Leona's first week

Leona had a great first week home! Jesse had a lot of sick days stored up so he was able to take a whole week off of work (nothing compared to actual paternity leave in other countries, but it was a start) and it was really good to have him home to help everyone adjust. It was especially nice to have someone to help Niko return to his normal school schedule--there's no way I could have managed a newborn and getting him out of the house on time! 

We were also lucky that my brother Browne and his husband Jake were visiting some graduate schools in NYC that week, and they came to visit (and we were very glad that Leona came before they did!) I think this photo shows the first time that Jake held a baby this new before! 

I had only been home for a day and was, honestly, completely exhausted (not to mention my ab muscles were stretched out in crazy post-partum ways, making walking and standing up exhausting), but they were gracious enough to spend most of the day out with Jesse and to have a lower-key visit than we might have otherwise had. 

For her part, Leona spent the week seamlessly diving into life in our family! She slept as well as she could be asked (waking up just twice a night on average), put up with thousands of kisses and over-enthusiastic snuggles from siblings, and grew like a weed.

She had two doctor's appointments in her first week--at the first she had maintained her hospital discharge weight (7 lbs 2 oz) and at the second (4 days later) she was already past her birth weight at 7 lbs 10 oz (side note: at her two week appointment she was 8 lbs 1 oz--still growing like crazy!)

She's already smiled at her siblings but saves the rest of her smiles (and adorable baby chuckles) for her sleep. We are soaking them in and waiting eagerly to get some smiles for ourselves!

Her favorite face is this one below (very perplexed, maybe concerned!)

She's a pretty sleepy baby, so we often lay her on the floor after feedings just so she'll wake up a little bit. One day I captured her mid-wiggle, and it looks like she's shouting "CHAAARGE!!!" 

She's also a very snuffly baby, so Jesse calls her "snuffle pumpkin." We thought she'd have grown out of it by three weeks but she's still snuffling like crazy, so I guess she'll stay our snuffle pumpkin for awhile longer!