Heading Home

I have so much to catch up on...and it has nothing to do with having a 3rd kid.  The transition from 2 to 3 has actually been fairly smooth (knock on wood).  The transition from 1 to 2 was much, much more difficult.  However, it's the Christmas season that is keeping us busy.  I was so sick and miserable the last few months that I felt like Abigial and Caitlin missed out on a lot, so I don't want them to miss out on anything for Christmas.  So we've been busy getting our tree, decorating our house, writing letters to Santa, getting gifts, etc.  Pictures to come, I promise!!!

 

But first...taking Libby home!

 

Actually, we'lll start with the name.  When she was about 12 hours old, we finally decided on her name.  She was down to 3:

Libby Frances

Frances Sylvia (would have called her Frannie or Francie)

Charlotte Frances  (would have called her Charley)

 

We ended up polling some family and friends through texts, and decided on Libby.  It was my favorite name too, so I was happy other people liked it!  

 

We really wanted to find a way to honor ourgrandmothers (we would have loved to honor all 4 grandmas, but Frances Sylvia Regina Matilda Wennerstrom would have been a rough name) but we decided to just use one name and it still honors ALL our grandmas who were very important to us....which is Frances, who we always felt had a little bit on "influence" on Libby coming to us.  It was one of the last things I told my grandma Frannie...and I think she sent us her!

 

We struggled because Libby is short for Elizabeth, and I LOVE full names and don't love nicknames...but we didn't want her to be Elizabeth because of confusion...so we just went with Libby, althought she sort of got her mommy's name, which is cool!  We already get "What's Libby short for"...but that's okay!  (Random funny story...the rumor going around my preschool is that Rob served in the military and we named her Liberty in honor of Rob's service...have no idea where that one came from).

 

(P.S. Abigail and Caitlin, if you are ever reading this and wonder what your names were almost:  Abigail, we were between Abigail and Lily for you..no middle name ever until you were born.  Caitlin, we were between Caitlin and Samantha, but always Elizabeth for your middle name...and we actually liked Libby for you but didn't want to use a nickname at that time, which we obvioulsy changed since then.)

 

Okay, a lot of nothing...but now, onto the last day of pictures.  Because Libby was born at 12:30 am, we were able to choose if we wanted to stay one more day or not, and I'm really glad we decided to stay because it gave me more time to recover, which was definitely more difficult with less platelets :)).  Here's our last night in the hospital...and taking Miss Libby home!!!

 

Libby with her giraffe from Nana and Papa.  I'm obsessed with giraffes for Libby!!!  You will see lots of them in pictures in the next year!

Our "board"

Libby's first football game..Notre Dame clinched the national championship!  I think it means she'll go to Notre Dame!!!

Libby's "crib"...nameless!  :)

She had a really rough 1st night...and slept like this on my bed the whole next day!  I slept like this too!

It's time to go home!!!!  So little in her carseat!

Ready for the ride home!!!

Pop the bubbly from Aunt Julie when we got home!  (And her giraffe sound machine from Auntie Mo Mo, Uncle B, and Patrick!

Even though she was only a few weeks early, we didn't get ANYTHING ready..we knew we'd have time once we got home.  It was great cause the girls helped Rob put it all together and felt like they were really part of the transition!

Swaddled in her new blanket from Aunt Julie, Uncle Joe, and Lucy (which is awesome).

Swinging Away! Thank goodness for Libby's Aunts (Lia, Nay, Katie)..not sure which one of the girls this swing came from, but we are so grateful!  Our carseat is Auntie Lia's too!!!!  And our bouncer!!!  We had gotten rid of everything, so we are so lucky for great friends and family to help us out! 

Our little angel

Checking out the new swing!  It's fancy!!!

Getting ready to go home from the hospital..it was the first time we saw her in real clothes and we couldn't get over how darn cute she was!!!!

Swaddled in her blanket from Aunt Katie and Vern...it's so adorable!!!!! 

 

So now we are up to her coming home!  Her first week at home was awesome.  Rob was off so we were able to tag team between Libby and the older girls!  Abigail and Caitlin seem to be doing great so far with the new transition.  Our schedules are off a little...but they like that I'm feeling better and able to be up and about again...so they are happy!

 

I will blog about Christmas soon!  This year we are really focusing on the meaning of Christmas!  I'm trying my best to take the "commericial" out of Christmas...and focus on the giving of Christmas and spending time with loved ones!  They each asked Santa for only 1 or 2 things and when they tried to ask for more, we talked about giving to others.  So they each picked a name off the local Christmas tree and are getting presents for others in need.  Our girls are by no way "spoiled" so I want Christmas to be super special to them and full of presents, but they also don't "want" for anything, so we want to teach them the meaning of quality, not quantity!  We'll see how that goes for us!  :)