Showing posts with label Pictures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pictures. Show all posts
Weeks 25 & 26
Tomorrow will mark week 27 in this pregnancy. Eli is due exactly 3 months from today! I'm happy to report that he is doing great as far as we can tell and I'm feeling great 95% of the time too. I also looked up how things were going at this point in my pregnancy with Lydia and was thrilled to see that my total weight gain this time is the same (or possibly less) than it was with Lydia. I was so nervous because I gained a weight a lot earlier this time, and with Lydia I had some major weight gain around 25-26 weeks. If I did the same this time, I'd be HUGE! But Eli has kept me gaining steadily and it's now evened out with my first pregnancy. I weigh around 145 right now and was 119 at my first weight check. With Lydia I started the same and ended just shy of 170. I know that's more than the "suggested" weight gain, but it came off fine the first time and my doc wasn't (and isn't) concerned about it. Though ultimately I'd like to stay under 160 with this one.

We had some maternity pictures taken around week 25. Always a fun time! We had trouble getting Lydia to do much with us since 1) there were toys to be played with and 2) we haven't done much working with her on hugging or kissing Eli. But we got a few cute ones anyway! Check my Facebook page for some of my favorites.

On Monday this week we had the pleasure of going in for a 3D ultrasound! I loved having that done with Lydia and was thrilled to get some of Eli. We had Lydia's done around 26 weeks as well so it is fun to compare.
Lydia at 26 weeks 4 days


Eli at 26 weeks 2 days

Labels: , , 1 comments | edit post
Fun Weekend!
Lydia had a very big weekend this past week! It all started on Thursday with her very first trip to the zoo!

She absolutely loved it. Lydia is very much an outdoors girl, so she enjoyed being out in the sun and wind. The weather was perfect! Temperature got up into the 80's with lovely sun and a cool breeze. Besides watching all of the people walking around, Lydia's favorite part was the aquarium. We walked in and she immediately sat up in her chair and started chanting, "Fish! Fish! Fish!" Such a cutie. :) I have a feeling we are going to love having a zoo membership this year.

Thursday night we got to hang out with family at Grandma and Papa's house for family dinner night. Spaghetti, bananas, and brownies made for a happy little girl. She showed off her walking skills and all of her animal noises and, unfortunately, got a nasty boo-boo too! Poor thing's legs just gave out while she was drumming on the folding chair and she smacked her face on it busting her lip. After a little loving and a wet washcloth, Lydia was back to her happy self and we all enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood to finish off the night.

Friday through Sunday Lydia and I took a trip down to Cinci to visit my family. Brent had to work so he didn't get to go with us, but us ladies had a lovely time! Nana and Grandpa had lots of Elmo toys at their house and also lots of balls for playing catch. Lydia just LOVES rolling balls back and forth with people. She also greatly improved her walking skills over the weekend... growing more and more confident each day. She also stood up on her own without holding on to anything for the first time. Not much longer and I suspect she will be doing more walking than crawling. Over the weekend she also decided to learn the word "no" and finds it so much fun to use. At first it just seemed like she just enjoyed saying it, but caught on to the meaning very quickly. "Lydia, do you want a drink?" "No!" "Do you want more applesauce?" "No!" Time to start working on teaching her "Yes" before she gets carried away!

Labels: , , , 1 comments | edit post
1st birthday party!

The weekend after Lydia's birthday was crazy! But lots of fun. :) On Friday my parents drove up from Cinci (in a crazy snow storm!) followed on Saturday by my two brothers, one of my sisters-in-law, and my 3 nieces - also all up from Cinci. Everyone stayed at our house. Joshua, Erin, and the 3 girls took over the playroom. Mom & Dad were in the guest room. And Michael crashed on the couch downstairs. It was really special to me to have almost my whole family here to celebrate with us (Michael's wife Jenna was unable to come due to having to work on Sunday). I miss seeing them!

We enjoyed hanging out Friday and Saturday, just talking and playing games. The women beat the men twice in a row at Outburst. I just love playing games with my family! We always end up with the best memories.

Then Sunday was party day! We spent most of the morning and afternoon getting everything ready. Decorating, preparing food, and cleaning up from the tornado that occurs when you have 10+ people under the same roof for a weekend. My family helped me a ton in getting ready. I had no idea how much work birthday parties could be!

That night even more people joined us for the birthday celebration. Brent's mom & stepdad came along with his sister Sarah & her boyfriend Jeremy, Brent's grandparents, his great-aunt, and two of his aunts. Brent's sister Natalie & her husband Jay were unable to make it due to a family emergency.

Lydia wasn't phased by the chaos of the party and continued to crawl about playing with things as usual. But she also wasn't super interested in her gifts. I tried to get her to do some of the work opening them, but it basically ended up being me opening them while trying to keep her from completely crawling away. She became obsessed with the box from a necklace she was given and that pretty much ended her interest in anything else. At least until she opened the big ball that Aunt Sarah gave her. My girl just loves playing ball!

The birthday girl stayed up well past her bedtime, so as soon as the party-goers had left she went straight to bed. A big thank you to Sarah who helped us clean up afterwards! It was a really nice party and we all had a lot of fun. :)
Labels: , 0 comments | edit post
1 Year Pictures
Just a couple of my favorites...













Labels: , 0 comments | edit post
First Birthday!

