Meeting Hadley

The past few days have been full of excitement... and meeting Hadley and getting to know her has been the most exciting. Our first impression after meeting her was that she was a crier. She cried from the moment she was out of my belly until the moment we tried feeding for the first time. It wasn't a nonstop cry, but she was definitely much more calm after she was able to try to eat. And she likes to try and eat! She had us up quite a bit the first night, with several cluster feedings. I swore I would not have her sleeping in the nursery (mainly because Avery had been in the NICU and I wanted the baby with me), but by the 2nd night Andrew realized that I wasn't sleeping even when she was and he took the initiative to send her to the nursery. It didn't hurt that we had an awesome night nurse (seriously, she was amazing) and she made us feel comfortable leaving Hadley in the nursery. I would feed her, Andrew would burp her and once she was on her way to dream-land, the nurse would come get her, letting us get several straight hours of sleep. I realized all we were missing were a few dirty diapers and sleep, plus they did a lot of her testing during this time, so I felt much better letting her go (plus, I was getting sleep!).
It turns out I have PUPPS (click here to read more about it); a rash that affects women at the end of their pregnancy, typically around 34 weeks gestation. I had it with Avery also, but thought it was a fluke thing since she was delivered at 34 weeks. It lasted a few weeks and was pretty painful. But it's started now too and this time has been confirmed it is PUPPS, which rarely does affect women after they have a baby. It's also not common for a woman to experience it with more than one pregnancy, but if it does, it's usually not as bad subsequent times (according to the doctor; I really hope that's true!). Anyway, I'm on benadryl to help with the pain/itching associated with the rash, which also makes me very drowsy. So I need all the extra sleep that I can get.
Besides the rash, I'm having absolutely no other issues. My incision is healing nicely, I don't have a whole lot of pain, I'm able to get around just fine, and everything else seems to be going well also!
So, back to Hadley.
Hadley, if you couldn't tell, has red hair, is a pretty laid back baby (she likes to eat, poop, and sleep) and is so stinking adorable. I mean, I never thought I'd be having 2 such cute babies. We're still getting to know each other, and figure out the breastfeeding thing, but she's making it all very easy. I can't wait to get her home! :)