Day One

We just completed the first 24-hour period of having a kid on our own. Wolf was released from the hospital at 10:28AM yesterday, exactly two weeks (to the minute) after he entered it. The first two weeks of having a baby were like starting a new, boring job for us. He was in the NICU the whole time, secured in his little plastic box in the corner, taken care of by many highly-trained nurses for 2/3 of the day. We would get up, get coffee, and head to the hospital around 8AM every morning, feed him throughout the day and hang around the family area, and then, around 4PM, we'd head home. For the most part, it was like when I started my government job 5 years ago, and no one knew what to do with me, where I was going to sit, or anything. I just sat around a lot, staring at the internet, and every few hours there was a burst of activity. We ate a lot of muffins and crap from the coffee shop, we waited for a lot of slow, dangerous elevators, and grazed leftovers from our baby shower throughout the day, but for the most part it wasn't too exciting. Very little laundry to do.

But now, we have him on our own. The nurses loaded us up with all the swag we could carry, from thermometers to bottles to wipes. I'm happy that at least some of it is in biohazard bags. We organized as much of our baby shit as we could, stuffing diapers and onesies into the dresser/changing table we acquired over a year ago, when we still thought the first pregnancy was viable, and sat down with him on the couch, marveling that he was finally here.

The dogs played their roles: Sophie was aloof, giving Wolf a quick sniff and then looking at us with that "Oh bother, another puppy," glare. Bear wanted to stick his nose up Wolf's butt. Of course.

We fed the kid, changed him, and swaddled him up in a new outfit and some blankets, and put him to bed. That was easy. Carly hooked up to the breast pump, I did some dishes, and it was all we could do to not go into his room and stare at him every few minutes. But we did anyway. Three hours later: repeat. Three hours later: repeat.

It was a little confusing in the wee hours of the day. I stayed up for the kid's midnight feeding. Carly tumbled out of bed around 2:30 or so for the late night one. And at 6am, we were both up to do the work, but Carly really wasn't into it, so I took the kid so she could pass out on the couch. After the kid was tucked in, I crashed back on the bed.

I imagine the next two weeks are going to be a little bit of a haze as we sort out when day and night are, who is going to take which shift, and how to divide duties like laundry and dishes and so on. So far, so good. Back to shoveling food in my face as fast as I can before I have to heat up another bottle.