Meet Lily Leah

In the end, the name wasn't hard. We probably knew it all along; paying honor to two strong women in my life was the way to go. Lily, my grandma on my Mom's side and Leah, grandma on my Dad's side, were both strong, strong women and are fantastic namesaskes for their great-great grandaughter.  

Baby Lily

Baby Lily came home on Friday and our lives have been turned upside down ... in a good way! She is adjusting to our family with aplomb, sleeping all day and staying up all night. We're looking forward to that pattern switching. She seriously stays up nightly until 2:30 a.m., crying, eating ... crying ... eating ... crying .... eating. One of these nights, I'm going to join her in at least one of those activities.

Sunny outfit for a sunny girl

Baby Lily is quite small, under six pounds so even her newborn clothes don't fit her. She is teensy tiny but is working hard to grow, eating every one to two hours. She grew a whole five ounces in 24 hours after arriving home and is trying t0 break the world record for feedings in a 24 hour period. I spend a lot of time sitting down, feeding her, but the silver lining to that is that I'm reading a bunch of magazines that have languished for months.

Lily gives Jamisen a present

Many mothers told me that Jamisen would do much better if baby Lily gave him some presents so every day that he visited her in the hospital or when she got home. We followed this advice (and it's come in handy several times this week already). She gave him a train set (pictured above) and a 1-button remote controlled car. He was much more excited about the train set. He's all boy - obsessed with anything that has a motor (cars, trains, boats, planes, helicopters).

Jamisen looks a little unsure

Overall, Jamisen is adjusting to baby Lily but hasn't been perfectly princelike in his actions. We've seen some hitting (he has hit, Grandma, Mom, Dad) and some generic acting out since the new baby came home. Overall, he's more curious than anything. He likes to touch her head and point to her facial features and naming them, "Nose, eyes, ears".

Grandma and Grandpa are instantly smitten.

Both sets of Grandparents are beyond over the moon thrilled at the new addition. Grandpa Winston has been overseas for the last week but we can't wait to have him meet his newest grandbaby.

My Mom is staying with us for an undetermined time period as we adjust to two children and I try to make it back to some semblance of work in a few weeks. With a little girl who can't sleep for longer than 90 minutes without food, that might prove more challenging than it sounds. I'm thankful for such a great family support network on both sides.

Baby's first outing

We ventured out the day after we got home from the hospital to the park for a playdate with one of Jamisen's friends. It was probably stupid on my part to think we could do that. I paid for it, pain-level wise, later. In the photo above, you an see Jamisen playing in the captain's lookout. You can't tell but I'm trying to figure out where to go sit down to feed our little teensy weensy hungry hippo of a baby girl. The entire venture was possibly worth it because we ended with a trip to Menchies for frozen yogurt. I was pleasantly surprised by their Popcorn flavored yogurt (I know, it sounds disgusting but it was a nice mixture of salt and sweet).

Reading for three

Our nighttime routine has changed a little because we have one extra reader. Jamisen asks for Lily to be put beside him for reading time and has seamlessly integrated his little sister into his bedtime routine. Overall, the new addition to our family has gone about how we thought it would with the exception of her size and feeding schedule. Chris and I are really, really tired. We're looking forward to fattening her up and continuing to find new ways to work and play together as a family of 4.