She can't walk yet, but...

She can climb onto the coffee table!

L&M Milestones

On August 16th, at her birthday party, Lily took her first step unassisted. We were opening presents when it happened. She was trying to go from me to a new toy! She took one step and realized she wasn't holding onto anything, then quick sat down.

She keeps doing this...or she will stand unassisted for several minutes and not walk. I am starting to get frustrated.

Meadow has started dressing and undressing herself. She has no problem putting bottoms on herself. Yesterday when she woke up from her nap, she had pulled a 3T shirt up around her waist. I have such a goofy girl!

Dear Lily

Dear Lily,
I feel so horrible I didn't have this ready on your birthday, and at the same time I am glad I waited. I don't feel rushed. I don't feel like I am going to forget anything important ;)

I love you so much. I love how in the first months of your life I was the only person you wanted to be with. I enjoyed watching you fall asleep nursing and your involuntery movements in your sleep. I loved whe you would look up at me with a mouthful of milk, smile, and it would all come out. I loved how snuggly you were whie you were nursing or sleeping. You good get as close to me as you could. I would not change it for anything!

You are so layed back and goofy. Your personality develops more and more everyday. You like to explore all the toys and figure them out. I love watching you try to figure our how things work. It is so easy to make you laugh. Just making a goofy face does it for you :)

I love how your first word was "Mamma." And, I feel bad that you didn't bond with dad right away. It took months for you to like dad. You figured you could like him, once he could start feeding you. You sometimes will go to him before me when you want something fills my heart with warmth.

Love,Mom

Quik Update

Hey Family and Friends,

Days have gotten by me. I keep saying that I am going to post tomorrow...

Sunday I noticed Lily's third tooth.

While grocery shopping on Sunday Meadow grabbed her own bunch of bananas. They were better than the ones her daddy picked out. She sure loves bananas.

I will leave you with two pictures from the zoo on Saturday. Special thanks to Kati for getting me out of the house.

For those of you who know Meadow - you know who is in the last picture. This is definately going in the scrapbook

About Lily Pad

She has her second tooth. She is biting now. I think she thinks it is funny when she bites while nursing. It has gotten to the point to where I can predict when it will happen. She will grin then bite. I never made it this far with Meadow.

She can also pull herself up from laying down to a sit position then onto whatever gets her attention next. She will crawl wherever she needs to go. Last night Chris said she crawled into the kitchen and was looking around the pantry to see where Meadow and he were. She doesn't like being in a room alone.

Lily is also getting better about spending time with Chris. I have been putting in a lot of hours at work. She has been stuck with him :P He said she wouldn't start crying until I walked in the door!

Milestones for Meadow

Earlier today, Meadow took off her diaper. I explained to her that if she is going to keep taking her diaper off she is going to have to wear panties and go on potty on the potty. I took her into the bathroom. Took apart the potty seat, and snapped the seat onto the toilet. I set her on it for a few minutes, and nothing.

Last night she had a bath, and tonight was Lily's turn for a bath. Meadow followed me it, put the potty seat on toilet, and started taking off her clothes. I snapped the potty in place and helped her take her pants and diaper off. I put her on the toilet. She sat for a minute. I asked her if she wanted a book, so I went to get her one. As I was coming back into the bathroom I heard her going. I called Chris in and he gave her a high five. She was really proud of herself.

She insisted on joining her sister in the bathtub. I thought why not, and put her in the tub. She and Lily had a good time splashing eachother and seeing who could make the biggest splash. Chris helped me get the girls dried off. I came into the living room, got Meadow a diaper, handed it to her, and went to get Lily a diaper. When I walked passed her I noticed she was squatting and pooping on the living room floor!

Growing up before my eyes

Candace, thanks for the comment about Meadow's fingers. Her fingers have healed fine. As a matter of fact, the little monkey keeps going back to the source of her pain. Chris think she is trying to seek revenge.

When I was initially trying to clean her up, I told her that she had to hold her hand up (above her shoulder). I explained that it would help it stop bleeding and heal. The next morning it started bleeding again, so we went through the same process. I held her hand above her shoulder, and explained again why I was having her hold her hand up. Then, I noticed whenever it was bothering her she would hold her hand up.

Lily is eating solids now. You probably figured that out from the slideshow I posted the other day. She is such a little piggy. Last week at daycare she ate a whole jar of baby food on Monday, 1/2 a jar on Tuesday, 1 1/2 jars on Wednesday, 1 jar on Thursday, and 1 jar on Friday.

