Lily's First Christmas

Santa decided to give Lily the gift of crawling for Christmas and my wish for a childproofed home hasn't come true...yet. Laziness can be so powerful. Lily's 1st Christmas was as sentimental as I thought it would be. She enjoyed the tissue paper in her stocking made for her by g'ma, blocks and a book from her Daddy, and a Laugh&Learn musical table from her aunt and uncle that she really enjoys and we wish had quieter volume settings (thanks again Eric and Jill!). Eric, get ready for a voicemail (or 2) of just a few of the songs we get to hear on repeat over and over again. :)

We are still figuring out what the Nate and Nicole Christmas tradition will look like. We have the food situation all set but we're working on what else we'd like to include...Christmas concert, readings maybe, a particular movie...not sure yet, fun to think about. We spent much of the evening watching the 1st season of Friday Night Lights....good show but not Christmas tradition good. The plan is to incorporate traditions from each of our families and then add something Nate and Nicole-ish to the mix.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of Lily's first words will be "skype." Video-chatting with family is a highlight. Here are a few random snapshots from a Christmas skype session with my family, makes me smile seeing how happy they look.

Here's our first family Christmas photo. It was a simple Christmas with lots of time to just be with those you love and be grateful...happiness can really be that easy.

Christmas is a-Comin'

We haven't had a lot to write about lately, thus the two weeks between entries. We've been going along with the routine and all is good. We've been getting ready for the holidays, sending and receiving lots of cards and trying to get our act together for gifts.

We did cut a real Christmas tree this year for the first time ever. It's a great tree, measuring in at about three and a half feet tall. It took about 10 seconds to cut down, but about 10 minutes to select. Here we are with it (thanks Jeanne & Jeff!).

Probably the biggest change with Lily is that she's starting to crawl just a bit. Here's one of her first attempts, managing about a foot of progress. She gets distracted pretty easily, so she hasn't yet gone very far. We're still waiting for that day everyone warns about where she suddenly takes off and never stops.


One of her favorite things to do these days is to bounce around in her doorway jumper thing. She figured out that the rocking motion she does all the time (while being held, sitting, hands and knees, really all the time) makes her bounce really high. Our favorite part is the way her feet come together on the ground and then fly apart when she jumps. Looks like she's clicking her heels or something. She also likes to babble/yell while she's in there, "ba ba ba ba" or "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH". She doesn't do it in this video, but it's pretty entertaining when she does.

It will be a pretty laid back Christmas for us, since we finished our big trip for Thanksgiving. We'll just relax at home and visit friends around town. No midnight mass for us this year either, we'll hit an earlier service instead. But we'll definitely miss the candlelight rendition of Silent Night. I guess we'll just have to start our own tradition of singing it at home with a candle before Lily goes to bed Christmas Eve.

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, taking a week long trip with carry-on luggage actually happened. Once upon a time, driving 3 hours without stopping was considered normal. Once upon a time, I thought about all the books, magazines, music and movies I'd bring to keep myself occupied for the long flight...that makes me chuckle now. There are times when I miss being the quick and savvy traveler, not missing a beat as I made my way easily and swiftly through the airport, keeping an eye out for time savers like it was a game. Now, all I keep my eye on is Lily, my boobs so they aren't accidentally saying hi to everyone, and all of Lily's stuff we now travel with.
Smooth travel now no longer means just arriving safely and on time, it also means not having to change a poopy blow-out diaper or an outfit in flight, not losing anything like a shoe or that one toy she'll stop crying for in a second, and getting blessed with a quiet baby on the plane. I am grateful that I can say that we did have smooth travels to Chicago and Michigan over Thanksgiving (our neighbors on the flight might disagree but crying for 15 minutes or so on a 4 hour flight is being an angel).

Our trip was full of visits. Family was the priority and we were able to see everyone from cousins to siblings to great grandparents. We hoped to see more friends but it gets so tough when it's a holiday trip...next time. Here is a list of 10 great memories from the trip in no particular order

1) Watching Lily and her cousins play together...maybe it's not playing as much as just curiously looking but it sure is cute.
2) Introducing Lily to her great-grandparents...such a rare and special treat.
3) Keeping Lily on west coast time actually worked..as long as she slept in a room with no windows.
4) Date night with Nate, eating dinner at a restaurant bar....something about sitting at the bar helped shed the mom role for a little while
5) Seeing my dearest friend Manju and meeting her gorgeous daughter Shivan for the first time...Manju, I didn't want our visit to end. Eating Sri Lankan food was awesome too. :)
6) Playing with my nieces and nephews. They are all older now and so much fun to talk to. I had a long conversation about candy with my 6 year old niece.
7) Having people around who wanted to play with Lily non-stop.
8) Lily hanging out with her Godfather and watching the Hinsdale crew decorate their Christmas tree
9) Watching Nate teach our niece how to run like an airplane in a field and watching a huge flock of birds fly away from a nearby tree.
10) Having Nate around for a full week without that pesky job getting in the way.

Lily is 6 1/2 months now. She eats fruits or vegetables once a day in the early evening and I still breastfeed her 5x a day. She takes 2 naps and goes to bed around 7. It is nice to have a bit more of a routine that I can rely on, helps in making plans. She's been rocking in the sitting position and on all 4's for a few weeks now but hasn't officially crawled yet. She discovered her wrists (something only parents would notice probably) and moves toys from one hand to the other now. She likes to bang any toy that makes noise and crinkle paper. Separation anxiety has also shown itself a little bit within the last few weeks.

