Time Flies

I try not to wish away the time. She's growing before my eyes. I can't wait until she laughs and hugs me back and smiles for real reasons and actually enjoys when I kiss her ten thousand times a day. The faster time goes, the faster my little baby grows. I find that I'm a little sad that some of her newborn clothes are getting a little small. And not just because they're really cute and she won't be able to wear the anymore. I love that when she cries, she doesn't have tears yet and that she hasn't blown out of a diaper and that she still loves anybody who holds and cuddles her.

The faster time goes, the sooner Jericho comes home. One month has already gone by. And in a few days, we get to hug Jericho. And then it's back to counting down again.

At least my camera works

I'm still trying to figure out how all you moms of multiple children are so good about blogging. It's not so much that I don't have time anymore to blog, but that my creative efforts seem to have been sucked out of me the moment my baby was born. The only topics I can come up with have to do with my baby. Where are all my opinions and anecdotes and quips?

Until I can find them, how about I just inundate you with pictures of my baby? Maybe this'll help justify my lack of blogging blogness. [I swear she does more than sleep. It's just the best time to get pictures.]

Tender Mercies

I am overflowing with thanks for all that has gone fantastically well since Sydney came to our family. I don't know how to give adequate thanks to my family and friends and most of all, my Heavenly Father. But I'm gonna try. The following is just a bit of why I'm so thankful:

Jericho's deployment being delayed a few days.

Phone call from Jericho's army people telling him that his flight would be on Monday instead of Saturday.

My doctor inducing me a week early.

The Cervadil on Thursday night putting me in labor instead of just prepping me for induction the next day making my labor get started earlier than expected.

Jason, my labor and delivery nurse. He laughed at my jokes during all my awkward hospital moments.

McDonald's mixed berry smoothie, my first post-delivery food.

Jericho and I not being too big to lay in my hospital bed together and talk and hold hands and look at our new little baby.

Swallowing my superhero pride and getting an epidural.

Getting a little pride back when I realized my epidural was nearly gone when it came down to the wire and the really rough stuff.

Only having to push for 25 minutes [even though it felt like hours].

Completely forgetting all of my crazed mom worries [i.e. birth defects or she was actually a boy].

Jericho holding my hand for the hours when I had no pain meds.

Seeing Jericho cry when Sydney was born and holding her for the first time.

My baby being a noisy sleeper. I rarely worry that she's stopped breathing because she tends to snore. Whoever heard of a 3 week old snoring?

Recognizing right away that my hormones were out of whack to the point where outside attention was absolutely necessary.

Zoloft [I love you]. And its side effect of insomnia so my fatigue during the day is almost nonexistent.

My pediatrician reassuring me that formula feeding was perfectly fine.

My pediatrician reassuring me that my baby would be fine if I gave her a pacifier before 4 weeks of age.

Physically recovering faster than I expected.

Dropping baby weight faster than I expected.

My mother taking night feeding duty for the first week.

Sydney looks more like Jericho. It makes it easy to always think of him every time I look at her beautiful face.

My loving family driving an hour to my house to hang out with me.

My mom, my mom, my mom, my mom

Parents living close and happily opening their house to Sydney and me.

Sydney being a low maintenance baby.

Realizing I do, in fact, have hidden superpowers. 

Friends anxious to visit me. Friends texting, emailing, calling me with words of encouragement and support and keeping me company.

...and [they] did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them. 

Ether 6:12

Progress

Someday I'm going to post about my delivery.
Someday I'm going to catch up everything that's been going on.

For now, I'm still lacking the mental capacity to do much of anything other than laying around and looking at my beautiful little baby. Okay so I'm watching TV too and reading some and trying to record all the baby details in my journal.

I'm also talking to Jericho. All the time. Luckily the army isn't working them very hard and I get to talk to him a lot. And text. And Skype. And email. Now is an interesting time for me because I get to brag about my new baby as well as my awesome husband. And how awesome is this picture? Those are boxes of ammo. I questioned him about the sunglasses since I've never seen them before and they aren't really his style. He says, "Oh they're ballistic sunglasses. They're supposed to protect from gunfire," all nonchalant like I'd just asked him if they had UV filter. What a cool, tough guy. And he's mine.

And in case you didn't catch the link from Facebook, here is the link to the pictures my friend Crickett took of baby Sydney last week. Crickett has taken all of my professional pictures for the past few years. If you need anything done, you would be crazy not to use her.