her medal and certificate for completing gymnastics.

Making biscuits with grandma. She tasted all the raw ingredients & decided raw biscuits don't taste very good.

Abigail's Birth Story

Saturday - May 29th
It was a pretty regular day. Melody & Bella had already been here for a few days. We decided to take a picnic lunch to the New Haven green and then go on a walking tour of the Yale campus. At this point walking brought on contractions so I had to stop several times throughout the day with contractions but nothing really noteworthy. That night I went to bed as usual.

Sunday - May 30th
I woke up at around 4 AM with contractions. I'd had middle of the night contractions previously so I wasn't convinced it was anything yet. After having several in a row I decided to start keeping track of them. Thankfully I had just downloaded an app for my iPhone to track them. After an hour of contractions coming every 5-10 minutes I decided it was probably the real thing and I woke Scott up. The contractions continued and continued to get more and more painful. At 7 AM we decided to call the midwife on call. She thought I was still in early labor on encouraged me to try to walk and to wait it out another hour or so. We both took showers and woke my sister up and told her we were going to walk outside. That plan never materialized and I decided I was just ready to go to the hospital. Lily wasn't up yet. I thought it might be easier for her if she didn't have to see us leave and if she didn't have to see me have a contraction. She's generally very sensitive to me experiencing any kind of pain. So we left around 8:30 without saying goodbye to her.

We got to the hospital in only 3 contractions and ran into Abby's and Lily's pediatrician leaving the hospital. I told her she might be back tomorrow to check out the new baby. We got checked into the hospital and up to Labor and Delivery by 9 AM. I got changed and hooked up to the monitors and the midwife, Pam, came in to check me. I was only 3 cm. I was a little deflated(OK, a lot) by that since I was in a lot of pain by that point, especially in my back. I told her I hadn't had any drugs with my previous delivery. She said I should stay on the monitors for 30 minutes and then I could walk around the hospital for an hour and get re-checked and go from there. If I was at least 4 cm she could break my water at that point and get things going. As Pam was leaving she mentioned that back labor generally took a long time. Since I was only at 3 cm, I pretty much decided then I wanted to get an epidural. I didn't think I could handle the contractions "for a long time". As soon as Pam and the triage nurse were done with me I turned back onto my left-hand side--a slightly more comfortable position than on my back. I think this caused the monitor to move off the baby's heart and start monitoring my heart (baby's heart rate was in the 130s and mine was in the 70s) but they couldn't be sure of that so they told me I couldn't leave to walk around the hospital. (If the baby's heart rate was dipping that low it could indicate a problem, like the cord being wrapped around her neck.)

So I had to stay on the monitors. I told the nurse I wanted an epidural too. She told me they'd get me moved into a labor and delivery room and order an epidural. Only one problem. They were out of labor and delivery nurses (at Yale one nurse is assigned to you and pretty much stays with you the whole time). So I had to wait for a nurse to come on. In the meantime the triage nurse said that she'd get my IV started so they could get the epidural started faster once I got into my room.

At around 11 AM I was getting moved into my labor and delivery room down the hall. I had to stop once on the short walk to brace myself for a contraction. I kept telling myself that maybe that was the last contraction I would have before I got the epidural. I felt like an elephant was standing on my back. I barely even noticed the contractions in my stomach (uterus) because they were so strong in my back. Finally the anesthesiologists came in to place the epidural. There were three of them and they asked me a lot of questions about my medical history, height, weight, etc and hooked me up to a lot of monitors. I had a few concerns about getting an epidural--that it would stall my labor and lead to more interventions (pitocin, vacuum/forceps, and an eventual c-section), that I would get an epidural headache after it was removed, or that I'd have some other poor reaction since I didn't have a good experience under general anesthesia for a previous surgery. The first is not uncommon, the other two are rarer. My nurse helped me get into the correct position and Scott left to go move the car out of the loading zone in front of the hospital since he couldn't do much while they were placing the catheter in my spine anyway. The nurse warned me that the first part when they gave me the numbing agent would be the worst. It did hurt, it felt like I was getting poked with a lot of little needles all at once. The doctors wanted constant updates about the sensations I was feeling. When the catheter went into my spine I felt a very strange sensation down the right side of my back--like a cramp or a Charley horse. It definitely hurt, but not like a contraction. I felt other strange sensations and I wasn't sure what was a contraction and what was a result of the medicine they were starting to put in me. My right side felt almost immediate relief after the medicine was started.

