Faces of Shannon

During the day Shannon is usually WIDE awake. It doesn't matter if we go for a walk, put her in her swing, or even take a ride in the car. She just likes to be awake, wide eyed, and alert. It's adorable, though sometimes I wish she'd just take a nap so I can! When she is awake she's a great baby and we just sit and make faces at each other. I usually have my iPhone handy so I snap pictures of her hoping to capture her personality for those of you who haven't had a chance to hang out with her yet. Here are some of her many faces.

I take too many pictures...

I just can't help it. It's like I have an addiction. I'm known among our friends as the one to snap pictures all the time and of course I can't help but to capture cute kids doing cute things! It used to be Erin, Grady, Cecily, and Everett but with Shannon it seems worse. Maybe it's because I'm with her all the time, or maybe it's because she's so darn cute! I suppose it's a harmless addiction that my family appreciates, so here are some more.

She's wide eyed and alert for a few hours each day. Daddy loves to make faces at her and try to make her smile.






Getting sleepy...

I promise we didn't give her anything to drink!

After being awake for a few hours and then eating, she fell asleep with a full belly.

Just some Pictures

Blogging with one free hand means just pictures this time. I scanned some of my baby pictures... I wondered why her hair had a tinge of red. I think she kind of looks like me!

18 days but who is counting?

So these last 18 days have all seemed like one big blur. The sun setting and rising doesn't really matter and we can't seem to remember what day we did what. That's a result of Shannon eating at least every 3 hours leading to our sleep deprived state. You can watch others go through the newborn phase and people can tell you how difficult it is but you have no idea until you've been there. I would have never thought I could fall asleep while still rocking a crying, squirming baby or that I can be woken by the faint sigh of a baby. But here we are, having survived through day 18, and wondering what's in store next. Hopefully some sleep...

Here are some pictures of this week. She didn't seem to mind her first tub bath too much but for some reason she doesn't seem to like the bouncy seat! We also went on our first walk in the "Snugli."

Patience

Those of you who know me know that patience is not one of my strengths and I'm a control freak. When I want something I go out and get it. When I think of something to do I get it done. When others don't work at the pace I want them to I get mad or somehow try to motivate them to work harder. I've tried to improve this part of my demeanor but nothing ever seems to work.

Then along came Shannon.

I've had to learn to relax, slow down, and just BE. When she's crying and nothing can calm her down I just have to be patient and wait. That's really hard for me and I realize that as she's napping in my arms and all I can think about is what I need to do next or that there's something else I should be doing. I can't control when she wants to eat, sleep, and especially poop. She's teaching me to live in the moment and just enjoy her. I have a feeling this is the first of many lessons this little one is going to be teaching me!

And of course here are some more pictures.

"Enjoying" her first sponge bath at home.


We think she's pretty cute. She seems so tiny right now!

Shannon Clare

Shannon at her first checkup. One of my favorite pictures of her so alert.


Four years ago, the summer Eric and I got married, the World Cup was played in Germany. I wasn’t a huge soccer fan but ended up watching the games during the times I was running madly on treadmills with my too-snug wedding dress my top priority. I found that even though I didn’t quite understand soccer (what’s up with this off-sides and not being able to beat the defense down the field to receive a pass??!) , the World Cup stage brought electricity to the sport, much like the Olympics. So I watched it, liked it, and we decided we’d be going to South Africa in 2010 to watch it in person.
Ah, little did we know that in 2010 we’d have little Shannon Clare and our lives would be a bit hectic to travel to South Africa for the World Cup. We are so excited to have her that missing a trip to Africa and watching the World Cup isn’t a big deal. She’s that great. Even after the non-stop feedings, lots of crying , lack of sleep, and the anxiety and worry that come with taking care of a someone completely dependent on you, we love her more than we’ve ever loved anything. A distinct line separates the two parts of our lives-life before Shannon and now our lives after Shannon. We gage time with phrases like, “Shannon is a week old today, can you believe its been a whole week?” or, “Shannon took a two hour nap today.” It’s almost like we’ve forgotten what it was like not to have her, even though it’s only been 8 days. We no longer think about ourselves much at all and sometimes even the essentials of life (eating, sleeping) go overlooked while we rock her back to sleep or make sure she has enough to eat.
Someday we’ll go to Ireland and show her the place Eric proposed to me, near the river Shannon in County Clare, and walk through Rossmanaher Castle and tell her our story. These days of sleepless nights will be long past and she’ll be all grown up before we know it. I’m just going to enjoy each day and take lots of pictures to share.

I wanted to give birth naturally, as many of my friends have, and I asked Deborah, Sara, and Natalie to help me through the process. I couldn't have done it without their support! Here's Sara holding Shannon.


Erin is going to be like a big sister to little Shannon.


Natalie was able to be Shannon's nurse! It was wonderful knowing that the person who was taking care of Shannon the first moments of her life and showing Eric how to give her a sponge bath was a very dear friend who I knew loved Shannon as much as we did.


Here's Eric giving Shannon her first sponge bath.


Deborah holding her.


Here's Eric cutting the cord. What an unbelievable feeling to have her laying on me still attached. She was so content.


We are trying to breast feed but it's been a little bit of a struggle. We decided to supplement with a small amount of formula until she begins gaining so here's Eric giving her a bottle. Eric is amazing-he gets up with me at each feeding (at least every 3 hours around the clock) so that after I feed her he can get a bottle ready, change her diaper, and then finish feeding. I couldn't do this without him!


Eric is as tired as I am, and we tend to fall asleep whenever and however!


Here's our precious girl thinking!


Once we started supplementing she started sleeping more and is so much happier.


We can't believe how small she is.