Life is darn good right now because it's all around easier. Life is simple, slower paced, and chill and I'm very content with that. I take a lot of walks and talk to my family more, which probably has a lot to do with why life feels good. I don't have to worry about time zone differences and my work schedule which is nice. I wish it was easier to see friends in the evening hours but brunch is replacing dinner these days for catching up with friends. I also haven't been bored, which I thought might happen. My list of projects only continues to grow as well as the list of books I want to read. I know it's a phase and the next one is right around the corner but I'm living in the moment and it's easy to...and that's a sure sign that life is good.





Check out our November pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nicoleandnate/2009NovemberLily6Mths?feat=directlink

Six Months

Today was Lily's six month birthday. It's really hard to believe that a half a year has gone by, but I'm not sure why it seems that way. When I think about it, new things have happened almost every day, much faster paced than life before Lily.

Lily's big recent achievement is eating solid food. She's been doing it for about a week now and in general it's been going pretty well. So far she's eaten avocado and pears. She definitely prefers pears, but she didn't know that until she ate avocado, then pears, then back to avocado. The second time with avocado she wasn't much of a fan. So we mixed it with pears and everyone was happy again.

So far, Lily's shown a few talents and a few areas to work on. Above all, she's a great sleeper at night. We always knock on wood when we mention it because we really hope she keeps it up. Us getting as much sleep as we need definitely helps keep all of us happy. She's a great sitter, able to sit for as long as she wants to as long as she doesn't decide to reach for something a little too far away and tip over. I guess the big head makes balance a little difficult. Her latest addition to the sitting repertoire is rocking back and forth like she's doing toe touches. Once in a while she'll even lean all the way over and try to eat the blanket she's sitting on. Her greatest talent is probably hair-growing. She got a head start by growing a solid base while waiting to be born, and she never looked back. She's already able to sport a sumo-style pony tail, and she's proud of her trick of growing a different color hair than she entered the world with.

On the down side, she's not much of a conversationalist, and she's still working on her sense of humor since she only laughs every couple of days. Over the past week she has also been a bad diaper changee, preferring to roll around and either smack the wall or grab the side of the changing pad. In the interim I've learned to change her diaper while she's on her tummy.

A Good Day

It was my Birthday yesterday. I am now 31 years old. What does it feel like? I definitely don't feel old but it does feel like I am far away from my 20's. Why is that? Not being able to go to a bar after our birthday dinner out because I already felt a bit too tipsy (and embarrassingly tired) is one reason....sleeping in till 7:20am on my birthday is another reason....walking casually around the city at night while it's dark out giddy that I'm surrounded by people in public after 7pm is yet another reason. Those reasons aren't really related to being 31 as much as it does to being a mom but wow, so different from my 20's.

The Birthday ended up being a darn good day. I enjoyed breakfast out with most of the Girls Night crew. We can go from talking about tax consultants to romance just like that. We are not a quiet table, love that.

We spent the afternoon with friends and at the pool. Taking Lily to the pool for the first time was the one thing I really wanted to make sure happened and it did. More on the pool in a minute. I do have a quick funny story. While hanging out at our friend's party, there were about a dozen of us in one big room. Nate stayed near Lily while she did her yoga poses on her blanket while I was at the other end of the room catching up with others. I could see Nate's eye suddenly widen and Lily looking a little taller than usual. Lily was having "a first", and like typical first time parents, it was like we just won the lottery. I screamed "It's a first!" and leapt for the camera. After taking way too many pics, Nate and I chest bumped each other in excitement. OK, the last part was made up but it makes me giggle. You'd think Lily's first was doing a cartwheel but all she did was get up on all fours, putting her knees under her butt for a prolonged period of time, that's it and it was awesome!

The pool was a blast. At first, Lily was chill and indifferent to the water and much more interested in the ceiling lights. Thanks to Dad making her giggle the most yet from simply going underwater and popping up to say peekaboo, she quickly fell in love with splashing and kicking her legs. If there was music like Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros playing while Lily was giggling at Daddy, I would have bawling tears of bliss. Surprisingly, I kept my composure. My love for swimming doesn't even compare to my first love of tennis. I will probably drop to my knees and bawl when Lily hits her first tennis ball over the net.


I'm going to end this post with an adorable Birthday wish from my friend Austin. Birthdays bring out a healthy competition of who gives the best birthday song rendition within my family. This year, the champion is adorable Austin Grossnickle, blowing the competition away. Special thanks to Vaughn and Barb for helping make my day.

It was a good day.

Boo

Happy Halloween! We're not very big Halloween people, but managed to get in the spirit long enough to get Lily into a costume and show her off a little. If it weren't for Mark & Katie offering to let us borrow a costume, Lily probably would have missed out on her first Halloween altogether. In any case, she did get to dress up as a cute little bear cub. And in my humble opinion, the operative word there was cute. She was more interested in sucking on her newly furry hands than in grrrrr-ing at people, but all in all it was very fun.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. Lily's coming up on the six month mark in a couple of weeks here, and it seems like she's pretty much where she's supposed to be developmentally. She's picking up new things, most notably scooting a little bit by sitting up and rocking. As she rocks forward her butt scoots forward a little and she can very slowly make her way forward. We'll have to get this on video soon. She also likes to get up almost onto hands and knees and then rock from side to side. Still seems like a long way to crawling, but she's definitely improving her balance. Here's a video of her rocking on her tummy.

