Ailey's arrival: A photo montage

Can you believe I was supposed to go another three weeks? This was about 8 hours before the baby was born, in all my pre-eclamptic glory (the birth story details will be eventually told in another posting).

Seconds after her arrival....

I was so excited to finally get to hold her, about 5 hours after she was born. She was whisked away right after; I only got a quick little love pat on her back after she was delivered so it was awesome to finally hold her.

The food was remarkably disgusting! This is is a sample of the breakfast fare...scrambled eggs on the left, cream of wheat on the right. Both were fairly chilly at the time of serving, because the nurses had to deliver the food to me, not the food staff, because of my diabetes (apparently the hospital is concerned that a diabetic will freak out when faced with eating a meal when not accompanied by a nurse). So the kitchen would bring the meal to the nurse's station, often without telling the nurses that it was brought, and then the nurses would eventually bring it to me. Since nurses are really busy doing other important things like giving medication and taking care of babies, sometimes the lag time was significant (although the nurses always felt really bad that the tray took so long in getting to me and apologized profusely) I am so glad I had an amazing spouse who smuggled in decadent food (think Chipotle-esque). Since I was in the hospital for about a week, I got very tired of the redundant and gross food. 

The view from my hospital room (the second room, anyway)...you can see the ocean!

A hospital room is NOT the place for a two year old. This is while I was alone in the room while Ailey was still in the NICU.

Cameron really wanted to make a run for it down the hall, and he told us "I want to run in the hall." Too bad that running in hospital hallways is generally a frowned upon activity, and also too bad that Cam was able to open the door on his own!

More of the amazingly awful food...note the crust on the white mound that is masquerading as mashed potatoes.

Cam was SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED to finally meet his baby sister! I wish I could have captured his huge grin when he saw her for the first time, but it will forever be impressed in my memory (we actually did think we captured it, but it turns out the technology gremlins somehow deformatted our video camera files).

Cameron gently holding the newcomer....

Cameron not so gently holding the newcomer....he wanted to explore her and see what she was like! Lest you be concerned, we intervened before serious damage was done. She may or may not have a slightly deformed ear as a result of his loving.

Her first glamour shot! It may not look very glam, but she is much cuter in person (all the aunts and grandmas can attest to this!).

Her going home outfit.

Ailey's first  reaction to her carseat was very similar to Cameron's..."what the...?"

Ailey was fairly jaundiced, and she had to get her blood drawn so often that her little heels had no more places to poke, so they had to draw from her hand.

Her official baby name book entry. Sadly, the runner-up name, "Agnatha" didn't fit in this picture although it was on the same page.

A few days after she was home, he finally managed to wrangle himself so he could cuddle next to her. He was quite pleased with himself.

Not a fan of her first bath!

I am getting to be quite adept at holding both kids in my lap! Even more impressive is when I hold Cameron and read him a book WHILE I am nursing Ailey...but no one needs a photo of that.