Oliver at the hospital

Our first picture as a family of 4!

I've mentioned this before, but we have been so blessed with who we've been surrounded by in Norway that has helped fill some of the void without being around family. One of those blessings was someone in our ward offering to watch Lily while Oliver was in the hospital. There is a hotel attached to the hospital and this is where you stay after you have a baby. It's really nice because it's a lot more homey and if you request a double room for your husband to stay then you get a queen sized bed. Barrett planned on staying with me, but sadly all the double rooms were filled. It turned out okay because then he was able to go home and clean up the mess we left behind as well as take home/bring back supplies. Anyway, Lily not only stayed with the family in our ward for 2 nights, but Sarah also picked Lily up from our neighbors house upstairs, brought her to see us at the hospital both days and then drove us home from the hospital. Such a blessing that we didn't have to ride the bus home and that Lily got to play with other children while we were away!

We have some great videos of Lily meeting Oliver for the first time but I'll just show some pictures.

The first day Lily didn't really know what to do with Oliver. She held him for a few seconds but other than that didn't interact very much with him.

 The next day Sarah let us have an hour of alone time with Lily and then we were able to see more of her reaction to him. She pointed out his little ears and little hands, and eyes, etc. etc. It was really sweet to watch them get to know each other.

People often ask me how it was to have a baby in Norway. I honestly felt like there were very few differences in the births, but the stay in the "hospital" seemed like the biggest difference to me. They are very hands-off. In America you are monitored very closely and often are woken up every few hours by someone coming in to check on you or give you anything you need. Here you have to ask if you need more diapers or need help. Don't get me wrong, our needs were met and they came to discuss how the birth went, check in with breastfeeding, and we met with the pediatrician to do all the necessary tests, but it is very driven by you. They also don't have a nursery, which we didn't mind and only used once with Lily, but just different than America.

I have been surprised how much calmer, less anxious I felt with Oliver than with Lily. Everything felt familiar and not so shockingly foreign. He has been a great baby, but I think we have this baby thing down ;). Haha, sometimes I feel like that for a few seconds.

They don't take pictures in the hospital here, so Barrett brought the camera and he was able to get some great newborn photos of Oliver.

And the time quickly came to leave the hospital.

 Black Bear Oliver's debut. I LOVE this picture!

Riding home from the hospital.

Just one funny story. We were deciding between Espen and Oliver for names and deliberated for a quite awhile before deciding on Oliver Barrett. Lily knew we were thinking of both names and was dead set on Espen. Well "Hespen" actually. We have 2 videos of Lily insisting that his name was "Hespen". She got so mad and kept telling us "No, his name is Hespen" on the way home from the hospital. Luckily she's used to Oliver now. She called him "little brother" for the first few weeks but even that has faded.

It was really hard being away from family when Oliver came home. We had all the help we needed so it wasn't that, it was just the sadness that none of our family was getting to meet, hold, and get to know Oliver. With those post-labor hormones I was so excited one minute that Oliver was finally here and very sad the next that we couldn't share the experience with family. Luckily, time passes and hearts heal and now we are looking forward to when family can finally meet him.

One thing that really helped was all the flowers people sent us. We were so grateful to have a visual reminder of all the support we had from people here.

Finally home.