First Professional Pictures

We thought it'd be fun to dress Abigial all up and take her to get her first professional pictures. What was supposed to be a one hour project, ended up taking 2 1/2 hours. What a day! I was pretty excited to have her all dolled-up in an outfit Grandma Sue made for her, but things didn't start off so great. I hoped she would take a nap in the morning so I could shower and get ready for the day. Of course, what was I thinking!?! Why would she actually be on schedule today of all days? She completely skipped her morning nap, which made it difficult to do anything but listen to her fuss and cry.

By the time Mike got home, I was pretty anxious about the whole thing. What if she cried in all the pictures because she missed her nap? Or what if she was asleep through the whole thing....we wanted her to be awake for some of the pictures. Needless to say, I didn't have to worry about her at all. She put on quite the show! She was awake for the whole photo shoot and actually looked happy. No tears, no fussing...just adorable, sweet little Abigail with bright, wondering eyes. She feel asleep right after the pictures, which was GREAT because we waited an hour for them to actually show us the pictures. It was a long afternoon, but well-worth the wait.

The pictures turned out BEAUTIFULLY; I can't wait to post the link on here when we get them. For now, here is a preview of her cute little outfit, minus the sweater she wore with it. She wasn't as cooperative this evening when I dressed her all up again. Hence the reason she has her pacifier in. She refused to take the picture without it. I think she was thinking, "Mom, are you kidding me? I just got out of this outfit. No more!" I still think she is a doll!

Our Sweet Abigail

Abigail Christine Hall came to the world on September 26, 2007. She came a week early, but was a healthy 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. Since her arrival 4 weeks ago, Mike and I have been trying to adjust to being parents. No words can explain the many changes and sacrifices you make as a parent. People try to tell you it's hard at first, you don't get sleep, and your body is on auto-pilot, but you really don't get it or understand until you experience it for yourself. Now that we are experiencing it firsthand, here are my insights to the first 4 weeks of parenthood.

• Each day I wake-up excited to see Abigail, but each night I wish she would sleep longer than 4 hours at a time.
  
• I used to think 3 hours was a long time--especially growing up, I thought church was forever long, but now that I nurse every 3 hours, time FLIES by. I finish nursing and by the time I put her down for a nap, it's time to nurse again.


• We put Abby in our room the first few nights, but after she developed a "grunting goat" noise, I said, NO MORE! She is now in her own room and we can only faintly hear her grunting. Thank goodness!


• People always told me that Mike would become an extreme deep sleeper after Abby was born, but I never really thought he would. I now can say that not only is he a deep sleeper, he's a bed hogger! After 9 months of sleeping with a body pillow, Mike is taking full advantage of the middle of the bed!


• Watching Mike change one of his first dirty diapers was a hoot! I think we went through one whole package of wipes before he was finished. He didn't want to get his hands dirty!! Now he's a professional, making sure she doesn't sneek a pee in while he's putting a new diaper on. One day, he changed her diaper three times in a row and each time she peed before he got the new diaper on!


• You really can't spoil a baby by holding them too much. OR can you? I used to think I would put my babies down as much as possible, but it is soooo hard to put sweet Abigail down. I just want to hold her all day. Of course, I have other things I want to do, too, so I eventually do put her down, but sometimes I put off everything (making dinner, taking a shower) so I can just hold her and cuddle her. No harm done, right?

We are so excited to have sweet Abigail in our home. She is such a blessing to have! Every day I look at her and think, Wow! She is our baby and a part of our little family! We sure do love having her around.