Feeling Bettter

Lilly slept better last night. She woke up every four hours like clockwork for numbing drops and Tylenol, but was able to go back to sleep so we are feeling more and more rested. She also has taken both naps in her crib today....she put up a pretty good fight before the last one, but she does that every now and then anyway. She also has played today without watching my every move or insisting I be right there next to her--both of the above are things that haven't happened in a good two weeks. Yay! Now just because Lilly wasn't feeling well didn't mean she didn't start doing some new tricks!! She now pulls up and stands in her crib. She tries on lots of other things in the house, but we really don't have good "pulling up" furniture. She does, however, hang out on her knees like in the above and below photos. It is so cute!!!

Also, there have always been low open shelves around the house that I use for Lilly's things that way I don't have to always say "no" when she is getting into the low shelves. Until about a week ago, she completely ignored whatever was on the shelves, but recently she discovered that she could get into it...so at least 10 times per day I have had to put stuff back into the shelves. Another thing she does now is if she sees me putting something of hers away--she goes right over to it and gets it back out as if to say, "I had that where I wanted it, Mom!!"

She also enjoys getting into the diaper box (we have a box that has diapers, wipees, lotion, etc.) and the diaper bag. Our house looks like there has been a toy and diaper tornado regardless of how many times I pick it all up every day. I feel like I am fighting a losing battle there, but I am glad that she gets so much use out of her stuff! Oh yeah, she is also "normal" crawling. She just switched from the soldier scooting crawl to regular crawling one day.

We met daddy for lunch today and I forgot to pack Miss Lilly a bib so I put this napkin on her thinking "yeah-that is going to last?!", but she left it alone. I was shocked and pleased!

This is Lilly while we were going through the automatic car wash today.

"What is going on Mom??" After the first few seconds, she decided it was okay to be in the car wash and just hung out and watched everything-the soap suds, the scrubbing strings, the water rinse. I took a couple of videos of her today that I will post tomorrow. So glad to be posting a positive post!!!!

Monday

Lilly woke up at 1 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep or be put down. So at 2:30, I was on the phone with the after-hours call line for our pediatricians office asking the nurse why my baby wasn't better yet----it has been 2 weeks! She said to give it tonight and if Lilly's wasn't sleeping better to take her back to the doctor......for the fourth time in two weeks??? The sleep trouble is because with the ear infection it can be painful to lay flat-I guess even with the antibiotics and numbing drops. There is good news though!...... For the first time in a week, Lilly took a nap in her crib today!!! She slept for about an hour and a half. Hey, I will take it! Although she normally wakes up smiley and chatty in her crib, she woke up crying today so when I went in with the camera to get a picture of her standing up--I did not get smiles. Isn't that the most sad-sad face you have ever seen?????

She was trying whether to decide whether to keep crying or smiling in this picture because I was singing "Old McDonald". Pitiful sweet baby. She went down easily for bed so we are hopeful that tonight will be a good night!! Hopefully I can post an "all better" post soon!!!!!!

Tough Week

Well, although last weekend Lilly showed signs of feeling better, on Monday she ran a fever and was super clingy....again, you could tell she did NOT feel well. However, since she had just been to the doctor Friday and they tested everything including her ears we figured it was just the virus running it's course. So, Tuesday the fever was gone and she was happier, BUT then decided she was not going to sleep. Wednesday she was still on the not sleeping and added not wanting to be put down AT ALL. So, we made an emergency SOS call to DeDe. I figured out at some point that she would sleep in the car for short periods of time. Therefore, Wednesday and Thursday we spent a good amount of the day driving around. If she got her naps she seemed to feel better....so I was thinking maybe she had just gotten a little spoiled from being sick and held and cuddled. Thursday evening, DeDe arrived (praise the Lord). Thursday, Lilly woke up at 3:00 am....and couldn't go back asleep and lay down. Friday we went back to the doctor....drumroll please......EAR INFECTION! That was our 3rd trip to the doctor in a week and a half. Now, I know I shouldn't have been relieved to hear that my daughter has an ear infection, but I kind of was because she just had not been acting like herself ever since she caught the virus so I was glad to know that we hadn't officially just spoiled her rotten.

Daddy, Lilly, and DeDe. It was such a huge help to have DeDe here. These past two weeks have just been exhausting! We are so blessed, though, not only to have such a happy healthy baby most of the time, but also to have so much family that is willing to help us out! My mom babysat for us the Friday before and my Grandma Odie called Monday and offered to babysit for a couple of hours for a little relief and then watched her again for the boy's doctor appointment. (He looks good and healthy by the way....we are closer to a name!!)

Daddy, Lilly, and Mommy--Our little family!!

