Sunday, September 20, 2015

Introducing Anna Joy

So Anna Joy was born over a month ago. She weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 19 inches long. She came on August 13th, three days before her due date, making her the first of my children born before the due date. The doctor encouraged me to induce early because the ultrasound seemed to suggest that her growth had drastically slowed down,and they were worried my placenta might be breaking down. Everything went smoothly with labor and delivery. (The exception being the amount of times they tried to put in my i.v. It was actually fairly comical. I think I ended up with 5 pokes, and quite a bit of bruising.) Here are a couple of pictures from shortly after birth.
Little Sister
Sweet sleeping beauty
We are getting used to what it means to be a family of six. Nora is adjusting better than I expected. She was the one I was the most concerned about, since before Anna was born she said things like, "No new baby at my house." and "I the baby." But after Anna was born Nora took great delight in telling people, "I'm a big sissy!" So, for the most part she is embracing her new role. Sometimes it is still a little hard for Nora to share Mommy so much of the time... which is to be expected. 

Anna has been a pretty good baby. She has her fussy times (often in the evenings) but for the most part is easy to calm. She loves to eat and loves to be held. And the most exciting thing from the past week or so is that she has started to smile at us! Now we'll start to see her little personality more and more. So exciting. 

A couple days ago (at 5 weeks) she weighed in at 10 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. That puts her in the 86th percentile for weight and 68th for height. I can't believe how much she has grown. She is getting big. And those cheeks... those cheeks are huge
!