February Love

Well, it has been awhile. I feel like nothing major has gone on, but looking back since my last blog, a lot has! Lyla is growing and changing so much everyday. I want things to slow day because I am enjoying life so much!

Obviously, Lyla got the hang of the bottle taking....thanks Lauren! The vanilla trick worked, which made for happier days for Adam and my mom and dad. I went back to work after 12 weeks, which was not long enough. Going back to work I felt out of place. All my skills were still there, I could still handle the stressful situations and the craziness of the unit, and of course seeing everyone was great. But I felt like I was missing out on what Lyla was doing. Don't get me wrong, I knew she was totally fine with my mom and dad. They loved her being with them and she loves them so much! But the 12 hour shifts were such a long time to be away from her. I mean after all, she is only this little once! So, after much prayer, talking it over and going back and forth, Adam and I decided that it was a good idea for me to stay home.

This is my second week of my new "career" and I could not be happier! This is exactly where I am supposed to be. Yes, it is sad leaving great friends and co-workers, leaving what I am good at, and where I had my identity (which I never realized before). But no longer being a "Northside employee" surprisingly has been an easy transition. I know we made the right decision. But don't worry Mimi and Gramps, you will still get Lyla time! We thank you for being willing to take care of her!

Boy is Lyla growing fast....well she is still little in size, but she doesn't seem to know that :) She is always in to something! She is smiley all the time. She has a wonderful personality but definitely has a stubborn determined side. She no longer wants to be strapped in to her carseat. She wants to be sitting up like a big girl ALL the time. And she would rather be looking around at everything else that is going on. She loves her Bumbo. She can't sit up on her own yet, but the Bumbo is great because she can sit in it by herself and she thinks that is great. If she can't sit, she wants to be standing up. She talks ALL the time. She started this right at three months. She looks at you, makes sure you are paying attention and then proceeds to tell you whatever is on her mind. We love this! It is so cute and we can't help but laugh. She is a non-stop talker. She is smart. She will cough, look at me to make sure I am paying attention and then cough again. She does this with crying also. She will cry with her eyes closed, open them slightly to see if I am looking and then continue. I find this funny.
She can pretty consistently roll from her tummy to her back and a couple of times has rolled from her back to her tummy. But why roll around when mom and dad can take you where you want to go? She is a busy girl. We must be doing something at all times. No down time for her, except for her three hour nap in the afternoon. At night she sleeps from 8pm-4am and then until 10am. Works for her, works for me! We have also been enjoying the beautiful weather. It has made me even more ready for Spring! She enjoys walks in her big girl stroller.

She is the drool queen. Within a few hours her clothes are soaked, even with the bib. We go to the ped the first week on March and she will be four months. I am thinking we will start some rice cereal. I cannot believe we are entering that stage already. We went to Honey and Pawpaw's (Adam's parents) house for the first time this weekend. It was fun for them to have her there. And we enjoyed taking her there.

I am trying to learn how to work my camera and Adam is teaching me how to edit my own pictures, which is fun. So I will be sharing some of the better ones as I learn.

Attitude during Valentine's Day Pictures

So smilely

We let her try some icing and she loved it! You can also see the drool soaking her shirt!

Silly girl!

My picture, Adam's editing

We are such suckers for her!

Baby Bottle Boot Camp

So yesterday was my first day back at work. Never have 12 weeks flown by faster than these. I must say, the assignment they gave me was wonderful and my podmates were even more wonderful. Work-wise the transition couldn't have been easier. Unfortunately for Adam, his day was not so easy. Our little Lyla, who I must say is so easy going and such a happy girl, was not so yesterday. I didn't do a good job of preparing her to take her bottles. Adam had given her one about a month ago when I was gone longer than three hours. He said she took it without any issues. She is such an easy baby, I figured that she would have no problem when I went back to work. So she never got another one....before yesterday. BIG MISTAKE!

I decided, selfishly, to wake her up and feed her before I left for work. Good thing I did, because at 11am Adam was texting me to say she would not take the bottle. I called, heard her screaming in the background and my heart broke. I had been doing so well holding myself together....until that moment. He tried three different bottles, with three different nipples. The result was always the same....screaming every time the bottle came near her mouth. By 12:30pm, he was in the car headed up to the hospital for me to feed her.

Poor Adam. I felt so bad for him because he was so excited about getting to spend the whole day with her by himself. Even through my long list of instructions the night before, he was so excited. Yesterday he asked me how many more Sundays he would have to watch her ;) He is so great with her and she loves him so much, I was SO surprised she reacted to the bottle that way. In between her feedings she was perfectly fine. Go figure.

After I fed her at 12:30, I gave him some nipples and bottles from the hospital for him to try and see if she liked those better. I even gave him the freshly pumped milk from that morning. No such luck. My mom even went out and bought different bottles and nipples. Still no luck. All together I think Adam tried 5 or 6 different bottles with the same result every time. It didn't matter the position she was in or who tried (my mom, sister and dad had no luck either).

It didn't matter how hungry she got, this is one determined girl not to take the bottle. My mom informed me I would not take a bottle either...no matter how many times she tried! I am in trouble or I guess I should say whoever is taking care of her while I am at work is in trouble.

Needless to say, when I got home at 7:45, Lyla ate like she had never been fed before in her life! That stinker! So....I am doing some serious bottle boot camp this week before I go back to work on Friday. My mom has her that day. Hopefully we can get it figured out before then. Go figure...I never once thought she would have an issue going from breastfeeding to the bottle. Boy was I wrong!

