The Freeman Family: 3 weeks

Lily was three weeks old on Thursday, and it's hard to believe we've been a family of four for that long. It feels like we haven't slowed down since we've been home and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon.

While I was pregnant with Lily, I worried that I wouldn't be able to love her as much as I love Ainsley. There is absolutely no question about it that a mother can spread her love between multiple children and love them all the same. It's amazing how fast you fall in love with your baby. Joel and I both are head over heels in love with our new addition, as well as our sweet Ainsleybug! It's hard to imagine life without Lily now.

It seems so much easier with Lily than it did with Ainsley as a newborn. I assume it's because she's the second child. I'm not breastfeeding Lily, so that helps too. I think we're getting more sleep than we ever did with Ainsley, and Lily doesn't have any trouble eating. In fact, it seems like that's all she wants to do is eat! She's currently eating 3-4 ounces at a time, and there are times where she only goes an hour or two between feedings. I don't know where she puts it all! I think I'm going to try adding rice cereal to her bottles at night to see if it helps tide her over.

Popeye!

She has to have her hands at/on the bottle or by her mouth

Lily sleeps most of the day and loves to lay on your chest in a little ball. She takes the best naps on my chest. We have her sleeping in the bassinet at night, and she does okay in it. Our nights have actually started to get worse this week. She hasn't been sleeping good the last few nights. We blame it on her gas/constipation. She's has trouble since week one with pooping. I've given her a little juice twice now to help her poop over the last few weeks. We can tell she's hurting because she'll straighten out her legs and cry in pain. If it wasn't for her gas/constipation issues I think we'd have it pretty dang easy!

She likes her legs out of her gowns!

Sad face

Both girls asleep at the same time! Lucky Mommy!!!!

Both girls got their Daddy with poop during the first few weeks of life. Ainsley got Joel one afternoon and squirt poop all over Joel's leg. Lily's was during the night. Joel had got up one night with Lily and she pooped. He took her into her room to change her diaper and once he got her diaper off, she continued to poop. He said it was everywhere. I knew something had happened later that morning when I got up with Lily and noticed she had a different outfit on. I took her in to change her diaper and saw little black specks on the wall behind her changing table. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the black specks were actually dark green specks and they were also on her changing pad, dresser, wipe warmer, and even up on the frames above her changing table! It was poop specks, and it was everywhere! I was too tired (it was 4 AM) to clean it up, so I waited until we all got up for the day. I asked Joel what happened the night before and he just chuckled and asked why. I told him to go in and look at Lily's wall, pictures, changing table, etc. He walked into her room and started laughing. He said she sprayed everywhere and he thought he had it all cleaned up. He didn't see it on the walls, etc! I'm just glad both girls decided to do it to their Daddy and not me!!!

Joel and I both had a hard time at the very beginning calling Lily by her name. We'd call her Ainsley almost every time. It's gotten better, but I've still caught myself calling her Ainsley. Lily is a different baby than Ainsley was. She seems much more alert and stronger than Ainley was. She can hold her head up for quite a while and can move her head to where she wants it. It seemed like Ainsley's head was always stuck however you laid her down and wouldn't turn her head.

Lily hates having her diaper changed or being naked. She cries every time. Bath time is a guaranteed 10-15 minutes of non stop crying. I'm so glad Rita came over right as I was getting ready to give Lily her first bath our first week home. I wasn't even thinking about her umbilical cord that hadn't fallen off yet. I filled up her bathtub and was going to stick her in it! Rita reminded me that I needed to do a sponge bath until her cord fell off. Oops!!!

First bath at home

The first week home was rough. Ainsley didn't really know what to think of her little sister. She wanted to hold her, but would squeeze the living daylights out of her every time we let her try to hold her. Lily didn't seem to care too much.

Ainsley has to try out everything of Lily's first....

If Lily woke up in night to eat, Ainsley would have to get up too. It was really bad the first week, but has gotten better. However, two or three nights a week Ainsley still gets up at least once when Lily does and it's hard to get her to go back to sleep. Ainsley's only tried to pick Lily up once or twice, and that was mainly the first week. If Lily cries, Ainsley gets worried and has to run over to see what's wrong with "baby".

Ainsley calls Lily "baby". We try to get her to say Lily, but she can't say it very good. She will say "sissy", but only when we ask.

Ainsley's still very jealous of Lily and gets pretty upset when she thinks it's her turn to be rocked, etc. If I'm rocking Lily, Ainsley will stand beside the rocking chair crying while saying "my turn, my turn". She's finally realized that she has to stand beside the rocking chair if I have Lily to play with my hair while drinking from her sippy cup.