Somehow baby girl has already been here for two whole weeks. I wish I could pause time but I'm soaking up every newborn snuggle I possibly can. I'd say the adjustment to five kids has gone about as smooth as possible at this point. I forgot how time consuming newborns could be, so that has probably been the biggest adjustment for me. The kids have so far transitioned smoothly and I am so proud of them, it is more so my own guilt of feeling like I'm not spending enough time with them. This girl has been another amazing sleeper, only waking once a night between 4-5. We're struggling to get her settled in bed before midnight so if there's a place for improvement, that's where we are hoping to make some progress. Peter has been off since she was born but is returning to work next week, I would lie if I said I wasn't a bit nervous about being ready to handle it all on my own. He's been such a great help with taking kids to their activities, cooking, cleaning and just being an extra set of hands, so the idea of taking all that on by myself again, it's gonna be a challenge. Fortunately he's still got close to 3 weeks of paternity leave left to use in the coming weeks as he rotates some work time and family leave time. So this week will be a good trial run.
Post partum recovery has been great so far which is refreshing to me. I was prepared for the worst after a really rough recovery last time. I've heard that uterine cramping is worse with each subsequent pregnancy and after the last time dealing with excruciating pain post partum, I expected even worse this time. But the pain hasn't been bad at all and I've actually felt pretty normal after the first week of recovery. My doctor did remind me to take the proper time to recover which I did not do last time so I have taken things pretty easy so maybe that has helped. But I am really happy with how I've felt this time. Nursing is going pretty good, with a few minor adjustments needed here and there, but we are figuring each other out. And I'm happy to be putting an extra 20-30 ounces of milk in the freezer each day just in case my supply tanks again around the 6 month mark like it has previously. I swore to myself before I had baby that I would not spend even a moment worrying about weight loss because I hit the working out and diet hard last time and I think it caused some recovery and breastfeeding supply issues and still took 5 months to lose all the weight. I wanted to focus on breastfeeding this time and would figure out the weight loss after baby was weaned. Much to my complete surprise, while I still have a stomach pooch, I am somehow back to pre-pregnancy weight! I have no clue why the weight loss was so fast and easy this time, but maybe the GD diet during pregnancy helped things along. As far as the diabetes goes, it seems to be a non issue. If anything I'm so busy taking care of baby that I forget to feed myself and end up with tanking blood sugar. But my doctor will re-run some diabetes testing at my 6 week check up just to make sure that my body is cooperating.
So for some picture updates. Because of cold/flu season peaking so dang early this year, I haven't been willing to take Ayla out. Her one outing was to the doctors office at 3 days old. She had lost just about 10% of her weight and was down to 7lbs 4 ounces. While that was on the upper end of where they like to see weight loss, none of us were concerned. We take her back tomorrow and will see how her weight has done since then but I am pretty confident she's gained just fine since then.
My parents were super kind after a very long 24 hours of no sleep in the hospital to keep the big kids for a couple extra nights so we could rest and adjust a bit. It was so adorable to watch them when they did come home though just marvel at their little sister!
Especially this kid! I wondered how my boys being 8 and 9 would bond with a sibling that much younger than them but it has been the most precious thing ever watching them with her. They adore her and I hope that never changes!
First REAL bath and she loved it!
Newborn milk coma's are the sweetest!
With Ayla only being 5 days old at Thanksgiving, we decided it best to stay home and celebrate as a little family. Peter put on an amazing dinner for his family!
I still have moments of trying to figure out exactly who our girl looks like. I think she looks a lot like my baby pictures and Eli. But there are moments that I look at her and see Sabrina.
She's spending more and more time with her eyes open which everyone enjoys!
We are going very simple for Christmas this year but we did manage to do some decorating as a family. Ayla was there even if her eyes were closed the whole time!
I still just count my blessings a hundred times a day! I am so proud of these kids and how much they love each other as siblings. I hope that never changes. I feel like the luckiest lady alive to have this wonderful family I have! God has been so good to me!
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