As soon as my head hit the pillow, everyone else showed up at the house. Sara, Eric, Anna and Grandma got into town about 4:00 - the Hollars stayed with us while Granny, Pops, and Grandma stayed at a hotel. We just hung out at the house and Mark and Terry Lynn stopped by for a little while. Friday night wasn't too bad - Haley slept pretty well in her bassinet. The dogs were more interested in her during the night. They both actually whined with her whenever she cried. Saturday was nice we just sat around the house some more. The weather was beautiful and it was nice spending time with my family out on the patio.
Four Generations 
Gary, Darcy, Steve and Keeley all came by to visit. Nursing was going fairly well, but Saturday night was a little rougher - Haley was up crying for about 2 hours in the middle of the night and we didn’t sleep too well. The dogs ignored her a little more, but Cricket was still pretty concerned whenever she cried. Everyone left early Sunday morning and aside from a visit from Nick, Jane, Janelle and Jackie, we were ready to just be by ourselves and rest for awhile. We took Haley to the pediatrician Monday and everything looked good. She was down to 6 lbs 8 oz and was slightly jaundiced, but nothing to worry about. Justin was wonderful with Haley. He changed almost every diaper and did most of the outfit changes too. He told everyone I was in charge of input and he was in charge of output!
Christmas was a little surreal for us – it didn’t really seem like Christmas. Haley was one week old and we were still kind of in a daze. We opened the few gifts that we had and talked about how having a healthy baby was the best gift we could have asked for and it really made us think about the real meaning of Christmas and that gifts just didn’t seem important this year and we hoped that we remembered to feel this grateful throughout the year and not just during holidays.
Our First Family Picture
Our next visitors came on Christmas Day when Susie Bell and Arrie made it to Albany. They got in around lunch time on Christmas and had to leave early the next morning. Arrie is aging pretty quickly and it was a tough visit. I know it broke Sue’s heart to leave so soon, but it was great that she got to meet her first grandchild.
We were on our own for about the next week. I basically just nursed and slept the whole time. Justin stayed busy with cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, and he fit a couple of rounds of golf in there too. Tara and Eric were our next visitors and they arrived on New Year’s Eve. We ordered some chicken wings and just watched football and hungout at the house. They had just driven back from seeing Eric’s family in Ohio, so they could use the rest too. We all stayed up until midnight to see in 2009, but went to bed shortly after that. Jan 1st was full of bowl games. Haley wore her Carolina and Clemson outfits and we watched both teams play crappy games and lose! Haley was pretty fussy the two days Tara and Eric were there – which was too bad, but what can you do? Tara and Eric left after a big meal (ribs, potato salad, mac n cheese, brownies, rice kripsy treats) and then a few hours later cousin Jeff arrived. We did more hanging around the house and we also went out for our first meal with a baby – we went to El Maya of course and Haley actually did really well.
Aunt Tara
Go Gamecocks!
The next week Justin went back to work and it was just Haley and me. Justin was sick that week and we didn’t want Haley to catch anything so, I really didn’t get a break from her at all. Justin finally started getting better over the weekend and was able to hold Haley again. That first week was really tough - lots of exhaustion, hormones and tears, but we made it through!
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