Okay, so Lilly has worn out her first outfit!! (Notice the toes poking out the hole in the footy pj's.) I could not stop laughing when I looked down and saw a little toe and before long there were 3 toes! Really, the outfit was a little small when I put it on her but I have a hard time putting things in the "too small" category when it comes to her....but she is wearing all of the toe parts of her clothes and socks because she is always on her tippy toes! Oh yeah, Lilly can now pull up. We walk in to get her out of her crib and we either find her sitting with her legs hanging out of the crib rails or standing and looking for us. I will eventually get a picture of this! Lilly seems to be feeling better and hopefully we are on the way to healthy!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day Daddy---from Lilly!! Thanks for being such a great daddy for me! I love you so much and can't wait to tell you in words you understand! This is Lilly and Daddy after she gave him the presents she got for him! As you can see in the above photo, she picked out a taggie ball for them to play with together and made him a frame with pictures, handprints, footprints, and a sign that says, "I love you Daddy!"

Now, I know some of you are skeptical about her writing, "I love you Daddy!" but she did with Mommy's help. The letters were really big in order to be able to read them clearly. These are a few of Lilly's 8 month pictures. You can view them all at 8monthphotos ----this is my FAVORITE batch so far!! Anywho, back to Daddy. Lilly, you should know that you are a very lucky little girl to have such a wonderful father! Here are some things that make him so great:

• To say he loves you would be the understatement of the century!!! Your daddy thinks you are perfect and that you do NO wrong. If you have been a stinker, he will tell me, "Now mommy, that isn't true--she's just little".


• He will not let you cry or fuss even for a second (even when you need to do a little fussing because you are being the above mentioned stinker). If you make the slightest little noise, he will go run and get you and do whatever it takes to make your cute little face smile.


• You have recently been sick and let me tell you if he could have taken it away and been sick for you--he would have a million times over. It just broke his (and mommy's) heart to see you not feel well.


• Before you, your daddy was laid-back about everything...NOTHING worried him. "It will all work out", he would say. Now, and this is the part of parenting I think shocked us both, is that he (we, but more so he) worries about every little thing. When you go on your first date at age 25, you can thank mommy for being able to eat solid foods and walk because if it were up to daddy-you would stay on pureed baby food so we would never have to worry about you choking! And walking---oh my goodness---you might fall down and scrape something, which I am sure you will, but Daddy just doesn't ever want to see you hurt in any way. (That isn't a joke--totally serious.)


• He is always thinking about you. He noticed the straps on your carseat were leaving marks on your shoulder and so at Wal-Mart he got strap covers for you. We still sterilize everything and boil your water for your bottles. He rushes home to see you at lunch and if he is busy and can't come home, he has us come see him. If he is home and you are napping he just paces back and forth until you make the smallest peep so he can run in there and hold you! The last time we were going to see DeDe, he tried to hook up the DVD player to hang on the back of your headrest but the cord wouldn't reach so he suggested that mommy could sit in back and hold it for you to see so that you could be entertained on the way there---I declined, but he is always thinking about and willing to do anything to make you more comfortable.


• Since Mommy became pregnant with little brother, Daddy gets up with you most of the nights you get up. In fact, some times Mommy tries to so Daddy can get some extra rest but you make it quite clear that you want Daddy. He lights up when you say, "dadadada".


• Lilly, although some of these stories are funny and the extremes, your Daddy loves you so much and will always be there for you no matter what! He will deserve every, "World's Best Dad" thing you and your brother ever decide to give him! (There are so many more reasons, but I think we will spread them over the years so Daddy doesn't get an ego...haha...just kidding about the ego.)

Matt, thank you for being such a wonderful father to our baby girl! You sacrifice and do so much to provide for our family and allow me to stay home and take care of our baby and we are so blessed to have you in our lives! You are also such an involved husband and father and I couldn't ask for anything more---We love you soooo much!!!!

Family Update

This post will update you on the whole family, but we will start with who everyone really wants to know about: Lilly. Lilly is feeling much better. When she woke up yesterday, she still wouldn't eat and was rather fussy so we went back to the doctor. He said that the virus was going away, but that she had SEVERAL new spots for teeth to come in so she was just going through a double whammy--sickness and teething! Really??

After we left the doctor, I swung through a drive-thru and got some biscuits and gravy---of which, Lilly ate pretty much half!! At that point, we would have given her steak if she would've eaten it. Then, she ate her oatmeal and fruit. From that point on, she has started feeling better and better!!

She has been talking (like in the above photo). Her favorite thing to say is, "Ohh-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa"! It is hilarious. While she was sick, she would say it so sad-sounding.

Now it is back to cheerful squeals and chatting.

What a cute profile!

No more photos mom!

