And then there were five.

It is taking me a while to wrap my mind around the fact that there are five us of now. Elinor has joined the Ockree ranks and we are all adjusting to her presence.

Elinor actually let me get fairly decent sleep on my first night home and just woke up every two hours to eat. Last night, however, she was more on a every half an hour kind of schedule. Since the best way to get rid of her jaundice is for her to flush out her system, we kind of had to go with it. I am pretty tired, but it will be worth it to stay out of the hospital. 

The thing that I am liking the least right now is that because of her jaundice, Elinor is on a biliblanket. This means that she has to be on a plugged in light which is frustrating. We don't have the freedom to move from room to room with her without stopping, unplugging her light, and moving all the equipment to a new room. On the plus side this encourages me to not do too much and to just sit and hold Elinor as much as possible. I even occasionally let Ben hold her.

The best moments (and sometimes the most challenging) have been the moments with the kids. They both have done very well with her for the most part.

Connor is a little bit of a mother hen. He is always trying to keep Sophia away from Elinor for her protection. This in turn makes Sophia angry and more determined to get at the baby, which then causes a mini wrestling match right by our brand new baby. And this always seems to happen in the car and really makes me want a minivan. Connor is also forever fussing over Elinor, adjusting her blanket, playing music for her, offering to hold her, and wanting to be near her. 

Sophia is very interested in Elinor, but doesn't have much respect for her 30 lbs compared to Elinor's 6 lbs. This leads to may instances of Sophia trying to affectionately lay her head on Elinor, or give her a giant bear hug, or jump on her, or just try to kill her in general. 

There, of course, have been many cute moments as well. The cutest Connor moment was when he told Elinor "You are so cute that I could just eat you up with love!" The cutest Sophia moment was when she kissed Elinor good night for the first time. 

We are getting used to our new normal. It will be an adjustment, but it will be an adjustment we can handle. There will be hard times, challenges, good times, laughter, tears, and joy.

Ah....life.