I do have one funny story. We were at mass today and the archbishop was thanking all of the people who serve as readers and altar assistants, etc. When he was done, he asked the congregation to give them all a round of applause. Lily had never heard this much clapping before and gave her "what the heck is going on?" look, waited until the clapping was done, then started wailing. Luckily she calmed down quickly when she realized that the clapping would not hurt her.

We're putting together October pictures, they'll probably be posted later in the week, linked again from the upper right of our blog page.

Breakup and Dating Scene

It's already been a week since I broke up with Intel for someone else and unlike all the other breakups in my past, there are no tears to speak of, no long talks with my sister to remind me that I am worthy and I will find happiness again, and no middle of the night urges to contact Intel and ask to be taken back. Nope, none of that. It's too soon to say what it's really like day to day as a stay-at-home mom but I can say that I am happy and this past week included a lot of firsts not only for Lily but for me as well.

One of my firsts is that I cooked dinner every single night this past week and I didn't mind. I cooked rice for the first time (how embarrassing is that?) and learned that squash takes forever to bake to the point that watching Nate eat it reminded me of a dog gnawing on a bone. I tried out new recipes and I consider it successful because Nate ate it and is still alive. My mom always told me growing up that a way to a man's heart is with food. I don't agree, but I do feel a sense of pride knowing I could cook a healthy and tasty meal for my family and I know my mom and I agree on that.

The other first is an embarrasing realization that my quest to meet more people in my neighborhood is starting out differently than I hoped. I am meeting new people that are very friendly, especially to Lily. Lily has gotten "there goes the future" and "she has the face of the future President of America" and the usual "all that hair is awesome" (which by the way never gets old). Unfortunately, all these comments come from what Nate calls "street persons." They aren't transients because they aren't going anywhere and they don't seem to be homeless. I take a lot of walks with Lily and when you take walks around the city, especially downtown, in the middle of the day during the work week, you pass a lot of street persons. I have also handed out leftover baked goods out to them so maybe word is getting out about crazy tall lady and her baby walking around the city looking for people to give treats to. It did seem like I got approached quite a bit last week.

I'm slowly putting myself out on the "mom-friend" dating scene. Thankfully Nate paved the way at the library's book babies class and I was approached by a couple of women last week who remembered Lily. I haven't gotten any phone numbers yet and yeah, I have had a couple anxous moments where I wish I had a fun group of active mom friends in the neighborhood. If I've learned anything about the dating scene though, it's that it all seems to happen when you aren't working so hard at looking for it.

Even though Lily still cries quite a bit when she goes down for her "will it be 30 minutes or 1.5 hour" naps, we had a lot of fun this week. I know she like Guns-N-Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine", she'll giggle if I jump up and down and say boo, she enjoys dancing with me to the Beatles "Yellow Submarine," and likes watching me dance while cooking in the kitchen. Lily likes to hold leaves and will follow the falling leaves from the trees with her eyes. She'll kick her legs in excitement whenever a dog or a cat comes close. She likes playing with the nalgene bottle cap and enjoys the crinkling sound of a granola bar wrapper. It probably seems pretty mundane and boring reading this but I honestly find it really exciting to be a part of Lily's world. I wonder what I'll learn this week.

No More Daddy Day Care

Well my five weeks off with Lily have come to an end. Today was my first day back at the office. Only 700 messages in my inbox to wrestle with, was way fewer than I expected, so it wasn't a bad start.

I really enjoyed my time as a stay at home Dad. It definitely gave me an up close and personal look at what it's like to be with her pretty much every moment day after day and showed me that it's not a walk in the park. We did take plenty of walks in the park, but there were also plenty of not-so-fun times like trying to stretch awake time too long and ending up with an over-tired unhappy Lily. There were lots of highlights from our time together, and Lily showed me plenty of firsts. We especially liked walking over to the Library for Book Babies, where Lily got to hang out with a lot of other kids her age and hear stories and songs. I was always the only Dad in the room, but it really didn't feel awkward. Lily loved watching all the other kids, especially the ones that were crawling around or sitting up and playing with toys. Our first visit there she surprised me by sitting up all by herself for quite a while. She had never really done it before, but I was holding her up when I noticed that I didn't seem to be giving her much support so I let her go for it and she just held herself there like a tripod with both hands on the ground. It's really been amazing to see her balance develop since then, now she sits up straighter and can correct herself when she starts to tip over.

The other notable first is that she's actively teething. We were playing on the floor a couple of weeks ago when she chomped down on my hand and there was more than just gums there. She was a little cranky and not quite herself for a day or so but has been pretty good about it. The tooth still has quite a ways to go on its way in, but it's a lot more visible now. The second tooth isn't far behind, you can feel it starting to poke through the gum line now.

Actually just tonight she made a new discovery in celebration of her Mama staying home with her, she figured out she could put her foot in her mouth. Here's the video:


The first day in the office was pretty good, it was nice to visit with friends who were curious to hear how my time at home went. I was happy to get nice congratulations from a lot of people who I told about Nicole leaving Intel and staying home with Lily. I can honestly say I didn't think about work at all while I was gone, but I was happy that I snapped back into it pretty easily today, even remembering what most of our codenames referred to. I'm sure every day won't be rosy once I sink my teeth back into work, but the first day wasn't too bad.

I'm Comin' Home.

