Catching Up

Six weeks have passed since I gave birth to Harper. These have been THE.BEST. weeks of my life. This whole mommy thing? Yea, I was meant to do this! This is the greatest and most rewarding job I could ever hope to have. This is little baby girl has changed me and my life in so many wonderful and interesting ways. My heart has grown tremendously. It's so true that you never knew you could love someone so much. I thought that I could never love someone as much as I love Wade and I still love him an awful lot, but this is completely different and all-encompassing. I could sit holding and staring at her all day and NEVER get bored. The hours fly by now as it is.
Granted, these past weeks haven't been all butterflies and unicorns. There has been a whole lot of adjustment. She's been having colic episodes at night - usually between 8 and 11 pm. There's not much else to console her besides swaddling, rocking, bouncing, and occasionally her pacifier. She gets frequent belly aches so there are the random crying fits during the day, but those don't last as long. Other than that, she's a very happy baby. She's starting to smile and coo which just completely melts my heart.
Breastfeeding has gone wonderfully. The only problems I've encountered are occasional engorgement and twice she has completely drained me (and was still hungry!) Harper is a complete natural when it comes to latching on. She has been since Day 1, which I am grateful for. I had heard and read so many horror stories when I was pregnant that I was pretty scared out of my mind. But we're still going strong (and exclusively!) after 6 weeks. My goal is six months, but my dream is to make it to a year. Nursing times are some of my favorite times.
Harper did have to spend a week in the NICU after she was born. I delievered her so quickly (about a half hour of pushing - I was in labor in the hospital for 5 hours) that she took a big gulp on the way out and developed pneumonia. The second and third pictures are of her while she was in there.