Ayla at 2 Months

My heart is full of so much joy but a little bit of sadness too, to realize this girly is already 2 months old.  I am so overwhelmed in love with this little one and so thankful God gave her to us! 

Ayla is now over 11 pounds, still in size 1 diapers and wearing 0-3 month size clothes.  We are having a lot of fun learning more about her personality and who she is.  I feel like it took her awhile to adjust and get used to this world, she must have been really nice and cozy in there. She seems like quite the lil character with lots of personality.  She's not afraid to let us know if she's not happy and wants something, definitely the loudest cry of any of our babies. But most of the time she is happy and content and loves to know what is going on around her.  She's full of smiles now and it melts my heart when she catches a glimpse of her siblings and just breaks out in a smile for them! She loves them and I am sure can't wait to be keeping up with all of them.  I am still in awe of how amazing all the other kids have adjusted.  They love having a baby in the house and are so sweet with her, always begging me to share her with them (I'm not the best at sharing baby snuggles, but I'm doing my best).  I assumed the newness of a baby would wear off quickly  but every single one of them adores her and love trying to get her attention! 

  

Obviously the highlight of 2 months is that she is awake more and smiles! Another highlight is that she has finally got her nights and days straightened out!  Whew!  Not only does she go to bed at a decent time but once she is asleep we are getting a nice 8-10 hour stretch of sleep out of her. We have been so spoiled by all of our kids and their sleep schedules from an early age. I'm not sure what we do but we must have some secret sauce to our routine that helps!

We've made great progress with feeding. It has been a bit of a (painful) challenge and I've had a few brief moments where I've wanted to quit but never quit at your weakest moment right?  Fortunately most of that seems to be behind us now!  We have introduced a bottle and that is more of a challenge for her at this point, but we will keep working on that just in case I ever want to leave her for a few hours.  The chest freezer is literally full of milk at this point so hopefully she doesn't hate bottles forever! 

At this point it feels like she has just fit seamlessly into the family.  I think we have adjusted well and the kids have made this transition super easy for all of us.  I am thankful we have such patient and loving kids, she's a lucky girl to have them loving her so well! We are mostly rested and figuring each other out. I just marvel at her and want to snuggle her as much as I possibly can because these days are passing quickly and I know she won't want to be my snuggle bug forever. 

Oh Ayla, All I can do is sit here and be so thankful for your life.  Your presence just brings me so much joy and I delight in the amazing little person you already are.  You are a little character already and your dad and I just laugh and smile all the time at you!  Your name means "halo of light" and your middle name means "shining light" and you are definitely a light in our lives.  It has been so long since we've had a baby to snuggle that I forgot just how magical baby snuggles are! I love snuggling you and talking to you and making you smile, I'm not sure there is anything better than baby snuggles!  We are enjoying every moment with you, truly even the hard moments because we know ALL of this passes far faster than we would like.  We are so thankful for these last 2 months with you and can't wait to learn more about your personality, experience even more smiles and maybe some giggles along the way!