On August 8, 2017 we welcomed baby girl, Emily Grace to our little family!  We couldn’t be more excited and happier for her to be here! After a month things are starting to settle down and be in a bit of a routine (a crazy unsustainable sleepless routine–but that’s newborn life for you!).

At 8 lbs 5 ounces, she was born with a full head of dark hair.  We have spent this last month just recovering and resting (trying to) and getting to know Miss Emily Grace.   She was born on a Tuesday, and by Thursday afternoon we checked out of the hospital and headed home.  Although by Friday her bilirubin levels had gone up, so we spent the night with a bili-blanket.  The next morning we went to check her levels and they had still gone up, so Miss Emily had to check back into the hospital to spend another day under the more intense bilirubin lights.  They originally told us it would be 2-4 days, but her levels ended up dropping so quickly that we only had to stay one (VERY LONG) day in ‘Special Nurseries’ which is an in between level for babies who need more care than the children’s wing, but less than NICU.  We had AMAZING nurses there who were sweet and kind and patient.  They have very hard jobs and we were so grateful for their hard work. We also feel extremely lucky to have only had a short stay there, as many of the other tiny kiddos have to spend significantly longer periods there, and since Wesley Hospital services most of western Kansas, there were a lot of families that were far from home, so we spent most of the day feeling fortunate for our circumstances, even as we were worried about Emily.

But since she came home, she has started to look MUCH less orange and we have full belief that she will end up with unbelievably pale skin, just like both Reese & I and of course, big sister Taylor.

She sleeps a lot, loves to eat and hates getting a bath (although she always sleeps a long time after a bath, so mom and dad are big fans!).  She likes being swaddled in a sleep sack, but hates pacifiers (much to big sister’s disappointment, as she cannot fathom why someone wouldn’t want a ‘wubba’).

The one week that I went in to weigh her after being out of the hospital, she had gained 1lb and was eating on par with a 3-6 month old, so she is starting to get adorable fat rolls and a couple of chins, making her a cute little round baby, perfect for snuggling.

She has given us a few brief periods of 4-5 hours of sleep, but most of the time she sleeps in 3 hour chunks.  She also loves being held during the day, so I’m sure daycare will appreciate that in a month, but for now I’m enjoying the time at home with just her and me! But nights and mornings are filled with Big Sister and Dada time.  And both are completely smitten with Emily.  Taylor is obsessed- and has no sense of personal space! Emily is the first thing she asks about in the morning, and if Emily is not around she is always worried about where she is.  She says Emily’s name in a high pitched voice that usually comes out sounding like “Em-e-weeeee”.  And if Emily is spotted with her eyes open Taylor shouts “a-wake! a-wake!” Its so fun to see Taylor loving on her little sister, even if it comes with a lot of prompting to BE GENTLE.

Taylor loves wearing matching outfits with little sister–which by the way is hard to do with a toddler and an infant- finding them is hard, and then someone is always spilling something!

But when you come around the corner and you see this… it is all worth it.  And I’m pretty sure that’s the only time in my life I’ll be able to grab my camera and snap that perfect of a picture at the right time.  Timing. is. Everything.

ps. if you want to read about what month one was like for Taylor: that post is here.

Taylor is a year! Actually she is now 15 months old… but I am THAT FAR BEHIND.  But I am getting back into the blogging routine, and I wanted to finish out Taylor’s monthly-ish posts for her first year.

I took pictures for this post on July 4th in the afternoon and had every intention of writing this post the next day, but my grandmother (who I was extremely close to) passed away that evening, so that week was filled with her memory, family activities, and funeral preparation (I hope to post more about her next week).  But on with the one year update!

For Taylor’s first birthday (July 2) we celebrated at my family’s lakehouse where I spent the vast majority of my childhood summer vacations and it was so fun to be able to share that with Taylor. My grandmother, Nannan, was there, along with my parents, my older brother and my niece and Reese.  We made Taylor a chocolate sheet cake and even though she hadn’t had much sugar before and is an insanely picky eater, she LOVED her chocolate cake… I guess that apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

By her first birthday she had 8 teeth, was cruising around pretty good around furniture and crawling all over the place.  She says a few hard to discern words, but we are pretty sure they are hi, dog dog and dada.  Here is the sign I made for her birthday:

I love this little girl and her goofy smiles.  She is such a ham, she loves playing to an audience,  and smiles a lot!

She is a super picky eater, but still loves sweet potatoes, bananas, avocados, yogurt and PUFFS.  She has learned to blow kisses, which looks more like covering her mouth with a wide open hand, but she is so cute doing it and it makes her laugh!