10 months old

I wrote in my journal:

Lily is almost 10 months old now- I can’t believe it! I predict that she will be walking within one month. Back at about 8 months she started to stand, and now she is standing all of the time. She just recently learned that she can let go and still continue to stand. Although that usually requires something in her hand to distract her from falling :). She currently has 3 teeth with 3 on the way- which means the poor thing is pretty grumpy at the moment. She usually sleeps all night, but the teething pain has been waking us all up a lot. She is constantly getting into everything, especially once she figured out how to open the cupboards and drawers. She loves to pull down the things that I pull away. I am trying to get used to the mess she causes, but it’s hard. I guess you could say that having a child has improved my cleanliness- so thanks, Lily! She is so much fun to have around. It is hard trying to get things accomplished some times, but so worth it! For example, she makes working out almost impossible- turning off the t.v./work out dvd, crawling over me when I’m trying to do crunches, crawling under me when I’m moving my feet a lot- all the fun stuff. Her sweet smile melts away any frustration, though. No amount of weight loss could replace having her in our lives. In 2 weeks it’ll be Christmas and we’re looking forward to sharing that with her, even if she has no clue what’s going on!

Halloween fun

Thanksgiving with Aunt Jen

fun with cousins

7 1/2 months

I wrote in my journal:

Lily is  7 1/2 months old now. The time is going by so quickly! She is just the brightest part of our lives, for sure. She had a rough day today, unfortunately :(. She couldn’t keep anything down. In these 7 months I’ve never seen so much spit up out of her. She was nice enough to puke all over Clark during church :). By the evening she was able to keep down an ounce or two of water with just a little bit of formula mixed in. Luckily. We’ll see how she does tomorrow. She got 5 vaccines 2 days ago, so we think it might be a reaction to that.

There have been a lot of changes in the past few weeks. First of all, I just stopped nursing. The inconsistency of my work schedule made it too hard and I slowly ran out of milk. So lily is about 1/3 solid food and 2/3 formula. She is eating solids like a pro! She is climbing all over us to try and get our food and she seems to like almost all of her fruits and veggies. She especially loves little pieces of bread. Last week she hit two major milestones! She can officially crawl now! She is still faster at scooting on her stomach, but when she’s in no big hurry she’ll do it. She can also now pull herself up to a standing position. We are both just so amazed. It is crazy to watch her go from a little lump who just slept and ate to moving and standing. She definitely falls over but is learning how to sit down instead of falling straight back. She is very talkative, not with words, but just loves to make sounds. Half of the time I think she is singing (or trying to). She just gets so amused with her own voice. She also LOVES her dad :). He can get her to laugh like no body’s business. She gets so excited when she sees him and he does the same :). Lily is still a very happy and mellow baby. It has been so much fun and a lot easier than I expected. We got so lucky to get such a sweet spirit to take care of.

She and I went to San Diego 2 weeks ago for my step brother Charlie’s wedding and she got to meet her cousins. She did so well on the plane, once again, and just rolled along happily with all we did that weekend. Luckily she takes to her aunt Jeni very well. It is so cute seeing the two of them together :). Lily is currently 28 inches long and weighs 15 lbs and 1.3 oz.

6 months old

I wrote in my journal:

So I’m sorry for the big jump in time. This is how all of my journals end up, but I’ll do my best to fill you in on the last 5 months.

Lily is just amazing! she has been such a blast to have as our daughter. She has always been so happy and smiley. When she was 2 months old we took a super quick road trip out to Idaho for Beka and Dusty’s wedding. We left on Thursday night, drove through the night, had 2 action packed days and drove home all day on Sunday. Lily slept all the way there, which was awesome, but screamed through the entire reception. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had gotten any sleep the night before :). Everyone just loved her and it was nice to be able to show her off to everyone out there. The drive back home was pretty hard. She wanted to stay awake and be out of her car seat but obviously she couldn’t- and she couldn’t stay awake because being in her car seat puts her to sleep. So she cried. Luckily on this trip was where she finally started to take her pacifier. Since doing that, we have not had a problem with her crying uncontrollably anymore. Around 3 months she started to get a lot more animated and smiling and cooing all of the time.

