Ruminations on my first day, by Claire Ellen Swiderski

Wow. What a day...

It all started just around 7:15am yesterday when I was stretching for my morning jog-in-place. All of a sudden, a ridiculously intense light blinded my eyes, and I was extricated from my home of warm ooze and placed in a tray where they proceeded to scrub me of at least 2 layers of skin (which wasn't a walk in the park to grow, FYI).

But shortly after that scrubbing, I was wrapped in layers of warm blankets and put in dad's arms. He brought me over and I got to see mommy for the first time! I posed for a couple pictures, and then dad took me on a little trip to the 4th floor nursery. I wanted mom to hold me, but she seemed a little busy, so I figured what the heck, I'll tug at dad's heart strings for a little while and see mom later.

I have mixed feelings about my first nursery experience. Dad brought me in and put me under some sort of heat machine that felt FANTASTIC! Then they weighed me a couple times (a lean 7lbs, 5oz), measured me (20"), and then things quickly got worse. This mean woman wearing blue squirted some gooey stuff in my eyes and then STUCK me with a needle in my leg. That is the worst pain I'd felt in my life!

Anyhow, I got over it quickly when I saw Grandpa Mark and Grandma Ellen who were waiting outside the nursery... it was a short visit, but I was happy to see them! Their eyes looked funny full of water though.

I kept slipping in and out of a real deep sleep over the next several hours, dreaming of gumdrops and lollipops (I had to Google what they were, since I haven't seen much of anything yet). Every four hours or so they put me in mom's arms and tried to make me eat, but no matter how many different ways I tried to show them I was full, they didn't listen! I appeased them a little just so I could get back to sleep.

Around 5 o'clock in the evening, I met my Uncle Mitch and his girlfriend Kalin for the first time! I tried to act extra fragile when they were holding me to make them really uncomfortable... just for kicks. I think it worked.

Grandpa and Grandma came back in the evening as well and I got to spend more time getting to know them. Grandma made me a beautiful quilt with my name on it! Grandpa's really tall.

I also received some really nice flowers and gifts from Grandpa Jim, Grammy, Pop Pop, and Great Grandma Muriel, and dad told me we got many good wishes via text and voicemail.

Here are some more pictures from my first day. Hope to see more of all of you!

Love,
Claire