Sugar & Strawberries: The Greatest Blessings of All...

...are those that you never fathomed...like 3 a.m. feedings, turning over at 7 a.m. to a wide awake 4 week old, sitting on the couch for hours with her on my chest sleeping, her unexpected smiles and giggles that most likely don't mean anything at this age but we can still imagine they do.

These are moments that I thank God for every day. I have to admit that the first couple weeks of being a mother were difficult and I often found myself wondering if I could do this. I found myself thinking, "in just a few months it will get easier..." and then I would catch myself and think..."soak up every minute!! You'll never get these back!!" And so as each day passes I find myself falling more in love with this little blessing from God - another child for His kingdom.

Last night I put Emory in her little bed after a feeding and as I lay back down I couldn't help but thank God for her. Even though I lose much more sleep than I ever did before and even though I don't have the freedom that I once did and yes, even though this control freak has had to give up all control to this little one, I still thank God every day for her. There are some difficult times when I'm tired, or cranky, or Andy is tired or cranky, or I feel like I'm suffocating in this house and just want to go shopping all day like I used to...but the blessings majorly outweigh those difficult times to the point that they just...fade away.

Emory is 4 weeks now and changing so much every day! Last Thursday we went to see the lactation nurse/nurse practitioner at our pediatrician's office. She wanted to weigh Emory and then watch a feeding to make sure everything is going okay and then weigh her again. Emory weighed 9 pounds!! We were so excited to see that she had gained. The feeding went great and Nancy (the nurse) said that she was "a piglet!" She said everything was looking good and then when we weighed her after the feeding, we discovered that she had eaten 3 ounces! Nancy was very impressed and said that is just great for her age!

Emory and I had a pretty uneventful Friday night. Andy left on Friday morning for Fayetteville for his last class of the semester so my mom came Friday night to stay with us. She left pretty early Saturday morning so Em and I just laid around all Saturday until Andy came home around 4. Since it was Andy's 30th birthday (!!) we ordered Copeland's and ate a birthday dinner here, together, since we didn't want to take Emory out in the cold weather. The food was great!

Sunday night my parents had a get together at their house for Andy's birthday. They ordered barbeque and Andy's mom picked up his favorite ice cream cake from TCBY. It was Emory's first time meeting her great-grandpa (my grandpa) "Pop"!! He just loved her, of course!

Emory and her Pop meeting for the first time!

Emory and her Nana and Pop

We had a great time celebrating Andy's birthday!! Tuesday morning (Emory's 4 week birthday!!) we got up to finish our newborn pictures with Ashley. They turned out so beautiful and we are so happy! I will post two since there are so many that I love!!