After Bjorn was born, we headed over to Methodist Hospital for a 36-hour stay. Ironically, the rest of the birth process (delivering the placenta, getting stitches, getting IV drugs to halt hemorrhaging...) turned out to be more of an ordeal for me than having Bjorn at home had been. Aaron went with the baby to the nursery to have him washed off, weighed, measured, etc., while our doula stayed with me and held my hand through the rest of the unpleasantries. My dad drove my car to the hospital for us and delivered our suitcase and snack bag that I had stashed in the trunk ahead of time. My mom (THANK YOU, MOM!!!!!) had the unlucky task of staying at our house and cleaning the bathroom, which as you can imagine didn't look so great after the impromptu delivery of a baby in the middle of the room.
A few hours later, after my blood pressure had evened out and I was able to get out of bed without feeling like I was going to pass out, life started to feel somewhat normal again. We were able to get a few hours of sleep and eat a good breakfast. Later in the morning, the pediatrician on call went over my prenatal records and examined Bjorn and confirmed that he appeared to be in good health.
My parents brought Leif to the hospital to meet his baby brother around noon. We had very carefully planned to have Bjorn taken to the nursery before Leif arrived, since we didn't want him to walk in and see another baby in our arms and feel displaced. However, Leif assumed the baby was somewhere in the room and immediately began to search high and low for him, lifting up the blankets on the hospital bed and asking, "Where baby brother?" When Bjorn did return from the nursery, Leif seemed pretty curious about him, although he had no interest in touching him, much less holding him. He did, however, keep proclaiming, "Leif is big brother!", which we took to be a good sign.
That evening, we had visits from Auntie Sarah, Granny and Grandpaw G. (I'm sorry we forgot to take a picture of you with Bjorn, Sarah!). Aaron and I were glad to see everyone, but we were utterly exhausted by the end of the day. After keeping Bjorn in the room with us for part of the night, we eventually sent him to the nursery so we could get a three-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep (an excellent decision, since I have not gotten that much consecutive sleep on any night since then!).
We were discharged at 3:00 on Saturday and loaded our new tiny bundle into his infant car seat, which looked enormous compared to his 7-pound body. We headed home to reunite with Leif, who until now has been our little boy and all of a sudden has become our GIGANTIC boy in comparison to his little bro. It has been a challenging week of adjustments for all of us, most of all for Leif, but we have gotten through it with lots of logistical and moral support from our wonderful friends and family. One week down...how many weeks to go?!?
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