• Little brother--well, we still haven't came up with a name...feel free to leave suggestions! We are considering Benjamin, Blake, Reid, Trey, Owen, Lincoln, and a couple others. He is doing great as far as I can tell! He is always moving. He reacts to Lilly, too. If she cries, he goes crazy!
• Matt--after this week, he is a little tired. Work is going well. He is always busy being an awesome daddy--more on that tomorrow (spoiler alert)!
• Me--also tired after this week. Pregnancy is going great. I am in that part where I have a lot of energy (nesting--our house is clean!), and feel pretty much normal. The only complaint is heartburn--I ate cheerios for breakfast and got heartburn--seriously!

Poor Sick Lilly

Well, Lilly caught her first virus. On Monday, I noticed she was a little clingier than usual and didn't want to eat her dinner. So, I kept checking her for a fever--but she didn't have one and she slept well. Tuesday, she got up with a little fever (a mother knows!), but when I called the doctor she said to just monitor it for a day--it could just be teething. So, most of the day she was in a decent enough mood as long as she was being held...but you could tell she wasn't feeling well! By Tuesday night, she would just lay on Matt and I and make these pitiful sounds that clearly stated, "I feel horrible". She also did not sleep Tuesday night. So, Wednesday I took her to the doctor even though her fever was pretty much gone. When we got to the doctor, she had a little rash starting...which led the doctor to diagnose her with the Roseola Virus. The doctor said her ears and throat look fine, the virus pretty much causes extreme clinginess, fussiness, a fever, and a rash. Once the rash appears, it should be gone in 12-24 hours. So Wednesday afternoon, she seemed to be on the road to recovery. She played by herself a little bit, was much more smiley, and genuinely seemed to be feeling MUCH better. I put her in bed with us and she slept fine...she would not stay asleep on her own. BTW, the above picture is of her eating ice out of a mesh feeder...she loved it, but as you can tell by the look on her face in these pictures, she was in no mood to be photographed.

So, Thursday started off good. However, at around 10:00 (nap time), she became super fussy and REFUSED to nap...trust me, I tried everything. She didn't nap until 2:00 and it was very short. After holding her and battling fussiness and everything all week, at 3:00--I officially had run out of trick and energy so I called Matt--HELP! She won't sleep, she won't eat...she won't stop crying! He came home and was able to get her to sleep (solely on him) for a couple of hours. However, she didn't feel any better when she woke up. She took a bottle...but still won't eat baby food. Then, last night at 11:00 (a good 3 hours past bedtime), we had tried EVERYTHING to get her to sleep.....rocking, car ride, bottle, lullaby CDs, laying down with her, putting her down alone, etc....nothing worked...it all made her angrier! After screaming for over an hour and being mere moments away from going to the ER, she fell asleep.

She woke at 4:00 am with a growling tummy, sucked down a bottle, went right back to sleep, and is just now beginning to stir at 8:15am.

Please pray that our sweet little baby is healed today and feels much better. She has had such a rough week! To top it off, she may be teething at the same time ):

And to leave on a funny note, yesterday morning, after she woke up she was laying in bed next to me playing. When we decided it was time to get up, I go to pick her up and she has managed to get both legs in one leg hole! Ha!

The Weekend

Well, we loaded up Thursday night so we could be ready to leave for B-town as soon as Lilly was done with her last swim lesson at the Swim Ranch (she got a certificate and everything!) in order to beat the nasty weather coming to town. However, the nasty weather got here early! So... We got stuck at Daddy's work for a little while. Miss Priss didn't mind because she got a HUGE balloon.

Her and daddy playing with the balloon...Daddy AND balloons are sooo much fun!

I just loved the look on her face in this picture! After waiting the storm out, we hit the road!

Lilly dancing. She pulls herself up using our hands and then her feet get all happy!! She just keeps moving them.

Sweet girl.

Playing with DeDe!

"DeDe, did you miss me??"

We had a great time and the ride there and back went much smoother this time! Lilly got in the pool a little bit, but she wasn't really sure what to think of those wild boys in there with her!!

I saw Brody taking a bath on his tummy on his blog and thought we would give that a try...so last night, Lilly took a tummy bath! She liked it a lot.

She was able to get all around the tub.

And, most importantly, she was able to chase her toys all over the place. She is probably not going to appreciate these pictures being on the blog later in life, is she?? Haha.

9 Months/Proud Mommy

Well, I was kind of dreading today because we had swim lessons and then right afterward we had her 9 month check up...BUT Lilly was an angel!! First, at swim lessons, she kicked her legs all through swim lessons!!!! Then, when it was time to practice getting out of the pool, she reached for the wall, held herself and tried to lift her leg!!! She was all smiles and particularly chatty through the lesson as well. She was very tired but she would just sneak a snuggle while we were resting and then went back to work. She did fall asleep AS SOON AS she got in the car and slept on the way to the doctor....where she was also a CHAMPION!!! When we first got there, they took her weight (19 lbs. 13 and something ounces--75th percentile), her height (almost 29 inches--80th percentile--this is a huge jump from the 40th percentile last time...I knew she had went through a huge growth spurt!!!!), and her head size (I can't remember, but she is still in like the 5th-10th percentile there). Then, they tell us they have to "stick" her toe to get blood for the anemia test (it was negative by the way). Well, she had her toothbrush and we were singing "Old McDonald" (her favorite) and they stuck her toe...didn't phase her at all!! She never stopped smiling! What a big girl!!!!

