Three weeks

Molly is three weeks old already, and I made it through my first full week on my own with all the kids.  And I haven't gone crazy yet!  :)  Things are pretty good, actually.  Molly still sleeps quite a bit during the day (although that's starting to change....she's growing out of that newborn stage where she'll sleep through anything, anytime).  The boys have been fairly good little helpers (especially Drew) and they still love their sister.  Grant often tells me, "I love Molly" or "I love my baby sister."  He'll go sit next to her and tell me that he's watching over her, and today he told me to take a picture of them together!  And Grant is doing well with his cast.....he runs around like crazy and you almost forget that he's even wearing it.

I've gone out a couple of times in public with all three kids.  Once we went to Target, where Molly slept the entire trip in the Baby Bjorn and the boys rode in the shopping cart.  Then a few days later, I took them all to Hobby Lobby (the boys had taken short naps and I knew I had to get out of the house or it was going to be a hard afternoon!).  I spent probably 8-10 minutes in the parking lot, getting them arranged in their stroller and Molly in her Baby Bjorn.  Then within about two minutes of walking inside, she started fussing and didn't stop.  So it was a very short trip.....but I guess that's what I expect at this point.  I don't want to take them all out by myself every day, but at least now I know that it's possible!

Molly had her two-week checkup last Tuesday.  She is obviously eating well, because she weighed 8lbs 9oz (almost an entire pound more than she did at birth).  I'm assuming she weighs about 9 pounds now.  I think she definitely feels a lot bigger, and I think her face has changed a lot too.  And today I am certain that she smiled at me.....on purpose!  I know she's only a day over three weeks and she's not supposed to be able to do that yet, but she must be really advanced for her age.  :)   Her newborn clothes are getting tight, but all of her 3-month outfits are huge on her.

And speaking of clothes, I am in the same position.  Everyone tells me, "you don't look like you just had a baby" and "you already went back to your normal weight, didn't you?"  This is flattering, but no!  I still weigh 18-20 pounds more than I did before I was pregnant.  So most of my old shirts are fine, but I can't even fit into my largest pre-pregnancy pants or skirts.  So finding clothes for church is difficult!  I don't know what I'm going to do now that we're actually starting to have a few cool days here and there.  I only have one pair of maternity jeans!

Here are some pictures taken around Oct 20, while my mom was in town for a few days.  I'll try posting some more recent pictures sometime in the next few days.  Even though Molly sleeps a lot, I  feel like I have much less free time than before.  Maybe because she's often awake while the boys are napping.  Anyway, I hope to start blogging more regularly again soon, so stay tuned!

 While the boys were in school one day, my mom mopped our kitchen floor for me (thank you, Mom!) and I took Molly to her room to take some pictures.  In the second one, you can see that she decided she didn't care much for the tutu!

This particular night while my mom was here, Molly had her longest awake stretch yet: from about 6:45pm until after 9pm.  She just sat in my mom's arms and looked around for probably 45 minutes.  It was so sweet!

 

The boys rocked Kitty and Ruff in the swing one morning: