18 months

Just a little video update of our little Lucy.

Leland Jay

Leland Jay

Born 10-13-10

11:15 p.m.

6lbs 8 oz

20 inches

Welcomed home by my brother Luke and his wife Mindi and big sister Clara.

Congratulations to them!

Camillia Mae

Meet Camillia Mae- my gorgeous niece born yesterday, 9-20-10 @ 7:52 p.m.

8 lbs. 13 oz

21 1/2 inches

The new little family.  How cute are they? 

It is hard to believe that my little brother is a dad. 

Congratulations Tony and Rami!

july 2010

Wow, the summer seems to be flying by.  I can't believe how quickly the days go by!  Lucy started fully walking on July 5th.  Now she is everywhere.  Tommy is working the midnight shift and a lot of weekends so that really limits what we can do.  We are making the best of things though. 



Above is a little video of Lucy feeding the fish at a lake near our house.  My mom and I took her out there a couple of weeks ago. 

She had Roseola two weeks ago.  She had a high fever for two days then she got a rash.  It was pretty rough on both of us.  Basically all she wanted was for me to hold her.  I was so glad when she got back to normal.  Sick babies are no fun.  Especially when there is nothing you can do to make them feel better but wait it out. 

Ever since I stopped nursing her she has had troubles sleeping all night in her crib.  Until now she has always slept in her own bed without any problems.  Right around her first birthday she was sick with a cold.  She had a really hard time breathing and could not sleep.  I laid with her in my bed trying to keep her comfortable and trying to get some sleep myself.  That was one of the first times she slept with me pretty much all night.  Shortly after that is when we stopped nursing.  Since then there has only been a few times when she actually slept in her own bed all night.  Generally she will go down and then wake up at either 10:30 or 3:30 and call out, "Mom. Momma. Mommy." When I pick her up she puts her little arms around my neck and gives me a big hug.  Then she turns towards the doorway and points letting me know that she wants to go to my bed.  I have tried everything to keep her in her bed.  One can only handle so much crying at 3:30am, especially when you have to get up to get ready for work in a few hours.  Long story short, I am doing what I swore I would NEVER do, let my little girl sleep in my bed.  It really hasn't been all that bad.  Like I said before, Tommy is working midnights now so he is not here.  On the weekends we just deal with it.  Last night she actually stayed in her own bed all night. 

One night this week she actually fell out of my bed.  I woke up and realized that she was not there.  It took me a second to remember if she was supposed to be.  I keep my snoogle body/pregnancy pillow on Tommy's side of the bed to (I thought) keep her from rolling out.  Anyway, once I realized that both her and the pillow were no longer on the bed I peered over the side.  She was fast asleep on Barbie's pillow on the floor.  We keep an extra bed pillow on the floor right by the bed for Barbie to sleep on.  I guess when she rolled out she fell right on it and it didn't even wake her up.  Crazy!  I scooped her back up and put her back in bed. 

Parenthood is an adventure.  We are enjoying all the ups and downs and Lucy continues to amaze us each day.  What a joy she is.  Sounds like she just woke up from her afternoon nap, guess I better wrap this up!

baby steps

Monday Lucy took her first steps. At lunch I walked into the sitter's house to find my little girl standing unassisted in the middle of the living room. She had a look of fear on her face and was kind of crying. I didn't move a muscle. I stood there in the doorway with the door still open. Her sitter had a ball in her hands and was encouraging Lucy to walk towards her. She took five steps towards her. I had to hold back the tears. She has taken more steps since then but pretty much only when encouraged by one of us. I know it won't be long before I'm chasing her all over the place!!

big girls don't need booby milk

Tommorrow morning will be the week mark for Lucy being completely weaned.  She gave up the night feeding right after her birthday but we were still nursing in the morning.  Last Wednesday I was running very late for work so I decided to just not nurse her.  I was so nervous that I would be uncomfortable or that she would freak out.  Turns out that neither happened.  I did feel a little full but never too bad.  I'll admit I'm sad about being done with breastfeeding.  Is it weird to say that I really enjoyed it?  There were days in the beginning when I wondered how I would ever make it a whole year.  The early days were painful and tiring.  It would take forever to feed her.  I felt like that was all I did.  Probably because it was!  When I went back to work full time after 8 weeks and started pumping I really didn't know if I would be able to keep it up.  My two 15 minute breaks were spent hooked up to my pump.  I had a daily battle on my hands trying to keep up with Lucy's demands for milk.  With encouragement I stuck with it and I'm so glad I did.  I would not give up the time spent for anything. 

Earlier tonight I told Tommy that I really wanted to nurse her one last time.  He told that probably wasn't a good idea.  I'm just having a hard time with the fact that my baby does not need me in that way anymore.  He reassured me that she will always need me in one way or another.  I guess I just assumed that it would be Lucy who had to be convinced it was time to stop, not me!  Of course now that she is not nursed to sleep we have the issue of no bed time routine.  That is a whole other issue that I'm trying to work on.  Tonight she was actually in bed at a reasonable hour.  I know that change takes time so I'm just being patient and trying to see what is going to work for us.