We successfully made it through the first year! Lydia is alive and seemingly happy and I have avoided a mental breakdown for lack of instruction booklet. We spent her birthday quietly at home. The big party will come this weekend, so for now I decided we would just enjoy quiet time together. I made her some special foods (cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pizza for lunch) and we spent a lot of time laughing and playing and just having fun.

Today we took her for her 12 month doctor visit. She is doing great and developing as expected. For whatever reason she absolutely hated lying down on the table this time. Maybe it was cold? She's never disliked it before, but this time she really just wanted to be held. Her growth stats have further flip-flopped... which just makes me laugh. She started out as my short, chubby baby with a big head... and now she is my tall, skinny girl with a big head! hehe. She is 20lb 3oz (around 40%ile), 29.5in long (around 65%ile), and has an 18in head circumference (just under 75%ile). Lydia is mostly wearing 18 month clothes now because her 12 month stuff is too short. I'm hoping she sticks with this size for awhile because I stocked up on summery 18 month stuff and want her to be able to wear it at some point!

After all of the regular checks they had to do 3 shots & draw blood to test her hemoglobin and lead levels. No fun! She was upset by it all, of course, but per her usual ways she was all smiles and giggles by the time we got out to the car. Happy for the quick recovery because tomorrow is picture day!
Labels: , 2 comments | edit post
Standing like a Pro



Labels: , 0 comments | edit post
Block & Barrel
Just a couple of nights ago Lydia decided to make up a new game to play. Brent and I were enjoying a little TV time while our sweet baby was happily playing on the floor nearby when suddenly I hear a rattling noise. I look over to see her shaking half of a plastic barrel with a wooden block in it. No big deal. But it wasn't long before I realized that she was doing this intentionally! Whenever the block would inevitably come out of the barrel, Lydia would concentrate and work very hard to manage to get it back in. I kept thinking I must be crazy... just imagining that she was doing this on purpose... but she was noticeably fussy when she couldn't quite get it where she wanted, then super happy as soon as she would get it back into the barrel.

So anyway, the next day I tested her again and this time grabbed the camera to capture the moment. Video was too distracting, thus making it very long... so you get pictures instead and just have to trust me that I wasn't helping her at all.

I'm probably just an overly enthusiastic mom who is just certain her kid is super smart. Maybe all kids her age can do things like this? But this sure seems like some major cognitive and fine motor skills for a mere 8.5 month old! I mean come on, she made her own rattle! ;)

(Oh and in other news, today she decided she was totally capable of eating her finger food puffs all by herself. I've been trying and trying to get her to eat them on her own, then she goes and does it like a pro when DADDY is giving her lunch. Go figure! Lydia can officially self-feed now.)
Labels: , 0 comments | edit post
Everything changes but change...
As always, things keep changing around here. Here's the low-down on Lydia's latest developments.


She still isn't crawling yet, but tries really hard when enticed with a toy. She still prefers to roll and will often give up the crawling attempts and simply roll over unless you block her sides. I try to do a little bit to encourage her in this area, but I'm not pushing it too hard. She is pretty mobile just with rolling and I trust she will move on when she is ready.


Lydia also seems to be trying really hard to sit up on her own. Quite often when I go to get her out of her crib she is craning her neck forward, legs and arms stiffened, trying with all her might to do a sit-up. These attempts of hers may be part of the reason I'm seeing her struggle with sleep lately. She puts up more of a fight when I put her down for a nap, often wakes earlier (crying), and wakes more frequently when I put her down for the night. Last night she went to bed at 7 but fussed for 2 hours before I finally rocked her to sleep. But who knows... the time change that happened this weekend may be factoring in as well.


In the realm of food Lydia fed herself finger food for the first time yesterday! She's so silly with the little baby puffs. She seems to understand that they are food and eats them up when *I* feed them to her, but when she gets them in her hand she just stares at them or drops them on the floor. If I put one on my hand and offer it to her, she will move her mouth towards my hand... or grab my hand and pull it towards her... but she doesn't like to take it off my hand with hers to eat it. Silly girl! But she did do a couple on her own yesterday, so we'll keep practicing. :)


We've officially dropped the late night nursing and are strictly doing feedings between 7am & 8pm. I've been working on doing solids 3 times a day instead of 2 for the past week and plan today to try to get away with 4 nursing sessions instead of 5. In theory, I'll nurse her every 5 hours until bedtime... so 7am, 12pm, 5pm, and then somewhere between 7 and 8pm whenever she goes to bed. So far today we're doing well with this schedule. She nursed first thing this morning (7:30) then ate some fruit after getting up from a nap at 9. It's 11:45 now and she's napping, so I'll nurse her when she gets up then she can have more solids around 12:30 or 1. Right now I think my plan is to have 5 hours between nursings, but do solids in there too to have her still eating something at least every 4 hours. She'll see the pediatrician in a couple of weeks so there's a good chance I'll change things up again after that, but for now this is my plan.


In other news, halloween was this past weekend. My parents decided to come up for a visit (yay!) so they got to see Lydia dressed up in her monkey costume. Isn't she a doll??



