The Day Mack was Born!

Just a few pics from the day Mack was brought into our lives. My incredible sister in law, Liz, was kind enough to come in right after he was born and take these for us. The original plan was for her to come in literally before the cord was cut (she promised not to look "down there"! haha) but Mack's entrance into this world was not quite as easy as we'd hoped and with the special nurses team being in there, they wouldnt let Liz in until Mack was for sure doing ok. So she captured pics of him being about 5 minutes old and beyond :-)

Our big boy weighing in at 8lbs 14.6oz (officially 8lbs 15oz!)

We are so grateful for Dr. Pohl who took wonderful care of us when Rhyan was born, and now again with the birth of Mack!

First family pic (oh, how I wish Rhyan could have been there...)

My sweet boy.

We are doing pretty well around here. We've had some feeding/formula issues with Mack but now that we're on "liquid gold" (aka: alimentum) he is doing very well.He is up to 9lbs 10oz at 2 weeks old! His tummy is settled, he's content and sleeping so much better. He's been giving us one 4 hour stretch at night before getting back to a 3 hour routine for the day time. We've finally been able to see a little bit of what his true temperament is this last 2 days and I truly hope i'm not speaking too soon, but he seems so easy going and sweet.

We let him cry it out to go to sleep last night for the 1st time. It was so much harder than i remembered it being with Rhyan. Jeff was such a huge support, reminding me that seeing as how he calmed every time you walked in the room and simply spoke to him that he's fine... just learning how to be okay by himself... well, I dont know what I would have done without that support. Today, for naps and night time we let him work it out on his own and he cried less than a minute each time. Wow. Lets hope that continues. We are trying very hard to be consistent so that this little process will be as short as possible.

Mack is also doing great at staying awake for about 40 minutes with each feeding. He shows obvious signs of sleepiness with some wild arms and slight fussing which lets us know its time to change his diaper, swaddle him and lay him down.

Its so nice to feel like you're getting to know each other, finally :-) I love when that starts to happen. It takes away some of the uncertainty of having a newborn.

Basically, he's precious. Rhyan adores him and has shown NO jealousy whatsoever towards him. She kisses him, gets diapers for him, puts his empty bottles in the sink and offers him a paci all without being prompted. She's been a huge helper and is just so loving with him. I pray that they share a sweet relationship forever!

We are loving the sweet, gracious timing that the Lord granted us for Mack's birth. It's been wonderful to have Jeff at home this summer so far and I'm sure its a huge part of why Rhyan has adjusted so well.

God is good, regardless of the blessings He grants, but He makes his goodness so obvious with miracles like our children :-)fa