Alive and (Mostly) Well
In case you were wondering, we did get home from the hospital last Saturday. It has been great to be home! Earlier in the week, Alaina was having a rough time -- congestion, irritability, etc. -- but she did great yesterday and seems to be having a good day today, too. I'm hoping that trend will continue! We had a couple rough days there. Also, the past couple of nights Todd and I have actually gotten a solid hour or so of quiet time together in the evening. This is a near-miracle because Alaina's crankiest time tends to be in the late afternoon/evening, which unfortunately means that Todd misses the best parts of her day.
It has been such a relief to have a couple better days because we were pretty exasperated earlier in the week. You just don't expect to bring home a baby that's still not completely well after she's been in the hospital for a week. But spending the night with the humidifier and her crib elevated on one side seems to be helping a lot.
Alaina continues to smile occasionally. It's still mostly for Daddy, but I got my first smile from her on Sunday and she's smiled at me a couple times since then. Nothing compares to that! It really surprises me that she started smiling at one month old because she has had such a rough time so far. I thought she'd be too disgruntled with life to smile. I can't wait to see what her personality will be like as she's feeling better and better.
Here are a few new photos of Alaina. A close-up this morning:
Eye-to-eye with Daddy over the weekend:
With her stuffed lamb this morning:
Foreshadowing her reaction someday when a boy she's not interested in calls:
Finally, if any of you are reading this, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who called, visited, emailed, sent a care package, prayed for us, and generally offered support while we were in the hospital. I never would've imagined that I'd be in the hospital with my baby, and having the support of friends and family definitely kept me going. We're very thankful for all of you!