July 25

My dear friend Amber came over today to take some pictures of Lily. I've seen two of them so far, and they are just breathtaking. (Updated: you can see Amber's pictures here.)

Amber and I had hoped to get a few pictures of all three kids together at the beginning of our shoot, but Daisy was being pretty ornery. Instead, Chris took Caleb and Daisy on a bike ride while Amber worked her magic. Here are his pictures from their bike ride:

Apparently they rode to the lake, and took a break to play on the beach. It's amazing how empty the lake is on a weekday morning, compared to the weekend or an evening!

I love this action shot of Daisy throwing a rock into the lake!

 Meanwhile, it would appear that this is the only picture I've taken of Lily today:

Not quite breathtaking, huh?

Oh, wait. There's also this one: 

Ha!

Now, before you think that I'm saying my precious daughter is anything less than lovely, that's not it at all. It's just that the images that Amber captured and the ones that I captured - of the same baby, in the same location, on the same day - are so vastly different. It's actually quite funny.

Also funny? How much Caleb and Daisy love their sister. The novelty has yet to wear off, and these children are absolutely smitten. 

This was right after bath time tonight. Daisy just wanted to be close to her sister.

Then Daisy got up, and Caleb took her place, and Lily reached out and grabbed Caleb's hair. Caleb was so pleased, and Daisy was absolutely distraught that Lily hadn't grabbed her hair!

Daisy plopped herself down, as close as could be, hoping that Lily would grab her hair, too.

And these kids are so good at being gentle!

Chris plays a game with them where they lay on the bed, and he places his hand on their chests and bounces them while they make funny noises. Caleb and Daisy decided to try this with Lily, and without me even telling them, they used the gentlest of touches on their sister.

Ha! Except here, it looks like Lily is about to pop Caleb in the eye!

Sweet children. I can't believe we have three. I am not looking forward to the end of this babymoon, when Chris goes back to work and I'm left to figure it out by myself! Thank goodness I still have another week...

July 24

Today was a beautiful, glorious, busy day. Sweet Lily blessed me with nearly a full night's sleep last night - she slept for a five-hour stretch, then a three-hour stretch. It's amazing what uninterrupted sleep can do for you! I'm feeling almost entirely normal again, which is pretty good for five days postpartum!

Chris took the bigger kids on another adventure today, and Lily napped the whole time they were gone. When Daddy, Caleb, and Daisy returned a few hours later, they were happy and sweaty and had these photos of their adventures:

Chris wanted to take Caleb someplace flat so that he could practice riding his new bike. Though we have no shortage of parks in the area, we both agreed that this empty parking lot was a good choice. Apparently the kids agreed!

Look at that big boy go!

But Daisy only had the attention span to ride her tricycle for about thirty minutes, so they moved on to the Butterfly House. 

Darling children.

After that, they played at the playground, and then headed home.

 

I know some of you are chomping at the bit to see better Lily photos, but since she slept the whole time we were alone, this was all I got.

Oh, and some baby toes. 

I think we can all agree that wrinkly, peeling, brand-new baby feet are pretty fantastic.

See, she's still so new that you can see where they pricked her for her state-required blood tests.

After naps, Chris, Caleb and Lily folded laundry together.

Or rather, Chris folded laundry while Caleb loved on his baby sister.

(It's a cell phone photo - sorry for the poor quality!)

And then, since it was a beautiful afternoon, we headed outside to play. As luck would have it, our friends Caleb and Hannah and Andrew were at their aunt and uncle's house, so we got to play with them, too!

How about that? Six people on a porch swing!

Terry and I worked baby duty, with occasional help from the babies' doting big sisters, while Chris corralled the bigger kids.

Then my friend Jen and her daughter Allie came by with dinner for us. While Jen and I chatted, the children spontaneously formed a little umbrella parade, marching up and down the sidewalk. 

How cute are they? It's Daisy (under the polka-dots), Caleb (sharing the pink umbrella), Allie (holding the pink umbrella), Hannah (on the scooter), and the other Caleb (fireman's umbrella). And of course Chris and Jimi Hendrix acted as parade marshalls.

Off they go!

