Our Abby has been home and in our arms just over 2 weeks and it has been wonderful. She is soooo laid back and has won the award for being our best sleeper yet, which is saying something because Emily, Hannah and Claire were all GREAT sleepers. To celebrate being 2 weeks old Abby slept 6 hours straight in her pack-n-play the night before she turned 2 weeks. She had consistently been doing 4 to 5 hour stretches for the 4 or 5 nights prior to that. I'm sure we still have some rough nights ahead, but we are so proud of our good sleeper and we're enjoying having the consecutive hours of sleep.
I took this picture when she was about 3 days old just after she had finished nursing. She had a full belly and couldn't have been more relaxed.
I love her cute smirk in the picture below.
This little 2 year old is just down right cute. She's talking ALL day long and while we can understand most everything she is saying it's still in her cute 2 year old voice, which makes most everything she is saying extra adorable. She loves saying "That's nummy!" when she likes something that we've given her to eat. She replaces "I" with "My" at almost every opportunity. She is also liking to pretend....she tells Bert often "my Daddy" (pointing to herself and meaning "I'm Daddy"), "you KK" (pointing to him).
One evening Hannah said she was going to feed her Minnie and when I looked up this is what she was doing. She was quite proud of herself. :)
A couple of cute pictures of our little sweetie...
The first week was the hardest, which I guess is normal, but this first week seemed extra hard to me. I basically only held her when I was nursing her and even then I wore a mask and gloves. I was still coughing a lot and was scared to death I was going to get her (or someone else in the house) sick. I didn't get to hold the other girls either and by the end of the first week I was in desperate need of a hugs and snuggles from all of my babies. Bert and my mom were champions. They basically did everything for everybody that first week as I tried to rest and recover from the flu and delivery (flu recovery being way worse). I never got more than 2 hours of sleep at a time because she would be ready to nurse again, but I was thankful for those two hour stretches. For the first week Bert and Mom split the night in half....Mom took her from 9 - 2 at night and then Bert took the 2am -7am shift. I would come out and nurse her every few hours, but they were determined that I wouldn't do anything other than that as we all wanted me to get well as quickly as possible.
I ended up having a little trouble with my milk supply and we had to supplement with formula for 2 days before my milk started coming in. The lactation consultants felt like it was definitely due to me having the flu. I hadn't had any trouble with my milk coming in with Hannah and Claire and it's supposed to come in faster the more babies you have. I also didn't have much of an appetite the first week or so after I had Abby. I did eat and drink, but not because I was hungry. I also probably wasn't drinking enough because I was wearing a mask so much of the day. Anyway, I was sooooo thankful when my milk finally came in by the end of the first week. It was SO important to me to be able to nurse her.
I took this picture one night at 3am. Abby was about 3 days old. He was feeding her a bottle to supplement after I had just nursed her. He's such an amazing husband and Daddy and I'm thankful he's mine.
These yummy cake pops were a special request that I had and Mimi was happy to oblige.
The weather was absolutely beautiful those first couple weeks after Abby was born. One afternoon Bert got home from work and told the big girls they were going to get to help him plant some seeds for this summer's garden. He wanted to plant them early so that they would get a head start on growing. He'll plant them in the ground in a few weeks. The girls were soooo excited about this project.
My mom stayed with us about 2 weeks after we had Abby, which is a little longer than she usually stays after we have a baby, but with me getting over being sick she decided I needed a little extra help and she was right. We were SO thankful to have her. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry, played with the big girls outside, did car-line pick ups, held Abby into the wee hours of the morning, and gave me pep talks when I was discouraged and down about not being able to hold and snuggle my baby. My mom is one of my very best friends and one of my favorite people to hang out with.
Mimi got lots of Abby snuggles.
My brother came over to Greenville to meet his newest niece on Friday (Abby was 5 days old). It looks like she saying "enough with the pictures" in the picture below.
Snuggled up with Uncle Stan taking a nap.
Papa came over on Abby's 1-week birthday. He was so glad to be able to see her in person (FaceTime is nice, but not the same). He was much better, but not 100% so he wore his mask while holding her. They stayed snuggled up like this for most of the afternoon. Holding babies and letting them sleep on his chest just happens to be his specialty.
Our big girls were super excited to see Papa too!!
Emily and Hannah love playing with (attacking) Uncle Stan.
On Monday evening (Abby was just over a week old) we had a CRAZY HUGE hail storm. Everyone that we talked to that got hit with the worst of it said they had never seen or heard anything like it in their life. Even our 90 year old neighbor said he had never seen a hail storm like we had that evening. It was unbelievably loud and lasted almost 10 minutes. Now we have to get estimates on getting our cars and roof fixed....booo.
This was the first time I had held Abby with my mask off so we had to get a picture of it. She was just over a week old. Just checking each other out.
When she was about a week and a half, we had some newborn pictures taken of Abby. Mom was there to wrangle (and I do mean wrangle) Claire while our photographer was taking pictures of Bert and me with Abby.
Claire, once again, wasn't totally in the mood to be told where to sit and to smile for each picture. 2 year olds for ya. I *think* Libby was able to get some good ones though. Look at this cute smile that we got with our phone camera though?! Sweet thing.
We only had to supplement with formula for 2 days. When we took Abby to the doctor at 3 days old she had dropped to 8lbs 3oz (she was 8lbs 11oz at birth). They expect them to lose weight and want them to be back to birth weight by 2 weeks. I took her back for a checkup at 10 days old and she was 9lbs even! Woohoo...go Abby!
I have a picture of all 4 of our girls on this blanket during that first week after they were born. My great-grandmother (my mom's grandmother) crocheted the flowers, and my mom and her sister found them in a box in my grandmother's closet after she passed away a few months before Emily was born. They had it made into a blanket just before I had Emily. It's such a beautiful, special blanket to our family.
Aunt Katherine and Ressie drove to Greenville to meet Abby one evening. Aunt Katherine loved getting snuggles and Ressie loved playing with her cousins!
Abby was 2 weeks old in the picture below. Cutie!
Abby, I am especially loving being able to kiss your face and snuggle with you now that I am well. You're a joy and an incredible blessing to our family! We love you!
