Sweet Shepherd Pie

My sweet Shep is nine days old, which seems like a lifetime to me. Nine days?! I'm working on his birth story, slowly but surely, and really trying to rest and recover as quickly as possible. In the mean time, here's what has been going on:

We took Shepherd home last Wednesday, and my parents were here with us until Friday. They took great care of us while we were still in the hospital, cleaning and cooking meals when they weren't at the Family Care Unit with us. I can't describe how much I love seeing our family with our baby. I am so thankful for these moments! Thank you, Mom and Dad, and we can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks! The ride home from the hospital was rainy, and Aaron drove five miles per hour slower than he usually does. It felt surreal to sit in the backseat with my baby on our way to our home. Slightly scary and overwhelming, certainly, but also incredibly... incredible. I remember thinking about how everything he was seeing and hearing was for the first time. I still feel intimidated by that. I want to expose him to the best of everything and inundate his little world with love and enrichment.

After my parents left on Friday, we went to Shepherd's first doctor's visit. He was a doll except for when he had to be weighed; he hated feeling his back against the cold of the scale. When we left the hospital, Shepherd was down to 8 lbs., 1 oz., and by Friday, he had gained back about three ounces and was 8 lbs., 4 oz. I was worried about how much he was eating, but our doctor was really pleased and told us to keep it up. I used to read things like this and not really understand (or care, honestly) why people were mentioning it; after taking this perfectly helpless but perfectly resilient little one home, I get it. In the hospital, the nurses could answer all of our questions, the lactation consultants could tell me if his eating and bathroom habits were normal and they were all there around the clock. At home, the schedules and lists we keep are the way we know if he is doing well, and until yesterday, I was obsessed with logging every minute of every nursing and every diaper change. We use the Medela iBreastfeed app, if you're in the market, and it's phenomenal! We are so cool for being excited over this kind of stuff :) Aaron kept track of everything on his phone until he went back to work this week, and now I do it on mine. I am still logging diaper changes, but I feel like we've gotten in to a more natural nursing schedule, and I don't feel like I need to log every minute.

On Saturday evening, Aaron's mom and sisters Shannon and Tiffany and our niece Imogen got to Tallahassee. Karen, Tiffany and Imogen were planning on spending a few days with Shannon in Chattanooga, but the four decided to take a detour to come meet Shepherd. My sister-in-law Tiffany also took some amazing newborn photos of Shepherd while she was here. Tiffany is a birth photographer in Denver, and so we were just thrilled that she could be in Tallahassee. I am in love with the results, and I am so thankful to Tiffany for taking the time out of her vacation to capture these memories of this tiny baby boy for us! Thank you, Tiff!

Shepherd also got to meet his Uncle TJ and Aunt Tiffany via skype just before the Academy Awards on Sunday night. TJ and Tiffany just announced that they are having a baby in September, and we are so happy for them.

After a very busy and filled-to-the-brim first week, Sheppy and his mama have been lying low this week. I have tried to rest and not do much, but I'm still perfecting the sleep-while-the-baby-sleeps routine. It's not easy to nap even when Shepherd's sleeping because of the lists looming in my head, even though I know it will all still be there tomorrow. I just want to spend every moment with him. He is an absolute angel, and all the cliches are true. I don't want to miss a second of his little life.

Thank you so much to everyone who has showered our family with love over the best week and a half. You've blessed us beyond belief, and we are so thankful for you! Shepherd is a blessed little guy, and we are, too. We are so thankful!