Meet Genevieve

We are so pleased to introduce our sweet little love Genevieve.

Mary "Genevieve" Miller, born January 10 at 8:23 p.m.

At 36 weeks, she weighed 8 lbs even - pretty off the charts, as we expected!

She is without a doubt, the most precious and perfect addition to our family. She is named for two strong matriarchs of our families - Nicholas' paternal grandmother and my paternal great-grandmother, both Mary. As for Genevieve, we have both always loved the name, which means "woman of the people." Many people know it as a French name, but it actually originated as a Celtic one. Since we are both of Scottish ancestry, we liked that little tidbit too.

I had a fantastic and somewhat unusual labor and delivery, complete with my same wonderful nurse from Eliza's delivery. It was the most perfect, joyful day and we were all very happy to meet this little one who has kept us on our toes the past six weeks!

Genevieve has been the most heavenly, dare I say easiest of newborns thus far. Just a precious, laid-back little baby. I am soaking in her new baby scents and snuggles; she knew her mama so early on. Mothering your newborn second, I have quickly learned, is a much more relaxed, easy process; even with a difficult first week that was almost identical to, maybe a little tougher than Eliza's first difficult week, I have been enjoying her early days so much more. And really, really loving this:

Who does she look like? The jury's still out on that one! She doesn't really look like either of our baby pictures. Miller says he sees more of my side, and I truly can't tell you who I see yet, though I have a few guesses! She also reminds me so much of Eliza sometimes, though they definitely each have their own distinct looks. She and Eliza both had this light brown hair (though Genevieve has a little more of it, thus it looks darker). Eliza's fell out around 8 weeks, and we expect Genevieve's will too as new, light blonde hair is already coming in underneath. She has super long, skinny feet, delicate little hands, a notch in her ear like her mama, and the most delicious cheeks for nibbling.

Tiny as she is, sweet Genevieve has brought a new dimension of joy into our home. Eliza is truly and completely in love with baby sister. The report from the grandparents was that she knew instantly when the picture was texted to them in the waiting room that it was the sister we have been talking about all these months. Her jaw dropped and her face lit up; I didn't get to see it, but I imagine it looked something like this -

The only issue we are having is that she is all over the baby, all the time, so we've been working on boundaries and being respectful of sleeping babies. She loves helping me change her diaper, dress her, swaddle her. She eagerly shares her baby dolls with Genevieve and asks about her constantly. It's the very best reaction we could have hoped for.

Transitioning to a family of four has been pretty seamless, perhaps thanks to the head start we were given by my 5 weeks of strict bedrest. Settling in with a toddler and a new baby has felt so natural compared to the craziness of December, and some of the adjustments we were forced to make ahead of time have served us well in this transition period.  In short, we are doing wonderfully well so far.  We're old pros at this baby thing - all three of us!

We are a blessed little family, surrounded by so much love. And, dear readers, we are so grateful for your thoughts, prayers, and patience as we brought this littlest miss safely into the world.

More later. I promise!