Six Weeks!!!

Today little Adele turned six weeks old.  Based on the literature out there, it seems like that is a the end of the newborn newborn stage, and from her development it certainly seems that way! I decided that if she's making all this process and development, then I could write a blog post.  So, this is the six week report.  Boring stuff first, then bunches of photos.  I will write about her birth later.

First, if you haven't already  heard me brag about it, Adele has grown FOUR inches in the six weeks she's been alive.  This is very unusual.  Now she is 24 inches, which is as tall as I was when I was born (also on the unusual side).  Second, I've noticed a significant decrease in the karate chops to the head.  Third, she's getting closer and closer to figuring out sucking her thumb.  Although lately, I've been thinking maybe that's not even the goal.  Maybe she just likes sucking on her hands.  I know that that is a sign that she's ready to eat, but it is so cute sometimes I just have to watch it for a bit before I feed her. 

Yesterday, she started social smiling.  It's a hit-and-miss thing that only happens when she's making steady eye contact with someone.  Dad hasn't seen it yet, but I have several times.  It's precious!  She'll do a series of different types of smiles and you can see that she is so pleased with herself!  But since breaking eye contact ends it, and since it normally happens when she's snuggled super close to me and when I'm not wearing any clothes, I don't have a photo of it.  Hopefully soon!

Also, yesterday she started paying attending to (and being delighted by) her mobile.  She never paid any attention to it before, but like a light switch, yesterday something clicked with her and now she loves it.  I did take a photo of that, but since the swing was moving, it's quite blurry. 

 

So now we'll start a photo documentary about her first six weeks of life.

Day 2 Dad had to go to class and since I wasn't supposed to be alone at that point, my mother-in-law came to stay with me.  I also decided to invite my two sisters, three nieces, and two nephews to come visit and meeting the new baby.  Since I was up anyway, I also did an hour of work for my former boss to finish up a project that my replacement wasn't trained on.  (I didn't realize until just recently how unusual it was for me to be feeling so good on the second day.  But don't worry, I took  it easy for several weeks anyway.)

The baby was a big hit with the nieces and nephews!

And here's a close-up on Day 2.

Here's when I realized why some people choose a decorating/clothing theme instead of just choosing random patterns that you like.  

Here's where I realized that color coordinating can be a good thing. 

 Some random, cute photos

Day 6 of Adele's life was our 2nd wedding anniversary.  Yay for us!!  We got to spend the whole day together as a family.  Since I wasn't really suppose to be out and about yet, but was cleared for a car ride, we decided to go to In-n-Out.  It was super yummy.  I'm glad we didn't go any further than that because my tailbone was killing me!  It was my first time wearing shoes in almost a week and it was Adele's first time in her carseat and in a car.  I think it also might have been her first time leaving the house. 

 It seems like she liked it!  She conked right out and slept for quite awhile even after we got home (during that stage, it was rare for her to more than cat nap during the day).

 
 Day 7 while Dad was in class, Adele and I ventured outside for a bit.  I'd been instructed to put her in the sun to help with the jaundice, but I wasn't sure if it should be direct sunlight, since she might burn really easily.  So, we sat in the shade for awhile.

Sometime in there, she had her first bath.  You can't tell from the picture, but she really liked it.  

Day 13 my mom came to help!!  Yay!!   Unfortunately, this is the only photo I got of the two of them.  

Day 18, we went to Matt's niece's baptism and got a picture with his WHOLE family (the only person missing is one brother-in-law).  What an awesome group!  So glad I get to be related to them. 

 And we got a family photo.  (Adele wore a lovely blue dress I got at Target for $7.  I didn't realize it was sparkly until we were fighting sparkles for the next three weeks.  Matt says she shouldn't wear that dress again, but it is so cute!!!)

This picture illustrates her Houdini-like ability to get some sort of limb out of her swaddle at night.  (This is less likely to happen when Dad swaddles her.)  In this picture, you can also see how long and elegant her fingers are. 

