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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My Girl

Today I just want to write about her. My little Lily.

When I was pregnant with this sweet baby and after I finally let it sink in that we might actually bring her home, I used to wonder about her personality. Sure, I often thought about what she might look like, but I was most curious about what would make her "her." What would she like or dislike? What would her unique personality traits be? Now, I know she's only two months old (nine weeks today, to be exact), but I love seeing that little personality come out! Today I want to tell you all about my girl.

Some of my favorite nicknames for her are: Sweet Pea, Lily-girl, Lily-poo (which her daddy has promised not to call her in front of her friends), Lily-pie, Pumpkin, Pumpkin pie, Peanut, and sometimes even Peanut Butter.

She is now 11 pounds and almost 23 inches long. Her hair is beginning to lighten a bit and she is getting that trademark baby bald spot on the back of her head. Her eyes are still a dark bluish-gray. Sometimes in the light I think that I detect some green, while other times I think I see some brown tones. I feel sure they will turn out either green like mine, or brown/green hazel like her daddy's.


Lily's temperament is pretty easy-going. She loves taking a bath and taking short walks outside, but those are her "serious" times. I know she really enjoys both activities, but those are not really the moments that make her smile. Instead, they are the times when we see her curious and contemplative side.


We know that her big smiles come when she is on her changing table or in her bouncy seat. It's pretty easy to get a smile out of her now. All we have to do is make eye contact and talk to her, and her sweet face lights up with a big smile. From the very first day she was born, Lily has enjoyed looking at people's faces and really studying them. People have always commented on how attentive she is. Now she smiles at every new person she meets. She especially loves to smile at her daddy. I'm not sure what it is about him that she finds so darn funny!


I guess you can't write too much about an infant without discussing sleeping and eating patterns. Here's how we spend the majority of our time:

Eating: My baby girl is a very good eater. She has a great appetite and has adjusted so well despite our nursing challenges in the early days. We've been exclusively breastfeeding for a month now and I'm so proud of her! I still pump twice a day if possible, right before I go to bed and right after her morning feeding. I'm happy to see a pretty good supply building up in my freezer. We have a routine going where her daddy feeds her a bottle of breast milk (usually about 4 ounces) before we put her down for the night. This has consistently earned us at least one good stretch of sleep for the first half of the night. She is much more fitful during the second half.

One of my favorite things about Lily is that she does the cutest things with her hands. When she is eating, she almost always has her fingers spread and straight out. It cracks me up! I love looking at her sweet hands.


My baby girl likes her pacifier. She doesn't want it all the time, but it does help during the day if she gets fussy and it helps her to fall asleep most of the time. She doesn't seem to need it during the night at this stage.

Sleeping: Lily will sleep for at least 4-5 hours before waking up to nurse usually just once per night. We have been pleasantly surprised a few times when she has skipped her middle of the night feeding and slept for 7 hours! When she does wake up during the night, she doesn't cry. She will grunt and whimper off and on until we recognize that she's ready to eat and not just making little noises in her sleep. Her daddy handles the night-time diaper changes, and most of the time lately I can hear her happily cooing at him in the middle of the night from all the way across the house! It's the sweetest thing.


Lily likes to nap a lot in the morning. She does her best napping when she is being held. This is how she would prefer to sleep all the time, although she will sometimes nap in her bouncy seat but only after I've rocked her to sleep first. She is getting old enough now that we want to start practicing letting her soothe herself. Just today I was able to put her down in her crib and she fell asleep on her own for a short nap. Although she loves playing in her crib, she has never slept in there, so I was pretty excited about that. I'm not used to her sleeping in a separate room, though, so I sat in the chair in her room and started this blog post while she napped so I could hear her breathing. I can't help but remain pretty obsessive about that, checking on her constantly when she's asleep.

And finally, Lily still likes to sleep swaddled. She occasionally gets her hands out through the little holes where the top meets the bottom of her swaddler, so we put mittens on her hands to keep them warm if it's a chilly night.


I noticed the other day that she kinda reminds me of something...


Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving! :)

16 comments:

Jen said...

Hi Stacey,

I have enjoyed reading your journey this past year and am happy to hear how much you are enjoying Lily. I too have a little one born 2 weeks after Lily and worry about him while he is sleeping. We ended up purchasing an Angel Care monitor which monitors the baby's movements and breathing while they are sleeping. It has helped me relax a ton! You may have heard of it before, but I wanted to let you know about it just in case it is something you would like to consider for yourselves... (And we have tested it a gazillion times and ways... definitely works!)

Best wishes to you!

Jen

Sky said...

She is absolutely adorable! I'm glad you are enjoying her so immensely!! :). I'm sure that the difficult road you travelled makes it all the more sweeter

The Blessed Barrenness said...

She's lovely Stacey and you sound so deliciously happy!

Stacey said...

Thanks for the comment, Jen! We actually do have an Angel Care monitor and I absolutely love it. It is the ONLY way I'm able to sleep at night. The problem is that I can't get Lily to sleep in her bassinet (where we have the monitor) during the day. I don't know why, but when the sun comes up she will only nap when being held or occasionally in her bouncy seat, which means that I don't nap at all during the day so I can keep an eye on her. Hopefully when we transition her to her room and the monitor is in her crib, she'll do all of her sleeping in one place, where I can have the monitor on day and night and not worry so much. I do think that monitor is amazing and I recommend it all the time! Ideally I would have them set up all over the house, but I can't afford it. :)

Thanks for reading and congrats on your baby boy!

Jenn said...

Stacey I have really enjoyed this particular blog. I love hearing the precious stories about little Lily-Poo!!! :) And omg I LOVE the comparison of her and the turkey. How adorable!!!!

andreajennine said...

Love every bit of this!

Ro-bear said...

Hey Stace. Thanks so much for this post. It was great seeing so many pictures of her and reading about her personality. I love the pic of her in the bouncer with a huge smile!

~ Katie ~ said...

Thank you for sharing! Love it!

Andi said...

Great post! I giggled out loud at that pics at the end!

Renovation Girl said...

SO adorable and totally hysterical turkey/Lily comparison! Happy Thanksgiving, indeed! You have so much to be thankful for this year!!

Anonymous said...

If you would like Lily to stay swaddled all night long, try the Miracle Blanket. It is a very secure swaddle, and my son was not able to break free until he was about 3 1/2 or 4 months old. So I stopped swaddling him then. It helped him sleep great too! Lily is precious.

Kathryn said...

Oh, she is simply beautiful! Hope you are able to delight in every minute. :) Sounds like she is "settling in" well.

Thank you so much for the info/measurements. I'm sure my friend will appreciate them.

Blessings on you and all your family this Thanksgiving.

Andrea said...

So happy that sweet Lily is thriving and growing! Sweetness, pure sweetness :)

Continue to savor every ounce of this beautiful miracle. My heart is always filled each and every time I visit your blog, as your journey was ever so difficult, but now so SWEET.

Much Love
xxx

Anonymous said...

She's beautiful! It's amazing she's almost 2 months already!!

Katie said...

This might seem like a short response to a long and detailed post, but what came to mind is:

SO SWEET.

It is just so amazing, isn't it? How utterly sweet she is an how much you love her?

So. Sweet.

Connie said...

Oh how I love that baby girl! Give my sweet girl lots of hugs and kisses from her Nonnie! XOXO