Bubblegum Betty

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Our First Week Home!!!

First of all...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  As I sit down to write this post, we have now been home for three weeks today!  Our goal when we first found out about Seiden's cyst was to be home by Thanksgiving.  And here we are, three weeks into being home and just LOVING every single second of it!  I can't hardly even believe that it's already been three weeks.  Time seriously flies by so incredibly fast.  But, being home with Seiden and getting into our "new normal" routine has been such a seamless process.  She is absolutely amazing and oh so wonderful in every single way.  We are truly blessed!

Our first week home really was incredible.  It just felt so good to be back in our own house, sleeping in our own bed, loving on our own dogs, and learning about this new life with our precious daughter.  We were both nervous and worried that the dogs may be a little jealous and feel like they were missing out on attention.  But, the 17 days we were in the NICU, dad would bring home her blankets and let them smell them.  Cody's mom said that they just loved getting to smell their sister...so we were hopeful that they would just love her as much as they loved her smell.  But...you just never know...I was afraid they were just going to be sad!  However, that is so not the case!  Faith and Trigger absolutely LOVE her!  Sarge seems to kinda care less...he just can't be bothered!  Faith really is so protective of her.  Whenever Seiden does let out a little whimper or she actually starts crying, Faith will go right over to her and sit down in front of her checking on her.  It's precious!  And Trigger just wants to play with her all the time.  Anytime Seiden makes the slightest noise, Trigger perks up and thinks that means she wants to play.  She'll come over to her and stick her nose in her face and give her a good lick or two.  It's so cute and Seiden doesn't mind it one single bit!  All three of the girls have even had tummy time together!  We put Seiden down for a few minutes of tummy time and the girls were laying on either side of her...love it!  So, needless to say, the dogs have adjusted to having a new sister at home perfectly fine!  And, she's such an amazing and super chill baby, we still have time to love on and play with them.  When she's napping in her swing or bouncer, the dogs still curl up on the couch with us and it's just like old times...plus a precious bundle of joy sleeping like a little beauty just a few feet from us!

We even went on our first family walk and run together!  It was such beautiful weather the first week we were home, so we got the BOB out that Sunday afternoon and hit the neighborhood for an afternoon stroll.  I didn't go run with Cody and the girls, but Seiden and I went on a nice, long walk.  When Cody was done running the girls, he dropped them off at home and then found us a few minutes later and we finished up our little family walk/jog.  We probably walked about 2 1/2 miles...and it was glorious!  I hadn't really been doing anything but walking around the hospital or doing stuff throughout the house.  So, it felt really good to be out and moving again.  And now that it's been almost 6 weeks since I had my C-section, I'm completely back in the gym!  I'm running at my normal pace, doing mostly CrossFit bodyweight WODs, and also doing some CrossFit WODs with kettlebells, wallballs, and push press.  It feels SO good to be back in the gym and lifting weights.  I'll be glad when I'm officially cleared from my doctor so I can get back to hitting it hard again.  Baby steps I know...but not being able to workout has  probably been the hardest part of recovery for me.  All so worth it...but hard!

I will say that we were both pretty pooped that first week and into the next week.  It was just a lot with trying to figure out a sleep schedule and then being on a constant "every 3 hour" schedule.  Seiden eats every 3 hours and I am also pumping every 3 hours.  She eats at 8, 11, 2, 5, repeat.  And I pump 30 minutes before she eats.  So, that means that I really only have a couple of hours in between feedings.  That is, if Cody isn't home.  If he's home, he feeds her while I pump so we both have a pretty good stretch of time in between to get some things done or just rest and relax.  But, that first week we were home, we had so much to do from being gone for nearly a month.  So, we weren't getting any rest at all during the day.  While she slept, we were doing chores around the house, running errands, and doing other odds and ends trying to get things squared away so that we could finally relax a little when she was napping.  She's so good though, it's really been such a blessing because we have been able to get everything done we've needed to get done and also get some rest during the day and sleep really well at night.  There was only one night that I would say was hard for me.  It wasn't hard for me because she had a bad night and didn't sleep.  It was just that being home with a newborn hit me all at once.  All the responsibility and just the realization that life was completely different.  And different in the most amazing way...but different.  I took a bath one night before I pumped and then went to bed and after I was done, I just sat on the edge of the bathtub and felt really overwhelmed.  The days before having Seiden that were long or just more tiring, I would think to myself, "I'll just get more rest tomorrow and relax more at night or even catch-up over the weekend."  Suddenly, I just realized that there was no more of that.  At least not for a little while.  I'm telling you...she is the BEST baby.  But...it just took me some time to adjust and realize that things were just going to be different.  After I had a little bit of a moment, I prayed about it and just asked God to give me whatever it was that I needed to be a good mom and give Seiden all the love and anything else that she needs.  And I have to say that ever since then, things have just started to be even more wonderful than they were before and we are all learning together and getting in the swing of things as a family of 3 with 3 puppy babies!

And let me just tell you about Seiden!  She is absolutely amazing.  All she has gone through and how she has handled it has simply amazed me.  She is so strong and has so much determination and will.  And she's also stubborn and has a little bit of a temper when things aren't going quite her way...all me!!!  But, she is also just so relaxed, content, and calm.  That is all Cody's personality!  She is quite the little snuggle bug too...so sweet and loving and precious!  It's so fun to sit back and watch how she's got both of our personalities mixed all together and has created her perfect little self.  God just knitted her together so wonderfully and perfectly and we couldn't be more blessed or more in love.  We are just so in awe of all God has done with our little miracle baby.  He has just truly blessed us in ways that we will never know, but we are just so thankful to have such an awesome Father who held us and walked us through everything.  He carried us and Seiden as we went through this journey and we couldn't have gotten through it without our family, friends, prayer warriors, and our amazing doctors and nurses.  Our Father just put every single person in place every step of the way for everything we needed.  Whether it was physically, emotionally, spiritually, or for healing, God put someone in our lives to help us with each and everything.  He has led us and Seiden through this and placed us back at home just a short time after being in the NICU.  We were so blessed by our precious nurses in the NICU and the amazing doctors that attended to Seiden.  Both the doctors and nurses cared for and loved on her just so much.  It was sad to leave their sweet faces when we were discharged, but it was definitely time to come home.  It is so nice to be home with our family and friends surrounding us and to be getting into the swing of our "new normal!"





























No comments:

Post a Comment