Snuggles. Baths. Tears. Love.

Our lives have forever changed. The past two weeks have been filled with lots of love. Smiles. Tears of joy and tears of complete exhaustion. I wouldn't trade a minute.

Eloise is doing great. She is eating well and sleeping well. I'm so glad that nursing has been going well for us. It was probably one of the biggest things I was nervous about. I will say that it is probably one of the most rewarding and amazing things I've ever experienced, but I had no idea how time consuming it would be! I seriously have a permanent imprint on our rocking chair. It's bittersweet to see her growing and changing already. Check out these cheeks...

The other night I had my first scare. I had woken up a few hours after putting Eloise down and realized I hadn't heard her yet. I went to her room to check on her and she was still sound asleep. Well I fell back to sleep and woke up another 3 hours later and realized I still hadn't heard her. I thought the monitor must be broken. I ran to the nursery expecting her to be screaming in hunger, but there she laid, sound asleep. The past few nights she's slept for a 5-6 hour stretch. It's been great!

Sleep is definitely hard to come by these days, (I know, many of you warned me of this...). A couple times I've woken up in my bed and I think had some kind of hallucination where I think Eloise is at my breast and I've somehow brought her to bed with me. I feel around the bed for her to make sure she is okay, when I finally realize after a moment of panic that she is safely sleeping in her crib.

Bath time is always fun. I don't think she's sure what to think about it. She doesn't cry or anything, just has a concerned look on her face. She does LOVE being blow-dried after her bath. I love picking her up after her jammies are on and just taking a big wiff of her!

We have been SO BLESSED the past weeks with friends from our church providing meals for us. It's crazy how something as simple as eating, let alone cooking, go by the wayside when you bring a baby home. We've had so many delicious meals and desserts, it's stalling me losing some of this pregnancy weight. Justin and I so appreciate all of you wonderful people!

Things are starting to get into a routine. Justin went back to work this week. He stayed home with Eloise and I for the first couple weeks and was a tremendous blessing. I know it was hard for him to go back, leaving the two of us here. He is one heck of a husband and daddy to be bringing home the bacon for his family. We are blessed to be able to have me take 12 weeks off of work and I'll also only be going back to work part-time after that. Over the years and through struggles that we've had, God has taught me how important family is and I've realized how quickly time goes by. We are blessed to be able to stay home with our daughter and not have to take her (or pay for) daycare. I don't take an ounce of that for granted.

As I sit here and write this post, I hear Eloise on the monitor starting to squirm. When she's been sleeping for almost 3 hours, I get excited when she starts waking up to know that I get to pick her up and snuggle her. I love being a mommy...