I've decided to leave Intel and be a stay-at-home Mom. Making the decision was as easy as it gets. Once push came to shove and we had to commit to childcare, I couldn't do it. Oh, I agonized about it leading up to it, pretty much my whole maternity leave. I could see myself as both a working mom and a stay-at-home mom, I really could. I was actually leaning towards working mom because I just thought I'd be an idiot if I didn't work when I have a job I enjoy and hey, it pays nicely. Looking back now, it seems as though I was trying to talk myself out of what my heart and soul were telling me all along because I wasn't accepting who I am now. I'm just not wired to do both. Maybe it's because I had a stay-at-home mom. Maybe it's because I already have big issues with guilt and don't want to even try taking on the guilt I'd feel balancing work and home. Maybe it's because my job isn't as fulfilling now that I can compare it to being a mom. Maybe it's because I have the choice. I'm grateful for the choice.

I wanted Nate to have an opinion on what I do but of course he just said he wanted me to be happy and fulfilled, and whichever option maximized that was the right one. I wanted him to have a strong preference so if it ended up being wrong, I had someone else to blame. I know, very mature of me.

Life is long, childhood is short, and life already feels short enough. I can always go back to work. I can't always go back and experience Lily's childhood again. Call me selfish but I don't want to miss anything.

This week, I'll say goodbye to a company that's been good to me the last 10 years, a job that I enjoyed, and people that I'll miss. I'm also going to say hello to an exciting new chapter that will let me focus much more on my family.

It still blows me away how much I've changed in the last year. I didn't even know I wanted kids till I was 29. I didn't know whether I could handle Lily those first few hellish weeks. Now, I don't want to let her go and the person I thought I was already seems like a distant memory.

Mr. Mom

My time off with Lily is more than half gone. It's hard to believe, it's definitely flying by. It's been great so far and I'm really looking forward to the next two weeks before heading back to work.

During the week of overlap where both Nicole and I were off, we started trying to give Lily a bottle to get her ready to be alone with daddy. It was evident from the first try that it was not going to be as simple as sticking the bottle in her mouth and her sucking it dry. She showed zero interest in the bottle, and when she put up with it being in her mouth she didn't suck and didn't swallow the drops. So the first day Nicole went back to work, Lily managed to get about 3 oz. out of bottles, and probably half of that dribbled down her chin. To compare, she probably gets about 6 oz. every time she gets it directly from her mama. Over the next few days we tried different bottles, different nipples, different temperatures of milk, and anything else we could think of. Nothing seemed to work very well. But we just kept at it and I kept telling myself she was getting a little better every day. Not sure whether it was true or not, but eventually she started getting it. She settled on a particular type of nipple that she could latch onto and finally started to get some milk out and get it down. By the middle of this week she seemed to have it down and could eat as much as she felt like without having to sit there for 45 minutes. Now she can down about 6 oz. in 15 minutes. Much better for both of us.

Now that the drama is done, on to the fun we've been having. We've gone on lots of walks, gone shopping, had an afternoon in the park, and even went to book babies. I expected more story reading at book babies, but it was mostly singing songs and dancing around. Regardless, Lily loved it. She was all smiles checking out all the other kids, most of whom were crawling around. She even did something new, sitting up all by herself for a couple of minutes. At first I was propping her up a bit but noticed she seemed to be balancing pretty well and let her go for it. Another development over the past few days is that when she's on her tummy she sticks her butt in the air and pulls her legs in under her. Then she gets frustrated when she doesn't move. She's doing a lot more pushups too, extending her arms and getting her chest up in the air. So it's just a matter of time before she starts scooting around. On the one hand, it will be very exciting to see her figuring out how to move herself around. On the other, it means we have to baby proof and keep everything clean, or at least cleaner than it seems now.


The weather's been cool and a bit rainy this past week, keeping us inside more than we'd like, but hopefully next week we'll be able to get out more and hang out in the park. Lily loves watching kids at the park, and dogs too. Sometimes she'll even giggle while watching a dog play fetch, it's pretty cute. I guess she's an animal lover already.

Overall, I'm definitely enjoying being with Lily full time, it will be hard to go back to work when that time comes. And it's given me even more appreciation for what Nicole has done for the past four months, it takes a lot of patience and adaptability to keep Lily and yourself happy. Hopefully the next two weeks will be full of new things, good weather, and Lily's smiles.

Auntie Sonya

I usually don't go a day without talking to my sister. Since Lily was born, my phone has been racking up a lot of rollover minutes because Skype has taken over. Skyping with my sister is part of the daily routine. Lily knows her face and her voice. It helps that she and I sound eerily alike. Lily was in for a real treat last weekend because Sonya came back out to Portland for her 2nd visit in 4 months. Along with some dear and I guess I can now say long time friends (10 years already), we spent the long weekend in Sunriver, Oregon, which is near Mt. Bachelor in central Oregon to take part in the GIST Cancer Walk for the Cure. We want to help the cause however we can and we're really glad we could do this together. It was a darn good weekend of simply enjoying time with each other in a nifty little home whether it was playing tennis in the driveway with adorable Sam and Zach Larson, soaking in the hot tub while being amazed by just how clear and bright a starry sky can be outside of the city, or watching the deer outside the living room window.
Sonya, thanks for visiting us. We knew if anyone could make Lily giggle, it would be you.

I also just posted a new Picassa album, linked in the upper right of the page as usual.

