8 Weeks

WOW I cannot believe it. Hailey is 8 weeks old already! And of course they have just flown by. We have watched Hailey go from that distinct newborn look of a wrinkly baby to having chubby little cheeks and wide eyed expressions. She smiles at us and will coo and try to talk to us now. You can tell she really has a lot to say. I watched her interact with Nana today and it was awesome. As my mom held her and talked to her she just wriggled her little body and would raspberry right back at her. And of course, give Nana the occasional smile. Everyone thought for sure that because Hailey was the 4th child she would be a quiet, mild baby. Boy were they ever wrong! It is quite the opposite actually. Because she is the 4th child she has to make sure we know she is there! She is probably my most demanding baby out of all of them. If she wants to be held, she will make sure you know. If she is hungry, she will make sure you know. Lord help us all when this baby can talk! Who knows what she will be saying to us.

Kayla is a great help with Hailey for sure. About the only thing she doesn't want to do is change a poopy diaper. She likes to help me give the girls a bath and washing Hailey is her favorite. If Hailey is crying, Kayla will go get her out of bed (or wherever she is) and hold her or come find me if she isn't sure what is wrong. But you can also tell if it is too much for Kayla because of the look she gets on her face. I had asked Kayla to keep an ear out for Hailey one day while I was in the shower and Hailey decided that it was a good idea to cry pretty much the entire time I was in there. So when I come out, Kayla is standing up rocking Hailey (this was pre-rocking chair - we all got tired of being a human rocking chair so Nana gave us one of her glider rockers) and her eyes are glazed over and she has this panic expression. She didn't realize she could have come to tell me Hailey wouldn't quit crying so that I would get out! But I am very grateful that she was on summer vacation for the first several weeks. I don't know how I would have done it without her!

Elijah is just in love with his new baby sister. He loves to hold her too. Most of the time he can lay her on his chest and she will just lay there quietly. He will also pick her up if she is crying to calm her. Of course he isn't too interested in bath time or diaper changes or dressing her up. But he does enjoy feeding Hailey her bottles. He just knows that he and Hailey are going to have a special bond.

Emma has handled having to share attention way better than I had expected. The only trouble we have with her is that she doesn't understand what it means to be gentle with Hailey. So she will try to make Hailey hold her hand while I am feeding her. And she likes to rub Hailey's head but will eventually end up patting her a bit too hard if I don't watch her! But she does sometimes ask us to hold her "Like Hailey" which means to cradle her in our arms. She especially likes that after her bath. But I think most of the time she forgets Hailey is even there.

So I have one week left of maternity leave and I am trying to make the most of it despite a million appointments and activities for the big kids this week. I will certainly miss spending the days with the little girls. I know Nana is looking forward to having her Emma back and now she gets to form another special bond with Hailey. I do feel blessed that I have my mom to watch the girls instead of having to send them to daycare. The good news is that for the last 2 nights Hailey has slept for 7 hours. Up until then, she was waking up typically at 3 and 5. Emma did the exact same thing - started sleeping at longer stretches right before I went back to work. It's like they just know.