Bringing Home Baby

So after three days in the hospital, we were very ready to get home with our girl. (And part of this is because we were especially ready to have her all to ourselves and not under bright lights or getting stuck with needles every few hours!) But the main difference between the hospital and home, besides the bed of course, is that there aren't nurses coming in all the time to answer your questions and show you how to take care of this new little person you are all of a sudden responsible for. So, while it was an incredible feeling to leave the hospital and head home just the three of us, it was also a little overwhelming. What if we didn't know how to bathe her correctly? Or if she was eating enough? Or how to make her stop crying? Or how many hours of the day she was supposed to be swaddled? Or whether she was too hot or too cold? You get the idea.

But, something happened, something I have been told happens with all new parents. You just figure it out. And you do - I'm not kidding. Maybe not right off the bat, but you get there. Of course we still have questions all the time, but you start to feel comfortable enough to trust your instincts, and then you realize that parenthood is the best. thing. ever. I mean seriously, how did we get so lucky?

Here we are leaving the hospital, after quite a while spent strapping her into the car seat that first time. :)

And here's our little angel on the next day, after her first appointment with the pediatrician. I can't believe how huge that onesie was on her then - it is now in the storage bin of things she has outgrown already!

Getting some sun with Daddy and Granny Jo. We had to make sure to give her some sunlight every day at the beginning to help with the jaundice. Luckily by her two week appointment, her levels were no longer a concern. Whew!

Another reminder of just how tiny she was - she has almost outgrown her Moses basket now, but she was just a little speck in it at first.

Okay, okay - I give up!

My wonderful friend Kristin has been trying to convince me to start a blog for a LONG time now, but I have stubbornly refused, saying I didn't have the time to keep up with it. However, I keep getting in trouble for not sharing pictures of Kennedy often enough, so I started thinking that maybe this will be better motivation for me, to actually have a vehicle for recording what is going on in our lives. So here goes. I figure that this site will be frequented mostly by Kennedy's grandparents, so I will use it primarily to post updates and pictures of her, although I will probably include occasional stories about Dave and myself as well. I will make no commitments regarding the frequency of my posts, as I'm just not sure how I'll be about keeping up - I'll try. :) So I'll start two months ago, when our lives changed forever in the most wonderful way...



On our way to the hospital. What a strange feeling knowing that we were leaving the house as a couple for the last time!




Almost time to meet Baby Q...


It's a... GIRL!!!! Miss Kennedy Clover Quintanilla, born 7/14/08 at 7:44 pm. 7 lb. 12 oz., 21 inches long, and absolutely perfect.



Just look at that sweet face!