David, Michelle, Cecelia, and Alanna: Bring Home the Baby!

Ali is a very mild and well-behaved baby, but boy did she give us a little scare on our first night home! On night one home from the hospital, she cried and cried almost all night and Dave and I started to wonder if we made a mistake leaving the hospital a day early. We were pretty worried about being out of practice, but it turned out she was just hungry and getting settled in her new surroundings. Luckily, she hasn't had a night like that since!

Finally Asleep!

After the first few days home, we also started noticing that despite eating well, she wasn't really getting many wet or dirty diapers. When a 12 hour period passed with no wet diapers, we called the doctor. They ran some tests, primarily to check out her bilirubin levels. Her levels were rising so the doctor prescribed close monitoring and some indirect sunlight. Luckily, she started stabilizing pretty quickly and after giving us a scare, she was back to being a healthy happy baby!

The girls relaxing.

Cece showing Ali how it is done.

We were very lucky to have my mom stay with us again for the initial challenging days and nights of constant feeding and monitoring of the baby. I don't know what I would have done without her help managing dinners, playing with Cece, and of course, the middle of the night help with Ali. It was about two weeks after Ali was born when my mom was celebrating her birthday. We couldn't really do a lot but we did have some dinner and a cake. Cece helped my mom "read" her cards and below is a video of that night. As you will see, Cece made up her own story involving a screwdriver and also "tooted" at the end of the video. If my mom laughs at "toots" then you know it is funny!

We were also very blessed to receive many visitors and gifts from friends and family in our first days home with Ali. We really appreciate the thoughtfulness of our friends and family!