She is here!

And already a week old, if you can believe that. This is the best picture I could get this early morning in the low light of our living room, as she and I spend some quality time together while the rest of the house still sleeps.

This is sweet Corie Elise, our fourth child. She was born at 5:40 pm on December 21st. She weighed 9 pounds 15 ounces, and she is by all accounts absolutely, deliciously perfect. My love for her was fierce and immediate, and as with my other children before her I know I would go to any length to protect her from this mad, mad, mad, mad world.

So much of my knowledge and experience with newborns had been packed deep into the recesses of my mind after three years of not having one, but it's all coming back to me now. Every little facial expression and noise--it's all so familiar yet just as endearing as ever. The routines, the sleepless nights, I remember them well now.

Our older children have been a mix of curious to doting. Ella, whose reaction to being unseated as the youngest I most worried about, has been sweet and for the most part gentle in her dealings with Corie. I had envisioned something with more jealousy and/or rough play. She doesn't really understand why she can't touch the baby when she's sleeping, but that is totally manageable. Cooper tells me he loves "our newborn baby", but in typical Cooper fashion has been mostly hands off so far. He helps me when I ask him to bring me things and doesn't seem to mind doing so. And Jackson is over the moon in baby love. It was all I could do to properly take care of Corie in between all the times her oldest brother wanted to hold her those first few days we were home. He too has trouble understanding not to disturb the baby's sleep, but he "just loves her do much" he can hardly help it. I totally can relate. My cup overrunneth.

♦