Week One.

Here are a few snapshots of our first week at home with our newest addition.

We stayed two nights at the hospital, and we had the best nurses. Our first nurse (night shift on Tuesday) was Deborah, then Wednesday we had Brianne (who we had met while walking laps the day before and she specifically scheduled herself to be our nurse), and Deborah was our nurse again on Wednesday night. The Thursday nurse wasn't as cool, but since we were discharged in the morning it didn't really matter.

Avery's gift from Landon. She's on a little Tinkerbell kick lately.

Kendra and Allison brought Avery to the hospital to see us on Wednesday, but she made us so sad when they needed to leave! She kept crying, "Mommy, come with us! Daddy, come with us!" Needless to say, I cried too.

Matt's impression of Landon's sleepy face

Matt actually went home around midnight on Wednesday night to stay with Avery since my mom needed to go back to work on Thursday. He took Avery to a friend's house (thanks, Whitney!) on Thursday morning and came back to the hospital in time for us to be discharged.

The hospital stay got a little boring (I'm so glad we didn't have to stay as long as we did with Avery), but we got lots of good snuggle time with Landon, and we really appreciated having visitors.

Muncle Vernon!

Kendra

Kari

Beverly is actually a nurse at our hospital, but she wasn't working while we were there, so she stopped by to visit anyway. :)

Chelsie (Stephanie stopped by later, but I forgot to snap a picture!)

Avery's done pretty well with the transition to being an older sibling as opposed to an only child. She loves to hold Landon (we have the pictures to prove it!), and she's always trying to get in the middle of the action (even helping with diaper changes). She even wants to read her "big sister book" before every nap and bedtime. She's definitely had more meltdowns than normal since we've been home, but I can't say I blame her. We've really made an effort to make sure she gets lots of individual attention, but things are still, well, different. I think with some more time (and lots of patience and understanding on our part!), she'll be just fine.

We've been so blessed by sweet friends who have brought us some fantastic dinners. Our church's Helps Ministry provides three meals for a family after a baby is born, and one of our neighbors brought over a delicious chicken pot pie when we got home on Thursday. I even have a few freezer meals that I made last month, so I'm extremely thankful to not have to cook right now. I'm doing good to just get a shower. And I'm not even getting those every day. Yes, I just admitted that.

I have the best husband in the world. Matt is a huge help around the house; he's worked really hard to help keep the kitchen clean, he changes his fair share of diapers (without complaining), and he's taken the initiative to get every meal ready so I don't have to. I'm SO thankful for him!

We've had some good visits with family and friends since we've been home.

Aunt Allison

Grandma

Nene and Pop Pop

Brittany and Uncle Nick

Amy

Breastfeeding is going so much better than it did with Avery. This was something I was pretty worried about because we just really can't afford to buy formula right now. Oh yeah, plus "breast is best" and all that jazz. I just remember being so overwhelmed and frustrated with every (forever long and painful) feeding when Avery was a baby, that it's been a pleasant shift that Landon seems to be a much better nurser. Maybe we'll make it longer than three months this time.

(Don't worry, I don't have any breastfeeding pictures for ya.)

Matt and I are sleeping about as well as can be expected. Landon is a sleeper, that's for sure. He's so chill and really only cries when he's hungry. He'll go for a 4-5 hour stretch between feedings at night, so that's been a decent chunk of sleep for me.

Things have been a little overwhelming this week while we try to adjust to our newest family member because Matt has had to be at tech training at school since Monday and I've been working at the church the last couple of days trying to get ready for VBS (which starts on Monday). As long as we can survive until VBS is over next week, I think we'll be golden for the rest of the summer. Until then, we'll try to enjoy the chaos, knowing that it's only temporary and babies grow up way too fast.