Hopefully we can go from this......

....to this (Adam was by himself and I wanted a picture, talk about multitasking!)

And from this....

....to this (a happy baby and in turn a happy mom and dad)

Two Month Update!

These last two months have just flown by, and from what I hear it gets faster! Lyla was 10 weeks yesterday. I cannot believe it. I have enjoyed every minute and am really not ready to go back to work. This week we have been snowed/iced in and I still can't get enough of her. But we are ready to get out of the house!

Last week we went for her 2 month pediatrician appointment. She was so happy the whole time, until the nurse started giving her her oral medicine for her immunizations. She really wasn't happy when she got the 3 shots in her little legs. She was just looking at the nurse like "I was so happy, what did I do to you!?" I sat back and did not watch! I felt so bad for her. When it came to Lyla getting her shots, I was not the brave NICU nurse. I wanted to cry with her! But she was so brave and as soon as they were done, she stopped crying. She did not even act like anything had happened to her the rest of the day...besides sleeping 12 hours straight through that night! It was so great! She was even feeling up to eating lunch with Nicole and Tripp that afternoon.

She weighed 9 pounds exactly, which is still 10th percentile. Our petite little baby. She was 22 inches long which is 25-50th percentile.

We had such a wonderful Christmas with our families. We went to Kentucky to be with Adam's family and then we went to Hilton Head with my family. It was so nice to relax and be around family. It was so wonderful to have our first Christmas as a family with Lyla!

Lyla tired from opening all her Christmas gifts

Snow for Lyla's first Christmas, what a special memory

Almost caught the smile

Loves to be stylish and go out. 

She is such a smiley girl. She smiles all the time and, I think, very close to letting out one of those big belly laughs. She loves laying on her back and being entertained by light-up toys or just our faces. I can stick out my tongue at her and she will do the same back to me. She loves to sit up like a big girl, with our help of course, and she LOVES to stand up. This girl might be walking before she crawls. We are going to have to get one of those jumpy things that hang from the door. She loves for us to help her jump up and down. She is getting better with her head control. Even though she sleeps on her tummy, she does not seem to enjoy tummy time. She is a busy girl, always ready for the next thing!

Firsts

So we have decided to try out the blogging world not only to keep our friends and family updated on the happenings in our life but also to document for ourselves so we can remember the precious moments that I know will go by too fast!
Adam and I welcomed our baby girl into the world on November 3rd, 2010 at 11:24pm. Lyla Gray weighed 6lb 7oz and measured 20 in long. The labor went by quickly and the delivery was smooth. I am so thankful! God totally had His hand of protection over us. We knew our lives would change but it has been so amazing to experience it! We are enjoying every minute and would not change a thing! The first week Adam stayed home, which was such a sweet time as our new little family. We were sad to see him go back to work, but are so thankful to have a husband and daddy that loves us SO much and works so hard for our family! We had lots of visitors come by and feel so blessed to have such a great family and wonderful friends.

                                Honey and Papa

                                  Mimi and Gramps

                             Lyla and Daddy

                             Aunt Kara and Uncle Jonathan

             Skyping with Sarah the night Lyla was born so she could be with us!

Mommy and Lyla meeting after nine months of being together

       

                     Aunt Allison and Lyla

                        Aunt Sarah and Lyla meeting

                    Uncle David came to see Lyla when she was 6 days old

Lyla changes so much every day and I am so thankful for this time to be home with her and experience it all. It is so neat to see everything through this little girl's eyes. I am soaking up getting to know her and falling in love with her more and more every day. At one week we went to the pediatrician and she weighed 6lb 13oz. She had gained 12oz since leaving the hospital! At three weeks she found her fingers and boy is she dramatic with her hand gestures!

At four weeks we went back to the pediatrician for her one month check-up and got a great report! She is doing everything she is supposed to be doing. She weighed 7lb 10oz and was in the 10th percentile for weight. She is however in the 25-50% for her length and head circumference. Just before she turned five weeks old she started smiling for real. I love it when this little girl smiles at me!

 Here are a couple of her smiling...I have yet to catch a really good one on camera

                  Smiling up at daddy

Currently she is six weeks old. I cannot believe it has already been six weeks! It is flying by. She eats every three hours during the day and goes to bed at 10pm at night. She sleeps until 5am, eats, and then goes right back to sleep until 10am. Most mornings I have to wake the sleeping beauty up at 10am. This little girl loves her beauty sleep! This is an answer to prayer. The whole pregnancy I prayed for a good sleeper and a good eater and she is both. Thank you Lord! She started sleeping through the night at TWO weeks old! And she has never had a problem with breastfeeding. Right now she cries, no SCREAMS, every time she poops. She HATES to poop. Once its out though she is fine :) She spits up all the time, so we go through outfits like crazy. She is still in newborn sized clothing. This girl is petite. She loves her swing when she is in a good mood, but not a fan of tummy time on her play mat. She sucks her fingers occasionally, but prefers her paci. She LOVES bathtime. She has since day one. This is her special time with daddy. She would stay in her bath all day if we let her. She has started holding her head up on her own and she has rolled over a few times. She loves her carseat and prefers to be out and about versus inside the house.

Loving bathtime

First Christmas Picture as a family

Modeling her new boots

Loving them!

Dressed and ready to go!

We are enjoying the holiday season with this new addition. God has blessed our family and we are so thankful and not taking a moment for granted. We hope everyone enjoys this holiday season!