Delaney's First Week

What a week it has been!  Delaney had a lovely first few days at the hospital with roughly a million visitors.  UPMC Mercy treated us quite well, including a celebratory steak/salmon dinner.  Then she came home to flurry of activity starting with our traditional Thanksgiving home-from-the-hospital dinner.  Oh, and it just happened to be Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning we opened presents for our first celebration of the season.  Both grandmas were still here and we are overwhelmingly grateful for their company and help.  This four-kid gig is a tremendous amount of work, but we've been coping well, thanks to their contributions.  It was sad for all of us to say good-bye to Grandma Deni on Tuesday night.  We look forward to a trip to Michigan in the not-too-distant future. Somewhere in the midst of all this, Brinn & Carrigan had a mild dose of the stomach flu and Delaney has gone through packs and packs of diapers. But we're overall holding up very well.  My recovery is progressing nicely and we are so thankful to our talented midwives for managing every detail of labor, delivery and post-partum care so well.

A few other observations from week.  Amalia immediately declared "Brinnly and Carrigan have each other.  Delaney is mine".  She sealed that deal by holding Delaney on her lap while watching the Steeler-Rams game with their daddy as soon as we got home from the hospital.  Who needs sons?

All of the girls love Delaney whole-heatedly.  Carrigan asks immediately after waking up "Where's my little baby?" and demands to hold her.  Other times Carrigan struggles to find her place in the new dynamic.  She's not quite as big as the other girls, but certainly not a baby.  She's also asked "Why Mali and Brinnly not in school"?  and for Grandma Deni to come back. A return to our normal routine next week will probably be good for her.

And now Grandpa, Aunt Kara, and Uncle Josh are here are another round of celebrating. We're ending 2011 on a fantastic note.