And then tonight at bedtime, this happened: 

He loves to snuggle Lily and read to her. I suppose that tells me we're doing something right!

July 23

Lily and I woke up at 9:30 this morning to an empty house.

Chris had taken Caleb and Daisy to the Botanical Garden, and managed to get everything together without waking me at all. It was beautiful. Here are some of his cell phone pictures from that outing:

Caleb and Daisy only care to visit the Children's Garden at the Botanical Gardens, and at the Children's Garden, their top priorities are sand and splashing.

Daisy, however, will only splash at this one particular fountain, and she's not big enough yet to make the water go. She's also too afraid to go up there if too many other kids are around. Luckily, her stars aligned today: no other kids, plus her brother there to help. It was a splash win for Daisy!

However, Chris also took my big camera with him (though he didn't actually use it!), so I wasn't able to use any of that glorious quiet time to take pictures of my sweet girl.

Instead, all I got were these two, taken in the late-afternoon gloom. (I am quickly discovering that, while our house has large windows, the deep eaves and mature trees mean that good light is hard to find.)

Ha! Not her best look. I promise that Lily is much cuter than this.

But she has lots of fun playing with her hands!

And then at bedtime, Lily hung out in Daisy's chair while I got Daisy ready for bed. 

The lighting isn't off; the girl is really that pink. She has some good coloring to her!

July 22

Today was pretty unremarkable, which was nice. Lily actually let me sleep last night, which was even nicer. Of course, she woke up to nurse several times, but she didn't decide to party all night  the way she did the night before.

The most exciting thing about today? My sister, Emily, gave birth to her baby boy this morning! Emily and I were supposed to deliver our babies about a month apart - I was due July 8, and she was due August 1. Instead, we had our babies three days apart. Go figure. At least hers didn't come first; toward the end of my pregnancy, I was starting to wonder if it might work out that way! Sadly, I don't think it's a good idea to take my 3-day-postpartum self and my 3-day-old baby into a hospital and risk exposing her to all of those germs, so we haven't been able to meet sweet baby Jace yet. But I can tell from everyone else's pictures that he looks just like his daddy!

But back to our boring, hum-drum, perfectly pleasant day.

Caleb read Lily her very first book.

Lily and I took a wonderful nap while Chris and the kids played.

Lily had her first visit to the chiropractor, too, but I didn't photograph that. She was born with quite the cone head, and all of the plates in her skull were overlapping. That, combined with the fact that when I nurse her, her latch is a bit more painful than I'd prefer, led me to take her in sooner rather than later. I'm hoping a few adjustments will help the latch issue, and we won't have to go to the doctor to see if her tongue tie needs to be addressed instead.

And then, Lily joined her siblings and Daddy for some evening outside playtime. 

Caleb and Daisy kicked a ball around, while Chris and Lily supervised.

As soon as she noticed her sister, Daisy wanted to hold her.

Of course, Daddy obliged. 

But Daisy wanted to *really* hold her, so they got situated in the grass. Caleb kept right on kicking his ball!

July 21

Lily is three days old today. I'm not sure how that's possible. The last few days have been such a blur!

Last night, our sweet girl decided it was a good idea to be awake from 10 pm to 2 am. Yuck, I forgot about that aspect of having a newborn. 

Chris took Caleb and Daisy to church this morning, while Lily and I stayed home and slept. It was good.

My sleeping beauty.

Daisy came in this morning, still wearing her pink and white striped jammies. She took one look at her sister and started grinning and giggling. "She wearing stripes, just like me!"

I see lots of matching outfits for those two in our future.

Caleb, meanwhile, chose two pictures of his new sister for us to print. He proudly carried them to church, ti show his teachers and friends. What a sweet boy.

Later, we got out the Boppy: 

Really, I think Lily looks nothing like Daisy. But seeing her in Daisy's old clothes, in a pose I remember Daisy in, makes me do a double-take,

BIG yawn!

It's hard work being this cute.

Also, the girl loves to nurse. Even Daddy's nose will suffice in a pinch!

My darlings.

July 20

It's going to take a while for me to get back into the groove of this daily-blogging thing!

We spent today resting and recovering from Lily's birth. So far, she is a happy, relaxed baby.

