February 2014

February is a little bit of a blur now that I've waited so long to post. The first six weeks with this baby girl were a little rough!

We came home from the hospital with Olive for the last few days of January. Natalie and Kaitlyn were in town for the week so we got to see them a few times but I don't have any pictures. Oh wait, I do. Uncle Mitchell holding Olive, hoping that one of our girls will finally not be scared of him!

This is Olive at one week old - funny faces and sleep smiles:

This is the first Sunday of February after the girls got home from church:

Ellie wasn't very interested in Olive at first (more like the first 2 1/2 months) and had a pretty hard time not having all of my attention. Alta was so excited for the new baby but showed her adjustment issues in other ways. We had lots of power struggles and she had a hard time at school as well. Luckily I have a few wonderful friends who helped me out so much, having the girls over to play and helping with rides to school and gymnastics. Here's Alta sledding with Ruby:

I had forgotten how much time a newborn spends eating! I felt like I was on the couch nursing all the time. I'd try to read to the girls to give them some attention. Kitty felt a little neglected too:

When she was about 2 weeks old we finally decided to give her a middle name. We just barely got it on the birth certificate in time! Olive Wren:

There was a whole lot of baby-cuddling. She only liked to sleep in my arms and despite how exhausting it was, I loved holding her! Whenever I got the chance I would lay down with her so we could both take a nap.

My experience with having a newborn has been very different this time around! There have been plenty of hard things to deal with, but overall I'm much more relaxed and I'm genuinely enjoying every day with her. Everyone always talks about how they grow up too fast and I finally get it. It's exciting to see her getting bigger and doing new things, but I already find myself missing those first few weeks! Crazy, I know.

I love this picture of Olive with Grandpa (and once again, kitty needing some attention):

And Beck looked giant next to her!

Alta after her 100th day of kindergarten. "100 days smarter":

We went down to St. George when Olive was about 3 weeks old to celebrate our 8th anniversary! We couldn't exactly leave Olive with anyone so we made a family trip out of it and had fun relaxing, watching the Olympics, and going on a short hike.

By the way, having a baby right before the Olympics starts is the best! We would watch every night and I would watch during the day while I fed Olive. Here's Olive at 2 weeks old showing off her strong neck so she could watch:

The girls loved watching all the sports. Alta made her and Ellie ice skates out of paper. Alta used hers to twirl and dance, but Ellie said hers were to go fast like the speed skaters.

Here is our 4-man bobsled team:

It was kind of depressing when the Olympics were over! We watched a lot of tv.

A few more random pictures. Olive at about 4 weeks old, being super cute and then falling asleep in funny positions:

And lastly, Olive at one month old:

A few more things I want to remember about Olive's first month:
-at her 2 week appointment she was 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches
-she smiled so early, by 2 weeks she was smiling real smiles (at people, while she was awake).
-around 1 1/2 weeks old she started getting really fussy and crying a lot. It was pretty stressful but only lasted until she was 6 weeks old.
-has loved being swaddled since day one!
-is sensitive to foods I eat (just like Alta and Ellie were), so I can't eat spicy things, acidic things, things with lots of garlic and onions, or too much dairy. Which means no chocolate or ice cream...

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can remember from that month of sleep deprivation!