Aubrie Meets Florence

Gammy really helped us out for the first few weeks of Aubrie's life. When she had to go back to Florence for a little while (I don't know why owning a business means you have to be there sometimes :)!) we decided to make the trip with her. Aubrie needed to take her first trip to Florence anyway.

She got to meet lots of family...

 Uncle Bart

 GG

 Gammy's sisters, Aunt Pat and Aunt Sandra

Uncle Tim

 Cousin Ginger

And friends...

Gary and Stephanie

 Randy

Sandy

She got to spend time at Poppop and Gammy's coffee shop (of course)...

And her first bath by Mom was at Poppop and Gammy's...

It was a good trip. She slept the entire way up in the car and most of the way back! Good thing, because we come here a lot!!

Grant Lately

Grant loves being a big brother. He is so sweet to Aubrie. He loves to kiss her (which is very slobbery by the way...if you know Grant, you know this) and hug her. We have had to work on hugging gently and not throwing things at her for her to catch. But he is never trying to hurt her and genuinely wants to love on her. Every time I put him down for a nap or for the night, he wants me to bring her into his room so that she can lay on his bed while we pray and sing songs. Then he never wants me to pick her back up. He says "No! I want her to sleep with me!"

He is also very into dressing up and acting silly. His newest phrase is "I'm the roughest, toughest cowboy ON THE RANGE!" He gets this really funny scrunched up face when he says the last part extra loud.

He is such a hoot! Going from a family of three to a family of four has definitely been an adjustment for all of us, but we are doing well now. Grant found it frustrating that I couldn't take care of him like I usually do (as did I) and took it out on Daddy and Gammy. We had some discipline issues that needed to be addressed (and we are still working on them), but overall things are much better. Please keep our family in your prayers as we go through this adjustment, and pray especially for Grant as this seems to be the most difficult for him. Thank you!

A Wonderful Week

So I know I am a little behind on my posting. Turns out that life with two kids is pretty busy! :)

The Hospital
Aubrie's first week of life was full of many memories (at least the ones I can remember through my fog of pain medication!). We were in the hospital for two nights and three days. I was really thankful for the extra help I received with nursing during the time we were there. When I had Grant we stayed one night and left the next day. I felt like we went home without nursing really getting established and it kind of went downhill from there. This time when we left I felt like Aubrie was nursing well and things were going to go much better.
This time around our stay in the hospital was full of wonderful bonding time. When I had Grant my family was all here and wanting to hold him all the time. (Family - don't take this wrong, I loved that you were here!) But I felt like I didn't hold him as much as I should have and wanted to. I wanted my family to be able to hold him while they were here, but as a consequence I didn't bond with him myself right away. When Aubrie was born on a Wednesday people were all busy working and couldn't come visit until the weekend. That gave us a great chance to bond. Our three days in the hospital were really special with Paul and me getting to hold Aubrie a ton! So, other than Paul having to sleep on an uncomfortable gurney, it was a wonderful time. :)

 

Going Home!
It is both a little scary and exciting to take a newborn home from the hospital. On one hand I was definitely ready to be in the comfort of my own home and not have nurses waking me up to take my vitals at night right when it seemed I had just fallen asleep. But taking such a tiny little life home is a huge responsibility! And I well remember the difficult first weeks of Grant's life. I was more than a little scared to start that all over again. But we all must leave the hospital and begin our new life...

Stacie Way
When we got home, my family was waiting anxiously to meet Aubrie.  They loved how small and sweet she is. Grant was really excited to finally have his sister home. He wanted to hold her a little, but most of all he wanted to play with his Aunties.

At Last!