Alice Comes Home

Alice came home yesterday. And although she's been a good girl, it's easy to forget how much attention babies require. Hence the lack of posting here and the lack of correspondence.

We took her home late yesterday afternoon, stopping off at Tesco and Homebase. At Tesco I left a note on the windscreen of the car of some idiot who, while clearly not disabled, decided to park in one of the disabled spots. That kind of thing would wind me up anyway but, for obvious reasons, it wound me up even more this time. The note was quite unpleasant. Well-worded, concise and unpleasant. Hopefully it'll make him think twice before doing it again. Or perhaps instead it'll make him even more determined to park where he shouldn't. The inconsiderate twat.

It's funny, but I really despised him for making me think about the sadness of our situation while we were taking our daughter home - something that should have been a joyous occasion.

Luckily, it was a joyous occasion.

For her trip home, Shannon decked Alice out in a full green body suit with green hat and mittens. She looked like a little frog. Admittedly, a rather cute little frog. We worried about her being a bit too small for her car seat but she was fine. We should have carried her home on a lily pad.

At home she settled in pretty much straight away. Tom was delighted to see her. So much so that he insisted on feeding her later. It's good to see that she's got a big brother who will always keep an eye out for her. Right Tom?

We all sat together and watched X-Factor, Alice not stirring for any of the 'artists' (artists my arse). I think Rachel may be my new favourite.

In the hospital, Alice was extremely good at sleeping. At home she's very good too. Except she was a bit up and down during the night. First of all, she was in her new cot which must have seemed like an endless vista of bed compared to the confined spaces of the hospital cribs. Secondly, the room was dark and quiet. No constant bleeping sounds, no jabbering nurses, no doors crashing open, no trays being dropped, no noise from the other babies. But although we know she can easily sleep through that kind of racket, we soon fell into the business of creeping around like slipper-footed mice, shhhhing all the way. Maybe it's too quiet for her.

So she was up reasonably early and Shannon let me sleep in a bit. Which was very nice of her.

Up and about this morning and off to the hospital to see Maggie where we were met by our friend Louisa, who came bearing lovely gifts and a smile. She stayed for a little while, keeping us and the girls company. Maggie is doing well, with no real change except that the nurse said she seemed to need less suction for her saliva. Which may indicate that she's swallowing better. Go girl! Again, it's just so hard to believe that anything could be wrong with her.

Later that afternoon we returned home to greet my old friend Rob, also bearing lovely gifts, who came all the way from Nottingham. That may not sound like a big deal but he's been promising to come and see us in Norwich for around ten years now. At last, he made it. A few laughs, dinner, drinks and the crappy X-Factor results show. He's good, that Danyl, but really - who cares?

I played Alice her first proper song in the car today. It was this:



She loved it.

Pictures below from yesterday and today (click to see them big):


Tom and Alice


Paul & Maggie

Maggie

Alice

Alice

Shannon & Maggie
Shannon, Louisa &
The Girls
Paul, Shannon &
The Girls