13 weeks and it's Sophie's due date!!

Well...here we are, 13 weeks after Sophie arrived, and it's finally her due date! She came home on Monday, six days before her due date, weighing 5lb 6.

Safely installed in the car

Alan and I didn't sleep much at all the two nights we had Sophie in our room with us on the neonatal unit. We were scared to leave her "unattended" after being used to there being constant monitors and nurses watching her!

All the paperwork was done on Sunday so that we were able to make our escape as soon as possible on Monday!! All that was left to do was the rescusitation training and a couple of last bits of paperwork and then we were allowed to leave!

We got away about 11am. Sophie was so tiny in her car seat, and too small for her going home outfit - luckily we'd taken a spare outfit just in case that happened! The hospital had to give us a blanket to put underneath her in the car seat so that she was a bit higher up, otherwise the straps wouldn't have fitted her at all!


We said our goodbyes and took her out to the car. We felt really strange leaving for the last time. The neonatal unit had been our lives for the last 3 months and was our comfort zone. We took photos of it before we left so when Sophie is bigger, we can show her where she spent the first 12 weeks of her life. We were so excited going home with Sophie, but at the same time a little bit sad in a way...definitely a strange feeling and very hard to explain. It was also the best feeling in the world, finally leaving through the maternity dept with the car seat, just like all the other parents we'd seen leaving over the last 3 months.

Our second home!

I sat in the back with Sophie and stared at her all the way home! We called in at Granny and Grandpa's and then brought her home and Grandad came round, and then it was just the three of us in our own home at long last. One of our neighbours had put a big "Welcome Home Sophie" banner on the front window and a few neighbours spied us coming home and came to have a peek at Sophie. Nothing escapes un-noticed round here! Sophie brought up most of her bottle as soon as we got home and was really unsettled all afternoon and all night but that was probably just because it was such a different environment from what she'd been used to.

Sophie's very first photo at home

Next day, one of the community nurses from the neonatal unit came out to see us and to weigh Sophie and make sure her temperature was ok. She'd lost a couple of ounces since the previous day, but the nurse did say it could just be with the scales being on a carpet etc.

Sleeping in her moses basket with her very own blankets at last!

After she had left, we took Sophie round to Grandad's then took her out in her pram for the very first time - that was one moment we'd really been longing for! We parked in Tweedmouth Main Street and walked over to Berwick, met Granny and Grandpa in Berwick then walked up to their house and back to collect the car later. Sophie looked so tiny in her pram and so cute! She had a big long sleep and then when we came home, Alan gave her a bath for the first time since we got her home.





On Thursday morning Sophie had a doctor's appointment, then Uncle Greig and Aunty Claire visited for the day and then I walked to the shops with the pram and met Sophie's granny. On Friday we had to go back to the neonatal unit to get Sophie weighed again and went to visit Sophie's great aunty Fay.






















Sunday was Sophie's official due date, and I felt quite strange all day knowing she was actually 13 weeks old but should only just be born around that day! It's a funny feeling, having missed out on the last 3 months of pregnancy, having had to leave our baby behind every day and come home to an empty house but it's wonderful finally having her home and being able to be a little family at last.

Here are a few more pictures from Sophie's first week at home: