Month One

So I had Gretchen. My mom and sisters were taking pics on there phone and calling everyone. Brian had called several times to enquire how I was doing. Mom sent him a picture and he said that she looked angry. Well she had just been born and was still yucky. I was surprised how swollen she was the first time I saw her. But by the next morning that had went down and she looked less like a sumo wrestler.

Staying at Rutherford Hospital was not fun. I mean they bugged that crap out of me. After I had Gretchen I was so tired. I had been up 32 hrs at that point and just wanted to get comfy and sleep. Instead every little bit they came in and even asked if I wanted my baby. Well of course I want her but I'm tired. I decided to keep her in the room with me that night. She stayed in the room with me and wouldn't go to sleep unless I kept the light now. Ok little girl you are only 12 hrs old, your too young to start being picky. Seriously, I would feed her and get her to sleep, put her down, crawl in bed, turn the light off and just a few moments later she would start crying. When I finally kept the light on she ended up sleeping for 2 hours.

Moving on

So now it was Wednesday morning and time to check out. Brian got there when the nurse was going over all my paper work. I was so happy he was home.

Gretchen had developed jaundice and we had to take her back to the hospital 3 times to have her bilirubic count done. I hated to see my little girl get pricked.
The poor thing had to be kept in the sun to help clear it up. She was so yellow,even the whites of her eyes were yellow. We would strip her down to just her diaper and lay her in the sunniest part of the house. I was so afraid that she would get sun burned but instead she got a nice tan. She was red for months. Gretchen and I stayed at my parents for a few day and then moved to Brian's. I know this made my mom mad but Brian is her dad and he is only home for a short while. There is no point in staying at my parents when he has a house 20 minutes away. Brian took good care of me and he taught me alot in the 4 weeks he was home.

One of the biggest adjustments was getting Hayley and Jacob used to having her around. They both loved having a new little sister but keeping Hayley out of the baby stuff was a job.

Gretchen was a typical newborn. Up every few hrs, peed, pooped, and sleeped. I tried to breast feed but then I got really sick . My back hurt a lot and I was throwing up. I called the doctors, went to the doctors,and finally went to the ER. The only explaination they could give me was that my pregnancy hormones were still really high and they were trying to get back to normal. Theoretically your hormomes go back to normal the second after you deliver. The ER doctor though I was pregnant again. Are you serious? She is a week old. I mean, I'm still bleeding, I'm still healing from an episotomy, I'm not pregnant. Since I didn't feel like nursing and really didn't feel like pumping while I was sick G stopped laching. I didn't have any choice but to pump, but pumping makes your milk dry up.

When Gretchen was 3 weeks old we went on our first family vacation. Brian and I had talked about going somewhere while he would be home. I figured that we would go to Gatlingburg TN, instead we went to Niagara Falls. Brian wanted to go to Las Vegas. Excuse me! I am not going to Vegas with a 3 week old and while I am breast feeding. But Niagara Falls was great, and taking Gretchen wasn't that hard except for the fact that my car is too small for a bunch of louges, camping equipment (that we didn't use), and a bulky stroller. It was so cramped. At the Falls we did everything and it was very affordable. For $35 a person you could watch a movie, go to the Cave of the Winds, ride the Maids of the Mist, ride the trollie, go to an aquariam that had seals perform, and go to the look out desks. The park was very clean and beautiful. We even got to see a wedding being performed. Our plan is to go back next year and go to the Canadian side. Everyone said that it is much better and you can see the falls better from that side since the majority of the falls are on this side and its hard to see it at an angle. The only thing that Gretchen couldn't do was go on the Cave of the Winds. The stairs were really wet and they wouldn't let us take the stroller. Carrying her would have been too scary for me so Brian and I took turns. He went first and then I went. While I was waiting for Brian there was a couple from Asia with a videocamera that stopped to look at Gretchen and asked me how old she was. When I told them three weeks they went " Oh, you Superwomen" while they were video taping us. So somewhere on youtube a bunch of Asians are looking at me and my 3 week old amd making comments about how us Americans raise our kids. Im sure they are going "Look at that crazy woman, she should be at home in bed. Not draggin her newborn 12 hrs from home just to see a big waterfall."

We continued our road trip and went down to Hershey PA and then to Laray VA. I remember when we went to the cavans in Leray we had to carry the stroller down the stairs and back up and Brian tripped and hit me in the back of the leg and I had a huge bruise.

By Saturday I was ready to come back home. Instead our trip got extended and we drove to Concord NC to go to the Great Wolf Lodge with Brians other kids and family. No offense I love Brians kids but I was ready to go home. We had been gone all week. But to make everyone happy we went. My opinion about the Great Wolf Lodge is that it is way over priced for what you get. The food got nastier the longer we stayed. Brian and I played with the kids in the water park area until closing the first night but by the second day we just rested waiting for the best time to bolt. I have decided that I will not boycott the GWL but simply go for the day and do a day pass. Its just not worth the money to stay over night. And besides my daughter was only 3 weeks old. She couldnt swim, all she did was sleep. I'm going to wait until she is big enough to enjoy the whole park. Also, the park is too big to keep up with your kids. Wait til you feel comfortable letting yor kids out of your site. Perhaps when they are about 12 or so. Jacob ran ahead of us and it took 4 adults almost an hour to find him. For younger kids I would suggest Ray's Splash Planet in Charlotte. It is smaller, cheaper, just as fun, and you can stand in one place and keep an eye on all your kids.

After a month Brian had to go back to work. I took him to the bus station and he was off. I didn't know when I would see him again.

My plan was to move back in with my parents. Brian said that I could move to his house but I thought that I wouldn't beable to do it alone and that I would need help.

Lets just say, 24 hrs after being at my parents, I went back to Brian's house.