Introducing Meredith Hope Beasley

Wow! It's been a week already since little Meredith was born. That had to have been the fastest week I've had in over nine months!! My pregnancy made time feel like it was stuck in molases, I just wanted it to be overwith. Now that Meredith is here time is once again flying by and I wish it would slow down again. I hate how fast these first few months with a new baby just fly by. Sure, there are the constant feedings, diaper changes, crying, and the disrupted sleep. But then there are the quiet moments with her curled up in a ball on my chest, or her laying on the floor looking around, and the constant adoration doled out on her by her siblings. This doesn't last long. Soon she'll be too interested looking around to want to lay on my chest. It won't be long before she can roll over which leads to mobility. She'll start to babble and give up the adorable cooing sounds she makes now, and soon (hopefully) she'll be sleeping through the night. So I've been trying to treasure every moment I have with her while she's so little. I know I'm spoiling her, she's already having a hard time sleeping in her bassinet, at least during the day, because neither Rob or I want to put her down. She has done pretty good at night so far. Last night she did great, we managed to be asleep by 10:30 with only one feeding around 2 am and then she had us up by 6. Would have been nice to sleep just a tad bit longer but we really did need to get up and moving anyway.

Her delivery went pretty smooth. I was disappointed in how long it took and the epidural ran out about when I needed it most but that was my fault. Other than that nothing to complain about. I managed to panic a nurse, that was pretty funny. When things FINALLY got going I jumped from a 4 to a 9 in an hour, after hours and hours of nothing happening. It was, of course, during this time that the doctor had decided to leave to go home for a bit. That has happened with almost every baby, the doctor decides I'm going to be awhile so he/she leaves and a nurse ends up frantically calling them back in. So, the nurse was a bit freaked out when she was faced with the possibility that she would be delivering the baby as the doctor was at least 20 minutes away. I did manage to hold out and wait for the doctor but just barely. Was just about to tell the nurse she'd be doing it when my doctor came flying in. Wasn't much longer until I was holding Meredith in my arms, with me half dead from the pushing and not having had anything to eat since 5 am (she was born at about 6 pm), but so happy to have her here! She weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long! Our biggest baby yet :) First baby of ours born with chubby arms and thighs too! So cute. She was, and still is, just beautiful. Somehow she managed to avoid the whole cone head look so she had a cute little round head, despite being so big. She was and continues to be a pretty laid back baby. Even when they were doing the different tests on her she never cried. Meredith slept through the hearing test they do and then during the heal prick and blood draw all she needed was a pacifier in her mouth.

She has been a joy to have home! The kids all love her and are always asking if they can hold her. She sat with Nathaniel for quite some time yesterday, just calmly sitting in his arms staring at his face. I think it was the glasses :) She doesn't cry much unless it's really close to time to eat and we don't do it immediately. Then she gets mad. She's only gotten really mad maybe a couple of times. Nursing is going really well with her, I'm very glad about this. I had thought about doing bottles just for the convenience but the thought of buying formula again always stops me, it's too dang expensive. And she just picked right up on it so no reason to not nurse her. Just gives me another excuse to sit down and cuddle her :) 

And now some pictures :)