It was a crazy day, but I think Lydia had a lot of fun. She was REALLY tired because I forgot to put her down for an afternoon nap (oops!)... she had just been so happy all day that I never got that "she really needs a nap" signal until we had to walk out the door. So all evening she was running on a 5 minute catnap that she grabbed in the car. We first drove out to the Whitehouse campus to visit Daddy at work. He enjoyed showing off his little monkey girl. :) Next we headed to Grandma & Papa's house, then finished the evening at Great-Grandma & Grandpa's house. Despite being so sleepy, Lydia was mostly a happy girl. Oh speaking of being a happy girl, she went to the nursery at church on Sunday and when I picked her up they told me she won the best baby award for the day. Those things always make me smile. See? I'm not lying when I say I have the best baby ever!!

Labels: , , 2 comments | edit post
I love camping in the Fall!
Well, except for the cold nights! While I found myself nice and toasty warm inside my sleeping bag, I also found myself constantly worried about my baby girl in her Pack N Play on the other side of the tent. But all in all, it was a great trip!

The weather was absolutely perfect camping weather. Sunny, light breeze, highs around 75 degrees. Perfect. Lydia had so much fun being outside and getting attention from her cousins. I knew she'd love it.

Friday night Lydia decided that bedtime was really just naptime and woke up crying shortly after going down. She didn't want to miss the campfire!


She slept okay that night (once finally back in bed), so I guess she stayed warm enough. But when she did get up in the morning, her little hands were just FREEZING! I wish I could have covered them up, but since she sucks her thumb I know she'd rather have cold hands than not have them at all.


Saturday was all about relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. We sat around the fire in the morning until it warmed up, had our typical breakfast of eggs & bacon, and spent the afternoon napping, playing, chatting, and snacking. Exactly the way a camping trip is supposed to be! Naps were a little difficult for Lydia though. By mid-afternoon the inside of the tent was SO hot. Even in just a onesie she was sweating like crazy. I realized that a tent nap was not going to happen, but my tired baby really needed to rest. So... out came the Pack N Play. By the time I got it out and set up, Lydia had caught a second wind and it took her another hour before she finally fell asleep. There was just far too much stuff to look at outside!


Just as a random side note, there was a large group of Amish people camping a couple sites down from us. Made for interesting people-watching opportunities!

Saturday night we had an interesting experience around the campfire. Lydia was already in bed and my sister-in-law Erin was heading to the bathroom with her 3 girls to get them ready to go to sleep when she saw a raccoon! Right by our picnic tables! Trying not to alarm the girls, they moved on to the bathroom. Meanwhile, myself, my dad, my mom, Brent, and my brother all tried to figure out what we were going to do with this cute-but-don't-want-it-around-camp pest. The men tried to scare it away but it would just run back up the tree then eventually creep back down. It found the Trix under the table that had spilled that morning and didn't seem too bothered by our presence as it chowed down.



After a few attempts, we thought it was gone. They'd scared it off and we watched it run across the other campsites (right towards the Amish!). Back to enjoying the campfire we went. Later Brent is melting the extra marshmallow goo off of the roasting forks... he pulls them out and they are red hot. Someone cracks a joke about him getting the raccoon with the red hot pokers... we laugh... Brent turns around... and there is the stinkin raccoon on top of our picnic table! At this point Brent grabs a log from our firewood pile and proceeds to whack the raccoon. It runs off, ducks into a drain pipe, and Dad & Brent blocked the pipe with a big log and put stakes around it so it can't move. That was the last we saw of the raccoon.

(For all those concerned about it, I'm sure the 'coon was fine... we fed it before pinning it in a hole and removed the log in the morning... chances are it managed to get out the other side of the pipe and just stayed away from us point forward)

Saturday night was cold yet again, so again I worried that my sweet Lydia would be chilly. She did fine until around 6 or 6:30. At that point I got her out of her PnP and snuggled her in with me in my sleeping bag. I nursed her there while warming her up and she fell asleep all bundled up next to me. I didn't go back to sleep because I was making sure my baby didn't get smothered in the thick sleeping bag... and because I was fully enjoying having my sleeping baby snuggled up next to me. For safety reasons I do not co-sleep with Lydia. Never have. And I don't regret that decision. But that morning I really did love having her bundled up in my arms while she slept. :)

The rest of the trip was pretty typical. Breakfast Sunday morning followed by tearing down the camp & heading to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch.

I'm so glad Lydia is already getting the chance to go places and have different experiences. We've already been camping twice and spent a week at the beach... and in a couple more weeks we're heading to Gatlinburg! Lydia loves travelling and she does it so well! I have a feeling that she will keep me on the move as she gets older!

Labels: , , 2 comments | edit post
My sweet sweet 6 month old...
Starting the post off with a few of my favorite pictures from Lydia's 6 month "session"...





(More pics can be found on Facebook... and more still on Shutterfly...)

Isn't she just growing up so beautifully??? I love her! It's hard to believe that we are halfway through her first year already. Halfway through breastfeeding, halfway to her first cake, halfway to her first party, etc. Sometimes it's like she was just born yesterday, but other times like life before her was ages ago. She is at such a fun age right now... and probably the easiest stage (for me) of her little life so far! She sits up so well now that she is content to sit on the floor and play with whatever toys are available around her. I was able to vacuum the entire house the other day while she sat in her room playing (of course I still kept my eye on her). It's nice that she isn't mobile yet. A lot easier for me for sure!

There are certainly a lot of things I'm starting to miss already about the days gone by... and also a lot of things that I'm really really looking forward to in the future (like the words, "Mommy, I love you!")... but I'm mostly trying to focus on how much I enjoy who she is right now. My mom continues to remind me of the phrase "this too shall pass" ... whether good or bad, every bit of it will pass. So I want to enjoy every second before it's too late!