After they were done I laid back on my back and felt better almost immediately. I could still feel some tightening on my left side so my nurse rolled me onto my left side so the medicine could "settle" and hopefully take better effect. I was able to call my mom at this point and felt fantastic compared to how I had previously felt. I still hadn't been checked again since some time around 9 AM when I was 3 cm and it was now around noon. The anesthesiologists had remarked that there was no way I was still that low based on the contractions I was having. Finally Pam came in to check me again. I was at 9 cm and the baby was very low. She asked me if I felt like I needed to push but I didn't. She thought I was so near 10 cm that my cervix would just move out of the way of the baby if I started pushing. She said that since I was complaining of pain (!?!) that I probably wouldn't be able to push for a while since they were going to give me more medicine and I probably wouldn't be able to feel anything well enough to push. I told her I wasn't complaining, I was just telling the nurse I could still feel the contractions since she asked. I told her I would rather not get any more medicine and push this baby out sooner rather than later. She broke my water and the fluid was clear. Both the nurse and the midwife left at that point. Within the next couple of minutes I felt the baby descend a lot and felt like she might just come out on her own. Scott paged the nurses station and said I felt like I needed to push. Very shortly after that our nurse and midwife returned with all sorts of trays with equipment on them. It's amazing how quick they are when you tell them you're going to push. Pam checked me again and I was completely dilated and ready to go. Pam asked me to try a test push and when I did I shot urine across the bed and hit her a good 3-4 ft away. She said I was using the right muscles if I did that. We laughed. There wasn't any laughing during Lily's delivery.

So I continued pushing. I pushed for a long time. I remember looking at the clock and seeing that it was 12:53 and thinking I was going to push her out by 1 PM. They kept telling me she was so close and that she just needed to turn and get under my pelvic bone and she would be out. Pam asked me if I wanted to watch my progress in a mirror. I wasn't sure I did but I said I did. My nurse got a mirror. The mirror was a little discouraging because it didn't look like I was making any progress with my pushes at all. I missed the 1 PM deadline I set for myself and I updated my goal to 1:10 PM. Since I couldn't see any progress I was encouraged to push even harder and to push until I saw something happen. It was frustrating when I was pushing as hard as I could and it didn't look like anything was happening. Pam left at this point (which was also discouraging because clearly she didn't think the baby was coming any time soon). But she had also been texting on her Blackberry while she was standing there between my legs, so I didn't mind too much that she left.

I was in quite a bit of pain again at this point. I could almost feel the contractions at regular strength on my left side and I could feel a lot of pressure, especially where the baby was pushing against my pubic bone. I kept pushing as hard as I could. Scott later told me my face was turning purple (and people compare this to a bowel movement?). Finally I saw the baby turn. It was a strange thing but her head turned almost 360 degrees in just a few seconds. The nurse even commented that she didn't see babies turn like that very often. She called Pam back in since the baby was coming. Her head came out almost immediately after that. The nurse confirmed that the cord wasn't around her neck as Pam walked in the door to catch the rest of her body. And I pulled her up onto my chest.

This was the part I was most looking forward to and didn't get to experience with Lily (since she had meconium in her amniotic fluid and had to be taken by pediatricians immediately after delivery). I got to pull her up onto my chest and hold her as soon as she came out. Her face was purple but she was crying as soon as she came out (even before her whole body was out). The nurse immediately started me on pitocin (which Yale uses post-delivery on everyone to minimize the chances of hemorrhaging) and Pam was working on delivering the placenta. It was just Scott and I there to bond with our new baby. She looked perfect. They put a blanket over her and we just looked at her. It took a while to deliver the placenta so I got to spend quite a bit of time with her. We breastfed and she took to it right away. Eventually they took her across the room to get washed off a little bit and wrapped in a blanket. And then Scott got to hold her.

After a little while we were ready to get moved to a recovery room. I moved into a wheelchair and they took us to our room.

The last day Abigail was on the inside. 40 weeks and 1 day

The epidural was placed & I even made a phone call to my mom (wow, I look large)

Abigail moments after birth

Cuddle time.

Meeting daddy.


Ahhhh, finally...

Abby at 5 days

Our first picture as a family of four.

Abby is doing really well. She's a really easy going baby overall, hopefully this isn't just because she's still in her sleepy phase being only a few days old. She does still sleep a lot. Her wakeful moments are really sweet though. She likes looking at lights and looking out the windows at the trees (and maybe listening to the birds?).

She's a champion nurser. Even the nurses at the hospital were surprised by her skills (laying on her back eating lying next to mommy at less than 24 hours old). Her pediatrician thinks she's doing great and complimented her on her poop at her first office visit Wednesday (and how often do we get compliments on our poop?). She's still below her birth weight at 8 lbs 11 oz (down from 9 lbs 4 oz at birth) but she has until her 2 week visit to make that up. And mommy's milk just really came in the day of her checkup so she should gain that back very quickly now (her pediatrician is not concerned at all). Especially since she loves to eat. She goes through stretches of 3-4 hours of eating every 45 minutes or so. But our few nights at home so far she's slept for about 3 hours in the early morning hours so that has been nice for us all. She's sleeping in a co-sleeper next to mommy's bed. Which is basically like a bassinet that attaches to the side of the bed. This has been very convenient, more so than I even imagined. Having her right next to the bed but not in it lets us keep our space but still have her so close by. Plus she actually sleeps in it well. Lily always preferred to be very close to me, Abby doesn't mind the extra space. She can also sleep without being swaddled, but doesn't mind swaddling either so she's pretty easy going. I've already given her a pacifier and she can keep it in her mouth pretty well. We don't use it often but it helps sometimes to get her to drift back to sleep just after she's eaten. Or give me a few extra minutes if Scott needs to stall before I feed her.