I am definately going to have problems keeping up with this girl. She is getting more mobile everyday. She is so determined to get to wherever she wants to go by wriggling, rolling, or inchworming around. She has managed to crawl across the living room towards the kitchen to get to me.

She has been sleeping in her own room for a week. Her bed must be real cozy, because I am having problems waking her up in the morning. If she wakes up in the middle of the night we get to cuddle on the couch. I won't give that up for anything. I love my cuddle bug. She loves to cuddle, and I love every minute of it.

Meadow's vocabulary has really exploded lately. Last night she said two new words in 5 minutes. First, we were watching Eight Below. One of the dogs on the movie looks just like Miischka. I said to her, "Meadow doesn't that puppy look just like Miischka?"

She looked at the TV, and said, "Meese-ka" I am sure the sch sound is difficult for her to say.

Then, she eyed up the Goldfish crackers we keep readily available for a snack. She pointed to them and says, "Gofish".

Lil' Lil's First Meal

HMMM Mom what is this stuff?
You say it is Rice Cereal with formula? I will enthusiastically give it a try!
Let me see how this eating thing works...
What?! I am not supposed to get the food all over my face?
I tried to give Lily cereal on Sunday. She did really well with the eating. She took the spoon really well and enthusiastically. She ate most of what was in the bowl. Afterwards she spit up small amounts through out the evening. I haven't tried it since, but will again this week end.

4 month well baby

Took her in for her four month check up today. The dr didn't beleive that she is four months old already. I was even late in taking her...its almost 5. Today she weighed 12 pounds and measured 22 1/4" long. I don't think she was measured right though. She was 22" in October. I think she has grown more than that. I will have to try to measure her tomorrow. Her head is 40cm. She is in the 25th percentile for all three categories. The doctor think she is doing fine. I learned today that your body decides what type of belly button you have. Lily's belly button looked funny to me, so I asked the dr to take a look at it. He said her body is just figuring out if it is going to be an inny or an outie. It looks irritated though...but he said it is fine. Leave it alone and it will work itself out.

B 4 I 4Get

In the month of December Lily started rolling over. She is such a Roly Poly now. She can go both ways with out a lot of effort. She is also "talking" a lot. Especially if you are looking at her. She will smile at you if you smile at her. It is true that smiling is contagious with her.

Last week the girls where at the back up center. There was a back-to-work baby there who is very spoiled. She would scream if no one is paying attention to her. Needless to say Lily has started screaming just like the other baby.

I thought it would be bad if Meadow learned the word, "mine." But she only uses it when she wants something she doesn't know the word for. It isn't like she is constantly saying, "mine, mine, mine." Actually it sounds more like "my". I can handle the "my"s much better than Lily's screaming.

Yesterday Chris was sleeping on the couch. Meadow kept trying to stick a pacifier in his mouth. It was so funny. Chris didn't even react.

Snuggly Poohs

Last night Lily would fall asleep when I nursed her. As soon as I put her down she woke up again. IT was going on midnight. I desperately wanted sleep. I brought her in bed next with me. I snuggled her close. I kept a breast easily accessable for her to nurse when she needed too. Everytime Chris moved I woke to make sure he didn't roll onto Lily.

Sometime between 5 and 6 he got up. I was able to get a couple hours of good sleep then. When I finally felt like I had enough rest I noticed Lily was cuddled real close to me. I felt really at peace with that. It was nice to know that she just really wanted to be by momma after she had a bad day of getting shots.

Through out today I cuddled with her. She still wasn't feeling well. This morning she vommitted. Actually this afternoon too. I took her temp, and it was slightly elevated. I was told that her temp would be higher than normal due to the shots she had. I wasn't concerned. I just kept cuddling with her until I put her down for the night.

Meadow was in a cuddley mood too. After the first time Lily puked on me, I had an opportunity to shower. While I was in the shower I stopped hearing Meadow playing around. I got dressed, and came into the living room to check things out. To my amazement, Meadow had fallen asleep in Chris's arms. She looked so peaceful and cute. I would have taken a picture, but my camera wasn't immediately available. For the remainder of the day Meadow took every opportunity she could to cuddle with Chris or me. It was such a nice day, and before I knew it--it was 6 PM.

Doctor Appointments a Lesson Learned

So, I made tandem Doctor appointments fir Lily and I. Even better I thought it was great that I could get in at 4 on a Friday.

Lily's check up went well. She has a boogery eye. The doctor just said to massae it with a warm clothe. She is 10 pounds and 22" long. She is growing really well. A couple of weeks ago Chris though she would surpass Meadow in height. In comparing stats I think he is right.