Alright, in my last post I promised I'd post her 6 month stats... so here they are:

Weight: 16lb 9oz (60%ile)
Height: 26" (50%ile)
Head: 17" (75%ile)

Yep... still got a big noggin. ;-) She didn't weigh as much as I'd expected. She's been riding along the 75%ile curve most of her life, so I anticipated her being 17lb by now... but it's nothing at all to worry about. The doctor said she looks fantastic and is doing really well developmentally. We talked a lot about solid foods and I'm feeling a lot less stressed out about them. I went out and bought a bunch more baby food varieties and we are slowly trying them out. Lydia has had prunes and sweet potatoes, and we just tried bananas today. She made a face at the new taste, but got used to it and kept eating. I'm enjoying taking things slowly. We're introducing one new thing every 3 or 4 days and only doing solids once a day. She nurses before the solids so she doesn't eat much. Just enough to practice a little and learn some new flavors & textures. I still think she's more excited about the spoon than she is the food that's on it... it's like a cool new toy to chew on!

Lydia continues to be the happiest baby I know. She is so easy to please and will just laugh and laugh and laugh at the smallest things. She thinks trips to the store are the best thing ever and will just squeal with delight the whole time we walk around. Who needs fancy places like the zoo or aquarium when we have Walmart to explore! Hahaha. Now that she is sitting up so well (and getting so heavy!) I bought a shopping cart cover for her and next trip we're going to try letting her sit in the cart. She's also going to move up to sitting in the "big tub" at bath time. During her last bath in the infant tub she discovered she is long enough now to stretch her legs out against the end of the tub and arch her back like she's trying to stand up. She kept doing it over and over and would hurt her back on the edge of the seat every time and start crying. I can't have a baby trying to climb out of her tub and hurting herself, so we bought a no-slip bath mat and will try the big tub for bathtime tomorrow.

The list of items she is outgrowing keeps getting longer and longer! Just this week I've put away clothes, the Bumbo, the infant tub, and her hanging toy bar. Her swing will likely be on that list soon too (she's getting to the point of trying to climb out of it).

Maybe I just need to hurry up and have another one so I don't have to keep putting things away... hahaha!

Labels: , , 1 comments | edit post
Happy 1/2 Birthday Lydia!
1 week old:
6 months old:

It is absolutely insane how much Lydia has grown in the past 6 months! I treasure every last second of it. We have her next doctor checkup on Monday, so I will post again then with all of her new stats... plus new 6 month pictures!

6 months ago right now, I was mere minutes away from setting eyes on my sweet girl for the first time. Happy 1/2 birthday, baby love. You are such an amazing blessing!

Labels: , 1 comments | edit post
Beach Vacation!

The term "vacation" takes on a strikingly different meaning when toting along a 5 month old baby. Roughly translated, "vacation" = "a whole lot of work in unfamiliar territory." Feeding her, changing her, bathing her... they all had to be figured out within the confines of a rented condo that we shared with two other couples (friends of ours from church). Every outing required extra attention to what gear was required, what clothing Lydia should wear, if she needed sunscreen, and would she make it without a lack-of-nap meltdown.

We ventured to the beach 3 times with the baby, and once to the pool. Each time we had to very strategically plan out exactly what we could squeeze in during the approximately 2 hours we had between naps (tired Lydia = very very cranky Lydia). The typical scenario was this: Lydia would wake up, eat, get a bathing suit on, and get sunscreened. We would gather all of the gear together (stroller, sun tent, bumbo, beach towels, body boards, toys for Lydia), figure out how to manage to carry it, and make the quick walk to the beach... thankfully just across the street from our condo! We'd then spend the first 15 minutes at the beach finding a spot and setting all of the junk up. Brent and I would take turns attempting to keep Lydia occupied and sand-free (we didn't particularly want her to eat it) while the other one would spend a little time in the ocean. Riding waves alone is far less entertaining than doing so together.

After maybe 30-45 minutes at the beach, Lydia would be getting very bored and nearing the cranky tired meltdown stage. There's only so much you can do to entertain her while keeping her shaded. So we'd pack it all up, drag things (wet & sandy) back to the condo, and attempt to get ourselves and the baby rinsed off and decently clean before putting her down for a nap.

A lot of work for not a lot of time out.

This was a stark contrast to our kid-free friends who joined us on the trip. They enjoyed the luxuries of coming and going as they pleased... staying out late, sleeping in, spending hours on the beach or at the pool. That is not our life anymore!

But seriously, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love my baby girl and we really did have fun taking her on vacation. Yes, it was a lot of work, but it is an experience we will never forget. She liked sitting out on the balcony with me, feeling the breeze and watching the ocean. We took her out to eat with us and discovered she loves sucking on lemons. She enjoyed the pool and the beach, even though our time at each was minimal. And we got to hang out with Brent's old friend Tara and her 3 month old baby, Lucy. Lydia and Lucy were immediate friends!

We also got to see how Lydia could do on long car rides. She did great! On the way down we drove through the night, so she slept most of it (yay!). When we came back it was during the day, so she was awake more but was generally content to sit in her carseat and chew on her toys. She wasn't a big fan of being nursed in the car and/or under the nursing cover, but we made due and all got home safe and sound... even took a different route home so we could spend the night at my parent's house!