I also wanted to put up an update on her Dr.'s appointment.  She weighs 18 lbs 2 oz and is 29 1/4 inches.  She is still in the low end for her weight and average height.  Her Dr. is not concered since she has been there all along.  She also did great with her immunizations.  I'm so glad that I can get them done at my office.  I feel so much more comfortable having someone I work with give them to her!

Lucy's Pinwheel 1st Birthday Party and some updates

(A Knight Light Photo)

Sunday was my little girl's 1st birthday.  We had a pinwheel theme for the party.

I can't tell a lie, my mom did a majority of the work.  Besides cake we also had BBQ pulled pork, italian deer roast sandwhiches, crescent pinwheel veggie pizzas, pasta salad (made by a good friend) and some other munchies. 

The picture collage was designed by Kimberly and I had it printed at my office.  It is so fun. I made some pinwheels from scrapbook paper we hung them up. I had plans to make a ton more but that never happened.  You can't really tell in the picture but under the collage there are the glass vases from our wedding (Happy 4 years to us today by the way).  They are half full of Cheerios and have a pinwheel in them that my mom found at Hobby Lobby. 

The large colorful pinwheel cake was the main cake.  My mom made a small "1" cake for Lucy's smash cake.

I was so worried about the weather that day but God blessed us with a beautiful day to celebrate.  We were able to be outside instead of in our small house.  Lucy received so many nice gifts.  She has had so much fun playing with everything this week.  Of course right after we got done getting everything out of the boxes and in her play area in the living room she promptly crawled (no walking yet) over to the kitchen and played with the Tupperware.  Typical.

(Taken by Kimberly)

Tomorrow is her 1 year check up and immunizations.  I'm really not looking forward to those visits.  Lucy has a really hard time with being around strangers.  Tommy will be working so I'm flying solo.  I am looking forward to having the rest of the day off with her though.  She is such a bundle of joy. She jabbers all the time.  Some of the things she says are, "Hi", "Bye" "Eye" (I realize they are are similar sounds but I can tell the difference), "Ball", "Dog", "Dada", "Mama", "Swing" "Fish", "What's That?".  Most of them don't come out real plain, but if you are around her enough you know what she is saying. As I mentioned above she is not walking yet, but we are not rushing things around here.  She pulls up on everything and cruises around on the furniture.  This week she decided that she was too big to nurse before bed.  For three nights in a row so far she has not needed a feeding before falling asleep.  I still nurse her in the morning before I leave for work/the sitter's.  She has not taken real well to cow's milk so far but we are working on it.  She does get dairy in other forms though.  Her 6th tooth (right front) just came through this week as well.  Teething, as Kimberly and I have recently discussed, is one of the worst parts of parenting.  It has been so hard for me to keep up with things lately.  I can't even tell you the last time I sat down and watched an episode of House or Grey's Anatomy.  I hope to do better about keeping up with this blog during her second year. 

feeling thankful

Today I'm feeling thankful for my healthy, happy, beautiful girl.

I thought I'd put up a quick post with a picture of her from last week.  The Circus came to town last Wednesday.  Tommy was working so my mom and I took Lucy.  We had a great time.  Lucy loved watching everything going on.  I'm glad my mom took us!!

in denial

I'm totally in denial that my daughter will be 1 in less than a month.  Plans are in the works for her first birthday bash but I'm still having a very hard time wrapping my mind around it.  Last week I was going through some of her clothes and came across one of her newborn onesies and I about lost it. I can remember my mom and I getting some of her clothes washed and ready before she was born.  We could not believe how small they were.  When she was first born they were even a little big on her. How did she get so big so fast?

We have so much fun with her.  She is so much like me but I also see a lot of her daddy in her. She is pulling and cruising more and more, but has not braved any steps yet.  On Easter weekend two more teeth broke through to make a total of 4.  She looks like a little vampire.  We have also dropped all of her daytime feedings.  She pretty much did that on her own.  I nurse her before work in the morning and then before bed at night.  That means that I'm no longer pumping.  What freedom that has brought for me.  I think we are both about ready to be done with nursing.  It is such a part of life that I don't know what it will be like to be done.

Lucy is doing so much better with letting other people hold her when I'm around.  Last Friday Lucy and I went to watch my cousins run at a track meet.   While we were there Lucy reached for my Aunt Paula and let her hold her for a good amount of time.  It is so good to see her interacting more others.

