Two Weeks (plus 1 day!)

A day late on this one! My mom and Nick left today so I was trying to soak up as much time as possible with them yesterday and made peace with my lack of posting on time.


Week two has been much better than week one...and week one wasn't even bad! Cassidy and I are more confident in our skills and don't worry as much about accidentally killing the baby. I am not yet totally comfortable leaving her to sleep in a room on her own for naps (bedtime in her own room is at least a month away). I like to periodically look at her to make sure she is breathing and that is hard to do when she is all the way upstairs. I have heard this gets better, but until then Noelle is pretty much stuck with me.

Noelle also had her first real bath and she seemed to like it. If she is anything like her mother, she will soon love bath time! She also had a perfect two week checkup - she has grown an inch since birth and is up to 8 pounds, 2 ounces! The weight gain was not a shock. Noelle is quite the eater and at times she goes from sleeping to "FEED ME NOW!" in about 2 seconds flat. Other times she has a 5 minute stretching/yawning routine that is absolutely hysterical. She has mastered following things with her eyes and really loves to look at the Christmas tree lights, TV, and people's faces (especially mama's!).


As for me, I am doing really well. I am back to feeling 100% and actually have a lot of energy sans napping. As for the baby weight - I gained 45 pounds total and have lost 25 so far. I am pretty happy with progress and know that things will happen quicker once the goodies that my mom has stashed in the house are gone! I was lucky not to have suffered from the "baby blues" but as of today am a bit down because my mom has left. It's not only the help I will miss, but just her company. Something about having "mom" around always makes things better and brighter and it is hard with her living so far away and not knowing when we will next see her.

Can't wait to see what week three has in store for us!

One Week

One week ago, on December 1st at 3:50 am, Ms. Noelle Elizabeth made her entrance into this world. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 20 inches long. She was (and is) perfect.

To answer some of my own questions from my last blog - she does have lots of dark hair, she seems to have my nose and my eyes (but it's hard to tell so early on), her cry is more of a high pitched screech that goes as quickly as it comes, I only shed a few happy tears when she was placed on my chest, and Cassidy stayed dry-eyed but the joy he felt was a beautiful thing to witness.

I am going to do a separate blog about labor & delivery (not too detailed, promise). But here are pics of us holding our bundle after she was cleaned up. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of when I first saw and held her because we were so caught up in the moment that the camera didn't even come out.




Noelle has been an absolute dream for us first time parents. She rarely cries or fusses and when she does, she typically just wants to be held. No problem for me considering I am adverse to sleeping at night because I miss her. No joke...I actually miss her when she is sleeping an arms length away. So many memories are forever ingrained in my mind already and I will treasure them always. One of my favorites is waking up in the hospital in my recovery room and seeing her being wheeled into the room, eyes wide open, with a little hat on, and my feeling of "I can't believe this perfect little person is mine." However, the best part is the love I feel for her. I've heard it said by others, but "love" doesn't really explain it. My heart leaps out of my chest with each new facial expression, coo, kick of her leg, and grasp of my finger. Breastfeeding, while exhausting, is such a special bond and I am so happy I made the decision to do it and that the two of us (Noelle & I) caught on within a few days.

I have to say that Cassidy has been the best support I could have asked for. He is up with me every time she is up - whether it is to get me water or chat with me to keep me awake, he runs errands, cooks, cleans, took the brunt of diaper duty, and tells me I am beautiful every day. It's so wonderful to watch him with her and see how much he loves her and cares for her. He is a protective papa bear and I'm nervous for the boys that come around in her teens :)

As for her 1 week birthday, we took some pictures today and as you will see, I captured a few of the many faces of Noelle...and they are all cute, if I do say so myself!