Our Favorite Time of Day

Motherhood is more thrilling, wonderful, difficult, exhausting, miraculous, and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.  These past four months we have navigated:

• Nursing: no one could've prepared me for how hard this is. Haven has never consistently latched so the only way we've been successful is using a nipple shield; I used to feel guilty and try weaning her, but right now I'm okay with it-maybe we'll try weaning again, but maybe not.
• Reflux: we endured an emergency room visit and stay at Primary Children's Hospital to diagnose Haven with some severe reflux. She has been a new baby ever since we started Rinitidine and BioGaia probiotics, we've even recently started weaning her Rinitidine down!
• EVERYTHING that is encompassed in sleeping habits: swaddling, reflux bedding, self soothing, trying so hard to get her to take a binky-unsuccessfully...she has gone through phases of cat naps to three hour naps, up every two hours and a record 7.5 hours straight the other night. We still don't have consistently long or short naps OR good or bad nights-they're all over the place. Lately, she's been comfort nursing like crazy. 
• Milestones: baby girl mastered smiling in November (1 mo), laughed for the first time in February (3 mos), rolled front-to-back in January (3 mos) and back-to-front in February (3 mos). She is obsessed with sucking on her bottom lip and her fists, loves her ears rubbed, and is starting to grab toys and bring them to her mouth. 
• Mom returning to work: this one has been hard. I'm so blessed to have a career I love, an incredible company and work family to work for, and very few hours a week (10-15) BUT this has been hard. I don't feel like I can be 100% at work or at home and that's been tough. We've adjusted and thank HEAVENS she takes a bottle like a champ. The greatest blessing of this has been seeing the bond that comes from the one-on-one time she has with her daddy--they're such buds!

Whether we are having a hard day or a perfect day, I always look forward to our nightly routine. Both Marshall and I say it's our favorite time of day-we love the giggles, the family time, and the sweet memories that come from doing the same thing every evening. This week I decided to pull out the Nikon and be more intentional about documenting this routine, instead of just relying on snap shots on my phone. Here's a peek into evenings at the Hall's:

Play time! Enjoying Haven's faces, playing with toys, practicing standing and sitting, video chatting with family all over the world, and tuckering this little girl out!

Bath time! Yes, we give her a bath every night. I know this is probably excessive and most pediatricians would say it's unnecessary-however, this girl has reflux, which means she has some serious neck cheese at the end of the day, no matter how efficient our burp cloth wiping is!

Daddy gets her out of her clothes while Mommy gets the bath temperature just right.

Haven loves sucking on her washcloth. Her little mouth will follow my hand as I try to wash her until I give in and let her have it. 

Lotion time! Girlfriend's got Eczema like her daddy so we're pretty serious about our lotion regiment over here.

Jamma time! Cutest PJ wearer in the land. 

Book time! We always pick a fun children's book and take turns reading each page spread to a very attentive listener! My heart melts when she looks at books and smiles at our voices, I love sharing my love of books with her!

Family prayer time! We are trying to teach her to fold her little hands, but for now we're just happy if she listens! 

Swaddle time! Lights out! Lullabies and Comfort nursing to sleep! 

We sure love this little Chirp!