Return To Work Eve

It is the night before I return to work after staying at home with Lily for the last 4 months. For so long during my leave, all I kept saying was "I don't have to think about work, it's so far off." Sure, it crossed my mind quite a bit but never to the point of it dangerously dwelling in my mind. This past week with Nate home was just one great moment after another. Lily has been extra busy learning so much in the past few days. I posted a video a couple days ago of Lily almost rolling over and now she rolls over with ease. She tries to giggle more and more (still sounds like a coughing laugh right now) grabs at toys more than ever and has discovered her feet.

I didn't think I'd cry about my role as a stay at home mom coming to an end but as I looked at all the pictures from the past week and reflected a bit more, I can't fight back the tears. I'm so proud of how far Nate and I have come, how far Lily has come in discovering the world, and it's only been 4 months. I didn't think it would be this fun to be Lily's mom when my leave ends. I thought it would still be too new and stressful to think of any time at home with Lily in the first 4 months to feel like a vacation but it has.

So, I'll dust off my pumping bag, find my Intel badge, pack a picture of Lily, and drive to work tomorrow. The change is here and now we just need to do it.

Here are a couple videos of Lily that made us both smile: Lily giving her first signs of a giggle and Lily surprising us with her rolling over easily.

Stay At Home Mom and Dad

This past week has been good, really good. Nate and I have been stay at home parents to our 4 month old Lily and wow has it been fun. It makes me daydream about winning the lottery and letting us both stay home to raise our big Lil'. Lily is a lot easier these days and I'm starting to understand how your own kid is by the far the funniest person in the world, even funnier than Stephen Colbert. And he's funny.

I am going back to work next week and in between picnics in the park and adventures to places like the bookstore (I'm not being sarcastic, it's really fun), we've been working on finalizing childcare and introducing the bottle. Lily likes the bottle as much as I like Serena Williams - not at all. I am choosing not to think about getting back to work because it's nowhere near as fun as our upcoming weekend. We're going to visit a friend's farm, Kookoolan, visit a friend's new hotel in wine country, The Allison, and hopefully enjoy a Michigan win.

I love that Nate will be a stay at home Dad for the next month. I'm not worried at all. I think Nate will be better at it than I have been. He has so much energy and he likes to be busy giving Lily lots of practice time when it comes to tummy time, sitting up and crawling. I'm much more in the "it'll happen when it happens" mode which really means I really love her at this age and don't want her to grow up. Nate also worries and stresses less than I do. I had this irrational fear the other day while I crossed a bridge with Lily in her stroller. I literally picked up speed while crossing the bridge because I was scared she'd somehow fall off the bridge. I know. It makes no sense but it's what went through my mind. Good times.

Lily had her 4 month check up today and all is good. She's in the 81% for weight (15lb 3oz) and 76% for height (25''). The only thing that keeps her off the charts is the amount of hair on her head.

Here's a video of Lily kinda rolling over.

Change Coming

It definitely feels like a change is upon us. There's a fall chill in the morning air, college football is here, and Lily is coming up on the four month mark. That didn't feel so significant until I realized it's a third of a year. Then I thought wow, already a third of the way towards her first birthday and suddenly it felt like time was flying right before my eyes.

Lots of other changes on the way too. I'm two work days away from five weeks of bonding leave. We'll have one week of overlap where both Nicole and I are off, then Nicole heads back to work. I'm definitely looking forward to being the one Lily spends most of her time with for the next month or so, getting to know her quirks and see her change in front of my eyes. But it will definitely be a role reversal of what's been going on the past four months, with me working from home as much as possible to help out. Nicole will probably work from home a fair amount and I'm sure it will be difficult and weird for her to work while I take care of Lily.

Another, more unexpected, change has happened as Nicole has started making dinner way more often. Our consumption of take out from the great restaurants around us has definitely dropped off and we've had some great pasta salads that have gone perfectly with the warm weather. So I'll see if I can keep up the dinner-making momentum, hopefully I will. Once we're both back at work I'm sure we'll be digging out the take out menus again, but hopefully in the meantime the weather will be nice enough for me to fire up the grill.

On the topic of change I'm tempted to toss in Michigan's return to the win column and the change to a quarterback who looks like he belongs on the field, but that probably belongs in a different blog, oh well.

On a more relavent note, we've posted a couple of new photo albums, you know where to click.

Lily Who from Whoville

It's been about a month (2 1/2 months old to 3 1/2 months old) since I last blogged about my own progress as a Mom to Lily. I think the best way to sum up my progress is to simply say that my heart has grown wiser. There was definitely an obvious turning point at 3 months; It was a combination of Lily adapting to our environment and me gaining a healthy supply of experience to more confidently handle what Lily throws my way. It feels like my heart has more room these days to cherish whatever the day brings instead of seeking out and cherishing only the really good moments....like the one below of Lily looking like she came from Whoville (Dr. Seuss).

As for some examples of why it became easier around the 3 month mark, I have a few. 1) I can now put her down in her rocking chair for as long as it takes to cook dinner and eat it which means Nate and I now eat dinner together again. 2) We're putting her down to sleep awake but drowsy so I no longer pace the house with her in my arms. 3) She doesn't mind the car seat now (Montana trip was the turning point). 4) We don't go to bed with Lily anymore so it's nice to get some down time to ourselves. I'm reading books again! 5) She smiles so much now, she doesn't have as much time to cry.

Her nap routine isn't quite there yet but I'm starting to see signs of it. She might have a day full of 30 minute naps and then the next day have a solid 2.5 hour nap. Lily is usually awake for about 2 hours between daytime naps.

