Week 1: 4th of July

Lauren's second week was full of new meetings with family, another doctor's appointment, her first holiday and first birthday party.

She met her 4 boy cousins this week. Austin (8) and Isaac (6) were happy to hold and meet Lauren for the first time. They are really good with her and were very gentle. Ethan (3) and Lucas (1) seemed to be less interested and slept during their visit; but we didn't let that stop the pictures!

We went to Crystal Lake for the 4th of July to hang out for the day. Jordan and Shea Tarver gave her the adorable bikini and she made her swim suit debut in it! She only liked it for a few minutes. It looks like it will fit her for a while, so I'm sure there will be more bikini shots in this one in the future. Kaitlin turned 18 on July 5 and we had her birthday dinner. Lauren missed singing Happy Birthday to her Aunt Kay because she had a blow-out with her diaper...next year, Aunt Kay. This was also the first time that Lauren met her cousin, Jackson Christopher, born 9 days before Lauren. They are going to grow up protecting each other...Holly and Christopher are going to be great parents.

Daddy also went back to work this week at his office. One night, he brought work home and decided to check out Lauren's mouth...all is good! This is a picture of the mailbox cover at Daddy's office announcing Lauren's birth with "It's a Girl!".

There was also her second doctor's appointment to make sure she was still gaining weight and her bilirubin level was dropping. She is continuing to be a good eater! She weighed 8lb 7oz...that's a 5oz gain in 3 days, again! Her bilirubin level is continuing to drop, so no worries there!

Milestones: she is continuing to have awesome sleep habits at night, sometime sleeping as long as 5 1/2 hours! During the day, she eats every 3-4 1/2 hours and is no longer on formula supplements. We are so lucky! I hope our luck doesn't run out! We are relying on her to set the eating and sleeping schedule right now, so we just respond to what she is doing or wants to do. In the next few weeks, we hope to start the concepts from "Baby Wise". She is also becoming more alert and looking at us for longer periods of time and holds her head up off our shoulders. Her neck, arms and legs are becoming so strong! We are very proud parents already!