18 Days Old

More photos from our most recent "photo shoot" with Miss Julie. There are more, but I am waiting until we pick the photos for our baby announcement before I put them all online!

A photo with my dad. This one was fun for Mom and Miss Julie, since Zoey peed in dad's hand when we were trying to take these photos :-)

FINALLY!!! A photo of me with my baby girl! I feel like I am always the one snapping the photos.

More fun with hats.

Sweet, soft, baby skin!

Tiny Toes...

Here are the footprints of our baby girl that were taken at the hospital just after she was born...such tiny, sweet toes!

Who Does She Look Like??

So, Jay and I are curious to get everyone's opinoin on who our Little Peanut looks like. So I scanned some baby photos of both Jay and I and I'll add some photos of her down below...so tell us what you think!!

Photos of Laura...

Photos of Jay....

Photos of Zoey....

All of us side by side....

Kelli and Nicole Came to Meet Zoey

Miss Kelli and her little girl Nicole were so excited to meet our little Zoey. Nicole didn't want to let her mama hold Zoey, but you can see that Kelli managed to steal a few cuddles as well. I have a feeling that if Nicole has her way, my little Zoey will be quite the girlie-girl when she gets a little older :-)

I Love my Grammy and Aunt Krissy!

I must say, I am truly blessed to have such an amazing family. My sister and mom made the long trek to Texas just after Zoey was born and they were truly our saving grace while they were here. Kristen was able to stay a whole week and she made homemade mac n cheese for me and melt in your mouth chicken pie!! I had been craving mac n cheese for so long, it felt like home. And of course she was already well on the way to spoiling her first niece before she had to leave :-) We were really fortunate that mom was able to stay an extra week, which was definitely a blessing since Jay was back at work and it was just me and my little girl. Mom cleaned, cooked and grocery shopped and drove us to our appointments. I have no idea what I would have done if she hadn't been able to stay so long to help us out. Mom introduced little Zoey to "Puff the Magic Dragon" and shared all sorts of sweet stories with her first grandbaby. She was also the best at getting little Zoey to go to sleep in her crib at night...so hopefully I was taking notes. But I have a feeling there are some things that no one can do as well as a grandma :-)

Everyone tells you how hard motherhood is with a newborn, they tell you about the sleep deprivation and everything else in life that changes in a split second. But I think no matter how many stories you hear, the true weight of it all is really only understood once you have lived it...and it is very much a rude awakening. It no longer surprises me that some women say it is days before they find time for a shower, or that people seem to forget their name when caring for a newborn. Itis by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but it is also by far the most amazing thing I have ever done...and I wouldn't trade a second of it.

So, I hope that my mom and my sister know just how sincere I truly am when I say, thank-you, from the bottom of my heart, thank-you. I would have never made it through this tough transition without your love and unconditional support. I am sure I was not always pleasant and I wish I would have had more lucid moments just to enjoy your company, but I am so grateful for all that you did while you were here, for the sleep it allowed me and the emotional support. And more than anything, I am truly thankful for the time that each of you got to spend with Zoey. I am so happy that she got to spend time getting to know her Grammy and her Auntie. I think the hardest part of all of this for Jay and I is that we are so far from all of you, all the people that are going to be such a special part of our little Zoey's life. That is one of the reasons I am going to do my best to keep this blog as up to date as possible...I don't want you to miss out on any of the special moments in our little girl's life.

Here are some photos of little Zoey with her Grammy and Aunt Krissy...

So, while mom was taking a nap, Gammy was babysitting little Zoey. Although, from this photo it appears that since Zoey is the one with her eyes open, maybe she was doing the babysitting :-)

Daddy and Zoey

Since Miss Zoey is so small, she is having problems being an efficient nurser. So mom has to pump so we can "top her off" with a bottle and sometimes we have to throw in a little formula to fill her up. We have to keep our little Peanut growing. Despite some of the frustration all of this brings to mom, the beauty is it means dad gets to share in feeding little Zoey. Jay may not think so at 3am when I hand her off to him so I can pump, but it really is special that he gets to share in feeding her and to have that quality time with her. He is such a good daddy already, he was definitely made for it. He has a very gentle way with her and that sweet soothing voice when she is upset. How do I get him to be that patient with me when I am being all fussy :-) We are two very lucky ladies. Here are some sweet photos of daddy feeding his girl.

10 days old!

Miss Julie came back to "practice" taking some photos of Miss Zoey today. I wish my photos looked this good when I was "practicing". Our little Zoey is so beautiful!!

So the hats are still quite big for our little peanut, but she still looks adorable!

I LOVE THE LITTLE SMILES, they are my favorite!

Your first trip to the Pediatrician

September 8th was your first trip to the pediatrician. Mom and dad were so anxious. You were so tiny when we left the hospital, we were afraid we were starving you to death. Not to mention all you wanted to do those first few days home was sleep. It seemed to take us an hour just to get you awake enough to get food in you at every feeding. Being first time parents we had no idea what was normal, so we were of course worried we were doing it all wrong and you were suffering because of it. But that was not the case. Dr. Bottenfield said you were "Perfect"! Of course we knew that already, but it was good to hear it from a professional. When we left the hospital on Saturday you were 4 lbs 15 oz and by Tuesday you were back up to 5 lbs 5 oz, so we must be doing something right. So we left the doctor with orders to keep feeding you every 3 hours to make sure you keep gaining weight, beyond that, just keep on loving you to pieces...as if we could do anything else :-)

You weren't very happy about daddy loading you into the carseat for your first trip out of the house!

Zoey's First Bath!

Seeing as this is my first time as a mom, I had to reference Baby 411 on the appropriate way to give out Little Peanut her first bath. I am sure it is one of those things that would be hard to mess up, some water and a little bit of soap. But for our sanity, we figured we should consult the book in an effort to make it as untraumatic as possible for little Zoey. While mom was working out the how-tos of newborn baby bathing, dad was hard at work assembling your little bathtub.
I am certain we made it much more complicated that it needed to be, but in the end you were clean! Although, even with all the preparation, you were still very unhappy with the entire process, once again exercising those big lungs!

Aunt Krissy got a hold of her clean little niece once you had calmed down a bit.

Wrapped up in your little hooded towel, all clean, calm and happy.

I am 5 Days Old

September 7th was Labor Day and today Miss Zoey marie Johns was 5 days old. Miss Julie came over and took some of the first photos of little Zoey since we brought her home from the hospital. Julie has such a special way of bringing out all the precious qualities of our beautiful little girl! Of course she also has a beautiful subject to work with :-)