So blessed

She has such beautiful big blue eyes (sometimes very cross-eyed).

Wide eyed and wondering.

Her yawn while waking up. I love to watch her wake up. :)

Louise and Nana. She sure loves her.

The two loves of my life.

Such a stud.

Louise is 3 weeks old today. I keep getting the feeling that we cheated or something...everything has gone far too smoothly (knock on wood). Louise is positively delightful. We couldn't have asked for a better child. We're both so in love with her. I swear she understands us. If she's hungry and fussing when I'm doing something I can tell her that I'll feed her in just a minute while I finish up and she'll calm down and wait patiently. Last night was her first time sleeping in the crib and she wasn't very excited about it at first, but after talking to her and telling her that mommy and daddy were still in the room, we were just in bed, she quieted down and went right to sleep.

These days she even sleeps through the night. I almost worry, because she'll go 6 or 7 hours without eating during the night, but my mom said she's just setting a routine for herself and if she eats a lot during the day (which she sure does - especially before bed) it's fine. And speaking of feeding her, she's a pro, and was right from the very first time. I haven't had any trouble at all breastfeeding. She's incredible. We can't wait for when she can smile back at us. She smiles now, a lot, but mostly in her sleep, and she can't really control it yet.

The labor and delivery were wonderful, too. Just as a little background information, and possible explanation for all of this, Justin and I are both incredibly laid back and not easily upsetable people. I didn't worry hardly at all during the pregnancy, even when I probably should have. I didn't feel any pain of note at all during the whole labor and delivery. Even the contractions didn't hurt, although I'll admit I have a very high pain threshold. On the day before we had her (Wednesday) at my doctors appointment I was dilated to a 5 and 80% effaced. She said to start timing contractions and go when they were 5 minutes apart. I asked if I was supposed to time just the ones that hurt, but she said that since I hadn't had any painful ones to that point and I was already at a 5, I should just time them all. That evening I started timing them during Andy Griffith and they were around 4 minutes apart. But I didn't feel any different, so I didn't think we should go. I was sure we'd be sent home. My mom insisted, however, and so we went around midnight. We both slept through the night in the hospital (apparently I was in labor for 12 hours, but I'm not sure it counts because it didn't hurt). The contractions did start getting uncomfortable around 6 am and I could tell they could get pretty painful if left, so I got an epidural and slept some more. I'm glad I had an epidural, but I really hated it. It freaked me out to not be able to control or feel my lower half. They could flop my legs around like a rag doll and I couldn't feel a thing. Anyway, at 8 I was at an 8, and 9 I was a 9, and at 10 they decided we should have a baby. It was probably a half hour between when they said that and got everything ready, so I had time to panic. That was the only time I felt scared, and let me tell you, I was petrified. You hear so many horror stories and it had all been so easy to that point I was sure it was gonna be awful. I couldn't look at Justin because I knew he'd see through the facade and I'd start to cry. They finally came back and everything was ready, so I was too distracted to be scared after that. I pushed for about 45 minutes (apparently that's a long time, but it didn't seem like it). Justin was so excited and was acting just like a little boy on Christmas Eve. I was laughing at him all through the delivery. Also I kept throwing up, which was annoying. I was starved and I always throw up when I get too hungry. The doctor came towards the end and all of a sudden they were laying a baby on my chest. :) We love her so much. The recovery was pretty rough and painful for 4 or 5 days, though. Glad I'm passed that. I LOVE not being pregnant (my skin misses it, though)!

Oh. By the way, we sold our two cars and bought a new one. :) We got a 2007 Toyota Corolla with 46,000 miles. We LOVE it. We've been looking at Corollas for a few months now. We want a car that will be reliable for a good 10 years to get us through grad school (which deserves a post of its own...remind me. We have an exciting future ahead).

Parenthood is just a dream come true. Louise is so sweet and such an easy, laid back baby. We just can't get enough of her. Here're some pictures of the last few weeks, plus a video or two. :)

P.S. We can't decide who she looks like. Any ideas?

We have a noisy little sleeper. :)