A Year of Firsts

This past year has been a year of firsts.
In 2008, I got my first job as a bona fide guidance counselor.
We found out we were pregnant.
We bought and moved into our first house.
And in April 2009, we had our first baby!

Mia Elizabeth has been the apple of our eyes since she was born.
She is a beautiful little (and by little, I mean little!) human being already showing little smiles, making lots of little sleep noises and is pretty good at just being cute!

Mia came into the world on a very sunny, peaceful and pleasant Sunday afternoon at a free-standing birth center, delivered by a midwife. Since she was such a small baby (barely hitting 5 lbs), we had to take her to the hospital for evaluation. That hospital check-in late Sunday night turned into a full week's hospital stay, just to monitor her for any potential reasons as to her low birth weight. By the end of the week, we were assured that Mia was just fine and by the following Sunday morning, we could take her home. What a relief!

The next couple of weeks were devoted to learning life with a newborn. We were blessed with lots of help from family and church friends but soon after, faced another hiccup: ME! About 2 weeks after Mia's birthday, I started experiencing significant pain in my leg. After staying pretty immobile for the week to come as I couldn't walk and was feeling quite miserable with an infection, I got in touch with my primary care physician and found out I had a blood clot in my left leg. Hospital visit #2, but this time, for mom!
After being treated for 2 days for the blood clot, a high fever, and an infection, I was able to go home. While I was in the hospital, again, we were spoiled with help from family and friends and my own mom flew back into town to take care of Mia while Greg & I were in the hospital.

Now, it's 3 weeks later and things feel astoundingly different. Taking care of a newborn is so much easier when a) she's healthy, growing and thriving (gained 3 lbs+ in a month!), b) when mom herself feels well! (no more pain in leg, no fevers, infections, etc.) and c) once you start to sense a routine. We are learning a lot as we go along and I can honestly say we are enjoying ourselves. Yes, we are operating with a bit less sleep these days, but no one ever told us otherwise!

Having a baby has changed our perspective on many a things. I sense that as time rolls on, we will start to see more and more of this perspective change unfold. Our priorities are different, our goals, and our hopes for the future. When you're entrusted with raising a cutie so innocent, you can't help but reevaluate who you are and where you're going. And that's another first.