I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that we’ve been home for over a week. It feels like ages and yet just hours all at once.

I also haven’t worn shoes in a week so that no one will get any ideas about me going anywhere or doing much of anything. . .

The evening of our fist day home we hustled the eldest four off to FNE and consoled Gemma and Lucy about staying home by telling them they could bathe the baby. Would you believe the hospital let us bring her home unbathed? She stayed he entire time we were in the big house in just a diaper and her swaddling blankets. She smelled great but her siblings were sleeved out by the flaky vernix in her hair.

I learned with Gem that “school” post-partum needed to look very different. The baby is the lesson. So we talked about what vernix is and why it’s there with the older kids. Then, when it came time for the bath, it was explaining about an umbilical cord and how belly buttons are made, why babies have to be kept warm and how to change a diaper.

Both girls were so helpful and though they may not remember this experience, it’s one I’ll never forget.