Noah's Rainbow

March 25, 2021 To my Rainbow Baby, Henry, Today, you are six weeks old! We have had a really great week, little one!! The adjustments we have made to your feeding regimen since being at the pediatrician have made a HUGE difference. You are sleeping great at night, less fussy during the day, more alert and playful when you are awake, and growing like a weed! Your cheeks are filling out and your belly is getting bigger in that adorable, baby fat way. If I thought you were growing like crazy before, you are really doing so now, and I’m so happy for that. I want you to thrive and be healthy, and I’m so grateful that God has led us to a pediatrician with such a great lactation consultant to help us make sure that you are eating properly so that you will be able to do that! And it doesn’t hurt that Mommy is getting more sleep and feeling less like a zombie! You had another busy week this week with visitors and adventures out of the house! On Monday, you got to meet your Aunt Ashley for the f

  March 18, 2021 To my Rainbow Baby, Henry, Today, you are five weeks old! I know I start my letters every week by talking about how quickly time is moving and how big you are getting, but it really is insane to me that you have already been in the world for five weeks!! The moment I knew you were going to be born seems like only seconds ago, yet 35 days have gone by since then. Every week, I wish more and more that I could make time stand still, that I could keep you this little for just a bit longer. But with each week that goes by, you are growing and changing and developing your little personality, and I love watching that happen, too. Being a mom is a crazy whirlwind of tension between wanting to freeze the present moment and wanting to see what your future holds. I love it so much! We’ve had a week of growing pains and milestones in our crash course on parenthood. We’ve been noticing for the past week or so that you have seemed utterly ravenous, especially at night. You seemed to

March 11, 2021 To my Rainbow Baby, Henry, Today, you are four weeks- which is officially 1 month- old!! How is that possible?! Where have the last 28 days gone?! You are growing so fast, getting bigger and more personality everyday, and I just want time to stand still! I am already a third of the way done with my maternity leave, and even though summer will begin and give us another 10 weeks together two weeks after I go back to work, I am already feeling like this special time we’re having together just the two of us is flying by. I’m doing my best to drink up every moment I have while you are this little, because I know it will be gone before I know it. I’ve been thinking a lot about the passage of time this week because everyone is talking about the fact that we’ve officially been in this pandemic for a year. A year of shut downs, a year of socially distancing, a year of mask wearing, a year of anything but normal. For us in particular, it has also been a year since we reached a maj

March 4, 2021 To my Rainbow Baby, Henry, Today, you are three weeks old! Holy cow, time is going warp speed. How are we only a week away from you being one month?! Time, please stop!! While so much of this newborn parenting season is hard, I do not want it to go by too fast. I am loving every minute of being your Mommy, little one, even when you don’t want to go back to sleep at 2:30 in the morning! I have been dreaming so long of being a mother, and now that I have finally been blessed with that opportunity, I want to soak up every single second of my time with you. Sleep deprivation and all!! Speaking of sleep deprivation, we’ve made the big transition to daddy going back to work fully this week, and he’s had a very busy week back. It’s mostly just been me and you at home together during the day, and me and you up all night to nurse. Your grandparents have been here for at least part of most days, but mostly we’ve been working on a routine of mommy and son. This week has been pretty

February 25, 2021 To my Rainbow Baby, Henry, Today, you are two weeks old! Oh how time is flying!! I cannot believe you have been out of my belly for two weeks already, and tomorrow is your due date! You are growing like crazy, too. I looked at the pictures of you in your car seat when we brought you home from the hospital and compared them to how you look in the car seat now. You are already so much longer and filling up the seat more! Your cheeks are a bit chunkier and your legs are starting to be long enough to fill up your 0-3 months sleepers. You change a little bit everyday, which I love watching so much, but I also want time to stand still so I can keep you this little forever. I’m so excited for the adventures we’ll have when you are bigger and older, but each of these memories will be gone before we know it, and I just want it all to slow down!! You have had some adventures this week! Last Friday, we took you for your newborn photo session. I was a little nervous that you’d be

February 18, 2021 To my Rainbow Baby, Henry, Today, you are one week old! How is that possible already?! You came into this world in a whirl of excitement, nerves, and surprise, and you have kept us on our toes ever since. I still cannot believe that you are actually here already, that my water actually broke and I actually went into labor last week. Sometimes it still feels like a crazy dream because I was truly convinced that I was nowhere near delivery and that you were going to show up late. Just a week prior to your birth, I had not begun to dilate. I hadn’t felt a single Braxton Hicks contraction. I had told several people that, while most people say the last month of pregnancy feels like a million years, I hadn’t started feeling like that yet. Even with all of that seeming to point to the fact that you were not close to arriving, exactly one week later, my water broke without any signs of labor prior, the first contractions I felt were real ones, and when I arrived at the hospit