On The Move

I'm not sure how she does it, but she's always in some strange positions every morning when she is ready to get up! Lately she scoots completely off her little wedge and starts working at an angle. Yesterday she had one foot through the bars (still swaddled). The pacifier does not stay in - we hear it literally spit out a few minutes after we put her down, and by the end of the week there's usually a few to fish out from underneath the crib - the girl has some aim. (I just put the paci back in for the pic since she was crying.)

She's still sleeping great - from about 9:30 until around 7 this morning. Most nights she just goes right down and puts herself to sleep. We'll hear her meeping around for a few minutes and then that eventually turns into her little baby snores. It's the same thing in the morning, she'll start meeping around and entertain herself for a good thirty or so minutes (clearly moving around in her crib!) before she starts crying to get up.

We feel VERY lucky for her to be sleeping so much from an early age! My little sleep chart said she wouldn't sleep for 8.25 hours until she was 3 months old, and she started it at exactly 6 weeks. Right now she's about 9-9.5 hours most nights, which is what the little chart says should happen at 6 months. We do not take her for granted!!!!

Cutie Pie

Surprisingly, Lilli let us do a little photoshoot when we got home from church yesterday. She's normally starving and won't hear of it (and normally we're running late before hand) so it's rare for us to get some good pics of her in her Sunday outfits!





Time for us to head out for a stroll and mail some things I've been selling on Ebay! I've got to do something to support my consignment shopping habit!

Thursday Night Laughs

The Office makes me laugh. I make Lilli laugh. Therefor The Office makes Lilli laugh, which is a good thing since it's our favorite show!

She actually is starting to laugh, and we sort of caught in on video but I'm not happy with the way it looks/sounds so I'll wait until we have a better one to post!

Two Month Well Baby Visit

We had Lilli's 2 month well baby visit this morning. The most significant thing about this visit is the 3 shots she gets, ugh! But she did great, she never enjoys being stripped down to her undies. But, after getting weighed and measured and wrapped back up in her blanket she actually went back to sleep until her pedi came in to see her. She melted down at the beginning of her exam, but with a little bit of swaddling she started smiling at the doc and did great. She's right on target and growing like crazy. Here's her stats:

Birth: 7lbs, 6.5 ounces, 19 inches long
1 Month: 9lbs, 1 ounce (45th percentile), 21.5 inches long (55th percentile), Head: 70th percentile
2 Months: 10lbs, 12 ounces (50th percentile), 22 5/8 inches long (55 percentile), Head: 65th percentile

So, she's still my big headed, skinny girl!

We go back at the end of May for her next Well Baby check-up (4 months). Yesterday I dressed her in her little pink monkey onesie we brought her home in and it was SO tight!! She still fits comfy in most of her 0-3 month stuff, but some of the jammies are getting a little short and the Gymboree stuff runs a little smaller in sizes.

Here's a pic for today, yesterday she "discovered" her little keys. She was actually able to put them in her month, which made her very proud!!!

Happy Hippo

Until last night bath-time has been the equivalent of Chinese water torture in our household. We've always held hope that one day she'd be the cute baby playing and splashing in the water, instead of the angry, red faced, thrashing baby screaming bloody murder. Until she was a month old diaper and wardrobe changes were also torture (for all of us), but she seems to have grown out of that (most of the time).

Imagine our surprise yesterday - on her two month birthday - when she didn't flail and scream during her bath! She clearly wasn't even remotely thrilled or amused by the bath, but anything is a vast improvement over the previous 8.5 weeks of crying!

Still unsure of the whole situation.....


Wrapped up in her hippo bath towel:


Actually smiling after a bath!!! Unheard of!!


Much like the first time she slept through the night, I don't believe this will be the last of her unhappy baths, but maybe she'll surprise us and start looking at it as a great opportunity to splash us and give us a reason other than baby puke to change!

Two Months of Lilli!

Her Birthday - January 24, 2009
7lbs 6.5 ounces


One Month - February 24, 2009
9lbs, 1 ounce
Two Months - March 24, 2009
We weighed her a week ago and she was 10 pds, 2 ounces. We go Thurs for her 2 month Well Baby check, so I'll share official stats then!

