Busy, happy week.

This past week, (starting Thursday, June 23rd) has been pretty busy.  In a good way.  First of all, Thursday morning started with going to the hospital to hang out with David while Harmony and Brian went in for a c-section.  A few hours later (around 10:55 AM) Lydia Avigael was born.  8 lbs. 11 oz. and 20-1/2 inches long.  She is beautiful and I am oh-so in love (as are her parents and BIG BROTHER!)  

Most of the morning, while Harmony was getting prepped and everything, David and I played in the hallway, walked around, etc. and he kept talking about how life-altering this day was.  Of course, he’s 5, so he didn’t use those exact words, but kept saying “I’m turning into a different person today!” and how great being a big brother was going to be.  He talked about how everything he had was now “theirs” instead of just his… I actually tried to convince him that *his* things were in fact still HIS, but he wouldn’t agree – kept saying “No, big brothers share everything”, so… I wasn’t gonna argue.  LOL  My mom had sent them with a present for David to open and he kept saying it was for him AND Goldfish.  There was no convincing him otherwise, so we basically said “oh, well ok!”  After Harmony was brought back into the room; tummy significantly smaller 😉 she informed David he had a little sister.  YAY!  He was quite impatient and couldn’t wait to see her, so I brought him downstairs (after he made SURE Harmony was ok) to look through the nursery window.  Brian was in there and was grinning from ear to ear as he held up his PINK wrist band.  David could see Lydia through the window and was in awe.  He kept trying to climb up higher so he could see her.  He kept saying things like “being a big brother is the best feeling in the world!” and when he heard her crying through the glass, he was concerned and said “she wants her big brother!”  Of course we couldn’t go IN there, so we had to wait like a full 5 minutes before they brought her out so he could see her.  He loved her chubby cheeks (and still, a week later, tells everyone that her cheeks are his favorite part of her).  She had a significantly high heart beat when she was born (which quickly corrected itself – no concern), so just to be cautious, they brought her to the NICU for 24 hours for observation.  I was sad about this, mostly because it meant that Harmony would not get a lot of one-on-one time with her baby girl.  This happened when David was born because of his extremely low blood-sugar and I think the lack of physical contact was hurtful to Harmony at the beginning.  But even with the 24 hours in the NICU, they are doing great and Harmony glows with a huge grin every time she looks at her.  I was also very proud of Brian for insisting that before the nurses whisked Lydia off to the NICU, that they bring her to Harmony at least for a few minutes.  He was insistent on that and I definitely think it helped.  She got at least 10-15 minutes with her before they took her.  10 very important minutes.  I firmly believe that the physical contact between mother and child as early as possible are very important.   Later, Brian and I went downstairs to the cafeteria to get lunch and I kept laughing when I looked at him because he was so giddy, he looked like a little boy on Christmas morning.  He kept randomly breaking silence with “hehe, I have a little girl” and at one point started laughing out of nowhere and said “I have two kids!”  He even told the two children (couldn’t have been any older than 10 years old) in the elevator on the way back upstairs that he had a new baby girl.  To say that he’s totally and completely “smitten” by this little girl is an enormous understatement.  LOL  Anyway… she is beautiful, she and Harmony are both doing wonderfully and they were released Monday morning and are now home.

Our annual family camping trip started the next morning.  So, we all went up to Timp. Campground and the majority of the family is still up there as we speak.  Harmony actually came up Monday morning after being released just to spend a little time with the family and finally give Pa his chance to hold his Grand daughter for the first time (no one was allowed to hold her in the NICU ) I spent most of the weekend going from the campsite down to the hospital as often as I could, so I was grateful that we camped locally this year.  It’s been really fun, just to relax up in the mountains, play games, sit around and talk and just not think about all the other stresses that have been on my mind.  Bart wasn’t able to come up until Saturday afternoon and had to go home Sunday because he had to work Monday, but I was really happy he got to come up at all.  Gideon stayed the night as well and I was pretty impressed with how well he did, considering he’s never been camping before.  Of course there was the initial spazzing when we got there and he had to make everyone say “hi” to him, but all in all, I was happy he was up there too and got the experience.  I actually got to be completely alone up there for a few hours on Monday while everyone went to the cave and I was amazed at how relaxed I felt.  I read my book most of the time, but just sitting in almost complete silence, other than the birds chirping and the few seconds of my face-to-face with a deer (lol), it was very relaxing and was surprised at how easily I let go of all the other things that have been weighing on my mind lately.  Heidi and Matty are visiting from Washington as well, so it’s been nice to spend time with them (and see Matty getting to know our family.  He fits right in!)  (I have lots of camping pictures on Facebook, if you want to check them out.)

Brian wanted to camp, but really didn’t want to leave Harmony alone at home, so I stayed at her house with her and Lydia Tuesday night.  I loved every minute of it, even being woken up 4+ times throughout the night.  I helped feed her (Harmony is pumping so even when she isn’t breast feeding, Lydia is still getting her milk instead of formula) and change her, which included one slightly explosive diaper that went halfway up her back LOL and rocked her and sang to her.  If you have to be ridiculously physically tired the next day, that’s gotta be the best reason.  Even though at least one of the times I woke up, I could hardly keep my eyes open, looking at her and having her open her eyes and look straight at me, was the best feeling in the world.

The past couple weeks, David has periodically asked me “what’s it feel like to be an Aunt?” and the only answer I could really come up with is “it’s the best feeling in the world!”  I’m sure most of you who know me, know that I still have that piece of me that aches every time I hold (or see) a new baby, because I can’t help but relive the brief moment that I was a Mother, holding my newborn son, but the only feeling that can even remotely measure up to that moment in my life, is holding my nieces and nephews and knowing that I’ll be able to hold them the rest of my life.