I never wanted to assume that Hannah was colicky, just a fussy baby who was having a hard time napping. Monday we went in for her 2 week check-up and the doctor asked me if she is colicky. I automatically said no because she does a good job sleeping during the night. The last few days have been extra hard though with how fussy she is and not just crying, but screaming to the point where her face turns bright red and looks like sometimes she is holding her breathe she is so mad.

So we have just been loving on her extra and trying anything and everything to calm her down. I’ve been doing better today with listening to her cry, it’s still hard, but if I get okay sleep I’m better at handling her. We are borrowing a swing from some friends in the church whose kid has outgrown it. It is really nice to put her in when I don’t have the energy to carry her around anymore.

Please pray for us and Hannah. That we can figure out what special treatment she likes to calm her down. So far to get her to sleep Tim and I have had to hold her on our chest and calm her down. Then when she is finally asleep we can put her in the bassinet. She was doing so good until just a few days ago, but I’ve been told that if a baby is colicky it usually doesn’t kick in until after the 1st or 2nd week of life. We also have to go back to the doctor this Monday because Hannah wasn’t back up to her birth weight yet. These extra things going on haven’t helped me, only stresses me out more than just trying to figure her out.

It took me 3 days, but I finally cut down the 15 minutes of video I took of Hannah’s first tummy time and made it less than 5 minutes. I don’t expect many people to find lots of enjoyment out of this, but Tim and I like it, and I assume grandparents will too. There’s only so much a little one can do at 10 days of age.

Life has been joyous and crazy tough since getting home with Hannah. She is just so adorable it’s hard to stay upset when staring down at her. We got home Monday after Jon flew back to Texas and had a couple days with Dad and Katelin left at the house. It was great to give Hannah’s grandpa time with her.

Wednesday night was terrible. Hannah had a stomach ache thanks to me overfeeding her during the day with trying to keep her happy. That’s one mistake I hope to never make again. Tim and I were up with Hannah until 3:20am when she finally fell asleep for the first time that night. I felt horrible for Tim too because he had to leave the next day for our annual junior high trip to the city for the weekend. I was able to keep Hannah quiet the rest of the night/morning when she needed fed so Tim could get some good rest. He even slept through me getting around in the morning so I’d be ready for my first morning nap after Hannah ate again.

I’ve always known Tim would be an awesome father. He is so good with Hannah and is always willing to give me a helping hand. I try not to bother him at night if possible so he can get rest so we’re both not exhausted. I figure since I have to get up with Hannah anyways, if I can handle her on my own there’s no reason for Tim to get up unless I’m struggling with her. I think Tim felt bad about that Thursday morning, but just knowing he is more than willing to help, helps me tons with staying sane. It was nice to see him get Hannah comforted Wednesday night because I couldn’t do it, she needed her daddy.

This weekend has gone better than I expected with Tim gone. I’d prefer him to be here, but we’ve always known that one day this would happen. That I’d have to stay home and take care of our child while he is on a youth trip. I am very thankful that my Mom was able to be here for this first time. I wouldn’t have been able to make it through without her. The weekend has been tough on Tim too with having to leave Hannah so soon, with her not even being a week old. Tim piled all the pictures of Hannah he could on his ipod and the videos he has made of her so he can look at them throughout the weekend.

I am so blessed to have Tim for my husband and Hannah is even more blessed to get him as her dad. It’ll be great to see what God teaches us through this new addition to our family. I’m already learning patience and how to let go and let others help. I’m sure this will be a non-stop learning process. I also recruited some women to really pray for me these first few days. God has put some amazing women in my life that I am very thankful for.

Life has been a whirl wind since Hannah Love was born at 4:44am on Saturday, August 8th. Our 7lb, 12 oz and 21 inch baby came into the world screaming making sure everyone knew she was here.

Thursday afternoon Tim and I had an appointment with our baby doctor, and we set a plan to be induced Friday morning because it was either Friday, or wait until Tuesday or Wednesday when family started leaving already. That evening everyone on my side of the family was here by the time Junior High Soul Fuel was ending, so we shared the exciting news that we should be greeting Baby Schmoyer the next day, finding out who our little bundle of joy would be. I still had to call Friday morning and make sure the hospital wasn’t too busy to take us in. Tim and I got hardly any sleep Thursday night with the anticipation of going in to the hospital. I called about 5:30 that morning and was told they were way too busy to take us in. At that point I slept really well being able to relax with the thought that I was getting to skip out on labor.

Friday was a great day spent with family. I was happy and upset that we didn’t go in to be induced because I wanted to meet our little one, but I also wanted to spend time with my family instead of spending the whole time in the hospital for their visit. So dad cooked his famous sausage gravy and biscuits and started the day off great. We relaxed around the house a bit, visiting then headed out to do some site seeing around our area. About 1:30 I started timing my contractions since they seemed to be coming pretty regularly, and I was already at 1 minute contractions every 5 minutes, which is the time they say to come into the hospital at. I didn’t want to be one of those people going into the hospital in false labor, so I timed for the rest of the afternoon. I called the hospital around 4 and talked to a nurse in our church who was on for the night and was told to take a nap or warm bath and see if the contractions would slow down, and if not, give them a call and come on in. We enjoyed mom’s great chili for dinner, I soaked in the tub, then called the hospital when my contractions were coming closer together, and packed up for the night.

We had the best nurses on staff while at the hospital. I am very grateful for everyone that helped us through Hannah’s birth. I tried to be as nice as possible with the labor since everyone else was so kind. I hope I wasn’t too bad. We went through the whole process with 2 doses of nubain, which helped me to sleep between every single contraction, but didn’t help with the pain. I told the doctor if we ever do this again I am for sure getting an epidural. My active labor started around 1:30pm and ended around 4:00am when it was time to push. So after laboring for 14.5 hours and pushing for 30 minutes Hannah was in my arms and I was overjoyed to be holding our little daughter.

Tim has been putting pictures on facebook, and made a new website that you can see pictures at too. I also uploaded pictures on picasa, so you can finally click on my picture link up above to see pictures of our little Hannah Love.

I’m having a great time with my mom here. We had a visit from a critter this morning giving us an adventure today. By the time our junior high students are getting picked up tonight my brother Jon, sister Katelin, and dad should be arriving. I can’t wait to have everyone here. Then we just gotta wait for Baby Schmoyer to join us.

Tim had the executive youth team over at our house Sunday night and one of the topics talked about was having resources handy for parents to use with their teens. When we went to Ohio for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference I went to the Partnering with Parents seminars taught by Jim Burns who is the president/founder or HomeWord. He had a lot of great information and resources to give, and I shared some with our youth team.

The leaders were talking about devotions and bible studies for parents to do with their families, so I signed up for the daily HomeWord Devotionals to see how they are, and have really been enjoying them the past 3 days. I read today’s devotional at such an appropriate time after getting some very encouraging words from a friend on facebook about these next days to come.

Today’s devotional is on Matthew 6:7-8

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father in heaven knows what you need before you ask him.”
If you haven’t checked out HomeWord’s website before, I really encourage you to do so.