The Pope Kiddos: Abby at 5 days

Our first picture as a family of four.

Abby is doing really well. She's a really easy going baby overall, hopefully this isn't just because she's still in her sleepy phase being only a few days old. She does still sleep a lot. Her wakeful moments are really sweet though. She likes looking at lights and looking out the windows at the trees (and maybe listening to the birds?).

She's a champion nurser. Even the nurses at the hospital were surprised by her skills (laying on her back eating lying next to mommy at less than 24 hours old). Her pediatrician thinks she's doing great and complimented her on her poop at her first office visit Wednesday (and how often do we get compliments on our poop?). She's still below her birth weight at 8 lbs 11 oz (down from 9 lbs 4 oz at birth) but she has until her 2 week visit to make that up. And mommy's milk just really came in the day of her checkup so she should gain that back very quickly now (her pediatrician is not concerned at all). Especially since she loves to eat. She goes through stretches of 3-4 hours of eating every 45 minutes or so. But our few nights at home so far she's slept for about 3 hours in the early morning hours so that has been nice for us all. She's sleeping in a co-sleeper next to mommy's bed. Which is basically like a bassinet that attaches to the side of the bed. This has been very convenient, more so than I even imagined. Having her right next to the bed but not in it lets us keep our space but still have her so close by. Plus she actually sleeps in it well. Lily always preferred to be very close to me, Abby doesn't mind the extra space. She can also sleep without being swaddled, but doesn't mind swaddling either so she's pretty easy going. I've already given her a pacifier and she can keep it in her mouth pretty well. We don't use it often but it helps sometimes to get her to drift back to sleep just after she's eaten. Or give me a few extra minutes if Scott needs to stall before I feed her.

She doesn't do much at this point, but it's exciting just to see her little smiles and smirks in her sleep and listen to her grunts. She's not a big crier and she actually wakes me up to eat by grunting and not crying (if I can make any conclusions about anything after only a couple nights). Lily gets a big kick out of her holding onto her hand. This is especially cute when we're riding in the car and they hold her hands. Lily's also good about telling us what she's doing in the car since she's facing backwards and we can't see her. Abby has really long fingers and toes and she usually keeps them spread out rather than clenched in fists like most newborns. She started out in size 1 diapers and skipped the newborn size altogether (good thing we didn't stock up ahead of time!). She's wearing newborn sized clothes right now but they are already snug and I doubt she'll get through wearing each outfit once (but these were mostly all Lily's so at least Lily wore them too). She took her first trip to the park today. Lily and Bella were in dire need of some time outside so Melody and I took the whole crew. Abby was awake most of our time there sitting in her car seat in the stroller or in my arms just looking around at everything.

It's funny the things that are the same as they were when she was still inside me. Like she still gets hiccups quite a bit and she always has an awake and active period right around 11 PM.

It's a joy to have two children. Even though I still have Scott and my sister here I'm starting to get used to the idea of having two kids and the juggling that will take. I know I can nurse Abby and read a book to Lily simultaneously so that's a step forward. Lily's good about helping where she can. She's not old enough to change diapers or watch Abby even for a few seconds but she's good at handing me things if I'm tied down nursing and just being a good big sister. She almost has an obsession with handing me my water bottle. If she finds it anywhere, even only a few feet away from me, she hands it to me and says, 'herego mommy". And water is very important for a nursing mom, so it's helpful. So far she hasn't been the least bit jealous. She's shown a little resistance to me and not wanted to cuddle with me as much, but I think that's already waning (she wanted me to lay her down for her nap the other day). I know their relationship will change as they both get older but for now it's good. And it's wonderfully fulfilling to have them in my life. Scott's a wonderful father to them. Lily adores him, of course. She loves that he plays rough with her sometimes and loves that he's the one that reads her books every night before bed. He's also the one that finds and fixes things, which is always important. I can't wait to see how his relationship with Abby develops and is different or similar. Our lives are incredibly joyful.