Shopping and Cracker Barrel

After reading some books with Grandma, today was a day of firsts. Lydia had her first shopping trip in her strollers and her first meal at a sit-down restaurant with Grandma and Mom. She did great and spent most of her experience like this:

Two Months

Two months old today! We had two-month check-up with the pediatrician today and all was well with the little miss. She is in the 25% percentile for length (21 1/2 inches), weight (9 lbs. 10.5 oz) and head (15 inches - kind of a strange measurement, but apparently a standard one!) We also had to get our first round of shots since being in the hospital which went surprisingly well (the oral vaccination seemed to bother her the most actually) and we were blessed with a good long nap and a great night's sleep afterwards.

This month we made it into Size 1 diapers and into some of our 0-3 Month clothes which was quite the milestone (especially for Mom, aka The Laundry Lady!) Lydia is also learning to smile which has been really fun to watch and enjoy!

In the middle of her photo shoot she sneezed (which happens quite frequently!)

But mostly she is a very happy baby!

JungleTime

Surprising to everyone, one of Lydia's favorite things to do is to lay in her jungle. There are a lot of things to look at and feel. Sometimes we wonder if she'll be confused as to why the butterfly is larger than the koala bear, but we just try not to think about those things too much ;-)

Miss Lydia doesn't seem to mind so we shall cross that bridge when we get there (and we'll worry about telling her that puppy dogs aren't pink in real life a little later too...)

She's starting to really master holding her little head up though and no longer screams during tummy time in the jungle!

One Month

One month old today...kinda hard to believe isn't it? There was no one-month appointment with the pediatrician, but we have taken a few measurements ourselves and the little miss is around 21 inches long and just over 8 lbs.

Picture Time

Today was picture day! Since we did not take advantage of the newborn portraits available at the hospital after hearing some iffy reviews of the packages, we opted to head to Portrait Innovations for Lydia's first photo session. Lydia did an amazing job and our photographer was wonderful.

Here are a few of our favorite shots (more images have been uploaded to our Picasa site):

And yes, we realize how insane it seems to get pictures taken so early, but we have not been taking as many photos at home as we anticipated. We don't want to miss capturing moments from these early days, but practically, taking pictures around the house just hasn't worked out for us so far.

First Days

During her first few days at home, Lydia spent most of her time doing this:

...but I'm sure her daddy doesn't mind a bit, what do you think?

One thing we have discovered, Miss Lydia HATES getting her diaper changed (as evidenced below:)

All in all, we are doing quite well. Rachael's mother is staying for a while until we get things under control which has turned out to be quite the lifesaver since Rachael's road to recovery has been something we did not anticipate. An extra pair of hands has been crucial and we could not have done it without her!

Hospital Stay

Our first days in the hospital were as one would imagine, with lots of on-the-job training for Mom and Dad! Lydia had several visitors during her hospital stay and received lots of beautiful decorations for her room.

Rachael and Lydia were discharged on Sunday evening and everyone was more than ready to head home by this point. Bing was a champ getting Lydia all ready to go all snug in her car seat. She is much smaller than we expected, but we were able to get her into a newborn outfit for her journey home, even if it was still a little big.

We are very thankful to be in our own home getting settled into our new lives and appreciate all the prayers from family and friends during this new adventure!