Then I had my post pardom check up. The doctor found a lump on my thyroid. I was so distracted with that--that I forgot to bring up other concerns I wanted to discuss with him. Since I was the last appointment of the day there was no one available to evaluate my blood work up or schedule the appointment for the ultrasound to check my thyroid.

I forgot to ask when he needs to see Lily again. And, the nurse didn't fill out Lily's immunization chart out for daycare. I even gave it to her. Ugh. So, now I am going to have to wait until he calls with my results on Monday. I am sure I will have to see him again in the near future to talk about my thyroid results.

Much needed updates

Last Wednesday I went back to work. The transistion has been tough--very emotional. It was worse the second time around, and I had a short week. There are a lot of new faces and changes that occurred while I was gone. It is VERY hard getting back into the swing of things.

I took Meadow in for a check up (she needed a shot). She is up to 23 pounds. They said she was 31", but she was standing funny (I think she may be closer to 32). And the doctor did not force the chicken pox vaccine on her. He actually doesn't push it. She has been really crabby lately and we found the reason why at the appt. She is cutting molars. I got her a real tooth brush. She doesn't seem to mind me brushing her teeth. I tried to give her the brush, but she didn't want it. I think it is odd, because she likes to brush her hair and everyone else's (lily included). Tonight I did get her to "brush" her teeth after I did them. She really liked it, and I had to take the tooth brush away from her.

Lily is doing well in childcare. Friday we go in for a well baby check up. I will try to update after that. She has started "talking". It is so cure. She likes to hold conversations with the mobile when she wakes up. It is so cute. She isn't as smiley as Meadow was.

We are having issues with Lily bonding with Chris. She will only tolerate him for so long and then will break out in a cry. I had to work a little late tonight, so Chris picked up the kids. The whole time he had Lily she cried. She didn't even stop crying to drink her 2 ounces of EBM. Any suggestions would be great. We are all frustrated.

Lily Milestone Captured 9/20

Lily is so alert when she is awake. She is really good at holding her head up and looking around. Here are some pictures I caught of her.

Smile

Today, I got to witness Lily purposefully smiling. After Meadow got to enjoy the indoor water park, I was holding Lily in my arms while we decided what to do next. I was staring down at her smiling, and she smiled back. I know it was not gas or an involuntery movement, because it lasted more than a few seconds.

When she smiled I saw that she has more features of DH than Meadow does. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that too.

Road Trip

This morning DH woke up and thought we should take a day trip. We went to the Dells, and let Meadow enjoy the afternoon at an indoor waterpark. She was having so much fun she kept giving DH hugs. I didn't get to participate in the fun, as my c-section wound isn't fully healed. He took her down the kiddie slides and under the sprinkler thingies. The pool was shallow enough for her to walk around on her own.

I don't have any pictures to share, because I forgot my camera at home and cell phone in the car. I actually enjoyed watching DH and Meadow enjoying themselves in the kiddie water park. The place we went had two kiddie water park areas. We went to both. I did wade around in the pools while holding Lily. Afterall, DH had to pay for me to enter too, even if I wasn't going to participate.

On the way to the Dells Meadow got sick twice. I was really tempted to say we should turn around, but I think Meadow was car sick. I asked her if her belly was feeling better, she pointed to her belly, and threw up. Of course this seems to happen when there isn't a good place to stop for miles. In both occurances DH managed to pull over to gas stations with no place to change Meadow. Which is why I still believe he should pull over right away and just let me deal with it. I think I am going to stick a roll of paper towel in each vehicle. The way home was without incident, except for the 5 cars pulled over between the city I work in and the city we live in. It is extremely rare to even see a squad car there. Meadow fell asleep a couple miles from our exit, and that is the only picture I managed to take.

Missing details

Last night I was holding Lily. I looked down at her saw her unvoluntary moments making her make all sorts of weird facial expressions. I realized how I missed documenting that with Meadow. With both girl it is so poetic to hold them in my arms and stare at them all night. I feel at peace with myself after nursing Lily in the middle of the night or right before bed, and look down at her as she dozes into a slumber. I remember the same feeling from doing the same with Meadow.

To Lily

Dear Lily,

You have been in my life just over 3 weeks. You are so amazing to me. When we had you, you seemed so fragile to us. About a week ago, Daddy commented on how you didn't seem fragile anymore. A few days later you had a well baby check up and it confirmed that you grew and gained quite a bit of weight. Which confirmed that you lost some fragility.