We have a consistent bedtime routine now which seems to be working. We tried including the bath as part of her bedtime routine but we're already giving that up; we're too lazy. At this point, I feed her, we read to her, and then we sing Eternal Flame by the Bangles to her. Yeah, you read that right. We sing a cheezy 80's song to our daughter to help her fall asleep. It worked well to calm her when I was pregnant so why stop a good thing. Just in the last few days, we stopped swaddling Lily at night. We were so scared we'd ruin a good thing but Lily didn't care, no effect whatsoever. As I type, Lily is sleeping away in her new crib (thank you Craigs List). We thought we would be able to keep Lily in a cosleeper for 6 months but she's getting too big for it and we'd like to not whisper in bed, tiptoe around her, and stumble around in the dark anymore.

I do have one quick funny story to share with you. This afternoon when Lily was napping in the next room, Nate and I were putting together her crib as quietly as possible. Nate accidentally hit a toy that started playing music that doesn't turn off until the song ends. To muffle the sound, Nate decided to put the toy down his pants. Things parents will do for their kids.

I'll leave you with one more picture of smiling Lily beginning her bedtime routine. Pay no attention to Gigi licking herself inappropriately in the background.

Rocker Lily

In our previous video post, Lily was wearing a onesie that says "Future Rocker" on it. Who knew it would turn out to be true so soon. Lily loves her Rocker Chair these days and no longer needs our help to make it move.

Copy Cat

After seeing Nicole do a great job with her tri earlier this month, I figured I should do one too. So yesterday I did the Portland Triathlon (sprint distance) and I'd say it went pretty well. Originally I had planned on doing a sprint tri in early May before Lily was born, but when I went to sign up a couple of weeks before the race it was sold out. So I was bummed and figured I wouldn't do one this year. I didn't train much over the past three months, maybe averaged a run and a bike session per week and swam three or four times total since Lily arrived.

When Nicole asked me Saturday why I wanted to do it (from a motivational angle, not a "what the heck are you thinking" angle) I think my response was "I don't know". Thinking more about it, I think I just wanted to show myself that even though my free time has changed in a really radical way, I can still keep doing what I did before. Sure, maybe my results could have been better if I had trained more. But I was pleasantly surprised with how well I did anyway, finishing fourth out of eighteen in my division. And I'm starting to think triathlons may be like golf for me. You can have fun and do pretty well by training on a somewhat leisurely schedule, but to take a real leap in results requires significantly more effort and dedication. I'm not saying that someday I won't take the next step, but for the moment I'm happy with where I'm at.

I mentioned my sparse training regimen earlier, and it actually mapped pretty well into my results. I ended up doing the backstroke for most of the swim because I was hyperventilating a bit and wasn't enjoying it. So my swim was about two and a half minutes longer than the past couple of years. My bike pace was about the same as last year, but this year's bike course was five miles longer, so I'd say my bike improved. And my run pace was almost :30/mile better, probably because this spring I was running a lot and training specifically to get faster 5k times.

So I guess I did end up showing myself that I could still do pretty well even with limited training. Maybe that'll be the way I do this for the next couple of years - run, bike, and swim when I can and then do one event a year. Training my butt off to try and win my division just doesn't sound that interesting to me when it involves a trade off of time with Lily and Nicole. So that's that.

In Lily news this week, she's figured out how to make herself rock in her rocking seat. She bounces her legs in the right rhythm to keep it going. Of course when we realized that she had done it, we thought it was a sure sign of genius. We'll post a video of it later this week.

Video of Lily at 3 Months Old

Lily is now 3 months old. The main changes we've noticed are that she is absolutely mesmorized by her hands. She does this Tai Chi meets The Matrix with her hands move, sucks on her hands a lot, and she smiles and talks more than ever before. I haven't heard the obvious giggle but we're assuming her fake coughs while smiling are her early attempts at it. Here's a typical video of Lily at 3 months.

PS We recommend Huggies over Pampers for superior blowout protection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX2MsNpnOVc

Road Trip!

Over the past weekend we drove to Helena, Montana and back to celebrate our good friend Sara's wedding. It was actually the longest road trip the two of us have done together, much less with Lily. We weren't sure what to expect from her, whether we'd be stopping every 1/2 hour, or face driving through screaming, or whether she'd just zonk. It turned out to be much more the latter than anything else. I think there was a bit of a "can we do what we want to do?" element about taking this trip at all, and we were happy with the result.


We hit the road at 8:30 Thursday morning, as soon as Lily was done eating and ready to go. By the time we got on I-84 she was taking a nice nap that ended about 170 miles and many wind turbines later when we stopped to get gas. We thought there was a good chance we'd have to pull over within Portland city limits to deal with a wailing Lily, but all was good. We pulled into Coeur d'Alene a bit after 3PM, way before we thought we would.



Coeur d'Alene was beautiful, a nice resort town on the edge of a big lake surrounded by rolling hills covered in evergreens. We had a nice dinner featuring local Huckleberries at the resort on the lake and called it a good first day.

We rolled through wet weather, mountain passes and found that famed Big Sky on Friday, with Lily again taking long naps and being very agreeable. We hit Helena in plenty of time to relax before the Hawaiian-themed rehearsal dinner. We had a great visit with Sara and got to meet some of the friends we'd heard about and see some people we hadn't seen in a while, including Tavia's parents who were incredibly friendly and welcoming.