The doctor came in and checked Lilly out and said everything looked great! She also talked to the doctor...she was quite chatty all day today! Oh, they gave her "The Little Engine that Could" book. They have this new reading program where all patients get a book at 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years. Awesome! Then, since they had a HIP vaccine shortage the last visit, she had to get that shot today. Shucks!! The nurse gave her the shot and then Lilly proceeded to tell her off in gibberish. It was one of those instances where I know I am glad I couldn't understand what she was saying!!!! She was very angry sounding. Lately, when she hurts herself with a toy or something, I will get onto to the toy and say, "No No No"....maybe that is what she was saying.....

So, Lilly, what have you been doing at 9 months??

• Well, your personality is really starting to show! Even the doctor said he thought you were going to be a handful! You are becoming slightly strong-willed (you get it honest). If you are playing with something you aren't supposed to be and we take it away, you let us know that you don't appreciate it once we PRY it out of your hands!
• You use Mommy and Daddy to pull up. You just figured out that it works with Daddy too tonight. After that, you already tried to pull up on a couple more things...yikes. Anyway, you are so proud of yourself once you get to a standing position. You get sooo excited. You also have started taking a couple of steps holding onto my hands. I can just see the wheels turning in your head about all of the possibilities!!
• You have started this adorable smile. First, your bottom teeth are really in and make your smile so stinking cute to start with, but you smile this huge smile and then breath really fast in and out with your noses making the cutest sound.
• You want to do whatever we are doing. When I am feeding you, you want your own spoon (you don't want to feed yourself--you want Mommy and Daddy to do that), but you want your own spoon to play with because we have one. You want to try whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating--you just look at us and smack your mouth until we let you have a little taste. You have to hold the lotion while we put it on you at night. You always help me out by carrying my keys to the car for me.
• You are an expert in your walker. I stand on my tip toes in the kitchen so my heels don't get ran into anymore. Tank is also becoming much more agile thanks to your walker driving skills.
• You love your rubber toothbrush. You will chew on it all day long. What is really awesome though is that you like to drool on it and get it really nice and slobbery. Then, you shake it around splashing spit on everyone around! You also try to share it with Mommy and Daddy by trying to stick it in our mouths.
• You LOVE teething biscuits and the little puffs that dissolve in your mouth. You are starting to get the hang of putting them in your mouth, but you really like to be fed rather than feed yourself.
• You also really enjoy the pool. You love to bang things around and together. You have started really playing games (peek-a-boo, this little piggy, tickle monster) and are so interactive! You are also becoming partial to mommy and daddy...if you are tired or nervous...you don't want anyone else!!! You love animals and animal noises...and Mommy sings Old McDonald at least 10 times per day. I know there is more, but this is a pretty good start!

She looks like she is going to give somebody a spanking with that spatula! There is our sweet and giggly Lilly! Note: Check out the shoes!! Daddy eating some ribs!!!

The ABOVE VIDEO is of Matt getting Lilly's ribs. It is only a few seconds because my memory card was full....imagine that!!!

Swim Lessons

We had a special treat at swim lessons today....Daddy!! Daddy got to come learn with mommy and Lilly! Here is Lilly with daddy. Lilly has her swim buoy on. This is the part of the lesson where she is kicking across the pool....or at least we are going back and forth across the pool saying, "kick, kick, kick, kick, YAY!!"

Eating the equipment...

Using the kick-board across the pool...this is not her favorite part of the lesson. She actually had the most fun at today's lesson. I don't know if it was because Daddy was there, or if it wasn't as hot today, or if she is just getting the hang of it....either way, she didn't fuss at all! I also think that Matt is better at just letting her hang out if she doesn't want to do part of the lesson....I have a tendency to try and get her to do it because it is part of the lesson--I know that is crazy because she is 9 months old!

Bumping the wall with the board--she does enjoy this part!

Daddy is blowing bubbles in the pool for Lilly!

Taking a breather...these lessons are exhausting!

Floating on her back. I didn't get a picture of her "getting out" of the pool. She can hang on to the side of the pool on her own! I am really proud of our little swimmer!

Daddy, Lilly, and Mommy--this is during the end of the lesson where you just play in the water! We are having a good time. It is a lot to try and get a 9 month old and pregnant woman to morning swim lessons five days in a row, but we are over the hump and going strong!!