Meeting Baby Katea

I was wondering how Lautala would react to her sister coming home.  She knew that there was a baby Katea, she saw tons of pictures of her, and she understood that mommy had to go to the hospital every single day to see baby Katea.....but I didn't know how much she really understood that baby Katea was HER sister, and that she was coming home.  Monday February 6th, 2012 was the day we finally got to bring our baby girl home.  I was so happy and excited and anxious and nervous just wondering how coming home was going to be.  How would Lautala and the boys react to their new little sister?  How could I keep people away from her...how could I keep her safe from getting sick.  It's enevitable that she'll be around people, I mean, she has 3 older siblings that will be around all the time.  I was just nervous.  We had deep cleaned the house for her to come home...shampoo'd the carpets in the whole entire house, cleaned all the vents, scrubbed the walls.....just did whatever we could to get our house clean and ready for her to come home.  Ova and I even re-arranged our room so that the crib fits in there....and it's actually close enough to my bed that I can reach over an touch her if I wanted.  To me, it wouldn't make sense to put her in her own room....at least not at first, I NEED her by me....I probably wouldn't be able to sleep without her by me, especially with her monitors beeping all the time.

When we left the hospital on that Monday, one chapter of our lives closed and another one opened.  We pulled up to our house and this is what we saw:

My sisters had made this big huge sign and put it on the house (the NICU advised against having signs like this on the outside of the house, just because of crazy people and issues that have happened with people wanting babies and kidnapping them from homes they knew had new babies home....scary, I know)  My baby girl is loved so much, and I was grateful that they took time to make this sign to welcome her home and show just how much she is loved.  We ended up taking the sign down and putting it inside!  They also brought a ton of pink and white balloons for inside the house (Lautala and Mone had a ball with those!  haha)

When we got inside the house, this is what we saw:

Ova's sister and neices and nephews made a sign for the inside of the house too.  With a lot more balloons.  Everyone was so excited to finally welcome her home after a long 4 months!

The first thing I did was look for Lautala, who was sitting on the couch.  I walked in and sat baby Katea in her car seat down on the floor and all 3 of my older kids ran to her.  They lifted up her little blanket and were so happy to see her.  Lautala was so cute, she kept saying "baby Tea" "baby Tea" over and over again.  She was very gentle and soft with her and she kept kissing her forhead softly, she stood by her for a while just staring at her.  It was precious!  Makai and Mone admired her for a few minutes, then they went back to playing, but Lautala couldn't get enough of her, she just stood right by her making sure to bend over and kiss her every few minutes. :)

That day was not only the first time for her sister Lautala to meet her, but it was the first time for her great-gramma to see and meet her too....and the first time for her namesake Gramma Katea to see her since she was 2 weeks old.  Everyone was really emotional to see and finally meet her!

Gramma Tea's first time seeing her at home

Ma's first time ever meeting her

We put hand sanitizer bottles everywhere throughout the house and made sure that everyone that came in washed their hands and put hand sanitizer on.  We already told our families how we're supposed to keep her away from large groups of people, and especially a lot of little kids, so they already knew and understood.  My sisters came to visit that day and so did Ova's brother.  As much as all the kids wanted to come, our siblings didn't bring them....and I was grateful for that!  We just need to remember how critical she is, and even though she's home, she's still sick...she's still on oxygen...and if she catches anything or gets sick, it would be like 100 times worse for her because of her fragile condition.  We just spent almost 5 months in the hospital trying to get her home....and now that she's home, we don't want to do anything that will make her have to go back!

She's been home for a week now, and it's been great!  She's such a good baby, which we are so lucky for!  We've actually been really blessed with kids that don't cry that much....Ova and I were talking about that the other day, none of our kids were crybabies!   Baby Katea sleeps most of the day still, but when she's awake, if she's full, she can lay on the floor on her back just kicking her legs and looking around for a long time.  Her oxygen is annoying, especially the BIG concentrater that I have to carry from room to room, and her monitors and things....but she NEEDS it!  There have been a few times since she's been home that she's showed us that she absolutely needs it.  Hopefully sometime in the near future, we'll be able to start weining her down so she doesn't need it, but for now....she's very very dependent on it!

She's beautiful and we're so in love with her.  We catch her smiling a lot, especially when she's sleeping.  Her brothers and sister smother her like crazy, but it's funny because she just looks to the side and lets them....almost with and annoyed "hurry up" face....haha!  I am so happy that all my family is finally home together under one roof.  It's been so nice not having to juggle my time between my kids at home and the hospital...and being with all of them all the time.  Love my little family!