We wandered the streets of Helena Saturday before the wedding, and decided it was like Hood River minus the river. We stumbled into a quaint farmers market and crashed wedding pictures at the 8th-largest cathedral in the US.

The main event was fantastic, the setting was beautiful and the bride outshone everything around. Stetson, her dog, was even the ring bearer, running down the aisle when he was called for an on-time delivery. We had a nice visit over dinner with Shana and Stefan, and convinced ourselves that a return trip to Montana is in order sooner or later. I had hoped to be able to squeeze in a visit to Glacier National Park during this trip, but it would have taken an extra day and about 10 extra car hours, so we saved it for next time.


Sunday we joined up with the wedding folks again for breakfast at Sara's Dad's house, enjoying the beautiful views and hearing the tales of the post-wedding carousing before resuming our journey. This pic is where we stopped Sunday afternoon for Lily's lunch.


The biggest (mis)adventure of the trip happened about thirty miles from the Idaho border, in a construction zone with one lane in each direction. We blew a tire. I yanked everything out of the trunk and put on the spare (a donut) and hoped we could find somewhere with at least a full sized spare to continue the journey. But of course this was Sunday late afternoon, and there aren't much of any population centers in Western Montana or the panhandle of Idaho. So we plodded along at 50 miles an hour with our caution lights, not able to enjoy the 75 MPH speed limit... all the way to Coeur d'Alene. Ugh. At least there were sunny skies so we got to fully appreciate the wonderful landscape. It made me want to live there until I thought of why I like living in the city.


Monday morning I was near first in line at Les Schwab (alas, no free beef) and we were on the road again by 9:30 with a new set of tires. Let's just say it wasn't debris that caused our flat. Our final driving day was again pretty smooth with lots of long naps from Lily and nice scenery. We passed quite a few flatbed semis hauling massive parts for wind turbine construction.

We made it home in one piece, and overall I'd say it was definitely a fun time. The only downer was spending such a long time in the car without much talking, since Nicole was sitting in back and with the road noise we almost had to yell to hear each other. Not conducive to a sleeping baby. But I guess the upside to that is, as Nicole said, she could sit and think for once. Unfortunately this was in comparison to today, when Lily was back to half-hour naps and crying to get to sleep. Back to the grind I guess.

We'll post more pics from the trip in Picassa over the next day or so... link in the upper right of this page as usual.

Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon - Aug 1, 2009

I had been toying with the idea of doing a sprint tri this summer but kept talking myself out of it. I kept going back and forth between how strong I would feel to finish after recently having a baby to not wanting to have any kind of pain after just experiencing so much of it. Thanks to dinner with the Glumbiks a few nights ago, I decided to commit and just give it a go. Feeling strong won out. Maybe someday, Lily will find out I did this and be proud of me even though I'm the uncool mom who embarrasses her and doesn't let her do anything she wants.

So, let me give you the details on my training plan....uh...there was none, zilch, zero. I hadn't run or bike since last September during the Black Diamond Tri when I was 5 weeks pregnant and didn't know it. I did keep up my swimming because I love it so much, especially when I was pregnant. Leading up to my previous tri's, I thought about the details a lot, what gear to use, transition efficiency, and technique. This time around, I didn't. I thought more about where I could pump before starting the race and whether I'd leak through my bathing suit.


I really enjoyed the race. It's obvious because I'm smiling in all the action shots. I was curious to see how my body would do with no training, wanted to have that great feeling of crossing the finish line, and remind myself of my pre-baby me and that my body can do more than be a boob tap for Lily. The thoughts that crossed my mind were comical. While on the bike, my butt got sore quickly on that eensy weenzy seat. I kept telling myself that this pain is nothing compared to the hemorrhoids I had to deal with after giving birth. Anytime I had discomfort or light pain, I kept thinking "please nicole, this is nothing now, I had a flippin baby with no epidural." My pain threshold is at a new level. The sore throat I used to rate as a 10/10 would now be a meager 4, ok maybe 5. I do hate sore throats.

I couldn't have done this race without Nate, no way. A friend calls him the All American Hero for taking me off the market but I call him my hero because he supports me, pushes me, tells me when my bike helmet is on backwards, and knows how to change a flat tire. It was really motivating to make Nate proud of me too.

I posted an album of pics from the race too.

Giraffe Riding in a Strawberry Car

Have you ever had one of those moments when you get an itch at the exact moment it's the most inconvenient? I get them quite a bit lately whenever I'm trying to soothe Lily to sleep. I'll have been pacing the house with her in my arms taking in each yawn as a small victory and hiccups as a small setback when eventually (usually about 20-25 minutes) that magic moment hits. I'll stand still and enjoy her eyes becoming too heavy and this calmness come over her. When I was much more of a novice at the soothing routine, I would make the rookie mistake of letting my mind wander to what I'd like to do when I put her down asleep like SIT DOWN. Babies can sense this and will suddenly jolt to life with a cry or this "don't even think about putting me down" look. It's at this magic moment where she's just about out when I'll get this itch on the back of my leg or in that hard to get spot on the back and if I try to scratch it, Lily will wake back up. At that point, every second counts because my arms and back are talking not so nicely to me and I'm starting to go crazy from pacing back and forth feeling like a robot. The funny thing is once my arms are free, the itch is gone.

