The First Week

After two days in the hospital, it was time to bring our Sammy boy home! It took at least 15 minutes to dress him in his cute striped pants and baby blue sweater (thanks, Nana and Poppy!). And the hospital staff gave us a crocheted cap to cover his sweet head. Both Sam and I were discharged, then we were out the door and on our way. Or so we thought.

A nurse stopped us outside of our door and said we couldn’t just walk out. She would call patient transport to send a wheelchair for me. What? I was perfectly capable of walking, and Nick could carry the babe all snuggled up in his car seat. But rules are rules. (Funny, though, that they didn’t require me to be in a wheelchair when I came into the hospital — barely able to stand due to the contractions.) And so “Uncle Jack” arrived to transport me. He pushed me (with Sam in my lap) so fast through the halls that I’m sure I would have been much safer leaving on my own two legs. Fortunately, we made it to our car in one piece and were on our way!

Our families were anxiously waiting at our house with blue balloons and big smiles.

We were all smiles, too, of course. We had only dreamed of this moment for nine months!

Welcome home, Samuel Woodford Wiley.

Sam’s first few days at home were filled with excitement and, yes, a bit of anxiety. Parenthood is no joke, folks. It’s demanding. And exhausting. And, at times, frustrating. But it’s also oh so rewarding.

So what did we learn during our first week?

We learned to run the shower with hot water to steam up the bathroom before bathing baby boy. But he may still cry. And so you have to be fast with the washing and the wiping and the drying and the buttons and the zippers.

We learned to feed him just before leaving the house. This is especially necessary when you sit in the waiting room for over an hour before seeing the doctor.

But Sam was such a good baby and slept right through the wait while his anxious parents worried that he would wake a hungry little man at any moment.

We learned to assemble the stroller and bundle up the babe for walks. And Nick learned to navigate the loose stones on the road and the cracks in the sidewalk. Though let’s hope that we’re able to pick up the pace for future walks.

Daddy learned to entertain our son with colorful woodland creatures, which Sam especially loves first thing in the morning while the coffee is brewing.

Daddy also learned which expressions and voices that Sam likes best during storytime.

I, surprisingly, learned to function on just a few hours of sleep. I also learned that Nick is not quite capable of tending to Sam in the middle of the night; it takes him at least 15 minutes to become fully functional. Case in point: One morning, around 6:30am, while my mom was still staying with us, Sam was crying in his bassinet beside us, and I asked Nick to please take him downstairs to my mom. He got up, walked right past our crying baby, and went downstairs to find Sam. Meanwhile I laid upstairs — now wide awake — just waiting for Nick to come back upstairs and realize his mistake.

I learned to console our son. Not just with nourishment, but by simply hugging him close to my body. There is nothing more amazing than feeling his little belly rise and fall against my chest.

It’s also worth mentioning that we had some help during that first week. My mom, a.k.a. Nana, did the laundry, washed the dishes, and made the beds. She watched Sam while we ran to Target to buy more newborn clothing because almost everything we had was too big for our little Peanut. She rocked him while we napped and cuddled him while we showered and ate. Yes, she certainly helped to keep those first few days running smoothly.

But by the end of the week, we felt prepared to tackle life as a family of three. We certainly hadn’t figured out the whole parenthood thing, but we were on our way. And enjoying every step of the journey.

Happy one week, baby boy!