Day 21 we went to see the ear, nose, and throat doctor to fix her tongue tie (which had been diagnosed by the lactation consultant the day before).  My mom was with a different sister that day and Matt was in class, so my mother-in-law came for moral support.  This was the last picture of Adele as a tongue-tied baby (I forgot to take an after shot, but obviously she didn't look any different anyway.)  We are so so thankful for the awesome lactation consultant who diagnosed the problem and the really awesome doctor who did such a great job fixing it.  Nursing has been going much better since then and she started gaining weight right away. I love this picture because she looks so darling in those little pants.  

I love the adorable way that Adele often clasps her hands.  I've never quite caught it on film, but here's one right afterwards.

 And occasionally, she'll try to clasp her feet.  (again, this photo is after the fact, but still cute.)

Here's a cute, cute quasi smile on her 3 week birthday

And a cute pose during the same photo shoot.

 First time going to church on day 26.  We only stayed for sacrament  meeting.  Check out her super cute dress!  My dear friend Jamie got it for her because it reminded her of an outfit I had in middle school.  Love it!

Random cute morning photo

Ready to go sit in the sun with Nana.

A stretching sequence that I really like.

Between getting a very small amount of sleep the night before, and being super tired during the very overwhelming follow-up visit with the lactation expert, Day 27 was really a struggle for me.  As a result, my super sweet sweetie brought me roses on Day 28.

Hanging out with Dad.

Random, cute photos (I don't know why, but I really love the plain rose-colored outfit)

It's hard to tell from this photo, but I took it to show that she is almost too long for her bassinet.  And she has grown another inch since I took this picture!  Luckily, she doesn't stretch all the way out very often while sleeping.

And to end our photo documentary, here's a photo I took today (Day 44, which FYI is a today later than the "today" mentioned in the first paragraph) to document that she is gaining weight and her cheeks are getting nice and chunky. 

Such a cutie!  We are so, so, so thankful that she came to our family!

My Blissful Morning

This morning my sweetie husband woke up at 3am to go to work, like he does every morning (except Saturdays, when he doesn't have to go in until 4:45am).  While he was getting ready, I laid in bed mostly asleep, like always.  But I've taken to worrying lately.  I realized that I hadn't remembered to put the dinner leftovers away last night.  I'd forgotten to put my Maalox back in the fridge after a much-needed dose.  I realized that I hadn't made sandwiches for Matt to take to work and school.  And, as I often do these days, I was passively worrying that Matt might die.

A few days ago it occurred to me that I'm probably doing all this worrying, stressing out, and generally not being as happy as typically am is probably related to the fact that I've let my relationship with God fall by the wayside.  I still prayed multiple times a time and read the Book of Mormon almost every day (well, more than half the time), but I'd been doing all these things out of habit and without putting in too much thought or effort.  So the last few days I've been working on having more meaningful prayers and more thoughtful scripture study.

I don't think I need to tell any of you that putting effort into having God more fully in your life always pays back quickly and exponentially (Matt would say, technically, I should use "logarithmically" here).  This was no exception.  I will not go into details here, but I'll just say that God spoke peace and comfort to my heart and reminded me of some things he had told me in the past, and I just felt a release and realized I didn't need to worry.  It was so nice!  And then God and I chatted for a while about a few other things current and future in my life.  I was feeling more joyful and peaceful than I have in quite awhile!  After Matt came in for our morning prayer, I went right back into a sound sleep.

Then I woke up 20 minutes before my alarm went off and I felt very refreshed and energized (how often does that happen?!!)  So I decided to get out of bed and do the dishes I've been putting off for several days.  And I figured I'd have time to make myself a delicious breakfast.

I got out of bed and turned on some country music and quickly did the dishes, still happy as a clam.  What added to my joy was discovering that my wonderful husband had 1) put away the leftovers from dinner (which, by the way, he had also made), 2) put the Maalox back in the fridge (after he brought it to me because I was too lazy to get off the couch), and 3) made sandwiches for both of us, even though it was 3am.  I am so in love with that man!!!  I really won the husband jackpot.

I got the dishes finished 10 minutes after I would usually get out of bed and was debating whether or not I should take the time to make myself a super yummy breakfast, when I realized that it wasn't 7:10 at all--it was 5:10.  (that explains why the heater wasn't on).  I made myself a very yummy breakfast burrito and went back to bed for an hour.

I wasn't quite as refreshed and energized when I got out of bed at 7:00, but I still had plenty of time to dry all the dishes and put them away and get gussied up for my day at work.  And I have been happy all day.

I just need to remember that having the Spirit in my life is SOOO worth any added effort.

Dude! You're getting Adele!!

For our very first date ever, Matt took me to Cornbelly's Corn Maze and we had a super awesome time together.

One year later, when we had been married about four months, we went back and recreated our first date (but with kissing and groping).

We had just decided to start trying to get pregnant, and I thought it would be so, so cool if I was pregnant when we re-created our first date.  Although I didn't know it at the time, I actually was pregnant--but obviously that pregnancy didn't work out (don't worry though--it was about as untramatic as a miscarriage can be because I didn't know for sure that I was pregnant until I also knew that it wasn't going to be a successful pregnancy).  But, it was our first month trying so I figured I was super talented at getting pregnant, so I'd just get knocked up next month.

Well, it did end up taking longer than I expected, but I am happy to report that when we went for our Second Annual First Date Recreation, I was pregnant again!

And this time, I feel very blessed to say, that things seem to be going perfectly.  We had our 20 week ultrasound last month and the technician (who was very knowledgeable and awesome) said our baby looked absolutely perfect and very beautiful.  I wasn't planning on being able to see so much on the ultrasound, but we were counting fingers and toes and checking out her kidneys, brain, umbilical cord, waist circumference, leg length, etc.  And she apparently is totally awesome in every measurable way.

I lack the technological wherewithal to label and clarify this picture, but hopefully you can see her arm stretched along the bottom and then her cute little face just right of the center.  She is obviously quite beautiful, just like the technician said.

It took me about two days to get over the shock of learning she was a girl.  I was really expecting a boy.  But, I had my "come to Jesus" moment and I'm totally good now.  A little girl will be just perfect.

Before going public about our pregnancy, I wrote one blog entry as a sort of pregnancy journal, but I didn't publish it.  I had planned on doing several posts that way, but never got around to it.  But I will publish the one now, just in case you're interested in it.  It should be right below this one.

Matt and I are feeling extraordinarily blessed. We are so excited to have our little girl with us for our Third Annual First Date Re-creation next year.

Pregnancy Journal-- Week 8

All the pregnancy websites say to keep a pregnancy journal.  Although I doubt anyone cares about my symptoms and the things I'm learning nearly as much as I do, I've opted to do my journaling on my blog.  I'm going to start writing now, and then publish them once we make the big announcement.

My public pregnancy journaling decision always brings to mind this awesome song I heard several months ago:

Around week 7 I was sitting at work feeling awful and I realized that I shouldn't have been so critical of all my friends who complained about being pregnant.  Then I realized that I shouldn't have been so critical because that's just not a good way to be, but as a non-pregnant woman I had seen the big picture that the daily inconveniences of human-creating were causing me to forget.  What a wonderful blessing and privilege to be pregnant.  (isn't that cheesy?)  There's a half-Matt inside of me and I am so so thankful for that.  So many women I love haven't been able to build their families this way.  There really is nothing to complain about.  I've had a different attitude since this realization, and I am happy for that.

So far, I haven't been moody at all (Matt agrees, so it's not just me being delusional).  I do cry a lot more, but so far only about all the happy, beautiful things in my life.