Chris took Caleb and Daisy to the library this morning. While they were out, our dear neighbors, Mary and Terry, came over to meet Lily. They sent a delicious cake over yesterday, but gave us a little bit of time before coming to meet our girl.

Of course, they were smitten, just like everyone is.

(Side note: I love that our neighbors are comfortable enough to come over and visit in their pajamas. God has blessed us with some great neighbors.)

While Caleb and Daisy napped, one of the RNs who works with my midwife came by to do Lily's two-day checkup. She is still as perfect as can be!

Later, my mom and Ryan came over so Ryan could meet his cousin for the first time. 

You wouldn't expect a fifteen and a half year old to be so good with babies, but he is!

July 19

At 6:10 this morning, this happened:

Yep. At 6:10 am, Miss Lily Clare decided to enter the world, without any prompting on our behalf.

Labor was longer and more challenging than I had anticipated, but our absolutely perfect 8 pound, 4 ounce baby girl was well worth it.

I won't post all of the birth details or pictures here; I'll get to that later. Today, I'll share pictures of everything but Lily's birth.

Caleb and Daisy usually wake up right at 6 am, but - miracle of miracles - Caleb chose today to sleep until 6:30. Though he was right next door, somehow he slept through all of the noises that accompany the pushing stage of an unmedicated birth. Praise be to God.

When the kids did wake up, Grandma and Jenny were there to catch them and keep them out of our room while we did all of the post-birth stuff. Months ago, I had prepared special "Welcome Baby" backpacks for them, so Caleb and Daisy were entertained for a while.

Sara, my beloved friend and photographer, got the kids the darling big brother and big sister shirts they're wearing. She also took all of these pictures. Thanks, friend.

The kids didn't even fuss about not seeing Mommy or Daddy right away.

While they played, we got to look at this:

8 pounds, 4 ounces isn't really that big, but compared to our previous two (Caleb was 7 exactly, Daisy was 7 and a half), Lily is a chunk! We have no idea who she looks like right now; the only thing everyone seems to agree upon is that she has her Grandad's chin.

Chris was in love with his girl from the start. 

I might be a bit smitten, too.

After everything was cleaned up and put away (about two hours later, for those who are curious), Caleb and Daisy came in to meet their new sister.

They were both instantly in love.

This was when I told Caleb, "This is your new sister, Lily Clare!"

And then he flopped himself down on the bed and cried, "But my baby's name is Rainbow! I like the name Rainbow!"

Luckily, a brief conversation about how everyone else would call her Lily, but Rainbow could be his special name for her was all it took.

Daisy was so curious!

But Caleb handled things like an old pro.

He informed me (again) that he knows lots about babies. He also insisted that he is a great babysitter.

*sigh*

*double sigh*

I know. Doesn't it melt your heart?

A bit chaotic, but a lot of love.

Daisy was fascinated by her baby's toes.

Look at that grin! She loves Lily.

After Daisy and Caleb got to meet their sister, Jenny and my mom (who had both been waiting patiently since the wee hours of the morning) finally got to meet Lily.

Grandma was there the whole time, but spent all of my labor in the living room, praying and napping. I've got a good mom.

Of course, I was rewarded with lots of hugs and kisses too.

Seriously. Daisy is in love.

She's already such a good big sister.

And this boy takes his job very seriously.

This?

This is why home birth is the best. I highly recommend it.

And of course, all of these beautiful pictures are courtesy of Sara, who stayed up all night with us, stayed at the house editing and uploading pictures until noon, and then went home to pack her family up and hop in the van for vacation. I am blessed to have such a devoted and loving friend.

My mom even ran out to grab balloons for the mailbox. Most of the neighbors knew we were having a baby at home, so they were all excited to see our announcement!

And then... everybody left. 

Quiet family time was just what we needed.

My dad had worked all morning and was due to head out of town in the afternoon, but he stopped by to meet his newest granddaughter first. He was out of town for both Caleb and Daisy's births, so it was exciting that he got to meet Lily right away.

In the evening, Chris' parents came over to meet their newest granddaughter. 

Superman proudly supervised the introductions.

And then, bedtime. It was a long, beautiful day.

We are so, so blessed.