Sleeping in the car,                                     With Uncle Jared

Outside the temple,                                First time meeting cousin Amber

 

I went back to work part time when she was 4 months old. It was very hard to leave her. We had help from friends in the ward babysitting. For the first 6 weeks she would be with someone for 2-3 hours between when I left and when Clark got home from work. She was such a trooper! She had no problems :). She is generally happy as long as someone is paying attention to her…such a little princess ;). After 3 or 4 weeks she was completely fine taking her bottle. The second Saturday I was working (9 hours) she went on a hunger strike with Clark  and at 4:00 pm he finally brought her in to work and I was able to nurse her. She didn’t seem too upset, she just only wanted me :). Right around this time we wanted to put her in her own room. I didn’t want to keep her in our room forever, so the advice I went with was to teach her good sleep habits and swaddle her and get her used to the crib. She took right to it and since then she either only wakes up around 4 am or sleeps from 8:30 pm ‘till 8 or 9 am. It has been amazing to sleep again! I absolutely love Lily, but going back to work has made me appreciate my time with her so much more. It is very easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of work it is to be a mom, and it is nice to get a break and go to work, but it is a necessary break. There are many days off where I never even come close to leaving the house or even putting on makeup or doing my hair. Those are the days that I let myself get crazy. So work allows me to be around grown ups and take care of myself. If I didn’t have to work, I would find a way around it, but I have to take the hand I am given, right?

 

 

When Lily was 5 1/2 months old we took a trip to Hawaii!  It was so amazing! Lily was such an angel. She had no big problems on the plane, which we were so grateful for. She was a little freaked out by the ocean. We had never taken her swimming before, so she just needed to get used to it. I could tell she wasn’t so happy, but she seemed to be ok as long as I was holding her tight. The water was nice and warm compared to the beach at home, but probably still too cold for her. She seemed to like it more in the area with the wave barrier- where it was calmer. Luckily she was at an age where she was happy to be carried around all of the time. She went all over with us without complaining too much. Going out to dinner was the only hard thing about the trip. We had her on a very tight/great bedtime schedule before we went on the trip. There was a 3 hour time difference, so it would be way past her bedtime when we would go out to eat. Of course it was super noisy anywhere we went, so she was NOT happy! Each of us had to take turns eating and holding her and then we would pay as soon as possible so we could go home. Kind of a bummer, but I would be cranky too if it was me :). In keeping with the time difference, she would wake up at 5:00 am every morning… Luckily when we got home she was still on CA time, so everything went back to normal, thank goodness! She was such a trooper! By the end of the week she was definitely getting tired of her car seat and her little hat. It would have been nice to have some help, but I don’t regret taking her at all. I’m sure that when she’s older she’ll be mad we didn’t wait to take her later :). While we were there she was just barely learning to scoot around. BEcause of this, she fell off the bed for the first time :(.

 

 

At 6 months of age she started scooting around with some speed. It is amazing how fast she changes! In the last 2 weeks she is almost crawling! She works so hard to get up on her hands and knees. The same with sitting up. 2 weeks ago she was sitting up with support, but at the doctor she just sat up for the first time by herself! Now she can sit for as long as she wants with no hands! I amazed how fast she is progressing. At her 6 month check up she was 14 lbs 7 oz and 26 inches long. Her height is normal but she is only in the 25th percentile for weight. It’s nothing to worry about- I kind of appreciate it! She has been talking a lot it’s bababa, mamama, or dadada all day long! It wasn’t (I think) her actual first word, but last week when I came into her room in the morning, she looked at me and simply said “mama.” It just melted my heart! It is also awesome that she reaches for me when she wants me :). It is so fun to watch her with other babies- I just enjoy her so much!

