Meet Eva Lane

Our baby girl, Eva Lane Stanley, is now 5 weeks old and i’m finally getting around to introducing her to you guys!!  Life is definitely hectic around here.  We are learning to cope with the lack of sleep and her constant need for our attention, but we are trying to treasure every minute of it–because it’s absolutely flying by!!  I feel like the short spans of time when she’s actually napping (and I am not compelled to just stare at her) HAVE to be spent eating, showering, and basically doing typical activities that I took for granted before…nobody tells you how hard it will be!!  Don’t get me wrong, we love her to death and would do anything for her…we just weren’t completely prepared for all that goes into taking care of a newborn.  Some other things people neglect to tell you about giving birth/having a baby…

-Everyone will tell you to “take advantage of the nursery help and sleep while you’re in the hospital.”  Sleep?  Every 20 minutes someone comes in your room to take your blood, press on your uterus, give you stool softeners, introduce themselves after a shift change, deliver your food, bring your crying baby to you…the list goes on.  You will not sleep for the rest of your life once that tiny human exits your lady parts.

-After giving birth you will never be more afraid to poop in your entire life.

-If you’re not used to large breasts, you will have to make a conscious effort to wash your underboob in the shower…yes, I now have underboob.

-You are told baby eats every 2-3 hours, so you assume you will get 2-3 hour stretches of sleep, right?  Sike.  It takes an hour to feed them (half of which is spent tirelessly trying to wake them up at the boob), burp them, change their diaper…then, assuming your baby actually falls asleep, you will be left with about an hour until the cycle repeats itself.

-Husbands aren’t really capable of helping at night.  Fact is, they don’t have giant leaky swollen boobs.  If you truly want to make them suffer along with you, you can wake them up just to change a diaper….but the effort it takes to wake them up and get them on a level coherent enough to understand what you’re asking just isn’t worth it.

-Buying a bunch of newborn outfits is just silly.  Invest in some cute onesies instead because the effort it takes to take off socks and pants just to change a diaper every 2 hours is totally not worth it on a daily basis.

Enough at the comedic attempt to keep your attention and on to the cute little nugget!

When we left the hospital, Eva was 5lbs8oz but thanks to her healthy appetite and boobs that just won’t quit, she now weighs in at around 8lbs4oz.  She was named after my grandmother, Eva Elaine Moses, who used to have a TV show in the Richmond area in the 60’s.  She was a graduate of William and Mary and managed to raise 3 kids while working on the TV show back in the days where women didn’t really work.  She was creative, compassionate, and intelligent–everything I hope Eva will grow up to be.

To date, Evie is working on her neck strength with lots of tummy time and chest time, she sleeps for 3 hour stretches in between feedings at night, she laughs in her sleep, smiles when she’s pooping, and has already outgrown her newborn clothes because she’s 90th percentile in height (yet only 2nd in weight…?!)!!

Here are some of my favorites from our newborn session with Ally Boop Photography…who is phenomenal!!  She even came to our house so we were comfortable…I had to nurse about 15 times while she was there and Eva was screaming.  Needless to say, Ally is very patient.

These pictures were taken when she was 3 weeks old, and as newborns typically do, she looks very different now!  If you want to follow the daily stream of cuteness and occasional work photos, check out our Instagram page!