All in all it was a lovely vacation. Not sure I'd suggest others do the same with such a young baby (especially one that cat-naps like Lydia does), but certainly an experience worth remembering.

In other Lydia news...
My baby girl is now what I would consider to be an "independent sitter." I have been sitting her on the floor today with no pillows or other items to support her and she will stay there playing for very long periods of time. She sat by herself the entire time I prepared and ate my lunch, and while I worked on organizing her clothes. Speaking of clothes, she's moving up to her 6-9 / 9 month clothing now. I held up a 9 month sleeper and thought to myself, "This looks huge! Surely it won't fit her, at least not very well..." But yep. It fit. Quite well actually. Weren't her clothes all of 20 inches long just yesterday???

She is growing and changing so quickly these days. I made my first official venture into the baby food aisle a couple of days ago and made our first purchases. I grabbed one each of the "1st foods" for us to try out. This past Monday I started getting "serious" about solid foods for Lydia. The entire time we were on vacation she was extremely interested in watching us eat and kept grabbing for things on the table. So I decided she might be ready to give it another try. Indeed she was! I mixed up some cereal on Monday and she actually seemed to enjoy eating it. So I've continued giving her cereal once or twice a day all week. I think it plugged her up, though, because today (Friday) was the first time she pooped since I started doing the cereal daily. I'm going to start introducing other foods soon and we may decide to pass on the cereal. It's not very nutritious anyway.

I'm trying really hard to be excited about all of these changes. Typically I'm not a big fan of change. I like structure and routine, so once something becomes routine I don't like to have it shaken up. I'm entering new and unfamiliar territories which always makes me feel unsure and incapable. But, I have to remember that I am in no way blazing new trails. Millions of moms have gone before me and they all managed to figure out how to get through the changes. So here we go... onward!
Labels: , , 2 comments | edit post
About the Baby, About Me, and More
About the Baby:

Lydia is doing fantastic these days! She is such a happy baby. I am so blessed by her smiles and laughs every single day. She has still been completely random with her naps lately, but we're going with the flow. The hardest thing for me right now is that she's had trouble lately being away from me. She screamed and cried in the church nursery a couple weeks ago to the point that they had to page me to come back to get her. And last Friday Brent and I tried to go out to dinner for his birthday & had my mother-in-law stay with Lydia, but she cried pretty much the whole time we were gone. I don't know if it is separation anxiety or what. She is usually fine around the house if I put her down somewhere to play and even walk out of the room. Who knows. Regardless, I do love that she finds comfort in being with me!

Lydia is learning all kinds of new skills these days. She continues to do well with rolling (when she feels like it). She loves to kick at things and can aim to kick a specific target like the bar on her play gym or my hand. Lately I've noticed her getting a lot better at reaching for and grabbing objects. She used to mostly reach out with both hands and bring them together in front of her to grab something. Now I see her reaching to the sides with just one hand, rolling and grabbing toys that are lying next to her, and reaching to pick things up off of the floor from a sitting position. Oh yeah, did I mention that she's really getting good at sitting too? I've only seen her sit unassisted for a couple of seconds before toppling over, but she can sit very well nestled between my feet.


About Me:

I've been feeling frustrated lately by all of the things that demand my time. It seems hard enough to balance being Mom, Wife, CedarCreek Employee, and Housekeeper... then trying to include Friend, Student of the Bible, Daughter/Sister/Aunt, Ambassador for Christ, Home Group Leader, or just plain "Sarah" ...it can feel overwhelming at times. But I've realized that the frustration is my own fault. Firstly I need to re-prioritize and make sure that God comes first. I've been struggling to come up with something fresh and exciting to do with that relationship, though. I browsed through my bookshelf and found a book I read a long time ago called "Becoming a Woman of Faith" and Brent encouraged me to do some journaling (which I haven't done in ages), so I think I'll start with those things.

Beyond that I am reminded of a blog post my friend Kim wrote about how we DO have enough time to do everything that God desires that we do. I just need to give my time over to Him and let Him direct me. In doing so, I can be sure that I will be managing all of my "roles" in the right way at the right time.

More stuff:

Visit to Cinci - Lydia and I took a roadtrip, just the two of us, to go visit my mom last week. She had been on a 10 day mission trip to Haiti and was really bummed that my dad would be gone on a business trip when she returned. I hated the thought of her returning to an empty home after such a cool experience, so we went down for some fun girl time! It was a good time hearing about her trip and hanging out with my sister-in-law and nieces. I really loved the special Mommy-Daughter time... both with my mommy and my daughter!

Brent's birthday - We returned home from Cinci early afternoon on Friday because it was Brent's birthday. Lydia gave him lots of slobber while I gave him a new computer mouse, chair mat, and some shirts. As mentioned before, we went out to dinner as well but Lydia was not a fan of being left out of that fun. :) We're planning to have a family celebration for Brent & his sister Natalie's birthdays after we return from our Myrtle Beach trip.

Myrtle Beach - This will be our first big trip with Lydia... not only a very long car ride, but also a whole week away from home! I'm excited and a little nervous at the same time, but mostly excited. :) I need to start making a list of everything we need to take for her - likely including her entire wardrobe. A baby can go through a LOT of clothing in a week! I think there is a washer & dryer at our place, though, so we should be fine. I'm not sure how relaxing our beach vacation will be, but I'm sure it will be a fun adventure that we'll always remember.

