The DeLorme Family: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

One Week Old

    I realize that this post is a few days late, but it is quite the challenge to get much done these days with a newborn. Her priorities come first, so things like blogging have definitely taken a little bit of a back burner for the time being. I want to make sure that I continue to blog each week to document her first year of life.
     Graceyn is already a week old. Time is already flying by. I want it to slow down! I want her to stay this tiny and cuddly forever! I feel like she has already changed so much. I spend a lot of time holding her and cuddling her. I know all too well that she will not love to be cuddled and held all the time for long. I am taking full advantage of this short time while I can. That is why I'm not so concerned about the state of my house or that certain things get done.   I am spending most of my time enjoying our newest blessing.
     At one week old, Graceyn does not do much besides sleep and eat. She sleeps a ton. She is rarely awake to do more than eat. She will stay up for a bit in the mornings and the kids love interacting with her and showing her things. They bring over different toys for her to look at. She really loves her swing . I put her in the swing in hopes of it stimulating her and keeping her up for a bit, but it always makes her fall asleep. I know that sleep is so vital at this point and this is when she is doing all of her growing. I have noticed in the past few days she is up a bit more more during the day.
      She is doing pretty good at night. Some nights are better than others. She generally wakes up about every two hours to eat. So I'm getting stretches of about 1 1/2 of sleep at a time. I will take it for the time being. I am just happy she is pretty consistent with waking up at least 2 hours from her last feeding. I think Dawson was waking up about every hour at this point. She remains to be a champion eater. She is like clockwork with her feedings. When two hours is up, she always wakes up and is ready to eat.
     Graceyn is a very sweet little girl. She loves to be held and loves to hear the sound of my voice. She is a very good baby so far. I don't want to jinx anything. Dawson was a good baby the first few weeks before his colic set in. I am praying day and night that she does not get colic like Dawson had. I am really hoping she stays mellow and laid back.
      Graceyn does not like being wet at all. Her baths usually consist of a very upset little girl. When she has a wet diaper she is also not happy. She hates getting dressed. Other than being wet and getting dressed are the only things that seem to bother her.
      I will be back to update about our little girl when she is two weeks old. Here are some pictures from our first week home.

Trying out her crib when she got home from the hospital.

Big yawn for such a tiny girl!

Cuddling with Daddy.

So sleepy

Ashlyn just loves holding her sister.

My two favorite girls in the whole world!

Graceyn's first bath at home.

Sleeping like a champ

In her swing that she loves

Already a Daddy's girl

She has got some crazy hair!

As you can tell, Ashlyn spends a lot of time cuddling with her sister too.

This is a drawing Ashlyn made for Graceyn. It says, "Welcome to the world" I think that is Ashlyn, Graceyn, and me.

Ashlyn drew this new picture of her family.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Graceyn Kathryn

     After 9 long months of waiting she is here!!!! Graceyn Kathryn DeLorme was born on March 21, 2014 at 2:38 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. Her parents and siblings could not be more happy to blessed with such an amazing and sweet little girl!
      I went in on Friday, March 21st for an induction. I am not going to go into many details about her labor and birth. It started out as a great experience. I chose to get an epidural like I did with Ashlyn and Dawson. Unfortunately, the epidural did not take at all. I essentially gave birth without pain meds. I was not prepared for that at all. So, it's safe to say that it was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. But, I survived and and managed to make it through. Her birth was definitely the hardest of all three.
One of the best moments of my life, was when she first was born and the doctor had Joey check to see if it was a girl or boy. The entire pregnancy I went back and forth as to whether I was having a girl or boy. People would ask, and I would say I wasn't sure. In the back of my mind, I really was thinking it was a girl. Her pregnancy was nearly identical to Ashlyn's. Dawson's pregnancy was by far the easiest and so much different from the girls'. It just seemed like that was too obvious though. When I was at the hospital during my labor, I told my sister that I really thought it was going to be a girl. Everyone else thought it was a boy except for Ashlyn and my mom. When Joey announced, "It's a girl." I could not believe it! I was over the moon!!! It was very hard to not find out before hand, but I absolutely would not change it for the world. It was such a great experience and that moment was well worth all the wait!
   She swallowed a little bit of fluid when she was born, so they had to suction her out a bit. She did get an "8" on both Apgar tests. She was just perfect. Ashlyn spent the day at the zoo with her good friend. She arrived at the hospital shortly after she was born. They did her first bath in our room. Ashlyn was just dying to come in and find out if she had a brother or sister. Finally, Joey brought her in. We had her in the cradle and wearing a white hat to not give any clues. She couldn't guess, so we finally told her she had a sister. The way her face lit up was absolutely priceless!!! She was so excited. She later told my mom, it was the best day of her life!
   We ended up staying at the hospital until Sunday. Our stay was great. I had the best nurses I have ever had. The baby and I received excellent care. Graceyn is a champion eater. The nurses were all impressed with how well she was eating. We spent our time at the hospital introducing her to her visitors and snuggling and cuddling her. I know how super fast this time will go by, so I'm trying to take in every last precious second!
   We were pretty set on a boys name. We had been discussing girl's names, but anytime I suggested anything, Joey and Ashlyn would immediately shoot it down. Finally, we decided we would worry about it at the hospital if it was indeed a girl. Well, we had a very hard time deciding on a name. I thought it would be easy once we saw her, but it wasn't. When I was pregnant with Ashlyn and Dawson, I always had a name picked out for a long time, so deciding at the hospital was very hard. EVERYONE kept asking what her name was. Ashlyn really wanted to name her Brinley. I liked that name, but was not crazy about it. I have liked the name Graceyn for years. I love the nickname Gracie. We finally got Ashlyn on board with Gracie. Dawson also said he liked it, so Graceyn it was. We chose Kathryn as her middle name because it is my sister's name.
    We are happy to be home and have spent the last few days adjusting as a family of five. Graceyn has immediately fit in so well to our family. It's like she has always been here. The kids are doing amazing with her. Ashlyn is the world's best big sister. She reads to her, loves to hold her, draws her pictures, and really helps me a lot. Dawson is still not to sure. He is really good with her. He likes to touch her hand. He isn't too interested in her right now, but I know he soon will be. I was a little worried about jealousy, but they are both so happy to have her here, they have adjusted very well.
   There are no words to describe how much I already love this little girl. She is such an incredible gift from God. I feel like the luckiest mother in the whole world to have 3 such amazing and wonderful blessings!!!!
     Here are some pictures from the hospital. Our photographer came to the hospital when she was one day old and got some excellent pictures.