I know that the years will continue to fly by.  We are trying our best to savor every possible moment.

two years ago

Two years ago today-

The rug was pulled out from under me.  The life that Tommy and I created was suddenly gone.  At that time I had no idea if I would ever become a mom again.  I cried.  I cried a lot.  It was really hard for me to see beyond the hurt that I was feeling in that moment.  The seven months that passed between losing our child and finding out I was pregnant with Lucy were rough.  I can remember feeling like I was in a fog.  Life was just happening around me.  Looking back on that time I'm thankful that I had seven months to heal.  I needed that time so that I could be the best mom possible for Lucy.  Today my heart still aches for the child that I never held. I suppose that ache will lessen even more with time.  Lucy has made that ache easier to deal with.

Two years ago today-

I had no idea that I would soon be the proud momma to a beautiful, blue-eyed, strong willed little girl.  Lucy is now ten months old and I wonder where the time has gone.  I'm making plans for her first birthday party and I wonder how that is possible.  She has such a strong personality and that is coming out more and more with each day.  She has her momma's strong will and stubbornness.  We have so much fun with her.  Now that she is crawling she is all over the place exploring the world around her.  She gives me lots of kisses, but is stingy when it comes to giving her daddy kisses. I keep telling him that it has to do with the facial hair. Our lives are filled with joy because of her and I can't imagine what things were like before her. 

9 month updates

Some Lucy updates:

-Second tooth has emerged.
-Down to one bottle of my milk a day at the sitter's.
-I nurse her in the morning and before bed.
-Pulls herself to a standing postion.
-Babbles all the time.
-Favorite thing to say is dada.
-Mama comes out when she is upset.
-Started to crawl forward today.
-Can be a very picky eater for me.
-Doing better about being so clingy to me when around others.
-Weighs 16 lbs 6 oz.
-Is 27 1/2 inches long.
-Screams and flaps her arms when she sees her daddy.
-Screams and flaps her arms when my mom comes over.
-Likes to kiss her reflection in the mirror.

That's all the updates I can think of for now.

almost 9 months

Lucy is almost nine months old so I thought it was about time I post an 8 month update.  Let's just pause for a moment and let the fact that my baby is almost 9 months old sink in..... 

What have we been up to lately?  Honestly I can't even really remember the last few weeks.  I came down with a horrible sinus infection that kicked my butt for about 2 weeks.  It feels like I'm still trying to play catch up from that one. I'm just thankful that Lucy never got sick.

Lucy is still sleeping through the night.  Occasionally she will wake up but on most occasions just needs to be repositioned or given her pacifier (only uses that to sleep) and she is back asleep. She is generally asleep by 8:00 pm and wakes up anywhere from 6:00-7:00am.  I nurse her in the morning before I take her to the sitter's and again before bed. I'm still pumping during the day and I have not had to supplement with formula.  Most nights I still have to pump again to have enough milk.  I still have no back up supply in the freezer, but I'm not as stressed out about it as I was before. I'm still trying to make as much of her food as possible.  When I was sick that is one thing that I feel behind on.  I had planned to make a bunch of food the weekend I got sick.  It was such a hard thing for me to go to the grocery store and buy premade baby food for her.  I felt like a failure of a mother.  I know, I know stop it already.  I was sick and exhausted and down on myself.  Tommy reassured me that she would be just fine if I didn't make all of her food.  Since then I feel like we have been struggling with her eating.  She very much prefers homemade food.  Some of the foods that she likes are fresh green beans, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, mangoes, peaches, pears, bananas, kiwis, plums and blueberries.  So far I have not been very successful at disguising chicken or any other form of meat enough so that she will eat it.  Maybe she has her momma's keen sense of smell and knows before it even touches her lips that it is in there.  She has become a pro at feeding herself Cheerios and puffs and really enjoys them.

Lucy is not crawling yet.  She gets where she wants to by rolling/flopping around.  She can go backwards.  When it comes to trying to go forward she just kicks her feet and flaps her little arms.  She has started to pull up on things.  We'll see what the next few weeks bring.  Today Tommy and I got rid of the coffee table in the living room.  It was a collector of junk (totally my fault) and took up way too much space.  Now we have lots more room on the floor for Lucy to play. 

I'm not really sure how much she weighs.  If I had to guess I would say around 18 lbs.  Her next appointment is February 15th so we'll see how close I am.  She is mostly wearing size 6-9 mo.  There are still a few 3-6 mo. shirts that I have not put away that fit just fine.  We are up to 2 totes of clothes that are too small!! 

Something that she has started doing that I'm not too fond of it pinching/hitting my face.  It seems to only be something she does to me.  Since she was tiny she has liked to play with my face.  Now she thinks its funny to grab my lips and pull.  I have tried several different ways of correcting this behavior but we have not gotten over it yet.  She laughs at me when I tell her "No!" 

Right before Christmas Lucy's first tooth finally made an appearance.  You can get a little glimpse of it in the picture below.  She is currently working on the one right next to it.

I think that pretty much sums up the last month!

*Kimberly took the picture at the top of this post.  Love it.