November 15th, 2009: We've kept her alive for a whole week!

We'd planned to do a lot of blogging to keep up with all of the events since the days are running together and we're likely to forget everything but somehow the days have slipped away and we haven't had much time. We'll fill in as we get the chance. It's strange that the birth was only a week ago. It seems like a lot longer than that and almost like the actual birth never happened -- the details are already a little foggy (thank you, hormones!). Scarlett is definitely the boss and it is hard to imagine how we filled our days before she was here to run the roost.

To fill in on some of the key events of the last week, we were released from the hospital on the 10th. We had her newborn pictures taken and then checked out of the hospital. We stopped at Cassatt's (our neighborhood New Zealand Restaurant) on our way home to pick up lunch. When we pulled up to the house, our next door neighbors on both sides were out front (it was a beautiful day -- sunny and in the upper 60s!) and got to come meet their new neighbor. Everyone commented on all of her hair. Shortly after we got home, we got our first visitor - Dave. He brought a lovely handmade frame with her name on it that had one of her first pictures in it already. Very sweet. In the next few days, we basically just continued trying to get to know our little girl. We're figuring out what she likes and what she doesn't like and working on developing a routine. She also got some other visitors -- Shannon, Juli, Tracy, the Bottners, and Victor.

She slept a lot the first few days. So much that it was hard to get her up enough to feed. She has been sleeping 4-6 hours straight each night, but she chooses when the sleeping happens (sometimes 1-5 am, sometimes 4-10 am). We went to her first pediatric appointment at Sleepy Hollow with Dr. Jasani on Thursday morning. Overall, Scarlett was doing really well but had lost more weight (down to 6 lbs 13 oz). She wanted us to come in again on Saturday morning to have her weighed to make sure she started gaining weight again. She needed to gain an ounce per day to ensure that we didn't need to start waking her up at night to feed. PLEASE GAIN WEIGHT! Luckily, when we weighed her on Saturday, she was up to 6 lbs 15 oz! Yay for sleep (and a healthy baby!)!

Sunday was a gorgeous day -- 71 degrees! To take advantage of it, we took Scarlett on her first walk in the stroller. She loves the bumpy ride and passes out within minutes. Good to know in case of cranky emergencies! We've been trying to get a good walk in every day. Other firsts include her first sponge bath, first time in the swing and bouncer, and first introduction to the dogs and cats. All of the above went well.

Thus far, parenthood is a lot of fun! It's hard to explain why since we basically live in Groundhog's day. We can't figure out what happened on which day and never get a fraction of what we plan to do done, but we are somehow pretty content! Her facial expressions seem to be enough to keep us happy. After the first few days we learned that napping when she naps (at least once or twice per day) is critical to survival. Paul is still having a hard time with that (and sleeping through the night as a result) but we are figuring it out.

The visits will really start gearing up this week. I have a few friends in town over the next few days, plus Simon is in town until Thursday. Trish, Paul's sister gets here on Thursday night and his mom will arrive on Monday or Tuesday. My mom then gets here on December 3rd and will be here until the 13th.

We've started a photo website for Scarlett: scarlettaurora.shutterfly.com. Anyone can add pictures, so we encourage anyone who has come to see her to add pictures to the site! We also have a video clip up there.

In other news, Jacy is still pregger but nearing the end of the road! She is due on December 13th but I think we should start a pool... I think my guess is around thanksgiving! Maybe it is wishful thinking... Scarlett is anxious to meet Liam!