Wednesday, October 8th - Running on fumes, but we're finally home

Last night turned out to be another relatively sleepless night. Josie had her fair share of meltdowns, but Jen and I managed to hold ourselves together. I can't speak for mommy, but I quickly came to realize that a crying baby can make me feel like the most useless person in the world. When it's 3 in the morning and she's screaming her lungs off even after you've checked and rechecked anything and everything you can possibly think of, it can create such an empty void inside. The sense of detachment is unreal. But as always, patience and love pays off. Once you track down what's really causing her to be upset, you simply file that away under "experience." There's nothing worse than a crying baby that won't stop, but there's nothing better than being able to stop that crying baby, and calm her down. Believe it or not, it's very rewarding.

As morning drew near, I managed to sneak in about 2 hrs of shut eye. Josie and mommy have been nursing on and off pretty much the entire night, and I definitely have to give credit where credit is due. Keep in mind that prior to Josie's arrival, Jen's already had her fair share of virtually sleepless nights. The combination of medication in her system, wooden slats of a labor bed, and general pregnancy related discomforts have really taken a toll on her physically and mentally. She got a slight break after delivery, but the R&R time had been minimal. This would be the 4th day since being admitted to the hospital, and even after all this, I couldn't believe how much more she had in her to give to our little one.

Sometime during the night, Josie and mommy got their final checkup and were given the go ahead for discharge. We were finally ready to go home. After a few more rounds of feeding, packing and loading up, and checking in with what seemed like to have been an endless string of nurses and doctors, we made it out of there at around 12:30 pm.

Once home it was more of the same; constant nursing. At some point, mommy and daddy snuck in some lunch, a shower, and a nap. The rest was again, a blur. Grandma and Grandpa Shue stopped over later in the evening with some more new outfits and to spend some time with Josie.

We want to thank everyone who's sent some sort of congratulations our way. The flowers are beautiful, the phone calls were entertaining, and the gifts were put right to use. Your thoughts and gestures mean the world to us and it's wonderful to know that there are so many people out there that care and love us.

So that was pretty much day 3. Believe it or not I didn't get too many pictures of anything. We had so much to do and I didn't get around to unpacking the camera and gear. But that's not to say I didn't get any pictures. As usual, enjoy ...