Friday, August 29, 2014

1 Month

Somehow a month has passed so quickly as it seems to do and the littles one grow in the blink of an eye. We've thoroughly enjoyed our first month with our sweet little Lillybelle!  She's just perfect!  Here's a few pictures of our first month with her (can't velieve how vehind I am, vut with 4 kids that's to ve expected right?

Week 2:




 Sabrina just adores her sister! I am just so impressed with how well she has handled this adjustment!  She truly acts like another mommy!  They are already forming an awesome sister bond!



This guy sure loves his baby sister too! He's so kind and gentle with her!  If you wonder where Eli is, yes he loves her too but he's more in the camp of hardly even noticing she exists. If you know Eli, then you know that is just the way he is in general ;)







Now our sweet little princess is 1 month old!  She's getting more alert during the day and I just know that first smile is just around the corner and I can't wait!  She's pretty spoiled and get snuggled by someone for most of the day and she sure does love snuggling!  She takes forever to wake up and does not like it when we try to wake her up.  She's a little sleepy head much like her mommy!  

She is now right at 6 pounds. I really thought she was bigger but I guess I'm just getting used to how little she is.  She's under the 5th percentile for height and weight right now. I don't think that is too big of a deal right now as she was small to begin with and hopefully we will see her gain here soon.  She was induced early in the first place due to being small and not really growing in utero so it makes sense that she might take awhile to catch up on the outside too.  

She is still easily in newborn clothes and newborn diapers.  She is eating 3-4 ounces at a time now. She does struggle with eating as is typical for smaller, early babies. I'm hoping she outgrows that soon because right now she makes a huge mess.  She is doing pretty good at night so I really can't complain even if I am tired.  She sleeps a good 4-6 hours at at a time during the night.  We recently moved her into her own room as Peter was waking her up when he went to work in the morning so that has been a good transition.  

She is just beautiful and perfect and we adore her. She's been just the addition our family needed and I want to pinch myself because my family couldn't be anymore perfect!  We are blessed!  



Monday, August 18, 2014

Adjusting

I know I kind of left everyone hanging after my last post. As you can imagine, life with 4 kids is a bit busy!  We are full of adjustments and changes around here.  Life never seems to slow down. We came home rather sleep deprived and dove back into life with the kids and Peter went straight back to work. We had a coming home party and a Gotcha Day Party and loads of laundry to contend with. We had a stolen credit card, medical fees that shouldn't be, appointments we had been putting off until after the adoption along with several visitors who couldn't wait to meet our little miss.  It has all been kind of a blur. Newborn photos, post adoption social worker visits,  potty training, swim lessons, diving back into school. We truly jumped right back into life, but there isn't much choice when we already have a very busy family. I finally feel like we might be breaking back into a routine and hopefully the return of blogging will be soon to follow. 

I know I didn't share too much but we spent July 26th-August 7th in Florida.  Our sweet baby girl was born on July 28th weighing in at 5 lbs 6 ounces!  She has fit in perfectly with our family. I feel like all of our babies have been super easy and she is not any different and is so laid back. We were able to spend 3 days with her birth mother of time I will never forget.  It was a joy filled and heartbreaking time all at once.  We still talk almost daily with her birth mother and I hope we can continue to stay close. 


For now, know our life is more full of joy than ever before. My heart truly feels complete! I look at my beautiful family of 2 boys and 2 girls and I just feel so incredibly thankful and blessed.  God wrote the best story! The other kids have accepted Lillybelle into the family as if she has always been there!  You would never even know they are adjusting to a new sibling in the house.  Sabrina has done amazing with her new sister. I was very worried about her but she surprised me and just adores her baby sister!  She is also quite the little mama herself and loves to help me take care of Lillybelle.  This has been the smoothest transition for Peter and I too. We haven't fought or even really gotten frustrated with each other through this sleep deprivation.  I guess after 4 kids we just kind of know the routine.  Or maybe what they say is true, that 3 kids is the hardest and it is all smooth sailing after that.  We can hope! 

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

8 Years

If you can't tell how on top of things I am right now, we celebrated 8 years of marriage last week!  This year looked totally different  than most anniversaries do.  Leading up to our anniversary we had ideas of a nice dinner and maybe a night at a hotel away from the kids and while our night was indeed spent at a hotel in a nice warm and sunny location away from the kids, it looked a bit different than we expected. 

Our day included a lot of this:



                                                                      Some of this:


                                         
                                                            A romantic dinner of this:




                                                             And a lot more of this:


I asked Peter if he ever imagined in a million years when he walked down the aisle with me 8 years ago that he might be spending his 8th anniversary in a hospital meeting his 4th child and he can safely say that no, he never predicted this one coming!  It was a long, exhausting, STRESSFUL day but there was certainly cause for celebration.  

Year 7 was a great year as Peter got a new and wonderful job and we welcomed our newest little bundle of love right at the tail end but it also had its difficulties.  I wouldn't say it was a "7 year itch" but for whatever reason the 7th year had new challenges as maybe there is something to be said for adjustments in marriages that come in the 7th year.  We still had a wonderful year and I couldn't imagine walking this road with anyone else.  We make one heck of a team!  As we move into year 8, our word for this year is "communication". For whatever reason, the longer we are married it is easier to make assumptions or be too busy to communicate.  So openly communicating with each other is of key importance.  Another priority is how we greet each other in the first couple minutes we are together whether in the morning or when Peter gets home from work.  Sometimes Peter has a frustrating day at work or I am busy and flustered from a day with the kids.  The way in which we greet each other truly does make a difference in how the next few hours go.  I know with just a few small changes this next year of marriage is going to be great!  Here's to another year!  It just keeps getting better!