Saturday, January 28, 2012

Alone Time.

My big kids are in the living room playing with my parents, Lydia is sound asleep, and I have a cup of coffee and a few quick minutes to myself!

This is just a little shout-out to the mostly visitor-free hospital stay I had after Lydia was born. My sister-in-law gave me this idea by telling me how wonderful her hospital stay was--all alone. Just she and her new baby, snuggling the days away. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense--encouraging visitors to come after we were home and settled, and to leave hospital time to recover (duh) and bond with our newest little one, before the chaos of real life inevitably ensued. Genius.

So, after Lydia's arrival, I put a short note on Facebook encouraging friends to visit us once we got home, and the nurses happily stuck this sign on my door:


Of course, parents and grandparents were welcome, but even they kept a distance, respecting the rest I needed. With my other two babies, I would have thought it was lonely and sad and that I needed to have a party in my room, but this time? It was awesome. Not having to play hostess the day after I birthed a child was fabulous. Who knew?

So, we did a lot snuggling ...


I enjoyed the delicious offerings from room service (and ate ALL of this breakfast, yes, I did)...


And, by the time I left the hospital, I felt like this:


(Notice the baby strategically placed in front of my very-much-present gut.)

Seriously, it was great. Lydia was the only baby in the maternity ward the few days we were there, which means the nurses were happy to keep her at night between feedings and happy to keep her while I showered. It was amazing. We spent our days snuggling and sleeping and I look back on those few days very sweetly. It was great.

And now Lydia is fussing and Cub is trying to crawl in my lap--gotta go!

Have a lovely day.

8 comments:

  1. What a terrific idea to wait and have people visit you at home.

    PS, gut or no gut, you look fantastic!

    Congratulations.

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  2. Good for you! I wish I had done that. Especially when I was trying to pump and people kept walking in.

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  3. She is so sweet! Congrats! I did have a very limited amount of visitors at the hospital and just enjoyed resting with #2. It was so nice. I stayed both nights by myself because the hubby went home to get some actual sleep and it was so nice. I loved that pause before real life kicked in at home. Hope you still find times to rest now that you are all home.

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  4. How amazing! I wish I had an alone recovery. We only stayed 24 hours and I never got a break. I just wanted to rest and there was always someone in my room.

    You look wonderful! Lydia is precious...love her hair!

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  5. Oooh...I might have to consider doing this! Very, very wise. I definitely learned that I will be sending this baby to the nursery at night between feedings. I only sent R away for one 3 hour stretch, and now I know that "free" babysitting is priceless! :)

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  6. wow, that sounds amazing!!! Looking back, I think i could have used that with Tucker. Next time around, I think I'm going to strongly consider this! :)

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  7. She's beautiful!! So are you! Congrats!

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  8. Yay!!!! Congrats! She is beautiful and I am so glad everything went smoothly and she came happy and healthy. All that matters in the end!

    Hey, did you get the e-mail I sent? How far apart are the girls in age?

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