2 weeks old

Little Miss Ruthie is now 2 weeks (and 1 day) old! She is such a joy and we're all adjusting pretty well to life as a family of 6 (we have to include Franklin in the count of course!).

I will say that the adjustment would be even smoother if it was a tad bit warmer and stopped raining...the big sisters are going stir crazy...and so am I!! (There is hope...tomorrow is supposed to be 60 and sunny.)
Ruthie is still getting up every 3-4.5 hours at night and goes right back to sleep after she nurses so I'm managing to get a fair amount of sleep. Ruthie is such a content baby and I finally have a child that seems to somewhat enjoy the swing! The only time Ruthie fusses much is when she's tired, hungry, or needs a diaper change (and this little girl can go through some diapers...I generally change a soaking wet diaper before I feed her and before I put her down for her nap which is about 1.5 hours later and sometimes I change one in between those!).
Paul's parents came last Saturday and took the girls to My Gym, the library, and chick-fil-a. The girls enjoyed their outing and I definitely enjoyed the extra sleep I got!

My mom spent a few days with us last week and is coming back for a few days this week. It was really nice to have the extra pair of hands plus she cooked dinner for us every night and left us with a stocked freezer!
Yesterday Ruthie had her 2 week appointment and she was 8lb 3oz and 20in long and got a clean bill of health. I must say I was pretty impressed with myself yesterday. Ruthie's appointment was in Lexington (a solid 30min drive from our house) at 9:30 in the morning. I managed to get everyone fed, dressed, in the car and to the doctor's office ON TIME. I'm going to confess...I'm pretty good at making it most places on time but I can't ever seem to get to the pediatrician on time...I'm always about 5 minutes late and it doesn't seem to matter how early I leave! So needless to say I was quite proud that I managed to get THREE children there on time.
I'm thinking that we can do this whole 3 little girls thing.

You want how big of a wedding?!?

All About Ruthie

Ruthie is now 1 week (and 1 day) old and life in our house is settling into a routine.  We were able to come home from the hospital after 24hrs as both Ruthie and I were doing well and I was quite happy to not have to spend an extra night in the hospital!

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.

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!

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.

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!

 

Grandaddy and all his little girls!

 

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!

Ruth Mitchell Edwards

Our sweet little Ruthie was born at 2:31pm. She is 7lb 13oz and 19.5in. She has an adorable, round little face and curly dark hair and we are so in love with her!

Emmie and Ellie were so thrilled to meet her and have already kissed all over her!

Welcome to the world!

We are so excited to introduce you to Ruth Mitchell Edwards. Ruthie was born at 2:31pm and we are madly in love with her! Pictures coming soon!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Yesterday we went to the children's service at church which was wonderful. I love how relaxed it is because it's full of children so it's ok if they're a little wiggly or talk a little louder than they should. Dr. Thomas did the message and as always he was entertaining while teaching the children important biblical truths.

We had pizza for dinner and then watched The Polar Express. We did this last year as well but it just didn't hold either one of their attention spans for very long but this year they LOVED it. We have read the book a lot recently so they were quite fascinated by the movie. They also had a candy cane to eat and some hot chocolate to drink during the movie which they loved! We used the teacups from Emmie's birthday for the hot chocolate so they felt extra special!

watching the movie...Emmie sat just like that for about the first 10 minutes of the movie!

The girls started out on the blanket on the floor but ended up on the couch with us. I LOVE this picture of them cuddled up together! I just love how much they love each other!

This morning Paul and I were BOTH awake before the girls. What kind of sense does that make? Then I had the monitor on so that I could hear the girls when they woke up and intercept them before they went in the den and I was sitting there listening to the monitor, waiting for them to wake up, and Emmie pops up beside my bed saying "Santa came! He brought me my Rapunzel doll!". I wish I could have gotten that excitement on video...she was so thrilled! Apparently she had very quietly gotten out of bed and gone into the den and checked out all the presents (she didn't touch anything though which I thought was really funny...just looked!). So Emmie and I went and woke Ellie up while Paul got out the video camera and then we all went and checked out the Santa presents and looked in our stockings. I think Franklin was the most excited about Christmas this year. He was like a big kid and it was hilarious!

Letter to Santa

Santa came!

Emmie's Santa gifts

Ellie's Santa gifts (By the way, the little jars are powder that you mix with water to make snow...supposedly it lasts for weeks...if our test sample does well I think we'll fill the sandbox up with snow!)

gifts for Emmie and Ellie

Emmie's much desired Rapunzel doll. I think she's being saying since about June that that was what she wanted from Santa...her only request! Last year she wanted an Arial doll and snow...Santa wasn't able to deliver on the snow...hence the snow this year! 

Ellie's  Tiana doll...in case you're not up on your Disney princess movies, Tiana is from the Princess and the Frog which is  a newer one set in New Orleans...it's one of my favorites!

Look at those flopping ears....he's so excited!

I love this picture because Ellie has her gifts all over the place and Emmie's are lined up in a row...such a  great picture of their personalities!

 

We ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and my parents and Uncle Ben arrived about the time we finished. The girls hadn't seen Ben since summer and they were SOOOO excited to see him! We opened presents and once again Franklin was the most excited! When it was his turn he would come flying across the room, tail wagging, and stick his head in his gift bag. The girls loved all their presents and got lots of their favorite things!

Excited about his present!

Emmie got a hairstyling kit complete with play scissors. By the way, see how passively Ellie is sitting there letting Emmie do whatever she wants? That's how Ellie's curls got chopped off a few months ago...

Ellie decided to chop off Gran's curls! When she's really focused on something she opens her mouth and sometimes sticks out her tongue...so cute.

Treats!

One of our traditions is that the girls get each other a book for Christmas. Emmie picked The Rainbow Fish for Ellie and I love this picture of Emmie "reading" it to Ellie.

Paul's boomerang! Or is it half a picture frame?

Franklin was so glad to see Uncle Ben..he LOVES for Ben to hold him like a baby but won't let anyone else hold him that way!

Emmie's Christmas Program

Today was Emmie's Christmas program at preschool. (Baby #3 had strict instructions that it was not allowed to arrive before this program...since it's her very first school program.) I found out about a week ago that Emmie's class was dressing as kangaroos so I was very interested to see how this played out. (It was a Christmas Around the World theme so then the kangaroos made more sense.) I was sitting right behind the CD player so it's a little hard to see the kids but you can tell that Emmie is singing for much of the song! Also, note the terrified expression on her face when they first come out...I thought she might start crying when she saw all the people! Suprisingly she is a little on the shy side, especially in a crowd, which comes as a surprise to those who know her, as at home she is quite loud and loves to be the center of attention!

sweetness

I love these moments!