January 30

We weren't sure if it would happen, but it did: Eli and I came home from the hospital today! I can't even begin to express how thankful Chris and I are that even though Eli was born at 35 weeks, he somehow managed to avoid the NICU and be discharged from the hospital before he was even 48 hours old. It is nothing short of a miracle. In fact, a doctor told me this morning that if Eli had been born the day my water broke, he would have automatically been sent to the NICU for a week, regardless of his condition. The hospital's policy is that every child born before 35 weeks gestation must spend a week in the NICU. That alone makes my long labor worthwhile. I love that, in the midst of inexplicable craziness, God continues to remind us of His love and provision.

Chris stayed home with the kids last night, and was tasked with getting Caleb off to school this morning before coming to the hospital to bring Eli and me home. Caleb had a request, though: he wanted to come see his baby brother before he went to school. How could Chris deny him that? So up they came. Thankfully, the hospital is only  ten minutes from our house, so quick visits are relatively easy. (As easy as it can be for Daddy to bring three children into a hospital by himself, that is.)

Daisy was the first to hold Eli today. She was thrilled.

Lily was agitated, though, so Caleb tried to give her a hug. It didn't work.

Apparently Lily doesn't want to share her baby. She voiced her displeasure by shrieking and trying to grab Eli away from Daisy. She wasn't happy until he was in her lap.

There. Happy girl with her new baby brother.

You guys? We have four children now. We only have room for three car seats in my car; we don't even have a van yet. How on earth are we going to handle four children?

Lily wanted to pet Eli's hair, so she snatched his hat off. 

And finally, big brother's turn. Caleb really didn't want to go to school today. He knew that we would be bringing Eli home, and he wanted to be there to snuggle him all day long. 

Unfortunately, our three-carseat dilemma meant that Caleb had to go to school. So after our short visit, Chris took Caleb to school, went home with the girls, switched out Caleb's car seat for Eli's car seat, and headed back to the hospital to pick us up.

Daisy was thrilled to see her baby again.

Seriously, being in the hospital is the worst. Just the worst. But I know that we needed to be there, and I'm thankful that we are able to bring Eli home knowing with all confidence that despite his early arrival, he is healthy and strong.

Our car seat accommodates babies five pounds and up. Eli is five pounds, four ounces. Close call! They also had to do a "car seat test" last night: they placed Eli in it for two hours and monitored him for signs of respiratory distress, just to make sure he could handle the stress of riding in a car seat. Luckily, the kid passed with flying colors. 

(Another note on God's provision: this is not the car seat we intend to use for Eli. Once we have a van, we will use a convertible car seat for him. This one was Caleb's when he was a baby, and it has been gathering dust in our basement for a while. Also, it just so happens to expire in February. If Eli had to come early, I'm glad he came in January so that the car seat wasn't an issue!)

Heading home! Chris juggled both babies and some of our stuff, while I held Daisy's hand and a porter helped us out with the rest of our stuff.

And home.

Since we are still concerned about Eli getting enough to eat, I am continuing to pump colostrum. After every feeding, I pump more milk and Chris feeds it to Eli with a syringe. It's exhausting, but we will do whatever it takes, and I am so thankful that we don't have to feed him formula!

Now to the task of cleaning up the chaos of the past three and a half days. I am so thankful that my mom and Chris were able to manage things, and they handled everything with grace and love. But still, our children were definitely a bit worse for the wear with Mommy being unexpectedly gone for so long. Now is the time to mend little hearts, give extra snuggles, tidy up the messes, and dig out all of the baby supplies that we hadn't anticipated needing for another seven weeks. One of the first things I pulled out was this little rocker, just to have a place to set Eli while I ate dinner. 

Apparently Lily found it too tempting to resist. Four days ago, she was totally my baby. Now that I have a real baby, one who is 1/4 her size, I realize that she is a big girl. A very big girl. Except for those little toes. Those remind me that she is still a baby.

So. Four kids. Here we go!