Well, it took me all day long to get this video up on YouTube. After several tries the way I normally do it, Tim told me a different way to try, and it worked! It’s a long one, just to warn you. I took photage of Hannah a few times this week, and instead of making several individual videos I figured I’d put them all together. There is also a video on Tim’s website http://timschmoyer.me of our date night we had last week.

Hannah has finally found her cute cry, and I just love it! I’ve been trying to make the videos shorter, although I could keep on recording her forever. She is just so cute! And I am so proud to say that Hannah just went down for a nap in her crib all happy and fell asleep without a cry. She is such a big girl!

Hopefully I’ll be caught up soon on videos and will be able to post them on the day I take them…if not the day after. This video is from last Saturday September 12 when she turned 5 weeks old.

One of my favorite parts of youth ministry is going to student’s events. Whether it’s sports, band, choir, anything. I like to go and meet the students where they are, and it’s also a great opportunity to get to know the parents of our youth. When we first moved to Minnesota I think a few people were surprised to see us at events since we don’t have a kid of our own to go watch, which was a great time to let people know that we enjoy going and seeing what our youth are involved in, and to encourage them. Already with the school year kicking off, Tim, Hannah and I have been able to make a soccer game and 2 tennis matches, one of which we had 5 youth girls playing at the same time on 4 different courts. Even though I’m not leading a small group this Fall, I can take advantage of meeting the youth in their own element. And Hannah is always a popular girl wherever we go. I love watching the youth girls interact with her!

Hannah is 5 weeks old, and things are starting to settle down. The first 3 weeks of her life were just crazy, and with looking bad at how things have gone already, I have realized my biggest mistake already.

For 9 months I read and read and read about Hannah’s development, what was going on with me and all sorts of information about labor and delivery. I was totally prepped to welcome our little one into this world, at least that’s what I thought. I looked over the fact that I needed to read up on and learn about everything that would happen after Hannah arrived. I’m not sure I could’ve been totally prepared for her to be here, or even a little prepared for parenthood, but I’m sure it could’ve helped to know a little something.

I wasn’t aware of how exhausted I would be after the delivery with taking care of Hannah and recovering. I am very thankful to have had my mom here for the first week of Hannah’s life so I could feed our little one and hand her over to my mom so I could get rest. I also wasn’t aware of how stressful taking care of a baby could be and what kind of effect it would have on mine and Tim’s relationship. Tim has been great through everything, but I on the other hand have been difficult to get along with. I am very blessed to have a wonderful husband to help me out with taking care of Hannah, and I know it’ll take both of us to raise her up the way we’ve been praying about since we found out we got pregnant.

When we got pregnant I decided that I wouldn’t make any commitments to any of our church ministries with Hannah being so young at the beginning of the Fall. I still go back and forth with that decision because I have been teaching and leading small groups and classes since I got out of high school. It feels weird not to have a schedule full of commitments I’ve made to ministry, but I do keep busy taking care of Hannah. My prayer now is that God will show me what kind of ministry he wants me to do with Hannah here. Becoming a parent opens me up to a whole new way to connect with people, and I’m excited to find out what God has in store for me. As of now I started going to a Sunday School class for myself. Hannah went with me, and I’ve been contemplating if we should go ahead and put her in the nursery because I don’t want her to be a distraction, but I don’t want to put a strain on the nursery staff because with a baby so young they pretty much need one on one attention if they’re not asleep. I also signed up for a Thursday morning women’s Bible study. I’m excited to start learning again instead of teaching all the time. I think it’s important to feed yourself, and hopefully by the Spring or next Fall I’ll be right back into leading.

I feel like every day is a new experience. Nothing is predictable right now, it all depends on  how the night goes, then how Hannah does with her naps during the day. I try to fit one trip out of the house every day to help me feel a little normal. The picture of Hannah above is from this morning after she ate breakfast. She was just too cute not to take a picture when she had such a full and happy tummy.

I’m a little late getting this video posted…by a week.

And here’s some great news of what has been going on with Hannah…

At 3 weeks we went back to the doctor to see if Hannah was back at her birth weight yet, and she wasn’t. She gained one ounce during the whole week, which Tim’s mom graciously kept on reminding me that at least she gained and didn’t loose weight. I really needed to hear that. It was still very hard to hear the news from the doctor that I couldn’t provide enough food for Hannah on my own, that we needed to start supplementing. We had everyone in Tim’s family over at our house that day to go back to after the doctor’s visit, which I wasn’t too sure how that would go after I spent the trip home crying. But having everyone around was just what I needed with a caring mother-in-law and my 2 sister-in-laws around to talk to. My other supports with my new venture into motherhood have been my Mom, 2 other youth pastor’s wives that I got to meet early this year in Ohio, a great friend in the church and my friend Sarah down in Texas. It is wonderful to have all these women around me who have gone through this before.

So…Tuesday we went back to the doctor on Hannah’s one month birthday. The Monday before she weighed in at 7lbs, 9oz and we were trying to get her back up to her birth weight of 7lbs 12 oz…well, to our surprise she weighed in at 8lbs 12 oz!!! I was thinking that maybe she would be close to 8lbs with the added formula she was put on, but to gain over a pound in a week just shocked me! She has been a much happier baby now though, and I have felt a lot more rested with not having to deal with a screaming baby. I have gotten to the point where I really enjoy my time with Hannah now that I understand her needs better. It was hard at first when I was clueless and couldn’t handle her screaming for hours. I actually enjoy bottle feeding Hannah now because it takes some pressure off of me, and gives Tim the chance to take a turn to feed her too. I’m glad she is only getting half formula because it already goes quickly, and will start to get expensive when we have to start buying it when our freebies run out.

Hannah had another doctors appointment yesterday because she wasn’t at her birth weight at 2 weeks of age. Well, yesterday at 3 weeks she still wasn’t. Turns out Hannah wasn’t getting enough to eat, so now we’re supplementing with formula. It was really hard news to get, and I had a hard time feeding her from a bottle the first time last night, even though I knew it wasn’t her first time to eat from a bottle. I’ve already noticed a difference in Hannah though, starting with her feeding at 5am this morning. The last few mornings she has been really fussy from about 5am-7:30am until her next feeding. Well, this morning after nursing and getting a formula supplement she went right back to sleep and Tim and I didn’t get up again until 8am. It was great to sleep in again with her, and now I am holding a very happy and full little girl in my lap. I’ve seen a lot more grins on her face today too with her full tummy. She is so cute! So the doctor and I figured yesterday that all her colicky tendencies were probably Hannah just being very hungry, so hopefully this week will be much better than last.

Hannah wasn’t wild about the taste of formula when she first tasted it last night even mixed with some of mom’s milk. As soon as she got a taste she looked up at me with a dirty little look, but ate some anyways. She eats pretty good from a bottle, but the flow is super fast for her, so we go through a burp rag at each feeding, but she is getting all the food she needs now, and that is great! Hannah and I went to Target today to find if there were any other bottle nipples with slower flow than the ones we have, but we’re already using the slowest they had. Hopefully with some more experience we’ll get better and have cleaner feedings. I should’ve just bought some bibs for her, but didn’t think about that ’til now.

Tim’s family was in town for a few days and just left today. It was wonderful to have the extra help around and to spend time with everyone. Hopefully I’ll start to update more often with more pictures and videos of Hannah. She hasn’t been fussy today, which would be perfect, but I’m enjoying a day of relaxing with my baby girl. We’ll put some up soon though.