After the first night.

Well, the first night went pretty well. In the hospital Nursery Payton got her first bath which she pretty much hated, but came out smelling like the proverbial rose, and went under the heat lamp to warm back up to 98.6 degrees before being brought in to us. While she was warming, both Leigh's parents Bob and Beth and friends Cheryl and Jeremy (Cheryl due in 10 days or so) showed up and all came to the Nursery to ooh and aaah (or in this case, awwww) over her and everyone was so amazed over how big she looked! Compared to the other babies in the nursery, some 4 days old, she didn't really look like a newborn at all!

Payton got up to temp. and was ready to come to see us and meet our visitors, but the nurse was giving Leigh and I the rundown about what to expect, Leigh fading in and out as a result of the sheer exhaustion served to her with a nice side of morphine for the pain. We thought when that was finally done 14 hours (30-40 min of real time) later that we'd finally get to see our baby, but the nurses from the Nursery had to come talk to us next before that could happen. By the time we got to see Payton again, it was close to 10pm, our visitors had one foot out the door, needing to work in the morning, and our baby had spent more time away from us than with us since she'd been born. We were less than pleased.

She did finally arrive, however, and we let (made in one instance) everyone hold her before they left and Payton and mommy got some quality time. To our delight, Payton took to breastfeeding very well and got a full belly before bed.
The Nursery had to come get her one more time before bed for a second weighing (and the official length they'd come up with is 21.25") so we got to get ready for bed while she was gone.

She came back having gained (???) an ounce since birth. We're writing that off to a calibration error or a difference in scales because babies typically lose some weight after they're born.

We slept fairly with interruptions for feeding and for checking Leigh's vitals to make sure she was alright. We continue to be amazed at how calm and alert she was and is, happy to look around contentedly, checking everything out.

This morning has been fine as well with a number of checks on her and visits by various medical staff. The lactation consultant came in and talked with Leigh and left very happy with how things were going.

Right now we're just taking a break and waiting on my parents to arrive which should be any second now. I hope everyone is doing well! If you'd like to meet her today or tomorrow here in the hospital, feel free to give us a call and we'll let you know when is convenient for us, otherwise we hope to be home Friday night or Saturday morning.

I know everyone is jonesing for pictures so I'll post a bunch sometime soon!