But you can definitely see how much she's grown and her personality has appeared more! At one month she was just starting to smile, and now she enjoys smiling (when she feels like it) and will carry on a little conversation with you (when she feels like it.) Hmm.....it seems like she's already starting to be a little bossy!!

She is a baby on the MOVE! She always wants to be jiggled, rocked, walked, swayed and she loves to dance and watch you dance. If I never make it on So You Think You can Dance maybe she will! She still continues to sleep through the night, from about 9:30/10 until around 6:30/7. Sometimes she'll fuss a little around 5 am but all she needs is her pacy and she'll go right back to sleep. When I go to get her in the morning she will have scooted all the way down to the end of her bed. I'm thinking all her activity may mean she'll want to crawl and walk early!

Happy 2 month birthday Lilli!

Naps & Laughs

Afternoon nap with Dad,


And then entertaining the crowds at a wedding shower!

Lilli's New Ride

Here's the new running stroller!It's a Giant brand running stroller, with 20 inch wheels! A lot of the junkier jogging strollers have 16 inch wheels, but this sucker is truly built for running. It rolls like a dream and makes my Peg Perego "mall hopping" stroller look like and feel like a piece of junk (even though it's also really awesome and I love it!).

We've taken it out for walks lately on all these wonderful days, and we definitely get a lot of looks! A really friendly guy at Centennial told me he wasn't worthy of walking next to us with his little umbrella stroller and our Cadillac of strollers!

We'll keep walking with it until she's a little bigger for running (she needs a bit more head control) and I'm more recovered. I've started running slowly and ran 3x last week. It's felt really nice to burn a good sweat and hopefully the stuck scale will start moving again. So for now we'll just enjoy moving at a pace slow enough to get lots of stares!

March Madness

Here are the kids cheering for their favorite team!
Go Tigers!!!

So far I'm beating Brent in our annual bracket challenge. I'm at 15 of 16 correct, and he's at 12 of 16 correct. Hopefully this year Duke and Memphis will get to play each other in the final, or at least that's how I've built my bracket!

Happy Friday!

St Patty's

Here are some more pics from St Patty's:

Reading a card from her grandparents:
In her more summery (and feminine) St Patty's outfit once it warmed up:Of course there was food (for us), cookies & shepherd's pie:
But I think we may have to wait until next year for her bib to really fit:

And she ended the day in her St Pat's PJs:

Happy St Patty Day!

Lilli wishes you a happy St Patty's Day! Here she is in one of her St Patty's Day outfits (yes, she has more than one!)

Pippin would wish you a Happy St Pat's but he's pretty well passed out (and quite comfy, although totally obscene):


I guess I'm not much better either:


There hasn't been too much excitement here the last few days. I've had some issues with my incision tearing a little & reopening, so Brent's been home helping me out so I can get some more rest. (We went back to the doctor last Friday and he gave me some meds to take to help prevent infection, etc.) Lilli's been really good, but there's still a lot of up and down with her so it's nice being able to rest more and hopefully soon I'll be well, once and for all. I am REALLY ready to be able to resume normal life because a)the scale's been stuck for about two weeks now, and eating healthy only does so much and b)my super awesome running stroller is here now and assembled. It's fabulous! I'll have to post some pics of it tomorrow, but I can't wait to use it.

Have a great St Patty's!

Silver Spoon

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. "

-Leo J. Burke

Who needs expensive toys when a simple spoon will make you quite happy? I'm thinking this is stage 1 of her helping out in the kitchen (finally!)

Sleeping is still going well - she's fallen into a going to bed routine around 9 or 10 oclock and then waking up right around 5:30-6. Personally I'd prefer that to be later (like 7! or later!), but I will gladly take that over the last 6 weeks of 2:30 and 3:30 am feedings!!

Have a great weekend!

-Rachel

Smiles, Part 2

Maybe we should lay off telling her what a pretty girl she is?? She's starting to have quite a thing for looking at herself in the mirror....

All Smiles

Smiles are starting to be somewhat easy to come by and she's starting to laugh a little (sort of like a pant right now).
But we're definitely going to have to work on her modesty:

Parking & Sleeping

Hello! We had a great weekend with beautiful weather, and we took total advantage of it!

