Hello baby

Caroline's first night in the hospital was a sleepless one for me.  She seemed really uncomfortable and arch-y and fussy like her stomach hurt, and one of us had to be walking and bouncing her all night.  She calmed down in the early morning, though, and then was very relaxed and not fussy at all the rest of our time there.

Mom brought Gabe and Israel in to see Caroline before she took them to school.

They were thrilled to see their new baby sister, and Israel kept exclaiming with excited delight about how CUTE!!!! she was. :)  Zion and Layla came later in the afternoon when official visiting hours started;

Zion was very happy to see Caroline, and Layla seemed interested, but not overly.

The pediatric nurse doing an exam in our room to show the nursing students.

Sweet sleepy girlie.  And so tiny.

The weather when Caroline was born.  Grey and rainy.

Baby feet and hands.

We were discharged from the hospital approximately 24 hours after Caroline's birth, per our request.  There was a malfunction with the bilirubin testing machine, which read falsely high, so we had sort of a delay waiting for results from a blood draw they had to do, and didn't actually get released until 11:30 PM.

By that time I was really sort of doubting my decision to go home and wondering how much I would need to be up with Layla and Caroline combined, but reeeallly wanting a nice warm bath.  It was tired and rainy outside, but we trudged home to our beds, to be welcomed with the posters that our neighbor Barry had given the boys to color to welcome Baby Caroline home, along with balloons.  Here they are by the light of day:

It was a little surreal to be home the next night after Caroline was born, since I had went in around 9 PM the night before.  Felt just bizarro to be back, and with a baby. :)