Starting All Over Again

That's really what it feels like with a new baby at home. It's like Groundhog Day, only with a toddler running amok. We didn't get a lot of sleep last night - Annie decided that staying up was more fun. We spent most of the night trying to keep her from waking Ellie up. Right now she's sleeping in our room. I don't know when we are going to make the transition into Ellie's room, but I'm dreading the move more and more every day.

As for the actual delivery etc. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I won't go into to too great of detail regarding Ellie's delivery and recovery - suffice to say it was incredibly miserable, it's a wonder I ever decided to get pregnant again. Fortunately, Annie's delivery went perfectly. We walked in and a little more than 2 hours later, she was born. My spinal block worked perfectly. It was weird to feel the doctors pushing around in my tummy without actually feeling pain. It was also weird to just be awake with it all going on and to hear them talking about what they were doing. Matt was there the whole time holding my hand and we just stared when they pulled Annie out and began cleaning her up.

Because I was unable to breastfeed with Ellie, we didn't even try it this time around. The first benefit to that is that I could just leave Annie at the nursery each night and actually get a full night's sleep (except to get up for more medication and vital sign checks). It was a beautiful hiatus before having reality set in, which, of course, it did last night at home where there is no nursery to check her in to. Oh well.

Ellie is loving her new sister. I mean LOVING her. She is kissing and hugging and we are trying very hard to remind her that she must be SOFT. She is also clearly freaking out over all of the changes in the house. She had her first real meltdown last night. She's rarely been so inconsolable. Of course, she had missed her nap, hardly eaten anything, and was still a little sick, - add a new sister and it was the perfect storm. But she woke up happier today and things are going better. I guess it's going to be a day by day thing.

I still have a lot of pain - mostly when I move around. It's going to be a long recovery. But lucky for me, I have a lot of help. I feel incredibly blessed, if somewhat overwhelmed. Now when we go out to eat we are Astle - party of four. What a strange realization.

Here are few pics:

Ellie bestowing one of her many kisses to her new sister

Ready to go home

Ellie helping to push me to the elevator

More kisses for baby Annie