one week

We got someone standing outside to take a picture of the new family ...

...then loaded everyone up (after a short stop by the cafeteria to get Eden a much needed snack)...

...putting Lydia in the carseat brough back memories - she barely fit, and Ashley was nervous the entire ride home. She even made me stop the car so she could double check the car seat before we were even out of the hospital parking lot.

The drive home was uneventful for the most part; however, for her first week there have been several fun things happen.

We came home Thursday. On Friday, we were all together. Eden was happy to be around her Momma and new sister, saying things like, "Oh, look at her little hands" and "O-o--o-o-h, look at her little ears" every time she came up and kissed all over Lydia. Then, later that night (3 a.m. Saturday morning), Eden woke up crying for Ashley. She was burning up and we soon realized she had a fever virus. We took Eden to the doctor where they confirmed it was some sort of virus and that we should keep the girls separated, watch Lydia's temperature, and take her immediately to the hospital should she show any signs of fever.

At some point Saturday morning, the AC went out. The guy came to check it out and said he did not deal with those type of units. We had to wait until Monday for it to be fixed (but had 2 window units to keep us somewhat cool in at least half of the house). The whole time (and into Monday), we had to keep Eden and Lydia separated. Ashley and I took roughly 4 showers and changed clothes at least as many times each day. On top of that, Ashley was in pain and both of us are trying to get finished with the semester's teaching responsibilities. We decided to split up with Ashley tending to Lydia since she is breastfeeding while I took care of Eden to minimize spreading the germs. The major problem with this set-up was that Eden would cry for her Momma standing at the door to her room any time the medicine wore off and her fever climbed up. It was very hard on both of us. Thankfully, my mom was here to help and be a go-between. We knew Eden would get sick around her sister at some point. We just didn't think it would be during Lydia's first week.

After the challenges of the weekend, Lydia went through a 48-hour period where we could barely get her to wake up to eat. Ashley spent many two-hour sessions just trying to get Lydia to nurse before giving her a bottle. On top of that, she was trying to finish writing exams for her classes and get final projects graded. Thankfully with a little perseverance, the past few days Lydia has rebounded and has been nursing like a champ every 2 to 3 hours, even giving us a 4 hour stretch at night.

Eden has been working through her own adjustment this week as well. She has alternated between excitement at seeing her sister to screaming fits on the floor when something didn't happen as she wanted. She has cried for whoever wasn't around and then been doing ballerina moves and laughing through the den. She has also asked a number of questions about Ashley -- "Did the doctor say you could get out of the bed?" "Can you come get me at school?" -- and made her requests that Ashley cannot yet accomodate -- "Please pick me up, Mommy!" We can tell she is concerned about her momma. It has definitely been an emotional and challenging and joyful week.

Even so, we feel so blessed to have such healthy little girls to call our own! Thankfully, now Eden is much better, we have AC, and the semester is ALMOST over. God is good...