The Reynolds Fam: Week 2

Harper turned 2 weeks old yesterday! I had ambitions of keeping this up more regularly but it has fallen down on my list of priorities :( I'll definitely do monthly updates to keep track of her growing but besides that these may be few and far between!

The past couple weeks have been pretty great! We're still adjusting to having a little baby in the house but I think we're doing pretty well :) Life is definitely, definitely very different just as everyone told us it would be! We've had a ton of help which has really made everything so much easier. I have not cooked an entire dinner meal for us yet thanks to so many family and friends who have kept us stocked!! :) We appreciate it!

Harper is a sweet, sweet little baby. She's quite the eater and lets us know when she's hungry! Besides fussing whenever she's hungry she is a pretty happy girl. A couple nights ago she did her fair share of crying and I just couldn't figure out why so I did go buy some gas drops in case that's what was causing it. I've been doing the belly massage and keeping her little legs bicycling and honestly I can't tell if it helps or not but I do know she has been the most pleasant little girl today! :) As far as our nights go, they are very unpredictable! I really can't complain though because I am getting a decent amount of sleep. The easy nights are ones where she goes back to sleep right after I feed her. More challenging nights entail her just staring at me wide eyed after a feeding - she's ready to play! She is pretty noisy at night... lots of grunting in her sleep, especially when she's sleeping lightly. I can sleep through the grunting but Andy can't :( I will admit that she has spent her fair share of sleeping time cuddled up next to me (I know this is bad and we are creating bad habits, but sometimes I decide sleep is more important ;)) I'm too tired in the middle of the night to battle and instead choose to let her sleep however she likes. She has spent nights in her bassinet, her crib, our bed, the guest bed, the couch, etc. lol. I have decided that whenever she naps during the day and I'm not so tired, she'll sleep in either her crib or bassinet only... we'll see how that works ;)

We did her newborn pictures last week... that was quite an experience. Our photographer had these detailed instructions to follow beforehand.. they involved a long luxurious bath followed by repeatedly changing her clothes/diapers so as to stop her from falling asleep so that she would sleep during the shoot. We followed the instructions but Harper had other plans in mind. She was awake almost the entire time! I absolutely love the pictures of her so wide eyed but I was a little bummed that we didn't get to use nearly as many of the props/poses if she would've slept. We definitely have some keepers though!

It's amazing how much she has changed in just a couple short weeks! She is definitely getting some chubby little cheeks! Her eyes are working so hard to focus on things and follow them rather than just staring out into space. It's neat to see her changing so much but does make me a little sad sometimes! I do my best to really focus on her and appreciate the time I have with her right now. I want to remember every funny face she makes, the way she loves to throw her arms up by her head when she's sleeping, how she loves being sung to and cuddled up next to a warm body to sleep, her sweet little sneezes and milk breathe :) We are just in love with our little baby!

One of the things that makes me laugh is how much anxiety I get whenever Harper and I run an errand alone. I've made two trips to the grocery store with her and it's embarrassing how accomplished I feel whenever we get home :) Yesterday I was sitting in traffic on my way to Kroger and I realized I was picking at my cuticles... something I do whenever I'm stressed or anxious. I asked myself what was stressing me out and had to laugh when it was the idea of this impending grocery trip! If she gets upset, it's typically because she's hungry and though I have started pumping, I'm saving that up for an exam I must go take next week. Therefore, we really have no food options if we are in the middle of Kroger. Her crying doesn't bother me but I feel awful for making other people listen to that out in public! I am perfecting the art of feeding her, changing, and getting out of the house while her clock is ticking. We basically have 2 to 2.5 hours of happiness before the crying begins and I always hope I'm at least in the car on the way home by the time she gets upset! Andy and I are also running a lot less errands than we used to. We love just hanging out as a little family in the evenings. He misses her during the day so they like to play together and we love going for walks through our 'hood :) Life is pretty great these days :)