Labels: , , , , , 0 comments | edit post
4 Months!
My baby turned 4 months old yesterday! I know I say it constantly, but I really can't believe how fast time flies by. She has changed and grown so much from that tiny little lump that I brought home from the hospital.

We had her 4 month doctor appointment today, complete with shots. Ew. I do not like seeing the look on her face when those shots hit her little legs. Poor thing just screamed! But thankfully she calmed down very quickly after it was all over. Just like her 2 month shots, she only cried for a minute after I picked her up and she fell asleep right away on the way home. If it continues to be like last time, I expect her to sleep most of the afternoon... but we'll see. :)

She got a clean bill of health from the doctor. Her ear infection cleared up nicely and both ears look "beautiful" according to the doc. All her parts look good and she's hitting milestones that she needs to hit. My perfect little angel.
Labels: , 1 comments | edit post
Camping!
With the car packed up with what would logically appear to be 3 weeks worth of stuff, my little family embarked on our first weekend camping trip. We bought a nice, big, "family" tent and were ready for the adventure.

Every year my whole family (Mom, Dad, brother + their families) tried to get together at least once for a camping trip. This year we decided to go to Indian Lake State Park. The campground was nice and the weather turned out to be really great. It was hot when we arrived on Friday, and that night we were concerned about storms & possible tornados (always lovely news to hear when camping in a tent with a 4 month old baby), but the rain came and went during the night without any casualties leaving temperatures a bit cooler on Saturday.

Lydia did really great with all of the activity. She loved attention from her cousins & the rest of the family. Bedtime was a little later than usual due to everything going on and it being so bright outside, but Lydia still slept well both nights until 6:30 or 7. The only thing I didn't appreciate from her was all the poop! My little stinker hadn't gone in nearly a week and thus decided to let it all loose all three days we were away. Yuck! It was decided that one of the onesies was too far gone from the mess to worry about bringing home, so we suffered the first clothing loss of Lydia's life.

Sunday was Father's Day. I really enjoyed being able to see my daddy that day as well as celebrate Brent's first Father's Day. I bought Lydia a new "Daddy's Little Sweetie" onesie and made him a card with pictures of him & Lydia. We cleaned up the camp, ate at the Pizza Hut buffet, then I tried to let him relax for the rest of the evening while I unpacked and got Lydia to bed.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:












Labels: , 1 comments | edit post
Great weekend - Not so great Monday
This weekend Lydia took her second trip to Nana & Grandpa's house in Cincinnati. My mom's birthday was on Friday & my oldest brother's birthday was Sunday. Erin (sister in law) was throwing a surprise party for Joshua on Saturday, so our family journeyed down to be a part of the fun. We had a great time and Lydia really enjoyed seeing her Nana, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins! Don't they look so sweet in their matching outfits??


It turned out to be a lovely day for fun at the park. A bit warm in the sun, but since I try to keep Lydia out of the sun anyway, it was perfect weather for being in the shade!

I was nervous about having Lydia away from home now that we have her bedtime routine all established. I worried that she might have a terrible time getting to sleep and staying asleep in a new place without our typical setup. But my sweet girl is smart and flexible... she did awesome and slept through the night all weekend in her Pack N Play with no trouble at all. This is GREAT news for me because we're taking her camping in a couple of weeks, so I would really be in trouble if she didn't like to sleep away from her crib!

So yeah... the weekend was a success, but sadly today (Monday) has not been so great. Lydia still slept well last night and took a great 3 hour nap this morning, but I noticed her ear was... well... yucky. When I was feeding her after her nap, I noticed waxy goo in her left ear and it smelled awful. I'd had to clean that same ear off the previous day and figured she just got spit up in it. So I cleaned it up again today and put her down on her blanket where she proceeded to grab at that ear for awhile. I called the doc's office and they said to bring her in.

I took her to the pediatrician, but still wasn't convinced anything was wrong. In fact, I started to feel a little foolish as the nurse kept asking questions and I kept answering that Lydia was doing okay (eating well, sleeping well, not super fussy, only tugged at her ears a teeny bit this morning, etc)... perhaps I shouldn't have bothered bringing her in. Lydia sat on my lap smiling and talking, not seeming the least bit irritated while we waited for the doctor to come in. At last she had her ears checked and I was actually really surprised when the doctor remarked, "Oh my that looks terrible!" ... "So it's infected?" I responded ... "Oh yes. I can't even see her ear drum there's so much fluid. I'm surprised she is still so happy!"

My happy little girl. :) Anyway, the doc didn't want to give Lydia an oral antibiotic since she is so young, so we are trying ear drops first and going back for another look at her ear on Thursday. We're on strict orders to call right away if she starts being really fussy or gets a fever. So far everything is continuing as normal though. As I type this Lydia is fast asleep in her crib. Hopefully her stinky ear will be all healed up in no time!
Labels: , , , 0 comments | edit post
Success!
Lydia slept all night in her crib last night! I was fully prepared to have her sleeping in the swing again... took it up to our bedroom and everything. At 9:00 I settled her into the swing and let her fall asleep there. She has always had a really hard time falling asleep at that time of night, so I went straight for the swing. But I decided that when I got her up at 11 to change and feed her I would try starting her in her crib. Historically she has done very well in her crib after that feeding, so I expected her to fall asleep and stay in her crib until around 3:00. At that point I planned to move her to the swing to help her go back to sleep.


