Two Weeks

The day we left the hospital

Two weeks ago (Monday) God allowed us to hold our newest little Blessing. She took her first breath at 11:04a.m, weighing 9lbs. 8oz. and measuring 22 inches long. It was a rather cold morning ( at least for our part of the country), when we left for the hospital there was frost on the grass, the rooftops, and the windshield. It actually took us a while to be able to drive away.

When we arrived at the hospital we were thinking that we had possibly come too early, but it quickly became evident that we hadn't. I quickly went from 2cm to 5 to 8, an then she arrived. I had been praying about not using an epidural this time, and thanks to God's help I was able to have our sweet baby girl without it. Having had my first three babies with an epidural and this one without I can honestly say the entire experience including my recovery has been completely different. Completely better, how I wish I would have done the same for the others. Baby girl was born so alert, our only concern was that there was meconium in the water but the NICU team that was called in quickly assessed that she was fine. In fact her Apgar score was an 8-9.

We spent two days in the hospital, although I had only wanted to stay one day. It made sense to stay two because our Little Princess was at home sick and my husband thought it would be best for her to stay one more day. Although I missed celebrating New Years Eve with my three other children, welcoming in the New Year while holding our new little baby was just a wonderful way to celebrate the start of something new (in more ways than one).

When we brought baby girl home, her siblings were all very excited to meet her, even baby boy wanted his turn at holding her. We eventually had to hand him one of Little Princess ' dolls so that he let others hold Baby Girl. He still asks to hold her at least once a day.

Overall the adjustment period has been fairly easy for our three children. Baby Boy has done so much better than we expected. At first he was quite frightened each time she cried, but now he just points to her and crinkles his nose, and very sweetly says, "baby" as if to try and soothe her.  The first several nights was a bit challenging since both babies sleep in our bedroom. Baby Girl and I slept in the living room so that Baby Boy slept, but now we are all sleeping in our places.

Baby Girl sleeps a lot during the day, but once 9 or 10 p.m. Rolls around she decides to wake up and keeps waking up until about 2 or 3 am. She doesn't like to be changed, in fact I would say she really really doesn't like it. Every time I change her especially if she has soiled her diaper she cries extra loud. She does love being held especially being held against my chest. I must say I love holding her that way too. In fact I just love holding her, and since she is our last baby I feel the need to hold her as much as possible. I know how quickly this time goes by and I want to hold on to it as much as possible. Thanks to my mom who has helped out tremendously and to my husband who took time off of work, I have been able to hold her as much as possible. In case you are wondering I also put her down so she gets use to being in her bassinet, I obviously can't hold her all day long. :-)

Once again I am amazed at God's Grace and Love for us as I look at our four Beautiful Blessings.

"Behold, Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward."

Psalm 127:3-5