two weeks

 My sweet Ellie is two weeks old. 

I'm almost positive she smiled at me this morning.  Three giant open-mouthed grins while she looked me straight in the eye. 

And she smiled at my brother Nathan a few hours later.  She seems too young to be smiling already, but they were quite convincing!

Those first smiles--they just fill me up and I fall in love, hard.

 She is a sweetheart. So content and easy. 

If I ever let her go too long without feeding her she isn't shy at all about letting me know-

loud, loud voice!

But, she rarely uses it, and mostly all I hear from her are the precious little newborn squeaks and grunts.

 

She is a pretty good sleeper, too-usually only waking up once or twice.  (Which has been a huge blessing since Nicholas has been waking up at 5:30 every morning since daylight savings.  I've quickly discovered that I can't just lounge in bed all morning with the second baby like I did with the first.)

And the new mom exhaustion hasn't hit me yet.  Maybe I'm running on adrenaline with all the moving and stuff going on. 

And a big part of it was all the help I have had-Teresa came last week and was truly a lifesaver, and now my mom and younger brother are here helping out.

But really, I am recovering SO much faster this time.  I'm thinking a big part of that is simply the fact that I didn't have an epidural.  It was crazy intense, but if it means the recovery is this much better, it's so worth it!  I feel great!

Nicholas just adores her, and whenever he thinks I'm not looking he gets up close to her face and whispers to her, tells her how cute she is, and kisses her on the nose.

We're pretty much in deep deep love with this baby girl.