Month One

MONTH ONE:

After staying in the hospital long enough to get my staples out and make sure that my body was eliminating fluid, Rob and I brought our new sweet bundle home to begin our new life. The car ride home was kind of surreal. We knew our lives were already changed forever, but bringing that change home makes it all the more real. Of course I rode in the backseat with Cora (she was completely crashed out), and WOW, are Norman streets bumpy! Nothing like your new empty, slack abdomen bouncing around with a fresh six inch incision in it.

I wish I could say that when we returned home everything fell perfectly into place and I was the perfect little mommy and everything was just peachy, but it was a little (not too much, just a little) rough in the beginning. Your whole world is turned upside down in addition to having your days and nights all swirled together. Luckily, I had the complete support of my wonderful husband, and my mom and dad too while I was trying to figure out how to be a mother.

You see, I had a small misconception about babies. They cry like the dickens when they are hungry, right? Not ours. I don't think we really heard her cry until she got her first shot at two weeks. I spent the first couple of weeks in a sleep deprived haze of "is it time to feed the baby? now? ok, is it time now? what about now?" Feeding a baby is not a no-brainer! Isn't it supposed to be the most natural thing in the world?

A few days after being home from the hospital, we had a small scare that required a trip to the ER. Nothing, NOTHING would wake Cora. It had been a few hours since she had eaten and was in the deepest, DEEPEST of baby sleep. After talking with a nurse at Children's Hospital, they advised us to head to the ER. We checked in, were sent to triage, and Cora promptly woke up, filled her diaper, and was ready to eat. Whew! We should have been taking nudey newborn pictures during that precious deep sleep instead of worrying, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

After about two weeks, we were finally starting to find a rhythm and get a little sleep. Rob went back to work, my parents were gone, and it was just me and this precious, tiny baby spending each day together. Oh, and my old feet decided they would finally return. Whew!

The first month with a new baby goes a lot like this: change diaper, feed, burp, play, change diaper, rock, sleep, and repeat. You become so captivated by a new baby's alert times because it seems like they are so fleeting you want to capture every little moment. Check out the delicious wrinkles on those wrists! At one month to the day, Cora's umbilical stump fell off. Isn't that a little longer than normal? We were afraid she might take it to kindergarten. Anyhow, we were thrilled to finally give her a real bath. Daddy got in the tub with her it was just the sweetest thing.

At one month we also did a little living room photo shoot. This shot perfectly captures Cora's sweetness.