First two days/nights at home...

Thank you to all of our visitors and everyone who wrote emails to us while we were in the hospital!  It meant so much to hear from all of you and to share our joy with you.  We posted pictures below text.....

Hannah is now officially home!  We were released from the hospital at just about 5 p.m. on Sunday, September 13th.  Hannah slept for our entire drive home.  We were very excited to show her the home we've been preparing for her for months and months, but she seemed more interested in getting some additional sleep.   All in all, the transition home was smooth.  Thank you to Dayle for a delicious dinner (chicken pot pie and apple crisp, which lasted through tonight (because of how enormous the portions were)). 

Our first night home, at about 8 p.m., we decided it might be fun to watch a movie, as we typically do on many weekend evenings.  We had a special movie picked out for this week (not knowing this would be the weekend of Hannah's official arrival, but hoping it might be) -- The Miracle of Life (the 1982 Nova classic), which is an hour long documentary explaining in great detail how a human being comes into existence.  We made it through about 40 minutes before both the non-scientist and the Ph.D. (in biochemistry, no less) were dead asleep.  The movie is fascinating and we intend to finish it tonight, but we just didn't have enough energy that first night home.

After bailing on our movie, we went upstairs to catch up on rest.  We should have known better, but Hannah had an altogether different set of plans.   As is the case with most (if not all) newborns, Hannah is on a nocturnal schedule and over the course of the next several weeks we need to work with her to complete a night/day reversal.  Needless to say, Sarah didn't sleep that first night and Jonathan only slept in several short increments when Hannah was not upset.  After the seemingly endless night finally ended, Jonathan took Hannah for some father-daughter cuddling so that Sarah could get at least a little bit of actual rest.  Sarah reported that the mid-day shower that she got a few hours later was worth two naps.

Jonathan is taking the week off from work, so the three of us made our first trip out of the house in the late morning on Monday.  We put Hannah into her stroller and walked up to see the views from the apple orchard at the top of Gould Hill.  The weather was beautiful (mid-70s and sunny) and Hannah was extremely content in her stroller. She sleeps anytime she is in her car seat, whether it be while she is going for a walk in her stroller or a ride in the car.

Hannah (and her parents) slept much better on the second night (last night / Monday night).  The three of us went upstairs at about 8 p.m. and Hannah was asleep in her bassinet at about 10:00 and mom and dad conked out at pretty much the same second that Hannah nodded off.  Although the sleep continued to be segmented, at least we managed to get a solid amount of cumulative rest. 

We made our first trip out of the house and driving in the car today.  We ran some errands around Concord to stock up on some baby-related essentials (Hannah is tearing through the diapers already, which frightens her parents on MANY fronts).  Hannah drew lots of attention from fellow shoppers who peered over at the newborn who was out and about on the town.  The three of us are heading out again tomorrow for Hannah's first doctor's appointment over at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock branch in Concord.  Hannah's pediatrician was a medical student and resident at Dartmouth and comes highly regarded by the pediatric team up at the main hospital in Lebanon, so we trust that Hannah will be in very capable hands.

As we were shopping for clothes, we struggled to find anything that would fit Hannah.  Hannah's length puts her in about the 95th percentile and her weight was in about the 45th percentile.  Jonathan told Hannah that she better get used to the challenging of finding clothes that fit (a challenge that he knows through firsthand experience).  

As we sit and look around the room right now, Sarah just commented that we didn't know it when we left for the hospital on Friday, but our house was the cleanest that it will ever be again for quite some time.  Oh well.  Consider that fair warning to all guests.  We hope everyone is doing well!