Life when you have a newborn is strange--it goes by so slowly during the long days and nights sometimes, but then all the sudden, all this time has passed and things look completely different. Because I'm looking back at this time with Leah, when she was just brandnew, from June (and she's now over two months), it is crazy to me how much things have changed in such a short amount of time. We are still working our way out of survival mode and we still have a newborn, but she's sleeping so well at night, just starting to sometimes take a little nap without me holding her, and we're starting to get into a rhtythm. April was our month of pure survival, just soaking in all the newborn snuggles while trying to get through on little to no sleep, not being able to hardly put her down, and just figuring out life with five kids instead of four. The transition to five has been harder than I was anticipating, I'm not sure why, but we've also just loved having a new baby in the house. 🩷
The kids all love Leah and having a baby around. They have their own adjustment behaviors, of course, but they all beg to hold Leah all day long and love to talk with her, read to her, snuggle her, walk around with her. Oliver loves to give her hugs and kisses and tells me, "I like having a baby, Mom."
Catching frogs with cousins at the creek 🩷
And minnows and crawdads!
We also love our weekly library trip with cousins. This was Oliver as "Dinoboy!"
We have the best neighbors who are like an extra set of grandparents to the kids 🩷
One of our favorite parts of April is General Conference. The kids get a little baggie of treats for each topic they hear talked about.
Then some Easter coloring pages from our Easter countdown that we were doing.
And of course, Legos! We leave these out the entire weekend of conference and the kids love it.
The weekend was made extra special with our little Leah snuggles.
I love the feeling we've cultivated for our home during conference.
And we had our traditional cinnamon rolls!
I had made them before Leah came and pulled them out of the freezer for conference, but heated them up in the oven so they were like fresh. I'm so glad I did, because it was hard to get everything in between holding and feeding Leah.
Leah's namesake, Grandma Leah, made this sweet poster for Leah all about their name.
We miss her terribly, but are so grateful for the legacy she left behind.
We also got a visit from Jon and Amanda! They came out for the girls' theater class performane and we all so appreciate the way the support the girls in that. We loved getting to see them again and giving them the chance to meet Leah.
Cousins came to the girls' performance as well and brought flowers. It was such a sweet way to support them.
Lots and lots of building. I love that the kids can create and build as I spend so much time with the new baby.
Ashtyn has been a big help with dinner on Fridays, when we do breakfast for dinner instead of a freezer meal. She loves making things like pancakes!
Ashtyn's marble run, filmed by her as well.
One of our favorite school activities in April was to do tablework or crafts while listening to an audiobook. It worked great while I was holding Leah for naps or while Leah was eating.
Ashtyn and Parker both had their piano concert as well.
It is always fun to see how far they've come, to celebrate all the hard work they've put in throughout the year. Not pictured, because I forgot, is the "fried bug cake" that Ashtyn made for afterwards. She made a black midnight cake (for the first time) and Oliver wanted it to be Fried Bug Cake, so they made paper bugs and decorated the top of the cake with them. Then we made ice cream and invited cousins (who were also in the concert) over to enjoy it all with us. She did a great job with the cake, it turned out perfectly!
Pic cred: Oliver
I love watching Oliver and the other kids play while I'm nursing.
Date night for our anniversary! Our anniversary fell on Easter Sunday and with a newborn as well, we knew we wouldn't be doing anything too crazy. But we left Leah with my mother-in-law and got dinner at Vernal Brewing Company (we got a sandwich that I couldn't eat while pregnant because of being off flour and a caesar salad that I love and shared them) and then stopped at B Fruity for dessert.
When you're just tucked 🩷
Dirty faces! I love seeing my kids play so hard they get covered in dirt.
Reading time!
Dino Boy and Dragon Girl!
There is something so cute about toddlers playing on handheld devices.
The girls got ballet outfits for Easter and love doing ballet tutorials on YouTube.
Snuggles with Oliver 🩷
When I was healing, Oliver missed snuggling and it was a process as we figured out ways to help him get "Mom time". His favorite thing to do when I had Leah was to come over and say, "Make me a spot." I'd scoot over on the chair and he'd snuggle in with me.
April was definitely Leah's month when it came to pictures 🩷
We were so happy that Leah got to meet Grandma Leah in April 🩷
When big sister gets you to sleep in the bouncer 🩷
And a little picture snuck in of Ben reading to the kids 🩷😂
Her first bottle.
So sleepy.
It's funny looking back now at what we did to try and get her to sleep at night (it was rough at first, but she started doing well so quickly and now she's so consistent with it!) and what her schedule was like. At first, she was sleeping very consistently in the morning and I would wake her up at 8:30, which just nautrally had her bedtime fall around 9:30. I pushed that back to 9:00 because I was SO tired in the evening, then she started waking up earlier, so her morning wake time changed to between 7:30 and 8, so I was then feeding her at 8:30 at night. Now we've moved to feeding her at 8 and in bed by 8:30, which is my preferred schedule and what I was wanting to work towards, but felt so far away. It really does go by so quickly.
Nursing is one of my favorite parts of having a baby 🩷
Ashtyn loves when Leah sleeps on her 🩷
The newborn stage is definitely a hard one, but we wouldn't trade this time with Leah for anything. We are just loving having a baby in the house again and the kids are in baby heaven 🩷 I feel so blessed to be a Mom, even during the harder stages.
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