Last Day at the Hospital and Coming Home

We took full advantage of Betsy taking care of the oldest five kids and rested as much as possible. Rob spent all day at the hospital with me, then would drive home at night to sleep (without nurses coming in every hour or two) and to take care of the cats and dog. There have been quite a few upgrades made to hospital rooms since we started having children and the couch/bed in my room was actually pretty comfortable! Rob and Laura napping on it ~

Monday night we had a couple more visitors. Beca and Garett came by to meet Laura and we had a blast talking! It was almost like a double date :) I totally forgot to take photos of them with Laura though, so I'll have to get those at some point. Jojo came by after dinner, bringing Rob a double baconator, both of us milk shakes, and me spring rolls from PeiWei. She had planned to be there for Laura's birth, but Laura showed up on one of the two nights she was out of town. I told her that was ok; Laura's birth wasn't quite the nice calm experience that the others were :)

Rob headed home and let Jojo and I spend the evening together :) Laura fell under her spell just like the rest of my babies have. Laura had been nursing every 30-45 minutes all day, but she stayed asleep in Jojo's arms for over two hours! Jojo's influence even lasted through the night and Laura slept really well, only waking to eat every 2 hours.

I got a lot of sleep (comparatively) that night! Every time I woke up, I'd spend time just looking down at the tiny little girl in my arms and marveling that I had been blessed again with such a beautiful and sweet baby!

As Labor Day weekend was over, Rob waited to head to the hospital until after rush hour was well over. He spent the morning finishing up some yardwork. We dressed Laura in the little ladybug outfit Rob had picked out for her months ago. We were worried it wouldn't fit as it's size preemie, but it did! Barely :) We had another outfit in size newborn, but really liked the ladybug one :) There are even antennas on the hat!

I had a wonderful experience in the hospital and had some great nurses :) Several of them told me I was the easiest patient they had - apparently having six children leads you to have very few questions for the nurses. One told me I was her best patient ever, which totally made my day!

We had forgotten just how small newborns are. The straps on the carseat needed a bit of adjusting . . . 

Jojo decided not to choose between "fun" flowers and "traditional" flowers and brought one of each :)

I came home to an amazing clean house (Ashley spent two days cleaning and organizing the downstairs as a welcome home present)! The four older kids were at school and Eva was hanging out with Betsy, so I had a few hours to relax and adjust to being home.

I put it to good use ;)

My experience this time (other than the actual labor part, which was the most painful thing I have ever gone through) was amazing! Betsy took incredible care of our children and even texted me pictures several times a day of all the fun things they were doing. Her gift of those few days to me and Rob is without a doubt one of the best presents anyone has ever given me! We had so much support from our friends through visits, phone calls, text messages, and facebook comments and it meant so much to me to see how loved we are by those in our lives! Thank you to each of you for your friendship, support and love!!! We are so lucky to have you as part of our lives!!!