Pictures!

My mom puts my blogging to shame! But I guess I have a worthy excuse, having been a little "busy" for the past few days. :) I remember now how a new baby throws life into overdrive and suddenly, though some moments pass slowly, the days pass so fast you feel like it's all a blur- right when there are some special, fleeting moments you want to capture and hold onto forever (and there are also some moments you are glad you can pass quickly through!)

Overall, we are all doing well. I feel like my body is bouncing back more quickly this time than with Carolyn and I'm not nearly as uncomfortable as I remember being the first week after she was born. I'm really trying to take it easy physically and not do more than I have to; my mom and dad have been so great about taking the home care responsibilities off my shoulders this week so I have time to recover more before I have to take care of things myself. If I don't update at all next week, you'll know why!! But, without further gibber gabber, here are some pictures so that you all can share a little bit in the wonder and specialness of this first week as a new family of four. :)
Sweet Princess Nora, snoozing away before we left the hospital. We didn't stay very long, only until Monday afternoon and she was born early Sunday morning. I wanted our family to be complete as soon as possible (and I wanted to sleep in my own bed!) Monday morning I had a special time all on my own with Nora since I'd sent Brad home for the night and he hadn't come in to the hospital to join us yet. I watched her sleep and just tried to soak in our new little miracle, still so fresh from God's hand.
Of course, I had to stage the "Born Yesterday" picture since there is only ONE day in your whole life you can wear this shirt (we wonder why they didn't make it a little smaller!) I have an almost identical picture of Carolyn in this shirt; in fact, I think it might be hard to tell them apart! I can't seem to find the picture, but when I saw this, I had to laugh because Nora's response to this shirt was dead on with Carolyn's. :)
It was very important to me for Nora to have a special outfit to wear home from the hospital; something especially cute that we can save in her baby box as a memory of how sweet and small she once was. The cute outfit I picked out and had brought to the hospital for her had no hope of fitting, so thank goodness for the Gymboree baby sale! I sent Brad to the store on his way to the hospital to pick us up to grab this special outfit for her. :) And then I loved it so much that in my hormonal post-partum state, I had my dad go out the next day and buy it a size bigger so that I don't have to say goodbye to it as quickly as she will outgrow it. A week just isn't long enough for something this cute! :)
Mom and Dad decked the house out for our arrival home. Since we live at a main entrance to our subdivision, now all our neighbors also know that Baby Nora is here- and in a place where you often don't see your neighbors all winter long, at least no one will be surprised when we have two children this summer instead of just one. :)
Nora settled right into her new surroundings. :)
Carolyn is a very sweet big sister. When she hears Baby Nora crying, she instantly stops whatever she is doing and says "Baby Nora CRYING!" and runs to where the noise is coming from. We have to move pretty quickly to get there first. :) She likes to peek in the crib just to be sure Baby Nora is okay.
She is very eager to help and loves to bring pipes for the baby and shares her favorite toys with her (here she is sharing Remy and Emile, her figures from the Ratatouille movie). Often she runs for her very special pink blanket and brings even this treasure to her baby sister. I love to see her showing such affection for Baby Nora and it warms my heart to see her showing love in her simple, sweet, 2-year-old way.

Sometimes Baby Nora doesn't want to be comforted, even with special pipes from Big Sister...
Carolyn loves helping with the baby. She especially enjoyed drenching Nora with water during her bath the other day.
Nora's response was pretty typical for a first-time bath at home. :)
But she calmed down quickly once she started to feel warm and dry.
Daddy is the professional manicurist in this house. Ever since I made Carolyn's fingers bleed the first time I tried to cut her nails, we let the surgeon take care of this delicate task. :)
Mommy is good for lots of snuggles and hugs. I am just soaking in the sweetness of newborn cuddles. There is something equally precious about toddler snuggles- all the more so because they are relatively infrequent and always voluntary when they occur- but newborn snuggles are awfully sweet because they just melt into your body, melting your heart in the process.
We've only been home a few days but so many sweet people have sent such wonderful things to our family. Some of the gifts have come with special Big Sister components- like this cookie from Meijer 221 which Big Sister thoroughly enjoyed!
We had another wonderfully sunny day the other day so Nora got a nice sunbath. She is starting to look kind of jaundiced... we had to get her blood drawn today and the bilirubin level is higher than it should be, so we have to recheck tomorrow. I hope it starts to go down so that we won't need the bili blanket... but without the sun most days for sunbaths, we might have to go that way. We see the pediatrician tomorrow.
Sunbath time is a great time to take pictures of tiny baby feet!
Nora sleeps about like you'd expect from a newborn... most of the day, some of the night. It's hard to keep her awake for any length of time during the day...
But it makes for some sweet pictures... here she takes a snooze with Daddy. Big Sister wanted to share her Valentine's card and left it there for her to look at when she wakes up. :)
Slowly each day Nora is starting to have more alert moments and she drinks in her surroundings, trying to make sense of it all. I love to look in her eyes and watch her begin to see the world.

Well, that's the end of my post for the day... I think my hormones are starting to catch up with me because all of a sudden, I've just hit that point of super emotionality today. I feel simultaneously great joy, intense irritation with the irritating parts of life, and deep fear because with a new baby comes a whole new level of vulnerability. Suddenly I'm responsible again for a completely helpless little life and I am so afraid sometimes that some decision I make will hurt her. Carolyn has a little cold that's settled into a nice cough and she's coughed right in the baby's face several times today... and that freaks me out! I so want Carolyn's introduction to big sisterhood to be a positive one and I don't want her to always hear "no" when it comes to the baby- so I haven't made much of an effort to keep her away from Nora. But now I second guess the wisdom of that decision because what if she gets sick? What if, what if, what if... this has always been Satan's path right into my heart to steal my joy and make me clamp down and stop trusting God to take care of us. It's so hard for me to accept that the real responsibility for Nora and Carolyn and everything else I try to juggle on my own is really NOT mine, but God's. And when it comes down to it, I have no other choice but to trust Him to take care of us. I know the answers... I just have a hard time listening to them, believing them, standing on them. And so... I've been a little emotional today.