There's no place like home

By g-d, was it nice to sleep in my own bed last night with Daniela's co-sleeper mere inches away. Suprisingly, I slept well and didn't at all mind the 2 a.m. feeding.

The monitor has been quiet with the exception of a few "loose connection" alarms but they're a one beep alert and not some screaming banshee of a beep system. I almost feel like we're back to the 'normal' newborn phase again and that the NICU was a bad dream. Alas, I know that it wasn't and that we've still got a slew of doctor visits ahead of us in the next two months but that's a very small price to pay for the delicious little girl who finally came home with us yesterday.

Despite the fact that I slept well last night, I didn't sleep long so I'm trying to sleep when she sleeps but--just as it was difficult to do when we brought Juliana home--it's even more difficult to do now with a toddler running around.

Speaking of that toddler :-), she's really stepped up the big sister plate. When I pulled up yesterday, A brought Juliana out to the car and showed her Daniela. Her eyes got so big, they honestly did look like saucers. Then when we brought Daniela inside in her car seat, Juliana wanted to touch her feet and her toes, and kiss her face (and yes, we let her do all of those things so she knows that she's a part of her life too and that Daniela is not "off limits" to her).

Today she's helped me feed her by holding the bottle, and also patted her back along with me when it was time for a post-feeding burp.

To say that I cried big sloppy tears of happiness and everything else when Juliana took her first look at Daniela would be an understatement. It was just so wonderful to have that day finally arrive, and to see the four of us standing there. Times like those, I wish someone was there to take our picture but it likely would have ruined the moment.

Another image burned into memory of a day I never expected to have.