Celebrating Two Weeks

We made Serena's two-week birthday memorable by first meeting her pediatrician, and then taking Serena to the Iowa State Fair. :)

The two-week check-up with the pediatrician went very smoothly. Serena weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds, 13 ounces...up from 6 pounds 12 ounces when we left the hospital 12 days prior! What a little piggie! All her measurements put her in the 50th percentile on the growth charts, so I guess we have a nice average-sized baby. ;)

We met Jason, Julia, and Kaden at the fair and just spent a couple of hours walking around with them. We also got to see Jordan's old friend Jared and his wife and two cute kiddos, so that was fun! Serena slept almost the entire time we were at the fair; I definitely appreciated that! ;) One of the buildings we walked through had a bunch of new inventions/as-seen-on-tv types of things. We just had to stop and have the ShamWow guy give us his spiel. Very entertaining. So much so, that we went ahead and caved to his sales pitch at the end (after he'd 'thrown in' a bunch of 'freebies') and split the deal with Jason & Julia and bought ourselves some of our very own ShamWows!! Let me tell you, they have been a source of great entertainment ever since we got them home! It makes you kinda feel like spilling something on purpose just so you can use them! Come on, Macy, don't you think you could knock over my glass or something?! Heehee! We also walked through some of the animal barns at the fair. We saw an enormous bull. I mean, 'enormous' doesn't even do it justice! This animal was over 3,400 pounds!!! Wish I'd gotten a picture, but I was holding Serena and my camera was buried in my bag buried in the stroller...you know how it goes! ;)

Serena and I after our afternoon at the fair

So, life with a newborn is definitely different! It's hard to believe it's been 2 weeks, mostly because these wakeful nights make all the days run together. I find myself actually having to think about what day it is! We've had lots of visitors come through, which has been really fun! This past week, some ladies from the church we've been attending provided meals for us each evening and that was a wonderful blessing. My recovery has been really good and I feel almost like my old self again. Just have a little tummy to lose. ;) It crossed my mind to do a picture of myself every two weeks postpartum until I'm back into shape (like my pregnancy photos in reverse), but then I thought that might be a little weird, heehee! Besides, it would have been much more dramatic if I'd done a daily photo for the first week! Amazing! It's hard to believe I was ever so big! Haha! I loved being pregnant, but it has been fun to experience life again without that big heavy 'basketball' out front! I appreciate my ability to bend over now!! Especially when I'm bending over to clean up a spill with my new ShamWow! ;)

Serena is an amazing baby. No, really, she is! She enthralled us all with her smiles from Day One. Of course, they aren't in response to outside stimuli, but they are adorable nonetheless whenever they appear! Her umbilical cord stump fell off on the fourth day, so I started letting her spend some time on her tummy in her pack-n-play (it has a bassinet option) and LO AND BEHOLD...the child has already rolled over!!! I kid you not...I had her on her tummy on the 4th day of her life, and pulled my eyes away from her for a moment to put some dishes in the dishwasher. When I looked back at her, the squirmy little booger had pushed herself onto her side (this is in the middle of the pack-n-play...she wasn't using the sides of it to help herself over). I thought that was kinda weird, but figured she'd roll back onto her tummy and went back to the dishes. When I looked again a minute later, she was on her back!! The next day and a couple days later she did it again. She hasn't done it since, but Jordan and I are convinced that this is a sign of how exceptional our child is! ;) She really has been a wonderful baby...she only cries when she's hungry or her diaper is dirty, and then she's happy again. She is very alert during her wakeful times and loves to be held and talked to. We're just loving every minute with her!