31 days of annabelle-day two.

{I'm linking up with The Nester's 31 Days blog challenge. You can read all about my topic here.}

The first weeks of having Annabelle at home were a whirlwind! We were fortunate in that Annabelle put herself on an eating schedule fairly quickly after she was born. She woke up to eat every three hours which gave us some predictability during our days and occasionally even allowed us to get some sleep.

We had loads of help after Annabelle's arrival. Both of our families were in town (minus Annabelle's uncles) when she was born and stayed for a few days after. After that my mom and sister stayed for a few weeks. When it was time for them to go, Kyle's mom made the trip out to Atlanta to help out. We had so much help from our families and it was wonderful!

Since Annabelle was born at the end of October and in the midst of fall colds and flu season, our pediatrician recommended that we stay at home and avoid outings for the first several weeks. Let's be honest, that was probably for the best! I wasn't in the physical or emotional condition to be strolling around town and even if I was, it was so much more fun to stay at home and stare at this snuggly angel.

We quickly saw our home transformed from being all about us, to all about Annabelle. Annabelle struggled with high billirubin levels when we came home so she needed lots of naps in the sun. My sewing room has three walls of windows so this is where our girl took many of her naps. My sewing table was covered in swaddle blankets, burp cloths and extra diapers and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Since we weren't leaving the house and we were on a pretty rigid schedule of feedings, pumping and sun bathing (for the little lady), we spent every spare moment doing lots of this:

Even Gigi, Pops, Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jason got in on the couch naps. 

Overall, the first few weeks were wonderful. They somehow went by at a snails pace and in the blink of an eye. I have never been more tired in my life than I was in those first few weeks but I have also never been more thankful to be so tired.

This little 8 pound bundle of sweetness stole our hearts. We quickly fell into a rhythm with her and loved our moments of snuggling her, studying her tiny face and soaking up all of her newborn sweetness.