Beatrice is one week old and healthy. When we wrote that she was "totally healthy..." in the email announcements it was not just because that is what is typically written in birth announcements - we don't take that for granted anymore.
Beatrice feels like a mix between a fourth child and a first-born. We are familiar with the basics of having babies and caring for them, but in many ways we feel like we're experiencing her so brand new with the same special awe and amazement we felt the first time with Elsa, and maybe even more so. Every little "normal" development fills us with surprising delight.
At first, while in the hospital, I loved holding her but didn't actually just sit and hold her that much. When we got home it finally sunk in that, not only were we really getting to take her home with us, NOW!, but that I can pick her up whenever I want, for however long I want, and take her wherever I want, without the complications of wires, tubes, monitors, or medication schedules, and without the fear of triggering a heart-stopping vagal response or pinching a tracheostomy tube and setting off ventilator alarms. I can pick her up and dance around the house whenever I want to. She is pink and is already trying to lift up her head and knows how to nurse and I may never have to pump again.
And one day she will even smile back at me.
Wow. She certainly is a bringer of joy, and you have new eyes to be able to notice every little thing.
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