100 Happy Days Challenge: Day 71

For Wednesday, October 29th

I'm still on a high from birth and enamoured with this beautiful baby.

1. I'm very sore, but feeling so much better than how I felt right after I had Carter. While I obviously wish I wasn't sore at all, I'm grateful that at least this time around is a little easier.

2. We were released from the hospital today and this means being in the comfort of our own house, with both our little men, and sleeping in our own bed.

3. Carter met his baby brother for the first time tonight and was pretty interested, excited and in love. I cried. I have video and at some point, I want to do a separate blog post about their initial meeting and these subsequent first days.

4. My cousin Nicole. I've listed her as one of the "things" I'm grateful for before, but it needs repeating and you'll likely continue to see her name on my lists. I'm grateful for her for many, many reasons, but in the interest of not writing a blog that would take you a week to read (that's how awesome she is) I'll talk about just a couple of the ways in which she made my days around Grayson's arrival easier.

When I went into labour I called and woke her at 7:00 a.m. and she came over to care for Carter while we were at the hospital. She always downplays the importance of what she does, and says that she wants to and she loves spending time with her "Carter Peter Pants" and she'd take him all the time or move right in if she could. I know this is true and I know she doesn't feel like it's work, but he IS work. He's an in-charge, busy 3-year old and spending nearly two full days on her own with him isn't a relaxing experience. On top of that, the fact that we were able to go to the hospital and focus on giving birth and being with Grayson was made possible because she is the kind of person who, when Carter is with her, we don't worry even for a second about him. He loves her and has so much fun with her. He often cries when she leaves. The comfort alone that this gives us is priceless and makes me more thankful for her - and her help - than I will ever be able to express to her. I could write a thousand cards (and I'm a gooood card writer, if I do say so myself!) and blog posts, but never will she know how much what she does for me and my family means to Jeff and me.