Claire's 1st Week

Claire is already 1 week old! Devin's mom left early this morning, making today my 1st official day alone with my 2 little girls. It was a success. I was blessed! I got a total of 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night, when you add up all of the little naps I got in between Claire needing to be fed as well as held or rocked back to sleep. And surprisingly when my day officially started at 7:30am, I felt energized. Like I said...truly a blessing! Emily was such a good girl today, and showed me that she is continually getting better at accepting her new life, of sharing my attention with her little sister, as each day passes. 

 I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for the sweet little family that I have been given. A wonderful and devoted husband (and father), as well as 2 beautiful and healthy little girls. What did I do to deserve the 3 people that I get to spend every day with? I really am so lucky and so watched over by Heavenly Father. 

 So, the past week will be described through pictures...there's a lot of them. Marianne was here at the perfect time. Emily needed someone to take care of her the 2 1/2 days we were in the hospital with Claire, and who better than Marianne?! I was so at ease, and didn't have a worry in the world, when it came to the care Emily was getting at home while we were in the hospital. Marianne took Emily on walks and to the play ground every single day. She made every thing about Emily's day special, by singing songs, reading books, making a game of the routine tasks (changing her diaper, bath time, meal time, nap and bed time.) Marianne was made to be a grandma...she is so good at it! Emily had a hard time the first 4 days of Claire's life. Constant tantrums and melt downs from sun up to sun down. I am so thankful that we had Marianne here to help us show Emily the adequate attention she obviously needed. 

 I loved our hospital bed snuggles!

Here we are about to leave the hospital room. I had Claire at the same hospital I had Emily. I really loved my experience both times. It was an escape from reality, where Devin and I could hide out in our little room, loving on our newborn and soaking in the service of nurses waiting on me day and night.
We tried to have a little photo shoot...that turned out to be a huge disappointment because I didn't take the time to really find a place with good lighting...and because my hormones were causing me to sweat like crazy (let's be honest, I sweat like crazy with or without the hormones...but they definitely added to it!) We will try again another day. And these are from last night...our last night with Marianne/grandma.

Wearing grandma's shoes, bracelet and earrings. She loved walking around in her shoes! A family from church dropped off this awesome play kitchen for Emily (Thank you Bev Smith!) and it couldn't have come at a better time. This kitchen set will single handedly get Emily through this transition period of having a new sister in the house. She played with it for 2 1/2 hours straight last night, and all morning this morning. It is so fun to see her imagination at work! This was the set up for the past 2 weeks. Marianne and Emily were roommates. Obviously she was not ready to go to bed... And here's one more of Claire

Next on my list is to write down Claire's birth story.