Count your blessings instead of sheep....

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Is there something on my face??

Lily had her first experience with actual food. Squash. She enjoyed the heck out of it! Daddy enjoyed feeding her! And Choco enjoyed cleaning her face!

Mmmm.... notice the audience we had. Choco next to Lily and Cosmo behind Lily. Just patiently waiting for a little taste of their own.

What? That's it? No more? Maybe I can eat what's left on my face?

Don't call Child Welfare. Choco is not Lily's bather normally. This is Mommy's fault. I wanted a nice pretty picture of Lily smiling post-squashcapade, but apparently Choco thought Lily's face just looked too yummy and needed to give her kisses. Good thing Lily's used to Choco's antics!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Biggest Loser

Lily went to the doctor this week for her 4 month check up. She weighs 14lbs 2 oz, 26 inches long, with a 16 inch head. For height the girl is in the 95%, weight 50%, and head between 25 and 50%. However, the weight for length percentile is a paltry 5%. That seems crazy. Lily's chubby looking, she has a couple of chins, rolly polly arms, and cellulite in her thighs. There are times I think she's eating too much, but apparently not. The doctor didn't seem concerned at all, and gave us a good report.

Lily handled her shots like a champ, she barely cried this time and was easy to soothe. Cayce and I had to decide who was going to do the soothing this time. Cayce won and got to comfort her. I got the pleasure of holding her head and kissing her while she was getting the shots. She pretty much slept for the rest of the day again, and when she was awake she was fussy. She did develop a fever in the evening. We discovered Lily wouldn't take the cherry flavored acetaminophen this time (Who can blame her? I can't stand anything cherry flavored). So at 9:00 PM Cayce was at Walgreens searching for grape flavored medicine. She slept just fine that night, but continued her needy mood the next day. Lily's not much of a cuddler, but she was super cuddly those two days... it was actually nice.

We've been feeding Lily rice fairly consistently now for a couple weeks. Some evenings she likes it, some nights not so much. She was all about it last night, and for the first time ever she ate the entire serving of rice. Dr. E told us we could move on to other stage one foods now that she's mastered the spoon. I think this weekend I might try some yellow squash.

Lily has taken to her crib like a champ. She's sleeping through the night each night. We got 10 hours the other night, but she's averaging 8 and 9 hours each night. Of course I'm not getting that much sleep. I've started reading in earnest again. So I stay up reading for a couple of hours after everyone goes to sleep. I'm sure I need the sleep, but I feel like I need that *me* time more. *shrug*

Now that we've ended all our traveling I've officially started to work off the remaining baby weight. Cayce and I have worked out a nice arrangement. He bathes Lily each night, and while he does that I do my Jillian Michaels' work-out DVD. So far it's working really well. I had my last soda yesterday. I have a headache right now, and I'm trying to decide if it's a caffeine headache or a sinus headache. Cayce and I have a weight loss competition going on for the next 8 weeks, so no cookies or brownies in this house for a while. Good thing I keep the freezer stocked with Popsicles, or I may go into high fructose corn-syrup withdrawals.

Our lives are about to get busy again. Cayce starts coaching soccer next week, and school starts in a couple of weeks. We've decided I'm going to work each Friday Cayce has off, just to help bring in some extra cash. It's only two days a month, but it helps. I'm sure the first day will be super tough, but Lily will sleep through most of my work day. Anywho. Picture time.

Clean baby after bath time with Daddy!

Supper just exhausted her!

I don't know who's more worn out in this picture.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

All Over the Map

That flash is bright Pama!

Lily made her first trip home. Cayce and I packed up the truck, enlisted a house/dog sitter, and headed west for two weeks. It was a looooong drive, and a looooong two weeks. We left super early, 6 AM for the first leg of the trip, and drove for nearly 12 hours to Memphis. We stayed in a comfy hotel, slept in, and continued our way to OK the next day. Lily slept most of the day for the first trip, hence our 6 AM departure, but the second day she was awake and pissed. The girl still is not a good car rider, despite efforts to break her in. We stayed in OK for about a week. Lily acclimated to her surroundings super fast. We didn't take her many places, actually she was only in the car for one trip to Tulsa, and we stayed home and let family come to us. She slept awesomely. Averaging 8 and 9 hours straight each night, and napping for a few hours each day. We spent a lot of time on the back porch. Lily enjoyed rolling around (well not rolling per say, more like rolling side to side) on a blanket back there, watching the ceiling fan, and listening to all the barnyard animals and birds. I was sad to leave, but we headed up to MO for Cayce's family visit. Lily slept most of the drive, and only woke up for the last hour of the drive. Lily met lots and lots of family, and traveled all over the NW Missouri map. She slept poorly and napped poorly. Therefore she was cranky and I was cranky. People kept saying "it's normal for babies to cry" like that was supposed to make me feel better, but the truth is, Lily rarely cries. Yes she fusses, but cry, that's not normal for her so it was very frustrating to me. She needed her naps and she wasn't getting them, and I felt like our method of parenting was pushed aside and ignored at times. Kind of like after caring for our baby for four months we don't understand her needs, and others knew better. Lily is a baby who thrives on routine, and her routine was non existent in MO. On top of losing sleep, my milk supply has greatly diminished as well due to all the bottle feedings and dropped nursing routine. It's going to take a while and a lot of fenugreek to rebuild it. I'm also hoping Lily gets back to sleeping better soon. Last night she slept for 5 hours, and woke up to eat at 3:00, but struggled to go back to sleep. She napped pretty well today, and I'm hoping that will help her sleep better tonight.

Lily's finally made the jump to her own room. I'm really surprised at how easily I made the switch. Only a few times did I wake up thinking I heard her on the monitor, and I only spent an hour of so imagining all the things that could go wrong for her in her room, but we all survived it. In the long run making the change now is better than waiting any longer, and she realize she's being ousted. Lily did have a Dr. appointment scheduled for tomorrow, but I pushed it back a week in hopes Lily will get back into her routine first. So I have no idea how long she is or how much she weighs. She looks really long to me, but who knows? Anywho, now for what people really want: pictures.... there's A LOT!

Catching up on some sleep in the truck.

Hanging out in Paw Paw's chair.

With cousin Marty watching the calves enjoy their bottles!

Cayce and Kevin feeding some calves!

Mimi, Lily, and some "Lily Pads!"

Daddy, Lily, and Daddy's bass... Lily's not so sure about that dead fish. (Fish was caught in the pond with all the lilies)

Napping with Mimi.

Four month picture.... not as fancy as the others... my tools were at home. Lily was bathed and ready for bed when I realized I needed the picture. She was not in the mood to smile!