Friday Brent left work a little early and we went to Shelby Park and took a nice 2.5 mile walk. We hadn't been over the new pedestrian greenway bridge since it was finished, so we got to enjoy that. Then on Saturday we met some friends and their girls at Centennial Park and had a picnic. The park was packed and every kid had a loaf of bread for the ducks!!! The ducks were so full they weren't even hanging out around the shore anymore. After our friends left we fed Lilli and walked 2 miles on their path before heading out to do some errands. Sunday afternoon Lilli got to go to a baby shower for one of her future buddies. She did great and was passed around the whole time which was nice for us to get a break and be able to enjoy some cake and adult conversation!

I think her 6 wk growth spurt demon is over!!! She finally started to calm down Friday afternoon, and Saturday was mostly back to her normal cheerful self. Saturday night she slept ALL night! From 10 pm until 6 am!!And she did the same last night - from 11 pm until 7:30! Even then, this morning she was just laying there wide awake chewing on her hand. I guess she might have laid there longer if I didn't go in and check on her. Hopefully this is a sign of good sleeps to come!

Here are some pics from the weekend!

Growing Like a Baby

So I'm pretty sure we've hit Lilli's 6-week growth spurt (right on time since she's 6 wks tomorrow). I tell people she's 90% sweet and 10% rotten, which is probably a pretty good rate for a baby (because I do get they are supposed to cry for no reason sometimes). Those numbers have been pretty much reversed for the last 24 hours.

She normally naps really well in the mornings, catnaps in the afternoons, and is a bit more awake and slightly more fussy in the evenings. Yesterday she woke up around 9:30 am, and pretty much fussed her way throughout the whole rest of the day, never sleeping more than 10 minutes at a time. And the whole day she insisted on being held, walked around, patted on the back and rocked (all at the same time). So that was my exercise yesterday - constant baby walking! I even took her on a stroll around the neighborhood, about 2 miles - and she stayed awake for most of it! She's really not one of those babies that car rides help, a lot of times she just gets angry in the car, so taking a stroll around the neighborhood didn't make her pass out either.

We were at least able to get her to sleep from 10 until 3:30, and then back asleep from 4:45 until 6:20, but today has pretty much been like yesterday. I tried "Fridays in Pajamas" where the three of us were all going to just nap and hang out in the bed, but Pippin was the only one who embraced that concept. I tried the vacuum tip, which I think scared them both to death, but didn't seem to help. I was starved and needed a break, so I put her in the swing in the nursery with Baby Einstein blaring and she's finally asleep going on an hour and a half now, which I think is one of the new Wonders of the World. The swing has never kept her asleep more than 10-15 minutes, EVER. Pippin and I have been curled on the couch in a celebratory hug for that hour and a half.

From what I've read these growth spurts tend to last a few days, and everything she's doing (lots of fussiness, eating just a little bit but much more frequently) is totally normal and she's just doing her 6 week baby hazing. And I can tell by looking at her and how her clothes fit that she really is growing a lot right now! Hopefully when she's in a more chipper mood I can capture one of her funny smiles on camera. I got a big one this morning when I asked if I had stinky breath.

Here's hoping she grows out of her 6 week slump quickly!!

Hey everyone! Lilli and I have had a busy week of getting out and about. Finally the weather is warm enough for it not to be miserable to get out and go somewhere. Yesterday Lilli and I walked 3 miles at Centennial Park after lunch out with my coworkers. We did 3 laps of the 1-mile loop, enjoying all the flowers and ducks. Ok, so I enjoyed all the flowers and ducks and she pretty much slept the whole time. But I know she enjoyed it.

She's also been to see my doctor, to an Esther Bible Study at work, to visit all my coworkers, Kroger (ick), and church a couple of times. She's been great for most of it, she got taken out a couple of times last night but managed to last through most of church. Sometimes the transition between quiet and loud singing makes her a bit angry and knocks her out of her sleep, but a little rocking and back patting usually fixes her up.

