Hester's first days
As requested, here are a few more photos of our beloved Hester.*
The first picture is from the morning after her birth. It was taken in Ariana's recovery room where all 4 of her parents, her brother, and a family friend gathered to celebrate her arrival. We passed her around, took dozens of photos, and talked about our respective and combined futures with this precious little baby. It was a time of great joy and great grief.
The second picture is from later that same day. Hester was still bruised and swollen from her very quick delivery. Ariana and Bobby left the hospital around noon to give Petunia and me the rest of the day to bond with the baby. We were overjoyed to be with the baby and so grateful to Ariana and Bobby, but we were scared about what the future might bring. We didn't hold back our love for Hester, though. We dressed her in the hat and booties that Petunia made for her and a blanket that I chose for her. We took her picture a hundred times, kissed and held her, and told her that we loved her. We were there the very first time she opened her eyes. Emotions ran high all day; we vacillated between pure joy and deep sadness.
The third photo is from Sunday, the day that Hester was moved from the regular nursery to the NICU. We'd called before we left the house to ask how she was doing, and the nurse cheerfully replied, "Oh, she's fine." When we got to the hospital, we learned that she'd had a bad night but that the nurse couldn't share that information with us over the phone. Hester had been moved to the NICU early that morning and started on some medicine to ease her distress. The nurses were extremely protective of her; we had to show ID before we could see her and folks were very wary of our open adoption situation. It took the NICU nurses a couple of days to understand that Hester has 2 sets of parents, but now they get it. They're taking really good care of her, too.
More photos will follow, I'm sure!
*For readers who might not know, "Hester Willa" is a sort of pre-adoption nickname we had for our future child. Now it's a bloggy nickname. Rest assured, we didn't really name our child Hester Willa!
posted by Clementine at 2:44 PM
7 Comments:
All her photos make me want to come visit you NOW.
Which is so not what you need, I know. But she is So. Damned. Cute.
xo
That is one beautiful baby girl you've got there!! Congrats to all 4 of you!
PS: I'm here from PK's...her gushing about your wee one made me run right over to see her myself. :)
She is so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes
Was sent over by Round is Funny. Congratulations on the birth of your precious daughter! She is beautiful. I hope she is home with you very, very soon.
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I'm amused--I had no idea that Hester Willa's just her blog name. I love the name Willa--it's actually on our list of possible tadpole names and I'd been debating whether that would seem odd, what with you naming yours Willa, too, and...like I said. I'm amused.
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