This update is long overdue. Our sweet baby girl is now 15 weeks old and changing every day.
Ben and I (and I am sure Josie, Zack, and my mom) are so happy that October is over. It was a hard, busy, demanding month for both if us at work. Ben was in the ICU and worked many nights this month. I was the chief of the GYN service which has long hours as well. I also had to present at this month's "morbidity and mortality" conference which took a lot of time to prepare for.
Our support group has been amazing. My mom came and stayed a few days at a time on a few occasions this month. Molly adores her grandma! She gets her hair and nails done every time she visits and her smiles are always brighter when grandma is around. The combination of being a mom and watching my mom with my baby has brought a whole new level of appreciation for what a good mom she is and how lucky we are to have her in our lives.
Revae has also come by several times this month to help out. She came at 6am one day so we didn't have to take her to Josie's and stole Molly for a "girls day" with Ben's mom, Tia, and cousin. We are so glad she lives close by.
Josie and Zack, of course, are the only reason we survived such a crazy month. Molly is so lucky to spend so much time with her aunt, uncle, and cousins who love her so much and take care of her like she's one of their own. Josie has been up waiting for Molly at 6-615 everyday most days over the past ten busy weeks and is often putting Molly in pjs as we pick her up at 630 in the evening. She somehow manages to care for all of Molly's needs while still being a great mom to her three little ones. She texts me updates daily and it is always clear how genuinely in love she is with my sweet girl. The other great thing is getting firsthand advice from a woman I consider to be a role model on how to parent. And Molly loves her Aunt so much. Her cousins are so sweet to her too, especially Emerson who always wants to hold her hand, kiss her, bring her toys, and comfort her when she's sad. Zane reads to her and loves to hug and kiss her. Smith is sometimes a little jealous of her and is at a phase where gentle is not in his vocab but you can tell he loves her too. He had a different high pitched voice he'd use when taking to her-like his form of baby talk. I cannot imagine leaving Molly with a stranger for so many hours of the days and feel so blessed that this arrangement has been working so well thus far!
Molly is changing every day. One of my favorite things she does now:
Smiles!!!
She is the smiliest little girl lately and is often so sweet and content. She has even cracked a laugh every know and then. The first time she laughed, Ben was post call and I was home on a chilly fall Sunday morning. I'd made pancakes and eggs and we were having a lovely morning as a family. Ben was holding Molly while laying on the couch and lifting her up in the air above his head and she just burst out a laugh. She'd clearly been wanting to laugh at several times before this, but it finally came out and was so cute. Ben and I were so excited that we always laughed and cheered with glee - apparently we were a bit too excited and scared our poor sweet girl. Her big smile went to a sad lip and then to an all out cry. She went 2 weeks before daring to try to laugh again. :) Lots of smile pics below.
