Jumbled thoughts on Caroline, Labor, etc.

So my blog posts for the next 2-3 months will probably ALL be assorted jumbles of thoughts because that's what happens when you're up all night with a baby girl who just wants to chill with you at 4 a.m. It's what all the cool newborns are doing.

Many thanks to Andrew for his quick post earlier this week. Here are a few of my thoughts from the past couple of days.

*Caroline has the cutest little high-pitched cry. I love it. (Ask me about that again in about a week. That opinion is subject to change.) She doesn't cry often, but when she do it is just so darn cute. It makes us go, "Awwwww."

*I realized this week that there IS such a thing as love at first sight. That's exactly what happened when they handed Caroline to me. Pure love in an instant. It's really powerful.

*She has a super strong neck and will already lift up her
head sometimes when we're holding her over our shoulders.
There are those cute eyes!

*She loves to keep her hands up by her face. She gnaws on them and scratches herself. (I filed her nails yesterday and that seemed to help.)

*She has the prettiest, long, skinny fingers. With nice oval nail beds. She could be a great pianist or guitarist if she wants.

*In the hospital she was SO alert and awake for a one day old. Hard to believe. She would have long spells of just hanging out with her eyes open and checking everything out. It was adorable.

*She has just a little bit of dark hair. It's not as dark as Whit's was and she doesn't have as much, either. I wonder if her real hair will be much lighter than Whit's. She also has dark little eyebrows, a prominent bridge of her nose, nice full lips, and a reddish skin tone which seems to have dissipated a bit since we've been home.

*I don't know how anyone could witness a birth and not believe in God. It is truly a miracle.

*SOOO thankful to have my parents here to help us.
I don't know what we'd do without them right now.

*Contractions REALLY hurt. Oh....my....gosh. When I was in the first couple hours of labor, I was having contractions every 3 minutes or so and they hurt, but I was totally able to breathe through them and be just fine. I had convinced myself that I was superwoman and that during this time I was probably getting close to being done dilating and Wow, this was a cinch the third time around. Then the midwife checked me. I had dilated ONE CENTIMETER in those first 4 hours of labor. Are you kidding me???? Then the REAL contractions started. The ones I had blocked out of my memory sometime over the last four years. They seriously took my breath away. Thank goodness those last two hours went by fast or I would've passed out from fatigue and exhaustion.

*I also forgot how good newborns smell. I wish I could just bottle up that scent and save it for later.

*One of the first things I did after she was delivered was tried to watch her eyes to see if she had Duane's syndrome. I've seen both eyes move to both corners, so I think we're safe. Yay!

*The best time to have an IV done multiple times is when you're in the middle of labor with no pain medication. Those IV pricks were like getting tickled compared to the contractions. "You need to try again on the other arm? No problem!"

Here are our last pics in the hospital as we
start the adventure in our home.
Wish us luck!

Daddy's little girl

Here we go.