Five Fast Weeks in Review
Piper turned eight weeks old yesterday and I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. I have heard a hundred times “Appreciate every moment because it goes so quickly!” but it is impossible to understand that until it is actually happening.
I am still in “survival mode” but am coming out of it a little bit as I better get to know our little blessing and understand more of what she needs and how to provide it. So many needs, so few ways to express herself. Only in this past week have I felt more than a fleeting sense of confidence about what I’m doing… and it quickly crumbles under Piper’s distressed wails from a tummy full of gas. Poor little girl!! I wouldn’t change a thing (except to quickly finish developing her digestive tract!), but this has been my greatest challenge in life so far. Well worth it, I might add. She is so funny and cute, and I sometimes find myself excited to hear her cry after waking up from a nap because I know I get to see and interact with her again. But there are also those moments when I long for just one more minute to finish brushing my teeth or finish something I started (for a change!). It is difficult to be constantly serving another person, and there’s very often an internal battle that takes place–especially when she cries for food in the middle of the night after I only crawled into bed the hour before. OF COURSE I get up and feed her, but it is easy to have a quick internal temper tantrum and feel sorry for myself that sleep has slipped away from my grasp once again. Often in the moments that follow, though, God’s mercy shows up and rescues me with a wonderful smile or coo from Piper and my heart warms over. Truly amazing.
Fatherhood looks great on David and he is completely smitten with our Fab P. He takes the eeeearly morning shift with a bottle so I can catch some much-needed Zzz’s, and he usually wakes me up star-struck over his little girl. He can get her to smile much more easily than I can and she loves the sound of his voice. It is amazing to watch them together. Neither of us can really believe we have a daughter!
So all that to say, I’m just now learning how to use this site and post blogs, thanks to my patient husband/teacher. And I learned how to run the video camera yesterday (embarrassingly easy)… so I am posting five weeks’ worth in one post and then will hopefully keep up with this regularly!
My mom and grandma came in from New York for a two-week visit in the first part of April and we had a blast. Thankfully, my mom stayed with us for a lot of the time she was here and we got to sit and stare in amazement at Piper together. She was also a tremendous help, taking a lot of the night shifts and diaper changes, and chasing down a burp like a madwoman. She was also able to use her tremendous gift of organization and handiness, and completely organized and built shelves for almost all of our closets, in addition to David’s workshop in the garage. She definitely left Casa Peters in better shape than when she arrived! Since we moved into our house in the height of my morning sickness, I was never able to find the time to unpack and really organize; everything just ended up thrown in one of many closets. So Mom saved the day and (I think) had fun doing it!
Below are three videos taken on the day they arrived in Dallas. One of them includes the first time my mom held her granddaughter, and most of them include four generations of girls (Gramma, Mom, Piper and me) with David’s hilarious commentary running in the background. They may be long and boring for those of you who are not related, but they are precious to me:
Either right before or while Mom was here, Piper’s umbilical cord fell off so we were able to switch from sponge bath to the real deal. We took some funny bathtime footage that includes our Little Biscuit waking up from a nap–only to get soaped up and rinsed off. I don’t think this clip shows the tears and wailing that took place. Thankfully, she usually LOVES bathtime–except for when we start putting clothes on her.
On a similar note, Piper loves her changing table and a lot of our favorite interaction with her happens there. She recently started REALLY smiling–her first smile was at David a week ago today during their morning bonding time–and she loves to coo and smile and kick while she’s on it, so diaper changes are usually long, drawn-out and fun times. Below is a sampling of one such time that took place yesterday (btw, we weighed her yesterday and she doesn’t weigh 13 pounds yet–she’s only creeping up on 11):
Here is another clip of her being cute (I swear she has more than one shirt!):
And, lastly, here’s some footage of Piper doing “tummy time” yesterday on the little playmat that Berit and Shane graciously lent to us (along with all the rest of their baby stuff):
Once we get the pictures downloaded and ready, I will add those, as well. It might take another week or so, though. It is actually a miracle that this post even happened today!
Love y’all and hope to...
Piper – you are very pretty. You can start text messaging me again, if you’d like.
-Jake
Love the update! She is growing so quickly. I can’t wait to see you soon. We are back from our trip at the end of May and I will schedule a drop-by. Love you friend!