The Colella Family: June 2011

where to start? Just over seven weeks (now it's been ~~nine weeks~~ five months) have passed since Luca was born. It definitely does not seem that long. Seeing as how the first three weeks were a complete blur, it is not surprising that it seems like we brought him home last week. Thankfully, that is not the case.

In the hospital:
We had a very short stay in the hospital this time, but we did make sure to have our photo shoot with the Baby Bella photographer and got some great shots:

And then we were headed home. The scene was oddly familiar:

Josie heading home

Luca heading home

Weeks 1 through 3
A total blur. I know that I started off feeling incredible. So much different than after the c-section with Josie. I could walk, wasn't doped up and was just overall really happy with and proud of myself. As the high from the birth began to fade, I would bounce between happy and tired or sobbing and tired. I spent the bulk of the three weeks in The Chair (see below) with Luca on me. Unfortunately he couldn't be put down. At all. so for 20 plus hours a day, he either slept on or ate from me. Fortunately, even though Nick had to go back to work fairly quickly, my mom was there to wait on me hand and foot. Water, food, books and whatever my heart desired magically appeared when needed and was whisked away and cleaned when done. As with Josie, it was invaluable to have this support (and I have already vowed to offer my daughter the same guilt-free, full-service when she has a baby).

The Chair

Luca asleep

Nick also spent a lot of time in The Chair:

Daddy with the baby burrito

Daddy in The Chair

While I originally had hoped Luca would come late to allow me as much time as possible to get everything ready, with the HUGE snowstorm we had shortly after he was born, Nick and I were thrilled he had come early. Josie was possibly more excited about the snow arriving then Luca getting here. It came about up to her neck.

Between the new baby, the snow and being cooped up inside parked in front of the TV, Josie was a little out of sorts (to say the least). Her glorious 7am wake up time became 6am, then 5:30am then earlier and earlier. Everything was a huge battle; taking on her coat, taking off her coat, leaving the house, not leaving the house, every meal, drink, tv show and more. She was pretty mad at mommy and daddy but through it all she had nothing but love for her baby brother.

Luca did his part and slept and slept and slept (unless we put him down of course).

Weeks 4 through 6

Weeks 4 and 5 were a little better than the the weeks before. My mom left, but we were starting to get into a routine--at least as much of a routine as is possible with a new baby. I started thinking that maybe we could do this again (in the long distant future). Overall everything started seeming possible. The real turning point came at about 5 1/2 weeks when we could finally put Luca down to sleep. It was a real relief to spend a few minutes without him in my arms. I was then able to spend some time with Josie and, almost as good, some time to myself when they both happened to sleep at the same time. Being able to put him down also afforded us some great photo ops: