Blessing Day

Sophie was blessed by Dave this past Sunday at church. It was a gorgeous sunny day and Sophie looked so beautiful in her dress made by my mom and sister. At the blessing we had Dave's parents and sister Elizabeth, who flew in in from Texas, as well as my mom, my sister Natalie and her fiance Brodie, my grandma Mimi, and Sophie's cousins Anne and Will.

I am still waiting to get a lot of pictures from family, but here are a few from my camera:

Beautiful Girl

Tiny Toes

Enjoying her binky for a moment before I had to take it away for more pictures

Family of Three

Dear Aunt Liz

It was my turn to wish you happy birthday at 5:00 today, and I was so excited that my diaper exploded!! While mommy and daddy were trying to clean it up, I got even more excited and spit up all over my clothes and hair. Silly me. Even though I was a big mess, I still wanted to call, but daddy wouldn't listen. I shrieked at him in protest, but instead he whisked me away to the tub so fast I didn't even get to take my socks off. Phooey.

Anyways, now that I am warm, clean, and dry - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you had a wonderful day. I am excited you are coming to visit and can't wait to meet you.

Love Sophie

Sophie at 1 Month

It's hard to believe a month has already gone by! Sophie is thriving and I have survived 31 days of never sleeping more than 4 hours at a time. We have used almost 400 diapers and have only gone one day without doing laundry since bringing her home (I don't know how my sister has survived two kids without a washing machine). It has been fun to watch her become more aware of the world around her. We love this little girl and are so glad she is part of our family!

~ Sophie at 1 month ~

• 22 inches long and about 9.5 pounds
• Has outgrown almost all of her newborn clothes
• Is still a night owl and doesn't like to go to be before 1 am
• Loves to eat and will nurse as often as I let her
• Has a zero tolerance policy for wet or dirty diapers
• Is a spitter - the other night she went through 4 pairs of jammies and had to have her hair washed three times 
• Loves her binky, although her fingers or thumb make a good alternative if the binky isn't available
• In our opinion, is pretty darn cute!

Sleeping In

I know the experts advise against sleeping in bed with your baby, but this morning we were both very tired and just needed a little more rest. I think it was the best sleep both of us have had in awhile.

Picture taken by Dave with his phone

Second Bath

After three weeks of sponge baths it was nice to finally graduate to the tub! We failed to take a picture of the milestone "first bath" but the second bath was pretty much an identical experience - same tub, same seat, same birthday suit - so hopefully she won't hold it against us later in life :)

 She loves being in the water and cries as soon as we take her out

Sleeping the day away

Sophie would sleep the day away if she could, but I have been making an effort to limit her daytime naps in hopes that she'll start sleeping better at night and it is starting to pay off!! Her "night" is now from about 1 am to 9 am. She will wake up 2-3 times during that period to eat, but will usually go back to sleep after. There are still times that she wakes up and stays up, but luckily that is no longer "normal" for her.

I hate waking her when she looks so peaceful, but it's worth it!

Her cat seat is especially sleep-inducing. In this picture she was out after being buckled in for only 30 seconds - I hadn't even put on my shoes yet.

Daddy's Girl? I think so!

Life at Home

Another late night/early morning blog post - we're still working on her nocturnal tendencies...

Sophie is three weeks today! Although the nights sometimes feel long, the days have gone by really fast and we are enjoying life with our little girl. It has been fun to see her grow and her personality emerge. In no particular order, here are some pictures of the first three weeks:

The first night home - she looks so tiny in this picture!

I love her big dark eyes and just wish we would see them open less at night and more in the day

She is obsessed with having something in her mouth at all times - that pacifier is a lifesaver, but we have to put it back in her mouth about 100 times a day. 

After a bath - her cord stump has still not fallen out so it's just been sponge baths for out little girl, which she absolutely hates.  I'm hoping we'll be able to do real baths soon.

At her first doctor's appointment. She failed her hearing test both times in the hospital nursery, which didn't worry us too much because she would startle anytime a cupboard would close or a phone would ring, but it was nice when she passed at a referral visit a week later - hooray!

Meeting "Paco" - my dad - who came for a quick visit at the end of March

Showing off the cute clothes she received from her Grandma Howe - we excited that Dave's parents will be coming for a visit at the end of this month!

She is quickly outgrowing all her newborn clothes. I tried to put this outfit, which fit last week, on her yesterday and couldn't get it to snap. It was about 2 inches too short.

Already has daddy wrapped around her finger!

Hello World

I am typing this at 3 am with just one hand (Sophie is holding my other hand, which is holding the pacifier in her mouth), so please forgive any typos :)

Because Sophie was born just after midnight, that first night didn't count towards our two night hospital stay so we were there from Monday evening until Thursday morning. I actually enjoyed our stay - the food was better than expected, Dave was able to stay with me the whole time, and we had lots of visitors come to welcome Sophie.

Meeting her grandma (my mom) right after being born

Family of Three!

Meeting Aunt Nat and future Uncle Brodie - Natalie is engaged!

Meeting her great grandma (my Grandma Mimi)

Meeting her cousin Anne, who was scared of her and didn't want to come any closer unless Grandma was holding her. Also there with Anne was my sister Amy and nephew Will.

Doing homework with daddy - Dave took a day off school to stay with us

Heading home!

Night Owl

Our baby girl is nocturnal. She spends her days in a coma-like sleep, and then is wide awake at night. And we can't really complain because 1) she is cute, and 2) she isn't fussy, just very alert and wanting to be noticed.

Right now Dave and I sleep in shifts and take turns staying up with her. I'm on call from 10 pm to around 2 am, then Dave gets up from 2 to 5, and then I get up again from 5 to 8. If we're lucky, she will sleep for a hour during one of our shifts so we can get some rest too, but that normally doesn't happen.

Dave and I are both getting very good at napping on the couch and very familiar with late night TV. In case you were wondering, there is nothing worthwhile on at 4 am unless you like paid programming.

I am hoping she will slowly adopt a more "normal" sleep pattern over the next few weeks, otherwise I might have to start cooking, showering, doing laundry, and going grocery shopping in the middle of the night, and then sleeping in the day because her current schedule makes me t....i....r....e....d.

Sophie on the couch next to me while I blog at 2 am