Well, Chris is in Houston and I get to go join him here in a few weeks. First I have to learn to drive a bus. Yep, that's right. The school district here makes the coaches learn to drive school busses (yellow dogs) so that we can transport our teams to games. And since nothing is near us and our district is large we have to drive hours sometimes for the games. I have been putting this off and now I have to do it. So my mom is out here again to watch Hadley while I go for 3 days of 8 hour behind the wheel training sessions.



Hadley sure is growing! She still has skinny little legs, though. She is just under 8 pounds now. Here is her daily routine: She wakes up and eats. She lays on her mat with little toys hanging in her face for an hour or two and kicks her legs and makes adorable noises. She has even started to smile just a bit!

Sometime she goes in the swing for a bit, but she really just enjoys entertaining herself on her mat. She sometimes falls asleep for a short nap on her mat. We got on an errand some days and she usually sleeps in her carseat.

If we need just a few items we take a walk to Walmart down the street. Sometimes we got feed the ducks at a pond nearby just so we can get out and get a little exercise.
Once back in the house Hadley finishes her nap while I get something to eat. I know she is growing a lot because she has been eating a few times a day about 2 hours apart- sometimes less. And at night it has been 4 hours- which it used to be 5-6. Sometimes I start to feel worn out with all the feedings! But no complaints, I enjoy this girl and everything that comes with her to pieces!

Hadley's newborn outfits- the ones that are 5-7 lbs are starting to get too short and tight for her! I think after this week I will have to pack them away. But if my sister has a girl (she is due in December) then I will send them to her, if she has a small baby.

My friend Denise came out to visit from Washington D.C. She wanted to be sure to see Hadley when she was still new- since the next time we will see one another is at Christmas. She is totally enamored of Hadley. But who wouldn't be once those big baby eyes lock with yours?


While Denise was here my brother, Jeff and his friend, Casey stopped by for an evening. They were driving to North Carolina where Jeffrey will work for the summer and they were so kind to take a route through Lubbock so Jeff could meet Hadley. Hadley really liked both of them, and her little expression when Jeff was holding her was too cute! We all went to a Memorial Day picnic that our church held. It was a really fun day and such a special to treat to have them out here!

Backtrack One Month...

Okay, so I just posted some pictures and commentary yesterday, but I forgot to put up these pictures of us just two days before Hadley was born. We got some pictures taken of the pregnant belly. I know, I kind of have an obsession with pregnant bellies. I think they are amazingly beautiful! I absolutely love having Hadley here, but I also miss my pregnant belly. It was so fun to feel the baby move and grow. I loved seeing my stomach grow and change. I just loved most everything about it!

One Month Old!

My little baby is now one month old! I have always grown up around babies, so there are a lot of things that are not new to me, but here are a few things that I didn't know before...

-Even shortly after a shower I constantly smell like sour milk. Chris has even requested (politely, of course) that I wear body spray.

-Babies only smell nice because of lotions. (Okay, they smell nice from soap right after a bath, too) A scent of bathroom stench often accompanies my little angel.

-This baby will scratch her face no matter what I do. She has learned that if she gets the hand with the mitten up to her mouth and puts it in and jerks it she can get the mitten off.

-Almost nothing feels as nice as snuggling up with your baby and seeing that contented look on her face.

Hadley has changed a lot in her short little life so far. Here are some of the newest changes with her...

-She holds her pacifier while sucking it. Sometimes when falling asleep she jolts and accidently pulls it out and then she gets angry.

-She laces her fingers together under her face when eating. It is the cutest thing!

-She is now just over 7 pounds!

-She now likes bath time! She gets one every night because she gets stinky every day!

-She no longer has to be woken up to eat. She eats all the time!

I am enjoying mother hood and my time off of work. Hadley is usually pretty good. She usually wakes up screaming and angry, but once she eats she is fine. She'll sit on the play mat and entertain herself pretty well, but if she has her pacifier and it falls out she grunts and moans until someone sticks it back in. We can play this game for quite a while and it does get exhausting. So we try to just not give it to her at these times, but sometimes it is the only thing that calms her down. She has this funny worried look (posted here) that makes me think of Chris- it is the "I'm stressed" look. She'll do it for no reason at all numerous times a day.

Here is the worried or stressed face.

So, my family left (for a while) and this baby stuff is all up to Chris and I now. I must admit, it was nice to feed the baby and then hand her off to my mom or sister to burp, change, put to sleep, etc. And it was wonderful to have my mom make us meals and clean up. I'm not trying to make her sound like our maid, we did get out and have fun, too.

Things have been great overall though. Wednesday night Hadley slept for 7 hours! Now, you might think, 'wow, that's not fair. She is so lucky to have a baby at less than 3 weeks old sleeping like that.' Well, not really. And it hasn't happened again- not even close. Wednesday afternoon my mom left. Hadley was super grumpy all day and refused to fall asleep for naps. I tried everything I could think of, but the girl did not want sleep. So finally at night when she fell asleep she actually stayed asleep. Chris asked me during the night if I should wake her to feed her. Ha! No way. I knew she needed as much sleep as she could get because she got next to none during the day.



Other than feeding, changing and burping the baby, and the occassional store trip, there isn't much new here. I tried to join two soccer teams and wanted to play this weekend in some games, but Chris gave me a big fat NO on that. So I regretfully had to call the teams and tell them to take my name off the rosters. I was going to start out slowly, but oh well. I guess after the summer I can try to start up again.




Here my sister Alyssa and I were enjoying the new baby. Alyssa loves babies more than anyone I have ever known. We call her a baby hog, but really, she was great with Hadley. I must say, though, I have never known anyone who can sleep through things like she can!

And here is also a picture of the proud grandma! I know it is not as recent as the others, but we will have to get some more of my mom and the baby when she returns.

Our Hadley is Growing Up!

Hadley has made some little milestones in her week and a half of life outside the womb!

-She has found her thumb a few times and very ecstatically sucks it.

-Her umbilical cord stump fell off today!

-She had her first real bath today and hated it.
-She stays awake a little more now after feedings (even when Mommy wants to go back to sleep).

A Few More Hadley Pictures

This is one of the outfits I made for Hadley! It was going to be for her to come home in from the hospital, but then my mom gave me the outfit I came home in. I ended up bringing her home in that, but it was so big that this one looked a little cuter.
I love the way she curls up to me after eating. And today she kept her eyes open for a little while so we were able to snap a few cute pictures.

Here is what she came home in. It was way too big because I was well over 8 pounds and Hadley was much smaller being 6 lbs 13 oz. at birth. I know, the sleeves are silly because they are so big, too. I like today's pictures better, but either way...isn't she adorable?!