In the mornings if I'm still in our bedroom feeding Liam, Julia comes to the door and knocks (and says, "Knock, knock"). 
When I open the door for her, she runs to find Liam and if he's in our bed, she'll climb up and lie down with him. 
Before the party on Friday, she also got to show off her new baby brother to her best friend, Caydence.
food and house prepared for a party (with the occasional breaks to nap with Liam...he's a great sleeping buddy!).
Julia stayed up to enjoy some of the festivities. In particular, she loved playing with Uncle Josh since he's always up for entertaining her (she even says "Josh" and she's not always willing to call people by name).
Everyone enjoyed meeting Liam, and every now and then he'd wake up and have a look around at the party but with a look of being completely overwhelmed by the crowd. Many toasts were given to both birthday boys (it was Jon's actual birthday on Friday), and Jon regaled war stories from their recent ski trip to Japan. 
I tried not to let the story of my labor with Liam overshadow the pain of his injury (a dislocated shoulder from his super-speedy skiing over a child's lone boot buried out of sight under the snow...if you're to believe him...). 
A big thank you to everyone who attended (great to see y'all) and especially to Nana, Grandaddy & Gran Gran for all their hard work! It's fun to attend a party at your own house and not have to do anything to prepare for it or clean up after it! (Nice too of everyone to be understanding when I snuck off to join Liam for a sleep).
My mom will (thankfully!) get to stay on to help for another two weeks, but unfortunately my dad (G-Da) and grandma (Gran-Gran) have to get on the plane and fly home tomorrow. 
They have all been such an amazing help, but I think we'll all have to admit that Grandma has been the real star, constantly cleaning up after us all, doing dishes, laundry, ironing, the lot! 
On their final night, they have decided to invite over 20 people for a combined celebration of Liam's arrival, Jon's (Matt's dad) birthday, and their final farewell. 
So today and yesterday have been filled with more cooking and cleaning in preparation. Julia has loved watching Gran-Gran make cakes and today got to help G-da make the salad dressing for tonight. The flurry of activity has helped ease the transition some too (and not just for
Julia!). Only one night in, and I'm already seeing every change life with two children brings (for better and worse!). On the downside, I was up 6 times last night, alternating in the early hours of the morning between Julia and Liam, but on the upside, it is such fun to watch how sweet Julia is to her little brother. Yesterday she could hear him starting to cry but his little newborn squeals and grunts confused her a bit, so with every outburst she said, "Bless you" (well, her version of it is "Beesh") thinking perhaps he had sneezed! So cute!!
Julia finally got to meet her new
little
brother on Thursday when we came home from the hospital.
She didn't quite know what to make of Liam all snuggled into the car seat (for the last month
Winnie-the-Pooh has ridden
around in that seat with us, so I guess it was a bit of a shock to find Liam in there instead). She got very interested in the little bundle, though, once I'd had a chance to hug her and pick her up and Matt had gotten Liam out of the car. She very gently touched his little feet and patted his head and repeatedly
pointed to him, saying "Baby, baby." With G-da's help, Julia had made us a very cute welcome home sign, and Julia loved opening her presents from Liam...accessories for her baby doll so that she can carry baby around and play with her own baby just like Mama. 
Julia is an excellent big sister, giving sweet kisses to her baby brother! 
And although she has had a wonderful week with Nana, G-Da, and Gran-Gran, she was very very excited to have Mama home!
The hospital where I delivered (same one I went to with Julia) is really nice-- all private rooms with two beds so Matt had a place to sleep each night. We wanted so much for Julia to meet her little brother, but she
wasn't allowed at the hospital since she still had the Chicken Pox, so when she came with the family, Matt stayed outside and played with her. Liam seemed content with the visitors, and slept pretty well each night (although he got a bit anxious for my milk to come in on the second night). 
He had his first bath, got a healthy hearing check
(and passed), 
and the pediatrician came daily to check on him, pronouncing him happy and healthy every time. We liked listening to his little noises...he squeaks a lot and he squeals like a baby pig instead of crying when he's upset. 
He's been a happy baby though and really only cries when he's getting his diaper changed or when he's really anxious for a feed. Matt did get a shock (despite having been warned) when changing Liam's diaper...boys can catch you off guard and it's messy!! 
We've all been playing the who-does-he-look-like game, but everyone seems to have a different opinion. Regardless, we think he's just perfect! 
Matt, Mama & I got to the hospital at 6:30am and had to fill out a bunch of paperwork. At around 7:30am one of the OBs (not mine) did an exam and said everything looked very "ripe and ready"...all good news! Matt and Mama both disappeared to get coffee and make phone calls while the midwife and doctor hooked me up to the fetal monitor and stuck needles in my arm to get all set up for the Pitocin drip. Nice timing for my support people to be away --- I didn't take all that well to the needles and passed out. No worries...I revived, they reappeared and we were all set to go again. 
room. skeptical, I think, but then there was a lot of scurrying around to get Dr. Mastry back in theAt 11:28am Liam was out of the womb and into the world...all before the anesthetist arrived or the Pethidine had a chance to kick in!
