Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of three!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Virginia with Russel's family. It worked perfectly that we could just drive 20 minutes down the road and enjoy time with Russ' parents, siblings and grandmothers. We are lucky to have them all living so close to us. Natalie had a great first Thanksgiving and Russ and I were fortunate to have many willing hands to hold her so we could enjoy dinner with our hands free!

I think this picture of Natalie is so cute. She is looking right at her daddy taking the picture and has her hands positioned in their usual spot right up under her chin.

Natalie with her Grandma Marsh, Great-Grandmother Black and Great-Grandmother Marsh

The weather has gotten much cooler over the past week or so, but we were able to sneak in a few walks around our neighborhood before it got too chilly. I was also glad that Natalie and I were able to enjoy some of the last remaining fall leaves - they are so beautiful here.

On this particular walk, Natalie decided she would rather walk with Dad than in her stroller.

Peacefully enjoying the fall leaves.

Last but not least, we also took Natalie to church for the first time this past Sunday. She did wonderfully well and slept through all of Sacrament meeting which was quite a relief to me.

Welcoming Natalie Renee

November 3rd
11:42 am
8 pounds, 6 ounces
22 inches

She is finally here! Our sweet little girl made her arrival the morning of November 3rd after a surprisingly fast labor and delivery. The quick version of the labor and delivery: Pitocin was started at 6 am to induce labor (as I was a week overdue) and I was fully dilated by around 10 am. I started pushing a little before 11 and she was born within the hour! I did receive an epidural which unfortunately didn't kick in until after I was fully dilated, but it did give me a chance to relax for a bit before pushing and it made the actual delivery much more pleasant than I'm sure it would have been otherwise.

Just after birth, all clean and bundled

We love having Natalie in our home and are slowly starting to get the hang of things around here. My mom was an angel and came out to help all of last week. She cooked, did laundry, cleaned my bathroom and helped me figure out how to nurse Natalie. I really don't think I could have done it without her.

Natalie is two weeks old today and it is so fun getting to know her and learn her little personality and likes and dislikes. Currently she:

- Loves to be bathed.
- Falls asleep most peacefully when lying on Mom or Dad’s chest.
- Has a generally calm temperament.
- Weighs in at a whopping 9 pounds.
- Has successfully been nursing for one week. She had a very difficult time nursing for her first week of life, but after a lot of patience, pumping, bottles, extra formula and countless prayers, she finally got the hang of it.
- She now eats like a piranha at the beginning of each feeding, and then starts to doze off about 10 minutes in. She needs a little help to keep her alert so she can finish eating, or else she dozes for 15-30 minutes and wakes up hungry again.
- Has peed or pooped through her diaper no less than 8 or 9 times and has peed on her changing mat during a diaper change almost as many times.
- Likes to look around and observe us to make sure we're staying on task and paying attention to her.
- Stretches all the time and arches her back farther than I imagined possible. She has very long arms and legs and has a pretty decent right hook. She also kicks her legs all the time and it's fun to see what she was doing all those months when she was kicking my ribs while I was pregnant.
- Smiles all the time in her sleep.

She is such a sweet little girl and I feel so lucky that she is ours to take care of and love. I feel incredibly blessed that we have been given the opportunity to have her in our lives and am so grateful she is part of our family forever.