In sleeping news, she slept for the first time in her crib on Monday night. Until now she's been in her pack and play, 2 weeks in our room, then 3 weeks in the living room right outside our door. With Brent back at work, it seemed like the noise he generated was starting to wake her earlier than I'd like in the mornings, so we got the monitors all set up Monday night. I wasn't sure if I would hear her or not, so we probably had the volume a **little** loud Monday night. As in, you could hear her breathing and Brent said it sounded like we were sleeping with Darth Vader in the room. (And he sneaked and turned it down later while I was up with her.) She slept fine, right to sleep and then up for her usual 3:30 snack. Then she slept until 8:30 which was AWESOME because she normally gets up between 6:30-7:30. She also slept pretty good Tuesday night, and then last night she slept from 11 until 5:30 without being hungry!! It was great and hopefully a good sign of longer sleeps to come. I think she would've slept even longer but that's when Brent's RAISE THE DEAD alarm clock goes off, and she woke up immediately after.

In milestones, she's really starting to smile a lot this week and it's getting a lot easier to make her smile. She's also starting to not think having her diaper changed is a form of torture, which is nice and makes diaper changes more pleasant. She's a lot more aware of her surroundings, and can really hit the hanging things on her little gym and bouncy seat. And she's starting to be more opinionated with how she wants to hang out - as in she'd prefer to be carried around by me all day so she can look around at all the exciting things she's starting to see and drool on the 3 shirts I can wear as much as possible. (Which is cute and all but I'm pretty sure she's going to break my back already at just over 9 lbs). I ordered both my running stroller last night and one of the stretchy sling wraps so I can wear her and it won't hurt my back as much. The stretchy thing comes by priority mail from CT so hopefully it will be here on Saturday. We have a nice front carrier but it doesn't let her lay sideways and in 500 different slingy positions.

Here she is in her crib, a vision in coordinating polka dots:

And here she is at Centennial Park, in front of the Parthenon:

-Rachel

240 Days of Pregnancy

I finally got around to putting Rachel's pregnancy photos together. When I uploaded it to the blog it really degraded the quality. Hopefully you'll still be able to enjoy it. If not I may try to upload it elsewhere.

Moving and Shaking

Good morning!!! Alarm baby got me up at 6:30, and after feeding her, changing her and getting some laundry going of course I'm wide awake now! Maybe there will be time for a nap later although that's doubtful since we go back to my doc for my follow-up appointment this afternoon. At least this time the # on the scale will have gotten much smaller!

Here's a couple of pics from the weekend. Little Miss Independent has decided that she doesn't always want to be swaddled up in her little straightjacket, so in the interest of letting her do whatever makes her happy so we can sleep, some nights she gets to sleep au natural. And this is how we find her in the morning. Good thing there's a wall there to stop her or she'd probably end up in Pippin's bed in the morning!!!

Brent took Friday off so he could go with us to Lilli's new pediatrician. Long story short, although our original pediatrician was a very nice guy, and a very good doctor, everything else about their practice was AWFUL - the nurses, the office, the clientèle, everything. So we've changed pediatricians to a great practice in Green Hills and they are GREAT! The nurses and docs carry around laptops and keep everything electronically and the whole office is state of the art. My baby deserves Green Hills!! We went Friday because we were concerned Lilli has acid reflux, and the nurse and doc spent a lot of time with us and gave us some suggestions to help and hopefully avoid medication. So far so good, however there's been a few MASSIVE spitups in the process. Our very first feeding after we got home from the doc ended up with me, Lilli, the couch and the floor drenched. And while Brent was helping me clean up Pippin took advantage of the situation and managed to eat part of Brent's lunch - sending him back to timeout for the second time in two days. He's become quite the opportunist - that was the first of Brent's lunch he'd stolen all week, after taking mine twice when I've gotten distracted by diapers that need changing, etc.

After the appointment on Friday we went over to the Green Hills mall and walked around for a while - Lilli's first trip to the mall! Of course she and I went to Gymboree, Baby Gap, Macys, Pottery Barn Kids, and all her other favorite clothing stores. Strangely no one had any good deals going on, so we left the mall totally empty handed (except for the baby, the carrier, the stroller, the diaper bag, coats, blankets, and her toys).


Hopefully today the doc will tell me I'm all set and can start exercising again! I've still got 15 of my 37 preg pounds to lose. There's about 1 or 2 things I can actually zip now, and hopefully this week I can add several more things to that count! I'm about to order my jogging stroller, I think I'm going to go with a Giant from Ebay. As much as I'd love a Baby Jogger or BOB there's no way I can justify their $500 price tag!

Have a great Monday!

-Rachel