Protecting Your Child

I look at my baby girl and my heart just feels so overfilled with love. I never knew it was possible to love someone so much. The expression "I love you so much it hurts" finally makes sense to me. But with this love comes worries about her future.
I may be a young mom, but Ive had heartache and trials in my life already. I look at Loralai and I think; how do I protect her from that? How do I help her to make the right choices and avoid the pain life can bring? I just want to shield her and make sure she is happy, but I dont want to be so over-protective that she cant be independent. I guess in the end all you can do is trust that you raise you kids right and just love them and be there for them. Hopefully at the end of the day that will be enough.

Naptime Is Golden

If I could give one piece of advice to every other mom out there, it would be to take advantage of every nap your baby goes down for. Unless you have something else that you really have to do, use the babies first nap of the day to get your shower in. (Thank you to my mother's friend for passing along that piece of advice to me.)
Whenever Loralai goes down for a nap I either nap with her, get chores done around the house, eat, or just take some time to myself. Believe it or not eating when I am alone with her and have no one to help would probably not be possible if I didnt do it while she was asleep. When she is awake, she always seems to know when I am going to eat and instead of letting me do so, she insists that she be the one to eat first. It is so much easier getting the laundry or dishes done when she is asleep too. Trying to do chores with one hand or having to stop every few minutes because she cries can be difficult and frustrating. Though I will admit, the thing I enjoy to do most while she is napping, is take a nap right along with her. Especially after the nights when she woke me up every 30 minutes to have a quick snack and then go back to sleep.

All Day Buffet

Loralai usually eats every 30 minutes to every 2 hours unless she is really tired and sleeps for a few hours. Today, however, I was her all you can eat buffet. It seemed like all I really did from 6 a.m this morning until 10 o'clock at night, was feed this tiny baby. I dont even understand where she put all that food she ate. But after a long day of dealing with this food hungry monster, my little angel is finally asleep.

The Silent Child

I have no idea how I got so lucky; but I have an incredibly quiet baby. She is now two weeks old and the only time she cries is to let us know she's hungry or needs a diaper change. Her cry isnt loud and never lasts for very long. She sleeps most of the night and day, but somehow I still manage to get very little sleep. I feel like I have to watch her every minute of every day otherwise if I look away for an instant, something will go wrong.
She is honestly the best baby I have ever seen and I am blessed in the fact that she is mine.

Early Delivery

My baby girl just couldnt wait to come into this world, so I went into labor 2 weeks  early. After 15 hours of labor, Loralai Angelina Krause was born. She was 7 Ibs and 19.5 inches long. Everyone who told me that labor would be the hardest thing I ever went through was not exaggerating. However, despite all the pain I went through that day, it was all worth it in the end.
She is now 1 week and 2 days old. Even though I havent had a true nights sleep since she was born and Ive changed more diapers than I care to count, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. It really helps that my boyfriend is so supportive and helpful too. If it werent for him I would probably have gotten overwhelmed multiple times this first week of her life, but he gives me breaks when I need them.
This week has been a learning experience and a whirlwind of emotions. I cant wait to see how the rest of her first month goes.