Hospital Day 2

Day 2 was nice and calm. Shep had an ultrasound on his kidney which didn't show much. We scheduled another ultrasound for one month out to get a better check. 

7:30am and he's snoozing!

Happy Due Day!

My mom came by to hang out while Jay went in to work. She watched Shep and I was able to take a shower and get ready. That first shower felt great!

my mom took a few pictures of me with baby shep. he seriously is the sweetest baby.

While we were at the hospital the stork arrived at our house!

jay came back in the afternoon and we napped and hung out with Shep. We tried to soak in all the time we could before we brought him home to the chaos!

that night my parents brought us a nice bottle of champs and sushi. man did I miss sushi!

last sleep in the hospital! We had made arrangements to leave the following day!

Shep's First Night

After a few hours in recovery we headed to our postpartum room and baby Shep got his first bath. Since the babies no longer go to the nursery, they did it right in our room and we were able to get some pictures.

After his bath, Shep got all cleaned up and we had some snuggle time. 

Sheppie and Aunt Bo

I don't know why but this is the only picture I have of family meeting Shep from the first day. I need to get the rest of my mom's camera!

Jay is the best swaddler!

Shep's first sleep!

Hospital Day 1- Introducing Shep

The hospital stay was a BLUR. Especially because the hospital changed up their policy and no longer send newborns to the nursery. I don't know about you but after a tiring c-section, I needed some sleep to be the best mommy I could be. We tried to sleep a little in the hospital but the nurses came in every night at 10 then 11:30 and then throughout the late night to check on the baby. I was more than a bit frustrated! Especially because their visits didn't coincide with Shep's feedings and I felt like I was being woken up every hour! Thank goodness Shep was a cute, sweet baby :)

The twins came to visit around lunch time on Thursday. This gave me some time to heal from the c-section and walk around a bit before seeing them. I wanted to be like "mommy" and not a hospital patient. We made sure that I wasn't holding Shep when they came in so that they felt like they weren't second to the new baby.

Watching them meet Shep was adorable. You could see the confusion that he wasn't in my tummy anymore. Their reactions were not what I expected. Holden was not interested in Shep at all. Completely opposite of his reaction when I was pregnant with Shep.

Emma Cate was so sweet with Shep which again, was opposite of the way she was when I was pregnant (she wanted NOTHING to do with that belly!)

Start iPhone pic

my iphone pics don't mix with my big camera pics and they get a little out of order...

I'm guessing this is our first family selfie with Shep. This was taken around 1am Thursday morning.

We got Shep dressed and ready to meet his siblings

I love this picture of my boys and me

My Dad thought it was very important that Shep give Holden and Emma Cate a big brother/big sister gift. My parents picked out the gifts for me. Holden got a power tool set that he is obsessed with still!

also loving this one of my baby girl meeting her little brother

Hanging out on mom's hospital bed breaking in Shep's boppy

Loved having a little banner in our room to welcome our baby boy! We also had monogrammed cupcakes to pass out to all the nurses and visitors but I didn't get a picture of those.

Second outfit of the day! 

We brought sooo many clothes to the hospital that we had to keep changing him to get everything in!

We brought in dinner and the twins came back for another visit.

They all put on their pjs for our first sibling picture.

changing a shu shu

The babies headed home and Aunt Allie and and Aunt Bo came to visit. They kept me company while Jay took an exam for school. Poor guy had a new baby on Wednesday and an accounting exam on Thursday night. I was pretty impressed that he aced it!

Around 11:30, our nurse Dessi came in to do Shep's hearing test. I was really interested to watch because usually they do this in the nursery. He passed with flying colors. 

The nurse came in again and got Shep's weight.

shep had another outfit change before bed

love these shots of my sweet guy with his daddy

Special Moments

So I downloaded the blogger app to my phone. Blogging from my computer is almost impossible and it's so much easier to write quick memories down on my phone to post. 

I worked today and got home around 2:30. EC and H were both asleep and I got to cuddle with Sheppie for a good hour. The twins haven't been taking naps for most of my maternity leave so I rarely had down time during the day and was pretty exhausted by the time Shep went to sleep at 9. The twins slept until 5 and I got in an episode of real housewives :) 

After dinner Jay and I took the kids to a local park that we had never consisted but will be a staple in our summer activities rotation. My little monkeys were all over the place and Shep slept soundly. It was nice to sit back and watch them play without having to chase them. It was fun to enjoy them without stressing out over who was running towards the road or falling of the edge of the 5 ft tall fireman's pole. 

This last picture shows EC jumping off the step onto the one below. Jay and I were sitting to the side and both did one of those "did you just see that" moments. She practiced jumping into the pool this weekend and it sort of amazes me how they are becoming able to transfer their knowledge from one situation to the next. Watching them grow and learn is my favorite part of being a mom.

While waiting for dinner to cook, I took a few minutes to spend one on one with Holden. We sat in the nursery and read together. One of his favorite things. He is able to point out almost half of the animals in our 100 animals book and also know their sounds. I love listening to him "read" to me. We were reading nursery rhymes and we got to the old lady that lived in the shoe. Before I read he immediately pointed out shoe! The proceeded to say Holdie shoes, then boat shoes, then Holdie boat shoe stink. It was hilarious. His boat shoes smell awful! To watch him put all those connections together is incredible. I love seeing how their little minds are working. Each day brings something new.

It started to thunder at the park and both babies became obsessed with listening for the "funder". We listened all the way home and while we were getting ready for bed. They kept signing more and then screaming funder! It was the cutest thing.

We put them to bed and Holden had a meltdown. Screaming for daddy. Jay went to comfort him but had to come out to take the dogs out since I was holding Shep. We traded places and I took a turn with Holdie. We don't rock them often but I took full advantage tonight. I sang and rocked the sweet boy to sleep. Emma Cate stood in her crib and dictated songs for me to sing. I hear a lot of no mama no! Once Holden was good and asleep in his bed, Emma Cate looked at me and requested "rock mama rock". I couldn't pass up the one on one time and we rocked and sang. She requested "bus" (wheels on the bus) and we sang quite the duet. She looked up at me as she sang and I burst into tears. I s have so many moments where my heart fills with gratitude for these amazing kids we've been blessed with. In that sweet moment with her little almost two year old smile looking up at me, I was hit again with the overwhelming feeling of all consuming love. It is the best feeling in the world. I am so thankful for these little babies that made me a mother and for all the laughs they give me each day.

Little sheppie nice and full and ready for bed