Home-comming!

OK, so I'm a bit behind....and will try to break up the text a bit with a few posts in one day.

On Monday, all tests ran clear and Amy and the Aliena were released from the hospital. Turns out there are no real formalities for going home in our little back-woods hospital. They say - "OK, you cna go home when you're ready". Then you walk out. We ralized a few days before that they don't really worry much about security - Adrien was fitted with a baby-LoJack system soon after birth that set off alarms when you walked out the upstairs door (don't ask how we learned about that...), but for Aliena, there were no alarms...really no bracelets at all. The nurse even suggested that if we wanted to go outside to walk around a get some fresh air, we should just make sure that Aliena was well covered and to no go too far! So we packed up, walked out, and headed home! The only regret was leaving behind the air-conditioning and Adrien's chateau.

Papi and Bonne Maman headed back to Lyon at the same time as Amy's release, Grandma Pam was at home waiting with her arms cradled for a little baby to land in them, and Adrien came back from day-care all excited about having Mommy and Baby home. He was very proud to get to hold her on his knees (supervised...still) - and practice holding baby in a wrap (well...with a doll...). In general Adrien is doing quite well with the new addition/ competition - he needs a bit more attention and reassurance, wants to pretend he is a baby, and tries to push the limits a bit more, but that's pretty mild stuff compared to stories I have heard. We're keeping our fingers crossed that things keep getting better!

The first night was a little tricky - and the following nights have taught us a new lesson in raising kids... Aliena slept just fine - she gives quiet little squeeks when she is hungy, then falls asleep again. Adrien (our champion sleeper...??), on the other hand, kept us up all night. The problem is that he wanted to be with us and cuddle with his little sister...which is not such a hot idea! We tried to let him stay with us (with a good barrier between him and his sister), but he sleeps so lightly that at every squeek and gurgle, he would wake up. After a medium sized crises, we finally cried ourselves (Papa and Adrien) to sleep in Adrien's room. Turns out our little one is a pretty good sleeper (no, she does not yet sleep through the night...sure, your baby did!!), but our big boy is the one responsible for our lack of sleep! I guess even big boys need to be cuddled like a baby.

One last note for the day, Alexis' day started with a trip to city hall to drop of the birth declaration and get a birth certificate made. Its a small town hall not far from the hospital and it provided a quintessential french adminstrative experience. I arrived at 9:30am and began by waiting for the secretary to finish something 'important' (reading the morning paper online). She then took my paperwork, told me I forgot to add and accent on Aliena's name (it took a while to convince her we were boldly going accent-less), and then she typed things in for about 15min and got ready to print out copies of the declaration for her own office and for us. In true ecological fashion, she prints out declarations on the official paper for her office as double-sided: my baby on one side, someone else's on the other. The problem is that she fed the paper wrong, and someone else's poor baby got over-written. That introduced a good 10min hesitation about how to recover the pther baby, if the second printout for Aliena should go on the back (or front) of the previous baby's record (you know, to keep things im the same order), etc... I finally left afer 1hour in one of the less busy city-halls in France with 8 copies of Aliena's birth certificate (to send to insurance, my employer, social secuirty, etc....). Lets hope the US consulate is a bit easier to deal with!