A message from Katie

Hey guys! Whew! What an adventure we just had, huh? We had a baby, pneumonia, a pulmonary embolism, IVs, respiratory treatments, countless specialists, lactation consultants, nice nurses and crazy nurses. The little time we had to ourselves we spent sleeping and eating.

Now we're finally home, and onto the big challenge of adjusting to newborn life... sure I just went through something life-threatening, but this is the big time!
Melanie is a little night owl and spoiled rotten with being held so much, so we're being challenged a little bit in the middle of the night... but Brian and I are determined to get Melanie on a set schedule and hopefully soon, since he's going back to work on Monday. Cross your fingers for us!
Chunk and Tonka are adjusting as expected to Melanie. They want to lick her all over and sometimes I underestimate the length of their tongues and they get a few lickings before I'm able to push them away. Chunk is getting less and less interested in Melanie, but not all the time. Tonka hasn't had as much socialization because of all the activity around the house. But what we've seen has been very promising - Tonka's interested, but he seems more gentle than Chunk at investigating Melanie. Both dogs still aren't trusted unsupervised with Melanie, but we'll get there. And I guess all the months in my womb have acclimated Melanie to the weird doggy noises, so she's okay with them.
My supply has definitely come in and Melanie is a great encourager to keep it coming! We were so worried I wouldn't be able to provide for Melanie, with all the medical interventions and complications we suffered, so this is a pretty big deal.
And that's pretty much all I have energy/physician clearance to do - eat, sleep, feed & maintain personal hygiene. I'm on antibiotics, iron pills, prenatals, and cumodin (blood thinner). I have a breathing gadget I'm supposed to use to open up my lungs and extract fluids from too.
So with those limitations, I haven't "nested" yet still. :) Big surprise, right? But everyone else seems to have caught the bug around me. Dana and Ken started while I was in labor and Mom, Dad, Brian and Mom2 have been tearing the house up, doing honey-do projects and deep cleaning since I've been home. I feel lazy and plain shitty watching everyone work their tails off... but everyone told me that this is what they WANT to do, and that I'm doing exactly what I should be doing.

I do have fears about how I'm going to handle being just me and Melanie on Tuesday morning when Mom and Dad leave. I've been spoiled with having family with me since last Wednesday, taking care of me and Melanie, and I don't want to deal with all the responsibility myself. Well, I got to let them get back to their lives eventually... but there is a house right across the street for rent...

Well, I'm going to wrap things up right now with an open invitation to everyone to swing by the house and meet Melanie. Just give us a call and we'll be here!

Love to you all - and thanks for all the well wishes, encouragements, prayers, thoughts, etc. We had no idea how much you like us - you really LIKE US!!