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.