absolutely new

"The moment a child is born,
the mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new."

I found this just a few minutes ago and it's funny because I've been thinking a lot about this lately and it's EXACTLY how I feel. I'm a completely new person since my precious daughter has walked into my life. I had always heard the cliche about not knowing until you become a mother. And it is SO true! Even when I was pregnant, I knew I loved my child, BUT now... when I think about not being able to see her, hold her, love her....I can't breathe.

Everything is different! Life has an all new meaning and purpose! Being a mother is honestly the most hard work I have ever done! But it is also the most rewarded I've ever felt in my life! I am so blessed that God has allowed me to be a mommy! And I thank Him everyday for my sweet baby girl!

I'm struggling with the fact that I have to go back to work in a week and a half. I know how blessed I am that my job only requires me to be away from her for 3 days...but I'm selfish and I don't want to be away from her at ALL! So, please if you will, PRAY for me about this...I will not be able to do it without God's help.

More reading time with Daddy!

Here are some more pictures I took of Presley and Daddy reading together last night. She LOVED this book!! (As evidenced by the last picture!)

Reading time with Daddy

Here is Jeremiah reading to Presley. I think she is 5 weeks or so in this picture. She looks so tiny here! She loves to be read books though. Which thrills me...because I love to read too, even kids books!

Presley at Two months!

Here is our sweet girl getting bigger! (She was REALLY sleepy in this picture! ha ha!) She weighed 9 lbs 3 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long at her 2 month checkup! Dr. P just told us to keep doing what we were doing as far as feedings go. She is still nursing and we are supplementing with the soy formula. But she is eating (mostly!) every 3 hours and then goes about 6 hours at night! GO PRESLEY! I love seeing her grow! It makes me feel like I am doing my job!

She also had to get shots at this checkup. It nearly killed me! Seriously! I have to give shots sometimes at work and it never phases me. BUT it is certainly different with your own child! I cried on the way to the Dr's office, just thinking about it. And I wanted to slap the nurse that did it to Presley, but I refrained myself. Jeremiah could never be the one to take her to a shot appointment, cause I'd be bailing him out of jail later on that day!

Her next appointment is her 4 month checkup, where again, she'll get shots. :(

Feeding issues

Presley has had so many issues with eating and gaining weight. She is just not an aggressive eater...meaning she would sleep ALL day long and not wake up to eat and be just fine. I was really worried at the beginning about this, because I have never known an infant that did not like to wake up and eat. But thinking back to my last trimester, she slept a lot in my belly. I would have to poke at her sometimes to make sure she was still alive in there. No kidding! I guess babies really do show their personalities in the womb!

Anyway she lost quite a bit of weight at the beginning of her little life, but gained her birth weight back by her 2 week checkup. Dr. P, her pediatrician, was ok with this and just wanted to see Presley at her normal 2 month checkup. But mother's intuition told me she was still too little when she was 4 weeks. So we went and saw our lactation consultant (the lady who had been helping me with breastfeeding). She had only gained ONE ounce in a WEEK. Bad, bad, bad! Breastfed babies are supposed to gain 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce per DAY. Needless to say that earned us a trip to see Dr. P.

Dr. P wanted me to start supplementing with some formula to see if Presley could gain weight. By her eating the formula we could rule out whether or not the issue was with her not getting enough "hindmilk" (which is the fatty part of breastmilk, with all the calories, that comes at the end of the feeding) versus it being a medical issue of why she couldn't gain weight. Thank the Lord above that there was/is nothing medically wrong with Presley! She just isn't a vigorous enough eater to get enough hindmilk at each feeding.

So now we are still supplementing with soy formula about every other feed. She lets us know when she is not done eating and needs a bottle by screaming her head off after nursing! She also doesn't nurse well in the middle of the night. She is so sleepy (wonder where she gets that from?!) that she won't wake up to eat. So...we decided to just give her a bottle those times too. That has helped a lot. I still have to wake up to pump out the breastmilk that she doesn't eat, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make! :) Overall, this is working because she was 7 lbs 12 oz at 6 weeks and 8 lbs 9 oz at 7 weeks. I'm anxious to see how much she'll weigh on Monday at her 2 month checkup!

4th post as a Mommy

I know I'm a slacker...but in all fairness I have an 8 week old that just loves me sooo much that she can't stand to be without me for one second! So I have to oblige and surrender to her will! Ha ha! =) I can't believe that Presley is this old already. Most days I feel like I should still be pregnant. I really enjoyed being pregnant and honestly do miss it sometimes. I miss Presley kicking me at 2 am and waking me up hiccuping out of control!! But those days are over now...at least for a while! Hopefully our next little one won't make his or her debut for 2 or so years!

I think Jeremiah and I are adjusting quite nicely to life with the three of us. Some days it's harder than others, but we take it moment by moment those days. By the grace of God we have made it through some rough times and we are enduring those times still today, but having a beautiful, healthy baby girl more than makes up for the rough patches! We are so blessed and we know it and thank God every day!

Presley at One Month!

Here is our sweet girl at one month old! I'm going to do this every month so we can see how she's growing! She still looks like she did as a newborn, but her face has changed drastically. In fact, I think she changes almost everyday. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz, up from her 6 lbs 8 oz birth weight. When we had a 2 week check up with Dr. P, her pediatrician, everything was fine. Her next "well-baby checkup" will be at 2 months, when she'll also have to get shots =( Poor baby, I'll probably cry at that checkup too!

updates, updates

So again I apologize for being a bad blogger! It's so hard to do anything else but take care of Presley right now. But I think I did a good job chronicling my pregnancy with her and I want to write about every day happenings so I can remember these precious things about her growing up. That being said, today was my 6 week postpartum checkup and my body is healing so well. My whole experience of having a child has been so blessed.

Presley is already growing up so fast...I can't believe she will be 7 weeks old on Thursday! She is smiling now. She started that about a week ago. I think she is going to be ticklish, because the easiest way to get her to smile is to brush around her mouth and nose with your finger, and she just lights up. This absolutely just melts my heart! I really need to get a picture of it!

I think she will start cooing any day now. When you talk to her, she has this serious look on her face and her mouth is tensed up like she is trying to get something out. It's so adorable to see! Hopefully when she starts "talking" I can get it on video. Most of the time when kids do something remarkable...you can't ever get them to do it again so you can capture it on film or video!!