Well 3:00 came and went and my sweet girl didn't make a peep. I, of course, woke up numerous times during the night wondering if she would be awake at any moment and debating if I should climb out of bed to go check on her or not. When 6:00 came, I couldn't get back to sleep so I checked on her... sure enough she was comfortable in her crib lying spread-eagle across the sheet.


I don't know what to thank for her full night of sleep... breaking the cycle with 2 nights in the swing? Her ability to find her thumb now? Or perhaps just having a busy day with lots of outside time? Regardless, I'm pleased that she was able to be in her crib. Tonight I may try doing the crib at 8:30/9:00 as well and see if we can get that working too. Here's hoping for more good nights of rest in the future!

Lydia conked out this morning after playtime.

Labels: , 1 comments | edit post
Mother's Day - Anniversary - Dedication
May is a VERY busy month for us... particularly the middle of May.


10th - Mother's Day
12th - My brother's birthday
14th - Our anniversary
16th - Baby dedication
17th - My brother's wife's birthday
18th - My parent's anniversary


Yikes! That's a ton of stuff in 8 days! Needless to say I've been keeping plenty busy this past week.


My first Mother's Day was nice. Brent had to work and I didn't get to see my mom that weekend though, so that was a little disappointing. But we went to Brent's mom's house for a cookout in the afternoon and ate yummy burgers & tossed frisbees around. Lydia didn't give me any extra sleep for Mother's Day, but she was a happy baby girl and that's pretty much all I need.


The 14th was our 5 year anniversary. Yipee! :) We had Brent's sister come over to watch Lydia so we could go out to dinner and mini-golf. I always love mini-golfing with Brent because it's one of the few things I can beat him at. He beat me last time but I was around 8 months pregnant... hard to swing a golf club like that! ;) Thanks to his hole in one it was a close game, but I beat him in the end. Hehe. It was nice to get out as a couple again, but unfortunately Lydia has now decided she won't take a bottle and we came home to a screaming, hungry child. I may keep having Brent try to give her a bottle but I'm not so sure it will work anymore... and I hate wasting milk! My mom said I never took a bottle... so perhaps this is my payback. :P


May 16th was Lydia's special day... dedication day! My parents drove up for the day and we had tons of friends and family at church to join us in prayer for Lydia and our family. Sometimes I still can hardly believe that this little treasure is ours to raise. She is an absolute joy in my life and fills each day with plenty of smiles and laughter (and laundry haha).





In other news - I went to an allergist yesterday to get tested since my sinuses are driving me crazy. Turns out I'm allergic to dust mites. Unfortunately this means I need to spend more time vacuuming. Perhaps I'll just live with the runny nose... ;)


Tomorrow I will make my "final" drive to Findlay to officially quit my job. I was on paid leave until April 21st and have been on unpaid family leave since then. It was always my intention to quit, but we wanted to wait until we received all of my paychecks and took care of the money in my company health spending account. Now that that's all taken care of, I'm calling it quits! I think Brent is still a little bummed about the major loss of income (nearly 60% of our income came from my job), but this is something we've been planning for since way back when we were engaged. The plan has always been for me to stay at home once we had kids. That's why we've always made it a point to cover all of our expenses with Brent's income and only use mine for getting out of debt & paying down the mortgage. So... we're kissing goodbye to our huge payments towards our house, but other than that our budget is largely unaffected.


Updates on Lydia: She continues to get up at least once during the night... typically 3am give-or-take 30 minutes. I've started to resign to the fact that this just may be what I have to deal with until we introduce cereal. I just keep reminding myself that she will only be this age once and I need to savor it... sleep deprivation and all! Lydia's interest in toys is starting to pick up these days. She still doesn't grab for them, but she is more willing to bat at the ones we dangle over her. She still hasn't done any rolling over either, but that's okay. Tummy time is still disliked. Lydia gets upset over being on her tummy before she tries too much to flip herself over. She has, however, gotten a lot better at rolling around on her back. She likes to tuck her knees in and tip over on to her side. Before she would mostly topple back when doing this, but yesterday she was doing really well staying on her side. I'm not looking forward to her figuring out how to roll onto her belly until she figures out how to roll back to her back... she hates the belly so much that I'd probably spend all day flipping her back over to prevent screaming!
Labels: , , , , , 1 comments | edit post
Sleeping like a baby
Lydia was having some "independent time" in her pack n play this morning while I caught up on Facebook and she fell asleep in there. She hasn't slept in it since her first week home from the hospital and I was planning to start trying to do some naps there to get her used to it for travel... looks like she beat me to it!

I'm so glad my baby can put herself to sleep. Sometimes she still has a little trouble, but for the most part she can fall asleep without me, without motion, and without a pacifier. I just plop her in her crib and walk out. She might fuss for just a few minutes, but usually settles herself down just fine after that.

She's still learning though... we definitely still have rough moments. Yesterday I put her down for a nap around 2:30 and she initially fell asleep pretty well. But after 10-15 minutes she woke up crying... an obviously "tired cry" not one indicating she needed anything. So I'd leave her be and she'd resettle after a minute... but then she'd wake up again after another few minutes. This went on for nearly an hour! I went in a couple of times to try to burp her and each time the poor thing was just SOOO sleepy but was having such a hard time staying down. Finally at around 3:30 I burped her and cuddled her for just a minute, then layed her down and she was able to sleep for another 30 minutes.