Still to me you are precious and fragile. Very lovable and adorable. It amazes me how when we take you in public how people comment on how cute you are. I don't need the confirmation. I know you are cute. We have the same problem with your big sister, Meadow. I fear that I can't let Daddy out in public with you two.

I think I am very fortunate to have two beautiful daughters. You both fill my heart up with so much love. I know I will enjoy seeing you both grow up. I want to savor every moment of it. I hope that Meadow and you will be best friends. I know you two will have tough times together--that is part of having a sibling.

I love you. I will always love you.

Love,
Momma

Lily's First Well Baby Check Up

We had Lily's well baby check up yesterday. I can't believe how much she has grown in three weeks. It took Meadow a long time to gain weight. Already Lily has gained a pound and grown 2". She weighed in at 7# 12 ounces and 20 inches long. I am so proud to know this time breast feeding is going good.

Lily's Birthing Story and More!

Lily's Birthing story and first week and a half of life...
On Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 5:30 am I checked into Uplands Hills Hospital for the C-section to deliver Lily. I went to the Birthing first, where they hooked me up to monitors to check her heartbeat and for any contractions. They were looking for two accelerations and deccelerations in Lily's heartbeat. She acheived those pretty quick. Then, I went to Pre-Op where they hooked me up to an IV and asked questions to determine how much anestesia I would need. Soon after I went the operating room where I as prepped and received a spinal. The spinal did cause me have some naseau. At first it wasn't working properly so they had to get a different needle. At 8:03 the C-section started, and by 8:14 Lily Christine was born. The nurses had Chris come to watch her get cleaned off. He even cut her umbilicol cord.

They brought Lily over for me to see. She is so beautiful to me. I teared up immediately. It is so amazing how much love for her I had at that moment. They took Lily and Chris back to the Birthing Center, and wheeled me off to recovery. After I progressed satisfactorly, they brought me up to my room in the birthing center.

While I was in recovery they took the necessary vitals from my baby girl in our room in the birthing center. Chris and his mom where able to watch the whole time. Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9. She weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 18 1/4" long. She developed jaundice and lost quite a bit of weight while in the hospital.
We were discharged on Sunday. I had to bring her into the hospital on Monday for a weight and jaundice check. Her weight was up two ounces to 6 pounds 11 ounces from discharge. Her jaundice improved. The nurse called our doctor, and he requested I bring her into the clinic on Thursday (8/23) for a weight check. I brought her in Thursday and her weight was 6 pounds 10 ounces. She is nursing like a champ.
At the hospital Meadow seemed mad at me. She didn't want to come by me, but she did a good job entertaining us. She got a kick out of the hair net thing Chris wore during the c-section. She eventually warmed up to me. While in the hospital she was curious by Lily, but we were cautious getting them too close together.

At home Meadow is still curiuos by Lily. She will give her a kiss on the head, but does try for the lips. I think it is so cute that she is being affectionate towards her little sister. She also wants to touch Lily, but ends up hitting her. I think she sees us patting the dogs, and is trying to do that to Lily. We try to catch her hand and get to nicely touch Lily. If she hears Lily cry, she will go stand by the Pack 'N Play until we get to her.

My mother in law came on 8/14 and stayed until 8/18. She kept Meadow during the night, so Chris could stay with me. He stayed until about bedtime, going home occasionally to let the dogs out. My father in law came on Saturday to meet Lily. My mom, brother, and brother's girlfriend came Sunday (8/19) and stayed until today. It was nice to have people come to help out. It was also stressful, because I didn't get any real good alone time with Chris. My sleep schedule isn't the same as his right now, because I am on schedule with Lily with breastfeeding.

Already Lily is scooting herself around the Pack 'N Play, lifting her head, and rolling from back to side and side to back.

8/25

When I was discharged from the hospital the doctor warned that Meadow may try to lift my shirt to try to nurse. Well, Lily was sleeping, so I was trying to get some playtime in with Meadow. I had her playing on Kneebouncers.com, she started getting rough with keyboard, so I put her down on the floor. She was upset. I tried to explain to her she had to be nice on the computer. She leaned into me. I seriously I thought she was going to give me a kiss, but she bit my boob. It really hurt. I screamed in pain. She looked shocked. I told her that she used to drink Momma's milk, and now it is Lily's turn. Let me back track. I am wearing an assymetrical dress that is easy to nurse in. So, Meadow's next move is to try to pull a boob out of my dress.