Early Days

Dear Catalina,

We have watched you learn new skills in the past few days.  It is so exciting!  You are babbling so much more now and quick to smile at mom and dad.  You've started to get interested in objects and will attempt to grab at toys when we dangle them in front of you.  The other day you reached out and touched my leg and just sat there staring at it and "petting" it.  It was so cute.  We bought a jogging stroller this weekend, but you don't seem to care too much for it.  You much prefer being held.  It is hard for me to remember how tiny you were when we brought you home because I see you every day, but everybody who comes over comments on how big you are now.  It seems that a life time has gone by since we brought you home, but it has only been a little over 11 weeks.  Crazy.

Coming home from the hospital with you was so scary.  Everybody says this, but it is really true, when they finally discharge you as a new mommy... you can't believe you are going to be trusted with your own baby!  It seems so insane that while we were in the hospital, they would check on us every 2 hours or so, but then they just send us home with you--for days with no help!  Dad and I were so happy to be out of there, but so nervous!  You looked so tiny in your car seat.  The house seemed so foreign when we got home even though we had only been gone for a few days.  Everything changed...we were parents now.  I was really sore still and was told that I should lie in bed most of the time.  Well, in case you didn't know this about me, that's a really difficult request to make of your mommy.  I tried though.  We quickly realized that our nursery set up had some flaws and your dad ran around town buying stuff to fix it.  Luckily some friends had arranged to bring us dinner that night.  We were so overwhelmed.  You slept most of the time, but you managed to squeeze in some awake time.  Just staring at nothing.  You weren't a big fan of getting your diaper changed and certainly didn't like having your clothes changed.  We didn't get a lot of sleep those first few nights.  One funny story was that we had purchased this diaper sprayer to clean out your poopy diapers.  In the middle of the night, dad decided to install the sprayer because you had done a number 2.  I was laying in bed and I just hear him cussing and fussing in the bathroom---he had the sprayer on too high and had managed to spray your poop all over everything including himself (mind you it was probably 2 am and he had likely had about 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours or so).  We both laughed so hard.

The next few days got easier.  I couldn't believe how many hours I could spend just staring at you.  You were so incredibly beautiful to me.  Such a little angel.  It was still hard for me to walk around, but we managed to get out to the park a little bit to get you some sunlight and fresh air.  You passed your first doctor's appointment with flying colors, but we were so scared to bring you in.  Every public building just looked like a germ factory to us!  I had Dad run through the waiting room at the doctor's office with you so you wouldn't be exposed to the other kids!  You didn't cry at the doctor's office either.  In fact, you almost never cried.  My friend Megan was so jealous.  She said she was going to call us up in the middle of the night and scream into the phone so we would know what other parents had to go through.  (You are starting to cry more now, by the way).

Changing you got a lot easier when your aunt Jennie sent us a Winnie the Pooh mobile.  Dad hung it above the changing table.  Man, you loved that thing.  I think it might have been the first thing that made you smile and the first thing that made you laugh.  Even weeks later, you still smile and laugh and coo at it.  I will post a video.

Ok my darling, I'm off to bed now.  You've been having a few rough nights lately so I think I will have to cuddle with you.  oh darn!

Love,
Mommy