So yeah, we still have some naps that don't go so well, but I'm thrilled that she's learning to do this without needing any aides.

Currently I'm working towards getting a solid feeding schedule for Lydia. I'd been feeding her ever 2.5-3 hours during the day... typically starting around 7am... but I never had a good routine for it. Some days would be mostly 2.5 hour blocks, others would include more 3 hour blocks. It just made it more difficult to plan our days. Now I'm trying a solid 3 hour schedule with her first feeding at 7am and last one at 10pm. This gets her 6 good feedings during the day and 9 hours of solid sleep at night. Yesterday was the first full day on this schedule and she did really well on the 3 hour blocks. I was afraid I might have to deal with some fussing in the last half hour since she's used to sometimes eating after 2.5 hours, but she had no problems at all yesterday. She did wake up a little before 4am this morning, but rather than jump to feed her I tried the pacifier first and it worked! She took her paci and fell back to sleep by 4:15 (I had to go put it back in her mouth a couple of times before she fully fell asleep... precisely the reason I don't often let her sleep with the paci!). I'm really hoping that after a few days of this routine she'll settle in and get back to sleeping longer at night. The last time she fully slept through the night, I didn't sleep well because I kept wondering if she was okay all alone in her crib. :-P

For not even being 10 weeks old yet, and being exclusively breastfed, I'd say Lydia is a champ at sleeping! She still has rough days (and always will), but she is learning very well and all of the good days make for a very pleased mommy. :-)

Labels: , , 0 comments | edit post
Why I never get anything done...
So I was wondering the other day as I read a friend's blog about how much she was getting accomplished during the day while at home with her newborn son... why is it that I haven't seemed to be able to do that? Lydia is over 2 months old now and there are still several places in the house that haven't seen a housekeeper's touch since before she was born. Now granted, I've never been a clean-freak and put off cleaning stuff long before I had a child, but after bringing Lydia home I often found it difficult to even get to the simple stuff like washing dishes or picking up the piles of baby stuff that kept accumulating everywhere.

Why?

I pondered this question and came to the conclusion that it's because I have given birth to a catnapping wiggle worm. I can't carry her in one arm and do housework with the other because she doesn't like to be held for very long periods of time. She wants to be somewhere that allows her to kick her legs and swing her arms and basically just wiggle everything. So, she doesn't want to be held but still wants my attention. If I stop looking at and talking to her for too long she gets mad.

In addition to her wiggling, she's also become a catnapper. You can almost set your watch to her naps... 45 minutes long, give or take 5 minutes. She will be awake for typically no more than an hour before she starts to wear down, then she'll sleep for 45 minutes, then be awake for another hour or so, etc, etc. This does not give me very many good blocks of time in which to do anything. The beginnings and ends of each wake/nap time involve cuddling, diaper changing, dealing with fussiness, and/or settling down which eats up even more of those short little time blocks.

So sure... I could probably make it work and figure out how to have an immaculate house all the time... but I don't care that much haha. I just needed to understand for myself why it seems the days just fly by without anything getting done.

^ That's the post I've been meaning to make for days... now on to more recent news...

Lydia slept for 8 hours last night! It was wonderful! She's been doing fairly well with at least giving me 6 or 7 solid hours, but last night we had our last feeding then went to bed at 11 and she slept until 7 this morning. I still haven't managed to get her in her crib at night though. A few days ago I started working on crib naps again. She did great the first day, then struggled a lot yesterday (for one nap she cried off and on for an hour... never long enough at a time that I felt I needed to get her though... and then promptly fell asleep for nearly 3 hours after I gave up and brought her downstairs in her chair), and so far today she's doing good again. It's 8:30 right now and I put her in her crib at 8. She only fussed for a minute and has been sleeping since. Hopefully she's starting to understand that crib = sleep!











The trip to Cinci last week was really nice. Lydia got to spend lots of time with aunts, uncles, and cousins. By the end of the visit I missed my little girl! I hardly got to cuddle her at all! On the way home we stopped in Findlay so I could show her off to all of my (ex)coworkers. By this point I felt comfortable informing them that I do not intend to return to work. Most didn't seem surprised by the news at all... and who would be when they see how utterly adorable my daughter is? How could I possibly NOT spend all my time with her??? ;-)



After we returned home we had a couple of very busy days. Wednesday was family dinner night at our house then Thursday we had Lydia's 2 month appointment. She had to get her shots that day. Ouch! Poor little thing was already really tired from a busy morning then she had to get 3 shots. She screamed and her tiny little face turned all red, but she calmed down very well once Mommy picked her up to comfort her. Before we even made it back to the car she was fast asleep in her car seat, and she continued to sleep for most of the afternoon and early evening.

FYI it is now 8:42 and, like clockwork, my baby girl is waking up...


The weather has been really great lately. A little hotter than I prefer and WAY too windy, but at least we are seeing the sun and able to go outside! Lydia actually enjoyed the wind. Every time a big gust would come she'd smile and kick her legs with excitement. It was too funny!














For the next few weeks things will slow down around here in terms of activities. Hopefully this will give me a chance to really get a good routine established for Lydia and I. After she got sick when she was 1 month old, I kinda set the schedule aside and just took things as they came. Now I'm ready to adjust back to having more of a sense of "normal" in our lives.



Labels: , , , 0 comments | edit post