3 Months of Grace

3 months ago our precious Juliet Grace was born!

Grace means "the free and unmerited favor of God."  Every day we feel the favor of God because she is in our lives and in our family.  Juliet is such a blessing to us and I can hardly type these words without becoming emotional.  She had a rough start and I still have a hard time talking about her birth, which is why I haven't written about it yet, I guess.  But I feel like I don't want another day to go by without documenting here how much we all adore her and what an absolutely wonderful little person she is!!!

Juliet is THE HAPPIEST little baby I have ever known.  On her 3rd day of life, I took this picture of her smiling, feeding tube and nasal cannula and all...

Her smile is so contagious because her whole little face lights up and she just looks so joyful.  She will just be sitting while I do something, but the second I look at her or talk to her, she breaks into that beautiful smile!  I love her so much!

The day we got home from the hospital (1 week old)

1 week old

Hi,  Daddy!

 

 

Blessing day

She loves her sister... so glad they have each other!

 

Little Tinkerbell for Halloween

Covered in "gifts" from her sister :)

She is such a content little baby.  She wakes up happy and smiling and likes to just lie on a blanket or in bed and talk and look around.  I move her around from the blanket to the swing to the bouncy seat to the playmat when she starts to get restless and then she's happy again.  She rarely cries, but will let me know she's hungry by making little noises and sucking on her fists.  Last week she started sucking her thumb and now she does it all the time.  I actually think it is so adorable because she soothes herself with it when she's tired and she looks so cute sucking away.

This is a normal sleep position for Juliet :)

 She has always been a good sleeper, which I am very thankful to her for.  She loves to be swaddled, which helps her sleep so well, I think.  I swaddle her and put her in bed about 9 or 10 pm and she'll wake up about 4 or 5 am.  Then I bring her in my bed, feed her, and she goes right back to sleep until we all get up about 7 or 8 am.

How does she sleep like this??

She is such a snuggler and she really loves to be held.  It's so hard to put her down and get things done when she is cooing and smiling at me!  Lots of times when I'm holding her and talking to someone, she will start smiling and cooing at them until they notice her and pay attention to her.  And then she breaks into a huge grin, of course!

Some skin-to-skin with Daddy at a week old

The kids love skin-to-skin time too :)

I think Juliet was looking for something!

Watching Grandma Sandy

She loves her sweet big brother, who loves to take care of her

She looks so comfy!  With Grandma Diane

She loves loves loves to watch her siblings play and she smiles the biggest when they talk to her!  It melts my heart every time.

There are so many times that I look over at Juliet and she smiles at me, or when I'm holding her and I just breathe in her sweet baby smell, and I say a prayer of thankfulness that she is my little baby.  Sometimes I can't even believe that she is in our family and that she brings us so much joy.  Considering that the first time I saw her after she was born, she looked like this...

It is truly through the Grace of God that she is with us, healthy and happy and a perfect sweet miracle.  I can't even imagine our lives without our Juliet and I don't think I could possibly love her more.