Smitten

The hospital nurses took good care of us.  They left us alone for the most part, unless we needed something.  I kept the baby in the room with me most of the night, when they weren't testing him for something or doing some other procedure. Couldn't stand the thought of him all alone in a nursery where I couldn't see him.  He was supposed to sleep in his plastic bassinet that they rolled in and out of our room, but the 2 feet between his cradle and my hospital bed seemed so distant that I pulled him into the bed with me, bundled tightly in his blanket, and slept with him cradled in my arm.

The bassinet where he slept for brief moments when he wasn't being held (!)

Getting to know each other

Tag was the one who kept us on task and kept bringing me back to the subject of naming. "We have to decide on a name - let's focus on that right now." We wanted to include my father's name, so we finally settled on what felt like a fitting name for our gentle, thoughtful little man:  Emerson John Graham.  Afterward, when we looked it up on the internet, exploring Ralph Waldo Emerson's legacy, we confirmed that it seemed a perfect fit.

Our final day in the hospital - clear to go home 

He had a few visitors at the hospital:  Evelyn of course, Oma and Opa, and also the Sullivan's (Franklin, Darcy, Lilly and Jackson) just before they drove to the airport to leave for Switzerland (!). I'm so grateful that they got to see the baby before they left.

"Can I hold him?! Can I hold him?! I wanna Hold Him!"