Newborn Photo Parade

I feel a bit like a prairie dog, popping out of my hole to look around and see what’s happening. Or a groundhog? A hermit crab? Some creature that hides. I guess there are a lot of those. Picture whichever you prefer. No matter your hiding creature preference, I’ve been hiding out happily with our newest family favorite. All is well in our world. Baby had her tongue and lip ties remedied, called a frenectomy, which was sooo not as traumatic as I’d feared. Two minutes of screaming and then she was ready to eat normally and eye us suspiciously but didn’t seem to hold a grudge. She is one month old today! Big sisters are in LOVE with her. Constantly asking to hold her, reporting every sound or movement to me with big sisterly authority. I keep waiting for the fun to wear off, and while it could still happen, there are no signs of that yet. There are also not any outward signs of my sewing or crafting mojo/sewjo returning, though lots is happening in my head. For now I’m here to say “we’re alive” and to share some newborn photos that I want to lick right off of my computer screen. I hope you’ll enjoy them too. Though maybe skip the screen licking.

She was 6 days old for these. My friend Sylvie came to visit and meet our new love and help capture her. I’m really impressed with the images we got, especially considering that I was not all that helpful 6 days post delivery, and Sylvie was 11 weeks pregnant and not so energetic either.

We got some beautiful shots, I think. And with babies, the accidental shots are just as beautiful. Like baby yawns. Also looks like she’s yelling. Or yelling while yawning. Which might be something I’ve done in the last week or two of household management.

Some look like she’s whistling.

Peaceful and relaxed…

…followed by a sort of angry looking yawn while I’m trying to get her head to stay upright. Which it would do for about 5 seconds before flopping one way or the other again. Her head! So tiny in my hand!

Her older sister has a famous duck face, and I was glad to capture it here…

But you can see in the pull back view that she was trying to send a subtle message via hand gesture. “So tired of this already, Mom. I’ve heard about you and your photo shoots and let’s get this straight early: I want M & Ms.”

Once we got her noggin balanced we got this:

And this:

Big sister could not miss out. She and the little one have a magnetic thing happening. And she’s been so gentle and patient.

This last image was our favorite of the bunch. I’ll pop up again soonish to show you how we used it for the announcement! Soonish. I don’t know how long that is exactly. 

As soon as I can manage it without feeling like I’m dying over not holding her when I could be. It’s puzzling how important every moment feels with this baby I never counted on having. And how I can love and care for three kids and it doesn’t feel like too many or too few, just like it’s what was meant to be. I do still worry that there won’t be enough of me to go around, because truly, how can there be? Or is that me selfishly wanting to be with all three at once when really the older two are happy to claim a little more independence and responsibility? I think it’s more the latter. That and… knowing that they want me to be fully distracted when one climbs up to the high part of the pantry where the all red Starbursts are…