An Angel Among Us

We're home!  We were discharged yesterday around noon and have been slowly learning how to take care of all our little angel's needs.  I still feel like it's all a dream.  Our time in the hospital went by so fast.  I'm shaking my head in awe that just 4 days ago she was still a part of me and we were trying everything we could to bring labor on.  Which, by the way, I have to tell you all that I have a "Scalini's baby"!  For those of you who don't know what that means I'll tell ya.  Scalini's restaurant has a nationally famous eggplant parmesan dish that is supposed to put full-term pregnant women into labor.  Well, by Sunday I was desperate to avoid a Tuesday scheduled induction...so, I thought what can we lose!  No kidding, my water broke less than 12 hours after we ate there.  So miss Zoë gets her Scalini's onesie and we get a gift certificate! 

All dressed up & striking a pose

Kit and I have been talking about how it's been an adjustment to start calling this little one Zoë after she's been Baby B for so long.  We find ourselves calling her "Zoë B"...I call it her "transition" name. ;)  But speaking of her name, I wanted to share with you all a little more about her sweet little name.  Zoë is a name I have always liked, but I haven't always known that is what I wanted to name our daughter.  In fact, for the entirety of our relationship our daughter's name was going to be Ella after Kit's grandmother.  Well, the more we talked about names I noticed that I would bring up Ella but Kit never would.  I asked him about it once and he said, "Well, I guess I just always think that's who our first baby was."  Tears filled my eyes and he didn't have to say anything else.  We had this name so picked out and with our first pregnancy there was never a question that would be the baby's name if it was a girl.  So, after years of loving that name, I let go of it.

So, who was this girl?  One of the reasons I have always liked the name Zoë is it's meaning.  Zoë is a Greek word that means "Life".  In the original Greek text of the Bible it's this word that is used when Jesus speaks of Eternal Life.  I added this name to our list a couple of months ago and it wasn't long until we began to feel that this is who she was.  After so much death and loss...this angel is our gift of "Life".  And it just took spending a morning with her to realize, yep, she's our Zoë.  We think it suits her already!  

Annelisa is of course after our precious and so missed Lisa Anne.  We have known almost as long as I've been pregnant that we wanted this to be a part of her name.  It still aches so much that Zoë will never know Lisa and that Lisa is not here to share in this miracle with us.  Oh, I know her spirit is with us...and I have felt it so much in the past few days.  But, it doesn't take away the fact that it still hurts that she's gone.  I hope in some way that giving her this name will honor Lisa's spirit and help carry her life & story into the next generation.   

Zoë latched on to her favorite person

Ok, now I have to say this picture is such a portrait of how things are...and, I'm sure, what's to come.  This girl loves her daddy!  And here she is just two days old letting us know with her little look that holding onto him is really all she needs.  But, seriously, it really is amazing the way he is with her.  First of all, he is a master swaddler (thanks to Brian and Page for giving us the Happiest Baby on the Block video...no, seriously...it's been a lifesaver!).  He can calm this baby down in seconds with his mad baby whisperer skills!  And he is so sweet with her.  I had no idea how much it would melt my heart to see how tender he is with her.  I didn't know just how much watching him become a daddy would make me fall deeper in love.

Please accept my apology if I haven't returned an email or phone call.  We are still adjusting and trying to sleep when we can.  But know that all of your messages have been so loving and well received.  We can feel you all rejoicing with us and it feels good...really good.