Charlie At Home

It's wonderful to finally have Nilda and Charlie home. The hospital sucked because we couldn't get a single room. They only have seven singles in the entire place and Charlie was born during a crazy busy time because, apparently, everyone wants a baby for Christmas. I hated leaving Nilda and Charlie at night, especially to go home, have a beer and sleep uninterrupted in my own bed. It was terrible. Going to the hospital in the morning was great, though. Look at this kid.

Nilda is doing much better and is a fantastic mother. It took me a while to realize she's not pregnant anymore. Here Charlie is with his former ride.

We're still not sure who he looks like. Stella says he looks like me, or sometimes her father, though he definitely has Nilda's lips. He's got my blood type, so I win that one. But without a doubt, he has Nilda's monkey toes.

Charlie is a remarkably good baby, very alert and he doesn't get upset easily. Considering who his parents are, that will definitely change.

He even sat for a glam shot at the mall.

Charlie was part of a sleep study at the hospital on how babies can learn in their sleep. While measuring his brainwaves while sleeping, they played a tone for Charlie and would then blow a puff of air on his cheek. They are testing to see if he can learn to turn his head away just from hearing the tone. The goal is to get a test for learning disabilities as early as possible. Let's just say Charlie did NOT like the puff of air and the test lasted only a few minutes, though he luuuved being all bundled up for the test. I was there the whole time and got a shot of Charlie testing out Cerebro.

Charlie had a lot of visitors in the hospital, including Aunt Irene. Andrew and Harley brought the kids to see Charlie a bunch and it's been great. Andrew said that finally, there's a niece/nephew that won't ever call him "Uncle Brian." "Daddy" is bound to happen, but I can tell him from experience that it's not bad at all.

I drove Nilda and Charlie home from the hospital on day 4, and I swear to god I've never driven as carefully. It was freezing that morning and we bundled him up like he was ready to summit.

After we got home, Mommom, Poppop, Abuela, Aunt Julie Rocks, Aunt Harley, Uncle Andrew/Daddy #2 and his cousins Lilah and Jack came over. Mom and Dad brought a ton of food and we should be good for the week. No one besides Nilda and I can use our touch faucet or tell the difference between the trash and the recycling, but it was great to have everyone together. We watched the Eagles/Jets game, though Charlie didn't watch too much of the game. I tell him that the Eagles still have a chance to make the playoffs, but he's written off the season and is seriously questioning whether Andy Reid should return next season. I asked him who he thought would be a better replacement and he pooped on me. He makes a good point.

Charlie's first night was just fine. We still have the glow of having him home so the lack of sleep isn't a problem, yet. Nilda was doing the "mommy stare" and needed constant reassurance that he was still breathing. He's been eating great and that makes us happy. I never thought I'd be so excited to see so much pee in a diaper.

We had Dawn, our postpartum doula, come this morning and help us get everything settled and that was a big help. She helped Nilda a lot and we even snuck in another couple of hours of sleep. It's sort of like having a ski instructor. You still have to ski, but at least there's someone around who knows what they're doing. Stella's here and she's helpful too, but it's been a looooong time since she's dealt with a baby, and I can say that because she. Things are going great and now we can finally settle in.

The hours are just flying by. Next time I need to get anything done, I'm going to start viewing my life in three hour increments.

Yael wrote that I overshare on facebook. In response, here's a video of Charlie crying. He does this thing where his lower jaw goes up and down at supersonic speeds. I can't move my lower lip anywhere near as fast, but his mother can. That's how we know he's Hispanic.