She doesn't do much at this point, but it's exciting just to see her little smiles and smirks in her sleep and listen to her grunts. She's not a big crier and she actually wakes me up to eat by grunting and not crying (if I can make any conclusions about anything after only a couple nights). Lily gets a big kick out of her holding onto her hand. This is especially cute when we're riding in the car and they hold her hands. Lily's also good about telling us what she's doing in the car since she's facing backwards and we can't see her. Abby has really long fingers and toes and she usually keeps them spread out rather than clenched in fists like most newborns. She started out in size 1 diapers and skipped the newborn size altogether (good thing we didn't stock up ahead of time!). She's wearing newborn sized clothes right now but they are already snug and I doubt she'll get through wearing each outfit once (but these were mostly all Lily's so at least Lily wore them too). She took her first trip to the park today. Lily and Bella were in dire need of some time outside so Melody and I took the whole crew. Abby was awake most of our time there sitting in her car seat in the stroller or in my arms just looking around at everything.

It's funny the things that are the same as they were when she was still inside me. Like she still gets hiccups quite a bit and she always has an awake and active period right around 11 PM.

It's a joy to have two children. Even though I still have Scott and my sister here I'm starting to get used to the idea of having two kids and the juggling that will take. I know I can nurse Abby and read a book to Lily simultaneously so that's a step forward. Lily's good about helping where she can. She's not old enough to change diapers or watch Abby even for a few seconds but she's good at handing me things if I'm tied down nursing and just being a good big sister. She almost has an obsession with handing me my water bottle. If she finds it anywhere, even only a few feet away from me, she hands it to me and says, 'herego mommy". And water is very important for a nursing mom, so it's helpful. So far she hasn't been the least bit jealous. She's shown a little resistance to me and not wanted to cuddle with me as much, but I think that's already waning (she wanted me to lay her down for her nap the other day). I know their relationship will change as they both get older but for now it's good. And it's wonderfully fulfilling to have them in my life. Scott's a wonderful father to them. Lily adores him, of course. She loves that he plays rough with her sometimes and loves that he's the one that reads her books every night before bed. He's also the one that finds and fixes things, which is always important. I can't wait to see how his relationship with Abby develops and is different or similar. Our lives are incredibly joyful.

Resting in our room.

Coming home from the hospital.

Holding hands.

Lily visiting the hospital for the first time and holding her sister for the first time.

Baby Abigail Cora is here!

Abigail Core Pope is finally here!

She arrived Sunday, May 30th at 1:17 PM in the afternoon. She weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs 3.5 oz and was 21.5 inches long. She's had an absolutely perfect bill of health since delivery and is pretty much a super star in every way.

Aunt Kellie won the pool! Next in line were Papa Jerry, Great Aunt Roberta, Aunt Melody, Grandma Sue, Bauby Debi, etc. Mommy didn't do so well. Thankfully because I really didn't want to be pregnant that many more days. I was close on the weight and length though.

The short version of her arrival starts early Sunday morning at 4 AM when I woke up with contractions coming every 5-9 minutes that lasted a minute and were painful. We were in triage in Labor & Delivery at 9 AM and I received an epidural around noon, started pushing within 15 minutes of that and Abigail arrived at 1:17 PM.

Lily visited us in the hospital (with her cousin Bella and Aunt Melody) later that day. She was beyond thrilled to see her baby sister. She was smiles from ear to ear when she walked in the door. She spent her whole visit sitting in the hospital bed with her new sister and mommy. She was a little confused about mommy still having a belly but not quite as big of one, and baby sister not being in that belly any more. She brought her sister a gift that she gave her (a little lamb) and always wants to give her sister the lamb. She was apparently a little sad about mommy and daddy not being home for a while. We had left for the hospital before she woke up on Sunday so she was confused when we weren't there. Scott picked everyone up after they got up from their afternoon naps and took them home and helped put Lily to sleep before he came back.


We were able to leave after only one night in the hospital which has been really nice. I think we're all more comfortable at home and without getting interrupted by nurses every hour for vitals checks. And for me the food and "help" isn't that helpful. I'd rather Abby sleep with me than in the nursery even if they bring her back to be fed. My recovery has been quicker than with Lily and Lily's wasn't particularly difficult. I haven't weighed myself yet but almost 10 lbs of the weight was just baby so I imagine I've already lost a significant portion of the weight I gained. But I definitely don't fit into my regular clothes yet. Hopefully that will come soon.

Overall we are all doing really well. It's helpful to have my sister here to do things like dishes and help make dinners. And make runs to the grocery store when needed. And of course to stay with Lily while we were at the hospital.