So many grandparents

This post was written back when Molly was like 4 weeks old and I somehow never published it!  Oops!  :)

Molly is blessed with amazing family. We visited four sets of grandparents in four days over the weekend. Thursday, we packed up the CRV (why do babies have so much stuff?!) and headed to Pueblo, where Ben grew up. Molly did great on the drive! We then had a lovely dinner with the Mendozas - Molly's aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great grandparents. She loved all the new faces and was awake for over five hours! Grandpa Ben has a special touch with her and she loves to cuddle up with him or sleep in his arms. You can tell she's already got him wrapped around her finger! She slept so well that night at grandpa Ben and Dawna's house!

Packed up for the road trip

Molly with Grandpa

Aunt Irene and Grandpa Ben

Great-grandparents

Ben and Dawna

Friday morning, we tore her away from grandpa and spent that day and night with grandma Rita and Nick. Molly loves her grandma Rita! They have had a clear connection from the day she was born. Molly spent hours sleeping in grandmas arms or sprawled out on her chest. We also went for a nice walk at the river walk in pueblo that evening.

Time with Grandma Rita

Tummy time on a quilt made by Rita's friends

I love this picture of Molly with her Grandma

Saturday morning, we sadly had to say goodbye to grandma Rita and Nick, since grandma Jodi and Dave were waiting eagerly in Colorado springs. Molly adores grandma Jodi. We are so lucky to spend quite a bit of time with her. She stayed with us for a few days after she was born and visits frequently to help out. She has all sorts of tricks up her sleeve: she's the best of anyone at getting Molly to take a pacifier, loves giving her bottles, changes diapers and even cuts her nails. This is a funny story: I was confused and convinced that Molly's fingernails just don't grow yet (I was almost worried). I was explaining this to friends and my mom overheard. "honey, I've been at your house at least once a week. That's about how often her nails need filed."

Grandpa Dave

Grandma Jodi

We also met new friends on Saturday. Phil and Heather, my long time mentors and friends came over to meet her. Teresa, a friend I met on the first day of kindergarten also came with her adorable 2 year old and 6-month old twins. Her last visitors for the day were my aunt and uncle, Judi and Bin, who came to c spgs to watch the preseason bronco game with us and see Molly.

Teresa holding Molly

Molly with Teresa's twins

Checking out Phil

Curling up with Heather

Heather giving Molly a bottle

Love this picture

Sunday, we went to church and met even more new people. Great friends from over ten years including the Lind and the Pace family. Sunday evening we visited grandpa Jack and Kris. We basically put her in the middle of the room and just stared at her for hours. I love how intently she was looking at their faces. It was a great night until Molly realized she was over tired and needed a car ride to consul her. So we packed up and headed home. Overall, such a good weekend away.

Molly with Mary Pace

The Lind kiddos checking out the baby

Meg Pace holding Molly - Meg was like 5 when I met her - can't believe how old she is

Love this picture with Grandpa Jack

Grandma Kris

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few more of my favorite Grandparent pictures

3 week update

Molly girl is already over three weeks old. We couldn't possibly love her more. Like most newborns I'm sure, her life consists of sleeping, eating, and going through diapers like mad. We throw in occasional awake time on our tummy or running errands with mom and dad. Here are some updates on all of these topics:

SLEEP
She is such a good sleeper, but not always when we want her to be. I've spent hours and hours during the day trying desperately to get her to wake up and eat. We've also spend many hours at night rocking and shushing and singing and more rocking trying to get her to sleep. We are finally maybe starting to make headway in the night vs day difference. In the meantime, two parents who thought they were pros at sleep deprivation after all that residency has put us through are exhausted!!

Day 1 of life at the hospital

Day 1 of life

Snuggling with Dad at the hospital

Sleeping in her carseat on our first family outing: we went to Rubios and Target

 

More sleeping

Snoozing on her quilt that her Aunt Emma made - she loves hanging out on this quilt

Snoozing in her car seat with her pink bow from her cousin, Emerson.  Emmy will be sure to keep this little one girlie!

Another snoozing pic with her pink bow - this was taken on mommy's 30th bday

Sleeping on the drive home from visiting her cousins - poor little neck!

Sleepy girl

FEEDING

This has been the most difficult part of being a new mom for me thus far. We initially had delay in my milk coming in, and she lost more weight than they wanted in the first few days of life. We therefore supplemented small amounts of formula in a syringe both during and after feedings. She seriously was so so cute taking formula from a syringe! We will post video. In the meantime, i was feeding and pumping like crazy to try to establish a milk supply. By day five of her life, we were able to stop formula as she was starting to gain weight. In the subsequent week, I learned the joys of engorgement and got a bad case of mastitis. Once again, there was a concern about weight gain when she was still way under her birthweight at her two week check up. Ben and I, who were already exhausted, added pumping and supplementing stored breast milk to each feed. She now has finally been gaining weight (8oz in the last 5 days!), and we are so glad she's had exclusively breast milk since day 4 or 5 of life. I mentioned previously how hard it can be to wake her up to eat. She does this sweet stretching routine to wake up and also usually is pretty passed out for burping. Videos below.

I got so excited the first time I actually got milk when pumping after hours and hours of pumping with no results....One whole cc!  I totally fed this little bit to Molly because I was so happy.

Milk face

Big stretch after a meal

Snoozing through a burping

DIAPERS
We go through these like mad. I counted yesterday and we went through 14 diapers in 24 hrs. This girl knows how to poop. Don't worry...no pics of poopy diapers.

Changing out the diaper genie  - lot of diapers!

TUMMY TIME
She loves this! We first tried tummy time when she was 5 days old and out friends, Brian and Stephanie, we're visiting. Already, she was able to push up with her legs so she was basically on her side and she lifted her head once. Since then she has become a tummy pro and can turn her head from side to side. My favorite "tummy time" is just having her lie flat on my chest and nap. It feels like heaven!

Tummy time :)

Tummy time on mommy's chest

More tummy time on Mom

Overall, we couldn't be any happier and feel so blessed for this sweet little angel!

A wink and a smile