One month of fun

I wrote in my journal

“Today Lily is one month! We took her to the doctor and she has gained 2 lbs. She is now at 10 lbs 1.5 oz I can’t believe how fast this month has gone by. I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, but I guess I’m doing ok :). Lillian is a joy to have around and Clark and I are both so in love with her. It has been over a month since I have had a full night’s sleep- or even more than 3 hours at a time and I am definitely feeling the effects. I have been saying some funny stuff because I am so out of it :). It’s all worth it! Lily has started to spit up a lot and have more gas- poor thing. We have had to be more vigilant in keeping our clothes clean.”

1 day shy of 1 month old

I wrote in my journal

We are finally getting to start our life as a family. Everyone who came for Lily’s blessing is gone and it is just the 3 of us now. For the Blessing we had 24 extra people at church :). It was great to feel supported and loved by our families. My dad and step-mom even drove all the way out just for sacrament meeting to be there for the blessing. They don’t go to church, but made a 3 1/2 hour round trip visit just for Lily :). Well, we we’re nice and crowded, but it was nice to have Clark’s family come visit us for once. Clark got to go to some March Madness with his brothers and dad. We took Lily to the second day of games. I was surprised that she did so well with all of the noise. Maybe not the best idea to take a 3 week old to a basketball tournament :). We also took Lily on her first trip to the ocean! She didn’t have very much fun though- there was too much wind. She’ll learn to love the beach, though. I’m sure of it! Since everyone left, we have been enjoying just spending time together.

With aunt Jen at March Madness

First trip to the Ocean

Sadly, this is the only picture we got of you in your blessing dress

With uncle Carlos after your blessing

3 1/2 weeks

I wrote in my journal

“ Lillian is growing like crazy. We’re trying to put her in all of her small clothes before she grows out of them. She isn’t always fussing as much when we change her diaper, which is nice. Today was a little rough, though. I got even less sleep than normal last night and Lily was up nice and early today. Instead of napping while she went back to sleep, I decided to shower and eat. Stupid idea. When I finally went to take a nap she woke up again and was eating and fussing for about 2 hours. I finally had Clark’s mom take Lily because I was getting too tense. I knew that was part of the problem. It seemed to calm her down. I pumped some milk and laid down, but forgot to leave the phone outside of my room. After about 30-40 minutes of light sleep I got 4 phone calls. After that I gave up on napping for the day, but I already had a massive headache. My mom came over and helped me to relax by rubbing my head and feet. I’m definitely going to miss her help and reassurance when she goes back to Idaho next week. Hopefully I can get Clark to help me out with feedings tonight so I can get a little extra sleep. All of this would be really hard if I didn’t love Lily so much :) She’s worth it! I am facing a potentially awful result of pregnancy.Since Christmas I have been having trouble singing. My voice cracks and I can’t hit most of the high notes. It seems to be getting worse as time goes on. I have found articles on the internet saying that many women have had this problem. Some articles say that it goes away after you stop breast feeding and your hormones go back to normal. I would be devastated if I lost my voice, but it would be worth it so I could have my precious Lillian! I wouldn’t trade her for anything! We’ll just wait and see what happens.

3 weeks old

I wrote in my journal

“Well yesterday Lillian actually took her bottle! That’s pretty exciting :). We’ll limit it to just at night if Clark’s feeding her, if I’m gone, or if we’re going out and I don’t want to have to worry about nursing. So Lily just keeps getting cuter and cuter every day! This was her 2nd week at church and she did great as usual. Everyone there is so excited for her to be here and wants to offer lots of help to us. Clark went to change Lily’s diaper during Sunday school and apparently she had poop all up her back! Luckily we had an extra onsie in the diaper bag for her to change into. Maybe we’re just not good enough at putting on her diapers yet :). Last night we tried out video chatting on Skype. Lily and I talked to her Aunt Jeni and my mom over the computer. It is such a wonderful tool to be able to use. This way we can video-chat with all of our family that doesn’t live close to us. Our family can watch Lily grow and see her when they’re not here.”

Learning to take a bottle with Dad



Precious sleep



Hanging with Grandma