Meeting Family

Oh, our poor Elli.  She had a rough day.  As much as she loves her Grandpapa, she was clearly not thrilled that it was just going to be him and her at home on Delivery Day.  As Papa tells it, she layed in her bed for about 2 hours after she woke up, singing to herself.  She didn't go find Papa or call for him or even venture out of her room.  Oh my.  Then after he finally went in there and she got up, she wouldn't eat and she wouldn't talk for about 3 hours.  At one point right after we had Marek, Jonathan tried to call and tell her she had a baby brother, and she refused to come to the phone.  Grandma tried later, and she still refused.  In fact, I have yet to determine how she even found out she had a new baby brother.

When Marek went to go get his bath, shot, footprints, blood work, etc., Jonathan stayed with him, and me and my mom got transferred to the post-partum room.  That was funny in and of itself - I think they transferred me too early.  I couldn't even stand yet, had absolutely no feeling in my legs, and they took me by wheelchair.  When transferring me into the new bed, I face-planted onto the mattress with my butt hanging out, and started sliding off the bed, and absolutely could not help them since my lower half wasn't working at all.  We were all laughing so hard.  I guess you had to be there...

Anyways, you can imagine the report of Ellison's coping at home completely made me sad, as if I already needed any help since she just got "dethroned" in our family.  So as we were waiting for Jonathan to return with Marek so he could take Mom home and go get Grandpapa and Ellison, my dad called annoyed, "What, did you forget about us?!" (Thanks, Dad, for saying that in front of Ellison), and was mad my mom wouldn't return home to get them instead of waiting for mom, and he hung up on her.  Now, my dad's not a mean person - that's not why I tell this.  It's just so Dad.  He gets anxious easy, and clearly he didn't want to be Rapunzel anymore.  He was getting nervous because Ellison kept repeatedly asking, "When is my Dad going to be here?  How much longer?"

Well, the time finally came, and as the gang returned, we didn't have the camera ready to get Ellison's reaction when she walked in.  Ugh.  She did walk in smiling, peaked at Marek and said, "He's such a cutie pie!".  But beyond that, she wanted nothing to do with him.  She wouldn't even come sit by me, until she got bribed by the surprise of opening a little gift from Marek - her little dolphin earrings.  (She still loves dolphins.)  Here she is opening them...

I know, it's a terrible photo of me breastfeeding Marek, but at least no parts are showing, and it's one of the only ones where you can see Ellison's face...

Since she wanted to keep her distance from the hospital bed for the most part, she quickly became excited to dig through her activity bag, which had been packed with new fun things to do in the hospital.  I kept asking her to come sit by me with her things, but she definitely was having nothing to do with that.

I'm not sure how, but we somehow managed to get her over to come look at her new brother.  She was very sweet and touched his head ever so slightly...

Then said, "Tickle, tickle, tickle..."

She's a little unsure...

And we were surprised she did NOT want to hold him.

Papa getting a look at his little mini-me.  Everyone says he looks like me and my dad, and even a couple of people said he looks like my brother, Josh.

Proud Grandpapa

I have to include in here that my dad did attempt to nickname Marek, but was shot down for the first time.  Grandpapa has bestowed a nickname upon each of his grandchildren from the time they were born.  He chose "Merkle" for Marek.  Me, Mom, and Jon eventually told him he'd have to come up with something else since Merkle reminds us of that nerd Steve Erkle from that one TV show.  For a while Marek was called "Wee Bull" (my dad is jokingly called "Bull" in our family), but that hasn't stuck either.  It appears big sister has coined his nickname as I write this, at least in our household, and he is known as "Bubbers".  :-)  She's always saying things like, "Aw, poor Bubbers has a belly ache," etc.

Ellison wanted Grandma to do a new craft with her, not hold the baby.

Watching as I was filing his little nails.

The rest of the day we spent getting to know our sweet baby, and the grandparents left soon thereafter to take Ellison home.  That was the most heartbreaking moment for me.  Ellison began to cry, begging to stay with me.  She clearly wanted to go home, but did not want to leave me.  It took all I could do to hold back the gut wrenching sobs, but I managed to hold it together with just a few silent tears until they walked out the door.  Thankfully, my good friend, Alisha, was there at just the right time to visit and give me a pep talk.  I wish I could say I remember the rest of the day, but it all feels like a blur now.  I know I was exhausted and extremely sore. :-)

[January 18, 2011]