2 months old

This girl is 2 months old! It seems like I've always known her; and I can't believe her birth was ONLY 2 months ago! She's the absolute SWEETEST, and we love her so much!

deciding whether she likes the jumperoo (jury's still out...)

But she does like the bumbo chair. (graffiti by Gavin)

During this month of her life, Sophie got to spend a few weeks with Grandma! (In the next few days she'll get to meet her other 3 grandparents.)

Valentines outfit from one of Jacob's coworkers

We're so grateful that Gavin is still a Sophie fan. He loves her and wants to hold her and hug & kiss her. It's sweet. He also keeps asking when she's going to get big enough to play with him. :)

One month (belated)

 I'm late posting this, but I wanted to share a few photos from Sophie's first month. I plan to track her growth every month by posting photos of her with this letter S (below). Hopefully it will be a fun series of photos when her first year is over.

big yawn

milk dribbles

more about Sophie (arrival, name, etc)

I don't like to get into too much detail when it comes to birth stories--at least not online. So here's a quick overview of the events of Sophie's arrival. I woke up Sunday the 29th of December at 6:45 not completely sure whether my water had broken.

Thankfully my OB is the most amazing doctor and texts with his pregnant patients. I texted him. He called me back. He encouraged a trip to Labor and Delivery to have it checked out. The first test was negative for amniotic fluid; the second was inconclusive. The third didn't exactly come out clear either. But we were there, and it looked probable (though not certain) that my water had broken. So they admitted me and started me on pitocin to force contractions because I wasn't having any on my own. 

she was covered in baby cheese

From the time I started contracting things moved very quickly. Soon they were breaking my water (or what remained after it had maybe broken that morning) and in just over 3 hours it was time to push. (I did get an epidural somewhere in there, but for most of the time I was in labor it only worked on the left side, leaving my right side in lots of pain. Thankfully it finally kicked in.) I only pushed for 8 minutes, after which we got to meet this sweet little angel!

We were sure about her first name a long time ago (before Gavin was conceived even), but we've gone through so many middle names, none of them feeling quite right. 

Sophie  comes from the Greek goddess Sophia, the goddess of wisdom. We went with the French spelling because we just liked it better. We hope she cultivates and values wisdom.

Hannah came to me in the middle of the night just a few hours before I woke up and went to the hospital. Jacob and I discussed it while I was being admitted to the hospital. I even had him read to me from the Old Testament the story of the biblical Hannah. It brought me peace during a time of nervousness. (We did NOT expect to be at the hospital having the baby that day, and I was far from prepared mentally.) It also fits because Gavin's middle name (Asher) comes from the Old Testament. And of course Jacob and I have OT first names. 

Gavin LOVES his sister.
He sometimes calls her "My Sophie."

Unfortunately things weren't altogether smooth. She lost lots of weight and became dehydrated and jaundiced in the first couple of days after we left the hospital. So we had to check our 4-day-old into the NICU. It was rough. I stayed there with her for 2 nights, and it was really hard (sleeping in an uncomfortable chair after having just delivered a baby wasn't even the worst of it).

But she's been doing great ever since we got home. Now to convince her to sleep at night --at least as well as she sleeps during the day...

Baby Girl is here!

Sophie Hannah was born Sunday, December 29 at 1:51pm. We were excited to meet her almost 2 weeks before she was due, and she's as sweet and perfect as can be!
6lbs, 13oz
20 inches long

He's 3!

Gavin: 3 years old, potty trained since July, about to become a big brother, 

Favorite places: the zoo, the library, preschool, the park, and Kroger "where I get my own shopping cart"

Favorite foods: noodles, popcorn, candy,waffles, cheese, berries, apples, hot chocolate (even in the summer), bubbles, peanut butter

Dislikes: bedtime, the sound of the blender, when Daddy leaves, anything he can't do by himself

Activities he loves: whatever Daddy's doing, reading, talking to Baby Sister (inside Mommy), using his "superpowers" to turn the light off, doing puzzles

And now, many more photos of Gavin from the last 6 months than you ever needed (here's a link to the last post of way-too-many Gavin photos--at his half-birthday in May).