mhalebusiness: Cecilia- up close and in person!

I think I left off with Cecilia's birth. After the birth, Carly was fixed right up and taken to a recovery room to allow the spinal to wear off. Meanwhile, I had left Carly (as planned) to carry Cecilia down to the nursery to be with her while they did some tests and cleaned her. After about an hour in the nursery, I was allowed to go see Carly again, and to take Cecilia with me.

We spent some time in the recovery room with Carly - and it was pretty funny. Carly was still a bit out-of-whack from the spinal, so she had slurred speech and asked some ridiculous questions of the nurses. After a bit, one of the nurses asked Carly if she was ready to begin breastfeeding - so we spent about an hour working with Cecilia to get her to latch on. She was a champ! And a hungry one at that!

While all that was going on, I did take a couple breathers - enough time to move all of our stuff from the labor and delivery room to a new room where we'd be spending the next 3 1/2 days. I also sent out a quick text message to some friends and family, letting everyone know that Cecilia was out and about. And if you were one of those that got woken up by the pre- 6AM text, I hope you don't hate this - but I'm not at all sorry!

By this point, it was after 7AM on Wednesday morning! That's more than 24 hours from when Carly had gone into labor. They finally released Carly back to our room, where Carly, Katy, and I began the long next day.

The rest of the day was pretty much the same stuff - all centered around Cecilia and Carly learning how to breastfeed better, Cecilia getting additional tests, and Cecilia sleeping and pooping. I may be biased - but I think she's a total Papa's girl.

Well, I'm going to let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

Cecilia Rose in the nursery, about a half hour after birth.