Happy Easter!

We're  baaaaaaaaack!  Did ya miss us?  We had a wonderful long Easter weekend at the beach with Dan's family.  It was fairly low-key, but we enjoyed spending time with his Mom & Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law and the sweetest nephews & niece ever.  Rather than write a novel, I figured I'd share (a lot of) pictures (and some captions - didn't think you were getting out of my long-windedness that easily, did you?!).  The weather was pretty cold all weekend until today, of course, when we were leaving.  As a result, Lilly did not get to rock any of the way too many cute bathing suits I've bought her, but maybe next time.  She did really well on her second trip out of town - it's always a lot more activity than she's used to, so I wondered if she'd have trouble adjusting, but I shouldn't have worried!  She took (fairly long) daily naps (in the crib!), slept really well at night, ate well (of course - no shocker there!) and was not really very fussy at all.  We had a wonderful weekend!  Without further ado, pictures (sorry in advance for my terrible photography skills, I need to take some classes or something!):

Lilly slept her way through her first beach visit!

Can't get over the cuteness of a monogram + zebra.

It was COLD at the beach!  And she sort of looks demonic here.

Nothing sweeter than naps with Daddy and ruffly tutus.  LOVE this pic.

Playground - swinging with Dad!

Second visit to the beach...yet again, sooo sleepy!

Cousins Ian, Erica and Ryan.

Layla hurt her paw and was limping and pitiful.  Therefore, Grandma Susie and Papa allowed her on the couch.  She loved snuggling with cousin Ryan!

Ian wathcing The Lion King

Erica reading Lilly her before-bedtime books

Happy First Easter - thanks for the bib, Grandma Susie!

First Easter Basket

Not amused at contents of aforementioned first Easter basket

Cousins!

Still not amused...

Why am I always wearing the same thing in family photos?

Naked baby playing with Daddy!

Playing with some of her new toys, courtesy of the Easter bunny

Her basket is HUGE.  See above as proof.  I may have gone a little overboard.  So what?

Sweet Easter bunny feet!

Before you judge me for buying a ton of stuff for her Easter basket when she is not even three months and would never know the difference, please know that I didn't!  I have been saving anything that was given to us that looked Easter-ish, so really I only bought her two things for her basket: the Lamaze hand/foot rattle set and the Infantino car seat chimes, both of which she LOVED.  The other items that were in there (given to us at various showers or after Lilly was born) were two books, a duck wubbanub, a stuffed duck with lots of mirrors/pull things, a stuffed bunny, a bunny lovie...and I think that's it.  I"ll report back later if I missed anything, but overall not too shabby for a first Easter basket, I'd say.

I hope that you and yours had a fantastic Holiday weekend! 

Sarah

Vacay

Hi friends! Just wanted to let you know that we'll probably be on a little bit of a blog hiatus for the next few days, as we are visiting my in-laws for Easter. Not to worry, we'll be back next week with loads of cute pictures to share!

Hope you're all having a great week! Lilly's first trip to the beach has not been super eventful so far - as usual, she's sleeping through the good stuff!

S

Baby Blues

I don't think I posted on this topic in conjunction with my birth story posts, but I probably should have.  Honestly it didn't cross my mind, but the other day I got an e-mail about it which prompted a discussion between Dan and I that I thought was interesting.

The baby blues are a tricky thing.  At least in my case, I spent 9 months preparing for this baby to come.  I was beyond happy, and SO excited to meet her.  I could not wait to be a mother and was thrilled at the thought of our future and the growth of our sweet little family.  The day Lilly was born was one of the best days of my entire life, hands down.  However, the laboring process itself brings a roller coaster of emotions, and when coupled with your already crazy hormones it can be pretty intense.  I noticed that a few days after she was born, when we were home from the hospital and trying to get settled in, I kept having this nagging feeling of sadness.  I couldn't figure it out.  I had absolutely nothing to be sad about.  I had a relatively easy labor, and I had the most beautiful (and healthy!) little girl in the whole world.  My wonderful husband was beside me every step of the way, and I was more in love with him than ever before after seeing his interactions with our baby girl.  We have the most loving and supportive families that anyone could ask for, and they were here to help us every step of the way.

I think the baby blues are a result of several factors.  For me, these were a combination of:  hormones, exhaustion, disappointment resulting from breast feeding difficulties, disappointment that I birthed a child but still looked pregnant, the stress of a newborn and the balancing act of baby and life in general.  I also missed being pregnant.  I don't think it was the actual being pregnant part - Lord knows I did not miss weeks 30 and on (bed rest, ugh!) - but it was more the feeling of Lilly growing inside of me.  And really, I think I also missed the excitement and anticipation that Dan and I shared leading up to her arrival.

