First day out.

In these first days of life for Amelia Jane, we're all experiencing some things for the first time. Amelia Jane had her first night at home; Lily had her first night as a big sister; and we had our first night as parents who couldn't send our baby to the nursery so that we could get some shut-eye. These first few days of parenthood have been really great, and I expect them to only get better.

Today, though, was our first real day out. We had an appointment at the hospital, her first appointment with the pediatrician, and her first meal out! Our appointment at the hospital was to make sure she was getting enough with her nursing, and we found out that she has gained 3 ounces! It doesn't sound like much, but the consultants there assured us that was excellent weight gain. I'll defer to the experts on that one. She is now a svelte 7 lbs even. That sounds light, but if you carry that kind of weight around, as I am wont to do, you'll notice a slight burning sensation in the forearms. Go on. Pick up a bag of flour and give it a try.

At the pediatrician, we had a great time. We got to express all of our parental worries. One thing that worries me is how much she's sleeping. I know...too much sleep, right? The doctor told me to just enjoy it. She'll cut that out soon enough. One interesting thing, though: I had to strip her down to be weighed and measured, and she wet all over me. That was a pretty clear indication that I need to start having an extra shirt with me at all times. Getting peed on, though, is a hazard of the job. I've just learned to not hold her too close when she's stark naked.

After these adventures we stopped by St. Bs. I took such pride in showing my little girl around our church. We went into the office, and then I took her into the sanctuary. I pretty much walked her through the entire service, and she was in "quiet alert" phase at that point. It was incredible carrying her around and doing thing because in this phase she appears to be hanging on every word. When she's looking at me like she's never seen me before and trying to make sense of who this crazy man is who is toting her around.

After stopping by St. Bs, we went out for her first meal on the town. I lobbied for the Wooden Nickel, but my mother-in-law stuck with the devil she knew in Applebee's. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's, and today more than ever I felt like I was at Chatzkies (sp?) from Office Space. My beef, though, is more with the service. I don't expect every single person to stop and tell me how great my daughter is because I'm still finding out myself. However, our waiter seemed none too interested in the tiny little girl hanging out in our booth, and he made no real effort to keep it quiet while she was sleeping. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive now and have had too much time to think about it, but ole Mitchell is not on my good list right now.

Another first that I'm going to mention is a more difficult one. Since living in Virginia, our precious Lily has slept in her crate in our room. The past two nights she has become really distressed whenever Lia wakes up crying, and she almost seems to not want to even go to her crate any longer. We're going to try something different tonight by putting her outside of her room where she will have few distractions. Let's hope it works!

First Day Home.

Amelia Jane came home today, and Mom was right there with her. I'm still processing all of this stuff from the past few days, and I'm realizing a need to put these feelings and emotions and experiences into words in the coming days. Watching Amelia Jane come to life and being there for her first minutes shook me to a core that I didn't know existed. The only thing that kept me from bawling was that I could simply soak it all in instead of having to talk to people about it. Watching Lia there lying on the cart being cleaned up and cared for was something that I just had to see and observe, and I'm really happy at this point that it was something I could just watch and observe and take it all in. Unfortunately the process itself is a bit of a blur, but the thought of it causes me to well up with tears and happiness and fear and all of those pieces that make up being a father.

Here at home on the first day we of course had to introduce our new little girl to our now big girl. Lily was of course happy to see her mom, and she really took to Lia pretty quickly. She was suspicious of the carseat at first, but after a few sniffs and kisses she realized that Lia wasn't anyone to be scared of. I walked around with Lia for a few minutes, and right out of the blocks I had to change a wet diaper. Lily was really concerned about the strange noise (crying) coming from this little being, and she watched me intently as I started to change her diaper.

Lily is some kind of hound dog who has a strong set of hind legs. This allows her to kick up on her hind legs and look around tall objects or peer at whatever might be on the kitchen counter. Today it helped her to see what I was doing to this little person who was screaming. She realized it was nothing major, but when I put Lia in her crib Lily really wanted to see what was going on. She tried to see into the crib, but she couldn't see inside. Because of Lily's concern (curiosity?) I'm thinking she might actually be an alright dog for us to have with a little baby. She's still showing some interest, but overall she's still doing her same thing.

Each minute that passes and every time I look at Lia I'm realizing what a little miracle she is. Everything about her looks so perfect and so tiny. She's a great little girl.