Danica's first night

When we left the hospital with Danica, we made a couple of stops before going home. Billy had helped Joe pack the car in the rain and we had to stop at a pharmacy for my pain medication. We then went over to dads to rest a bit before getting on the road. Ma, Nana, Gangan, Mary Lee, and Larry had all visited in the morning and then Danica got to visit with dad, Hilda, Holly, Jason, Lauren, and Madison when we went over to dads. It was Monday and we wouldn't be back in Greenville until the weekend, so we wanted everyone to see Danica before we left.

Danica slept on the way home. When we got there, she woke up, and I took her on a tour of the house. I took pictures of her in her reindeer outfit and then I changed her into a plain white onsie and put her in a blue whale swaddler (since it was winter, it was warm in the house). I breastfed her every other hour and she mostly napped in between. Joe was out in the yard most of the day and I just sang to her and danced her around. Then I put her in her bassinette when she slept. We borrowed a rainforest bassinette from Lisa. I regret not ever putting up the mobile, but I thought it was too soon for her to enjoy it. Hilda gave her a musical elephant that I played for her, though.

When we gave her a bath, we put her in a whale tub on the counter in our bathroom. Joe held her up while I washed her. She seemed fine in the tub, but did not like it when Joe lifted her out so I could wash her hair. She cried and loudly! That was the second time she cried like that. The first time was in the hospital when the staff came to weigh her and prick her heel. And the third came that night when she didn't want to go to sleep.

Since she slept all day, she was up most of the night. So Joe and I took turns walking her around. As long as someone was holding her, she was ok... but the moment any of us put her in the bassinette, she would cry. So we just held her all night, whether we were walking her or trying to sleep ourselves, we held her. So we still didn't really get any sleep since we were scared that she would fall off our chest. We were also scared she would stop breathing. She was so small and fragile. We just knew we were going to do something wrong. We pretty much had the first few nights chalked up to "keeping her alive". But since we expected it to be that way, the first night wasn't so bad; we were just worried about sleeping through her doctors appointment Tuesday morning. We scheduled it for 8:30 a.m. We were up just in time to get dressed and go. Danica was asleep, so it was easy getting her into the car. Joe and I looked horrible. We were so tired and it showed. We were also hungry and needed some caffeine by the time we left the appointment. And we still had another appointment to go to.