Willow's First Week

It's amazing how slow the first three weeks of August seemed to go by, and how fast the last nine days have flown. I've been desperately trying to savor each moment with Willow, especially the first couple days when it was just her and I. I wish I could soak up her sweet newness and remember it all, but life with three is busy and no matter how hard you try to hold on to today, it just slips away!

2 days old

2 days old

4 days old

Cousins ~ Journey 2 1/2 years, Lilly 2 1/2 mo. & Willow 6 days old

7 days old ~ reminds me of a picture of Aspen I have at this age

8 days old

9 days old

I am so thankful for my mom and dad. They took Aspen and Journey to the beach with them after I had Willow so that I could have some time to recover and spend time with just her.

Mark went to the beach early Tuesday morning to do some fishing and spend some time with the kids, and I joined them on Wednesday evening (Willow was 4 days old). At that point, I felt recovered enough from the birth to go to the beach and was really missing Aspen and Journey. Even before I was able to get out of my car, I could hear Aspen and Journey running through the house screaming my name. They had missed me as much or more than I had missed them! They couldn't stop hugging me and loving on me, and I couldn't help but cry (and cry now as I remember it!)

It was a great way to ease into having three kids since I had the help of my mom and Diana. Both the kids have done great with Willow and I haven't seen any resentment or jealousy at all. Journey loves to hold her, kiss her and is very protective of "her baby" with other kids around.

We stayed at the beach until Saturday. Mark was very happy to get in three days of fishing that week since he had been banned from fishing until Willow's birth :)

Willow is a great baby. She is very mellow and even at 11 days old, sleeps pretty much all the time. Unless she is hungry, she doesn't cry. I didn't think I could get this lucky twice in a row! Night times have been a little rough because she doesn't always want to stay asleep, but I'm not complaining. The reason I choose to go through all the pain of a natural child birth is to up my odds of having a happy, peaceful baby (baby doesn't get the drugs in her system). I'm going to start working on getting her on more of a schedule (school starts next week, but that's a different post...) and hopefully that will make the nights easier.

Willow's our little doll baby, and the whole family is in love with her :)