Sleep: The first few nights at home were hard as Ruthie had her days and nights mixed up and thought it would be fun to just hang out with Mommy at 3am but Paul was home so he was able to watch the girls during the day so I could sleep. Fortunately we got Ruthie turned around quickly and now she is up every 3-4 hours at night (although we had one night where she had a 6hr stretch between feeds!) and goes back to sleep pretty quickly after nursing and this schedule is pretty doable! During the day she generally nurses every 3hrs and then stays awake for 1- 1 1/2hrs (sometimes even 2hrs) before going back to sleep until her next feed. During the day she sleeps in the bouncer and at night she sleeps in the crib.
Baths: Ruthie has gotten a few baths since she came home from the hospital and isn't completely opposed. She's still getting sponge baths but I think she'll really enjoy her baths once she can sit in the water! One of the advantages of being baby #3 is that your Mommy can give a really fast sponge bath!
Play: Ruthie is a SUPER alert baby. She is very aware of what is going on around her and loves to sit in her bouncer and watch the chaos of our house! She also loves her play gym and is content to lay there for extended amounts of time, especially if her sisters come sit by her and read or play. She has done some tummy time as well and will usually lay on her tummy for about 5 minutes quite happily. She is VERY strong loves to lift her head and kick her legs while she's on her tummy.
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| Ruthie loves listening to the bedtime story. |
Siblings: Ruthie LOVES her sisters and they love her. From the day we brought her home she has been very responsive to Emmie and Ellie's voices. Emmie and Ellie love to hug, kiss, and hold Ruthie. Emmie has gotten pretty good at holding her and remembering to hold her head. Ellie doesn't really "hold" Ruthie...she just wants to kiss all over her! Franklin loves Ruthie but Ruthie is still trying to figure Franklin out. Sometimes he'll get right in front of her face and her eyes get really big! Ruthie has seamlessly transitioned into our family. The girls talk about her like she's always been a part of our family and Ruthie seems to love the chaotic world that she was born into!
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| Every little girl needs a guard dog! |
Outings: We haven't gotten out too much but we have managed to take some walks (when it wasn't 30 degrees outside...it's been so cold this week!) and Ruthie seems to enjoy her walks. Today Ruthie and I dropped Franklin off to be groomed and then ran a few quick errands...she was quite agreeable as she slept the entire trip.
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| On Sunday, Emmie and I took Ruthie on her first walk around the neighborhood. |
Visitors: Ruthie has had mostly just family visit her. This past week I've been focused on adjusting to our new normal and recovering from all the excitement and events of the last few weeks so it's mostly just been our little family. We have had a few visitors though. Clara, Brooks, and Mary Ruth came by on Sunday (Ruthie had to meet her "other sister", Mary Ruth...also when I go back to work Clara will have Emmie, Ellie, Mary Ruth, and Ruthie...do you think anyone will ever get called the right name?) as did my friend Elizabeth and her husband and little boy and everyone brought us dinner. My friend Brooke also braved the awful cold rain on Thursday and brought us a meal. I have been so grateful for their meals as they got us through the week without us having to get takeout and I didn't have to cook at all. This was especially helpful since Paul worked 3 days last week. One of my college roommates, Julie, came all the way from Myrtle Beach to visit on Wednesday and I LOVED getting to catch up with her (and she brought us Groucho's for lunch!)...we definitely don't see enough of each other. My parents also came on Wednesday afternoon and they also brought dinner. (Did I mention we've eaten VERY well this week!) Paul's parents came today and helped out with the big girls, taking them to My Gym, the library, and then out to lunch. This afternoon they watched the girls and I got the BEST nap! Paul's dad did fixed a few things around the house while they were here and this evening they went and picked up Red Robin for dinner...yumm! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to take care of us!
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| Grandaddy and all his little girls! |
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| Julie and Ruthie |
All about her name: We had a boy name picked out from the beginning (Jonathan Paul Jr. "JP") but even going into the hospital we still hadn't settled on a girl's name. For awhile we'd been down to two names: Charlotte and Evelyn. Then we sat down and really talked about names and added some to the list and when we headed to the hospital we were down to two names again: Ruth and Rose and decided that when we met the baby (if baby was a girl) we would pick a name. For a long time the girls had called the baby "Baby Rosie" and after hearing the name for months it really grew on us. Ruth though was a very special name. My mom had a sister born with Spina Bifida who passed away as a child and her name was Martha Ruth and I've always loved the name Ruth so at some point a few weeks before my due date Ruth was added to the list. After we picked December 27th for the induction I found out that Martha's birthday was December 27th. When our baby was born I took one look at her and knew she was Ruth and I loved the fact that she was born on the same day as my mom's sister who shared her name. Ruthie's middle name, Mitchell, is a family name on my side. Mitchell was my middle name, and my dad, granddaddy, and great-grandfather's middle names. So, Ruth Mitchell has a pretty special name!
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