For me, the baby blues only lasted a few days.  I found that going about my business and trying to get back into the swing of things helped a lot.  Showering, getting dressed, and getting out of the house even for just a few minutes did wonders.  I also had to lower the bar for myself and stop being a perfectionist.  Parenting is a learning process, and there is a lot of trial and error.  I know that in giving me the ability to bear children, the Good Lord is trying to teach me to be more patient and less hard on myself.  I also needed to boost my own self-confidence.  All of the help we had was invaluable, but just the thought of my Mom leaving and me being alone had me in tears daily, even when she still had a full week left with us.  It really took me doing it on my own for a few days before I felt like, "Okay, I can do this.  I know what I'm doing, I know what my baby needs, and I know how to take care of her better than anyone else can."  And some days, I just needed a good cry.

Baby blues are another one of those topics which I don't think people really talk about, but I wish they would.  I had no idea that what I was feeling was normal and that the majority of women experience it.  Since I now know, I thought it was important to share.  :-)  And, really, how could I ever let the blues hang around when I get to look at this sweet face every day?!?!

More obnoxious plugging: have you voted for us on top baby blogs today?  Please and thank you!  ;-)

Sarah

Routines

The funny thing about routines and babies is, just when you think you've got one down pat and get used to it, they change it up on you.  I can't tell you how many people have said this very thing to me, but boy is it true.

Case in point: bed time.  I got a lot of feedback the last time I posted about our bedtime routine, which consists of bath time, books, and feeding.  We have still been implementing this very same series of events, but with one minor tweak.  Typically, we start bath time about an hour before Lilly is supposed to eat again (so, for example, if I think she'll be hungry again around 9, we start bath time at 8).  That gives us plenty of time to play in the tub, get lotioned and dressed, and read some books before it's time to eat again.  We wake her up for a dream feed typically 2ish hours after the feeding, normally around 11:00 pm, and she normally eats maybe half a bottle and is then out, at which point we swaddle her and put her to bed where she sleeps until 7:00 or 7:30am.  In the time between the last real feeding of the day and the dream feed, we have been just letting Lilly play quietly and fall asleep where she may, which is typically in her swing.  I happened to think, though, the other day, that now is the time where she is starting to recognize routines, per my research and her pediatrician.  So I wondered if she was relying on the swing to fall asleep.  Don't get me wrong, I love the swing, but I don't want her to rely on swinging to fall asleep every night until she's 2.  It's the same thing with rocking and singing: when she was younger, I used to rock and sing her to sleep in the nursery, and it was my absolute favorite time of day.  As much as I hate to give that up, I want her to be able to soothe herself and fall asleep wherever, with whomever, so I've been trying not to do that as much.  After discussing this thought process with Stephanie the other day on our play date, I developed a new plan to try.  Starting two nights ago, after the bottle, I have been sitting her in her chair or swing or on her play mat and watching her like a hawk for signs that she's getting tired - rubbing eyes, yawning, etc.  When she does this, I pick her up, see if she's interested in a little more milk, swaddle her and lay her in her bed. 

The problem I'm having is, she does not go to sleep. She lays there and plays for a long time.  If she starts fussing (so far, rarely), I try the paci and normally that does the trick.  The past two nights that we've done this, she has laid in there playing for at least an hour, maybe more, before falling asleep.  The first night I tried this (Friday), she fell asleep around 10:30, so I felt it pointless to wake her right back up at 11 for a dream feed.  She therefore woke up at 4:00 on Saturday morning to eat.   Fastest meal ever, though, as she had her diaper changed, had been burped twice and was finished with that bottle and back in bed in literally 15 minutes flat.  Last night, even though she laid in bed and played for a long time and fell asleep practically right when I would have woken her up for a dream feed, I got her up and did the dream feed anyway, and she still woke up at 5 to eat but then slept again until 9.

I guess this is my fault for changing things up on her.  My point is, I'm still not sure how things are going in the bedtime routine department.  Yes, she's woken up earlier than normal (by "normal" I mean "earlier than she'd been waking up for two weeks prior to this change") for the past two mornings, but one night we did a dream feed and the other night we didn't, so I'm not sure whether the dream feed is actually helping her sleep longer or not.  I will keep trying different things until we figure something out that works, but I'm sure as soon as we get into something that I think is "working," she'll change it up on me again.  Either way, 6-7 straight hours of sleep for Mommy is better than 3-4, I say.  And in the end, I don't really mind, because she's REALLY cute.  As evidence, I present to you this super cute video that I took of her talking yesterday - I was able to capture it on film, finally (previously she has stopped by the time I got my camera ready).  Again, ignore my baby talk.  She likes it.  :-)  And also the pump in the background (sigh).

Hope your weekend was as fantastic as ours has been!  And don't forget to click on the handy dandy button at the top of my page to vote for us for top baby blog.  Gracias!

Sarah