what we did the rest of september

Once we finally got Everly home from the NICU, we spent the rest of September basking in sleepy, warm, newborn cuddles.  I made sure I caught up on all the baby snuggles I missed while she was in the hospital, and took full advantage of the excuse that I was too busy taking care of the newborn to cook or clean (or shower) or do laundry--and it was blissful!

My mom came for a week to do all the tasks I just mentioned, and to entertain the boys non-stop.

She fit in some baby-snuggling of her own too!

She takes such good care of us when she visits, and the days always go by too quickly, and then she's gone again :(.  Living far away from family is rough.  You'd think after being away from them for more than 8 years, I'd be used to it, but I'm not.  Someone who's lived away from family for longer than that, please tell me it gets easier.  

When I finally decided that I'd better do some laundry, because it didn't seem to be doing itself, once it was all sorted, I saw this:

and let me just say, laundry it much more fun when it is that color!

Of course, Everly practiced being adorable,

and I repeatedly enjoyed one of the yummiest things in this world: snuggly snoozes with a newborn!

Watching these boys dote on their baby sister melts my heart, over and over again.

And what could possibly be better than (orange!) newborn girls with ruffles, and skirts, and headbands, and pacifiers as big as their head?  Probably nothing.

one month!

 On October 8th, Everly turned one month old!  If every month goes by that quickly, we are in trouble; she'll be one year old in the blink of an eye!  In all fairness, she did spend the first 9 days in the hospital, so we really only got to have her home for 3 weeks. Maybe that's why it seemed to go so quickly.  Let's hope that's it.

I keeping with tradition, here are Everly's one month pictures.  And just for fun, here is a picture of Krew from when he turned one month.  

 There are some similarities, but Everly definitely has her own look.  And Krew was already a chunk!

 At one month, Everly is such an easy baby!  She has been sleeping a 5-6 hour stretch most nights.  She usually only cries when she is hungry or has to burp.  She burps a lot.  She nurses so well, and has already gained more than two pounds since birth.

 She has just started to give a few smiles, but they are so hard to catch on camera.  Mostly she smiles at me first thing in the morning.  I think she was sent to me for a reason, because I generally do not smile in the morning, but seeing her cute, open mouth smile in the morning, makes me happy.  Even if I'm not a morning person.

 I'm loving having a tiny girl to dress up with skirts, and pink, and ruffles, and headbands, and bows.  But more than that, I love thinking about what it's going to be like to have a daughter to raise-to teach about the joys of womanhood and motherhood, to cook with and craft with, to go shopping with, and do all sorts of fun, girly things with.  I already feel like our connection is a little bit different than my connection with my sons.  I'm so lucky to be her mom!

 These two are going to be so much fun to watch growing up.  Krew just loves his baby sister!

everly's pink and gray nursery

I laugh and I cry when I look at these "before" pictures of the nursery.  I laugh because we took the nicest room in the house and completely redecorated it.  There are plenty of other rooms in my house that are in worse need of a make-over, yet this is the one we redid.  I laugh because these pictures of Krew's old nursery have been pinned and repinned on Pinterest thousands of times, and this room no longer looks like this.  I cry because I loved creating such a special place for my baby Krew, who is almost three now, and certainly not a baby any more.  In fact, I really did cry when I walked in and saw the room after Bart had painted over the turquoise and green argyle, because that meant this room really was gone.

After I got over the shock of saying goodbye to my little boy's nursery, I got excited to turn it into a beautiful place for my little baby girl!

I loved the gray walls, so they stayed the same color they had been before.  Then, we added several different colors of pink, and lace accents and this is what we got:

 I'm one of the lucky people who got to purchase two cribs since I had twins first.  We've held onto this crib all these years, and once we found out we were having a girl, I knew I wanted to paint this crib pink.  I love how it turned out!

We painted this old dresser the same pink as the crib and added frames of various shades of pink on the wall, that someday I plan to fill with photos of my princess.

More pink and gray and lace.

One of my favorite elements in this nursery is the lace crib bumper that I made. I like bumpers because they keep tiny arms and legs from getting stuck, and they keep pacifiers from falling out.  But, big puffy bumpers aren't safe since they pose a suffocation risk.  Several stores sell breathable, mesh bumpers, but they aren't very cute.  So, I made a breathable lace bumper that solves all those problems at once.

 This little cluster in the corner is very similar to the one I made for Krew's nursery, but in various shades of pink and white.

This nightstand is one of the first projects I did for the nursery.  This nightstand was actually made by my grandpa, and was in my room all growing up. It's been painted several times before, but this is my favorite: blush pink with confetti glitter, and a jewel handle.

 This rug is the same rug I had in the room before, but I painted over the green and turquoise with two shades of pink.

 One of the first elements I decided on for this nursery was the confetti wall.  I used four different colors of vinyl for the confetti.

 A pink chandelier, of course.

 And the best part of this little girl nursery, is the tiny little girl I made to go in it!

bringing everly home

Tuesday, September 16th Everly was finally discharged from the hospital!

First, she had to wear her first headband.  So cute!

Now, with a cute colorful background.  Look how orange she is!  And this is how she looked when she was well enough to come home.  When her bilirubin was really high, the folds of her neck looked like they had been colored on with a yellow highlighter, the jaundice was that bad.

Before we took her home, we had to change her into her "going home outfit" that daddy bought for her.

Everly was finally home!!!

 Of course she spent that day being doted on by her brothers, who hadn't been able to see her for over a week!

And mommy had fun dressing her up in cute clothes and hair accessories.  I'm going to like having a girl! 

 A few days later, we took our first photo as a family of six!

 And took our first car ride as a family of six too!  We are so happy that she is here and home!