Our Family Journey: 2 WEEKS OLD!

Our precious girl is growing by leaps and bounds! She's changing so much every day and I still can't get enough. I love her snuggles and even though it's exhausting, I love that she always wants to be held. She's so strong and holds up her head pretty well for a newborn. I think we're going to have a very active girl on our hands soon. We discovered that she loves to lay on her changing table and look out the window. The indirect sunshine must be soothing.

This week we visited the lactation consultant twice. She was able to give me a nipple shield that fit better than the one I found in the store, and help us work on Kate's latch. She said that because of the long, difficult delivery, that the nerves in her head were compressed and it's causing her to chomp while she's sucking. She also has a recessed chin and the ligament on her upper lip is short and keeping it from flaring out properly. So because of all of those reasons I was in a lot of pain and feeding was frustrating for both of us. The LC also taught us how to do baby led latch and it's far more relaxing for both of us. I'm still pumping and she gets a bottle a few times a day, but we're headed toward full time on the breast.

Katelyn had a photo shoot with my cousin's boyfriend, Tim, this week. He's a professional photographer and asked if we would like some family portraits. It was such a generous offer I certainly couldn't refuse! He had some great ideas and I think the pictures are going to turn out amazing. I can't wait to see them! It took a long time since she was fussy and it was difficult keeping her asleep.

We bought her Halloween costume this week. It's a fuzzy pink teddy bear sleeper. :) I'll post pictures at the end of the month.

Kate got her first peice of mail. Her Medical card came this week. Next week we're expecting her Social Security card and soon we can pick up her birth certificate! I also started working on her baby books. It's a lot of work keeping up on everything. I don't want to miss any of it. I still need to put together a scrapbook from the baby shower.

We received more gifts this week. Mark sent her some adorable purple leather shoes from England and Poppi and Grandma Jackson sent a beautiful Peter Rabbit baby book. Grandma Diane sent a stuffed puppy dog for monthly pictures.

In other exciting news Auntie Laura and Josh got engaged!! We're so happy for them!

Steven and I are doing well. We're starting to get a better routine and I'm able to get a little bit more sleep. I caught a cold which has made things a bit hard since I'm already so ran down. I'm still having a hard time finding an appetite also. I weighed in today a 169 lbs, down 35 lbs from my delivery weight and down 5 lbs from my pre pregnancy weight. My belly is still flabby and I have a lot of loose skin that I'm hoping will eventually go away. I'm still in a lot of pain from the stitches but my bleeding is now light and the cramping is gone.

More pictures I took this week at 8 days old.