Breastfeeding used to be the #1 topic on my mind by a landslide. It's still up there because I just do it so often and still seems so bizarre to me. By the way, I'm reading the book "unbuttoned" which is a collection of true stories about the pain, quirks, joy, and frustration of breastfeeding. It's a good read so far, all except the story about the dating and lactating woman who went on a date with a guy who had a fetish for breast milk! The new topic most on my mind is Lily's sleep, lots of healthy sleep. She isn't on a daytime routine yet so trying to figure it out and how I can help her is like a puzzle to me. I already know there is no solution to the puzzle. As soon as I figure it out, the puzzle will change. It's probably on my mind so much because Lily is getting close to when many experts say her sleep pattern will be more established and pleasing to the parents. Now, when she goes to bed, I go to bed. I'm looking forward to when she goes to bed and I drink a glass of wine and watch a movie with my husband.

Our last visitors left last weekend, unfortunately. G'ma and G'pa Mather as well as Aunt Emily (Nate's sister) were in town. They were a huge help and we already miss them. I knew they'd be a big help but I didn't expect to see G'ma cleaning out the refrigerator and G'pa scrubbing the stains off our hardwood floor. I was just grateful to see them interact with Lily as much as they did.

Even though most of what I do these days is pretty mind numbing like change a diaper, sing a nursery rhyme, or rock a baby to sleep, that's ok. I do enjoy the creative outlet it gives me whether it be making up songs to get new expressions from Lily or coming up with simple stories to keep both me and Lily entertained. Thanks to my mom's gift of a stuffed giraffe riding a strawberry car, I get a headstart with keeping Lily creatively entertained. As Lily gets older, I'll probably make up whole skits that involve Nate to perform in front of Lily to get just that one giggle - totally worth it.

We posted some new pics from the last month, check 'em out. The album is titled July 09

Lily's first word. AH-OW. It means I Love You in Lilese.

During a recent diaper change, I captured Lily making some new sounds at me. Her newfound voice makes time at the changing table a lot more fun these days.

Two Months!

Wow, time has truly flown by. Yesterday was Lily's two month birthday. She celebrated by smiling a lot and saying "aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhh". I think that translated to "look at me, I'm two months old!". She had her two month Doctor's visit today and it went as well as we could have hoped since she received her first round of immunizations, three needles and an oral vaccine. Once the needles were done she turned as red as a beet, as red as we've ever seen her, and let out a big wail. But after she was safely back in mama's arms for a few seconds she settled down and now she's enjoying a nice nap. Aside from the vaccines, she's right on track, weighing in at 12 lbs. 11 oz. and 24 inches and showing off lots of smiles for the doctor and nurses.

Sitting in the waiting room I was looking closer at Lily's hair, and it seems to be lighter every day. Those blonde roots are more than roots now, and it's not going to be too long before she'll need a haircut. I really have a hard time picturing her as a blonde, just because the image of the first sight of her with jet black hair is burned into my brain as "what Lily looks like".

One of my jobs is to clip Lily's fingernails. It's an exercise in patience that happens at least once a week. Or whenever she scratches the heck out of herself. I just use our nail clippers, but very carefully. I looked at one of the "baby nail clippers" at the store, but it was just adult clippers with a special handle and a magnifying glass stuck to it, so I figured we'd make do with what we have. If I used to solder little chips onto boards without a problem, I can clip a baby's nails.

We now have a pretty solid nighttime routine and Lily is (knock on wood) sleeping really well. But a daytime routine remains elusive at this point, we never know when she falls asleep if she'll wake up in five minutes or two hours. But I think we'll take the daytime uncertainty if she keeps giving us peace at night.

Tomorrow Lily gets to meet her Grandma and Grandpa Mather and her Aunt Emily for the first time. Hopefully she doesn't have any after-effects from the vaccines and shows off her nice big smiles. Nicole and I are definitely looking forward to our first dinner out alone, as Grandma & Grandpa have already volunteered to babysit for an evening. Now we just need to decide between Screen Door and Yuki... fried chicken or sushi? If only these were our biggest decisions every day...

I'll leave you with a couple of pics to show Lily's range of emotions.

Bad TV and Exorcism

It is truly ridiculous how much crappy TV I'm watching these days. Watching as much Wimbledon as I did is justifiable in my mind because Lily needed to watch where she'll be playing someday but the crap I'm watching now is embarrassing. I watched Dr. Phil the other day and caught myself talking to the TV telling this 15 year old who wants to have a baby that I'm going to slap her back into reality. I've even started watching some soap operas, ick. The TV is usually on when I'm feeding and folding laundry which happens often. My mind is back to a place where I could pick up a book or a magazine and focus fairly easily but a Time Magazine article is all I've done. I sure am focused on reading the regularly highly recommended book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" so a non-baby book is doable at this point. My parents would tell me to use the time I get to cook a gourmet meal for my husband to come home to. I could see that happening when a routine is better established. Free time is still unpredictable at this point.

Next week marks 2 months and there are new things going through my mind these days:
- I am following the theory that Lily shouldn't be awake any longer than 2 hours at one time which is usually very challenging at least once a day. That over tired state sucks and I now know what that looks like.
- Starting to think about putting Lily down when she's drowsy but still awake. We still pace the house while holding her until she falls asleep whether it be a nap or at night. We won't be able to keep this up.
- Leaving Lily with a babysitter for the first time and being surprised how hard it is to leave her. We're going to see Coldplay tomorrow night.
-Lily is sleeping longer at night so I'm guessing she can now distinguish between night and day or is it the swaddling we do only at night? When do we want to stop swaddling? When will we introduce a bath at night and maybe even read to her to help establish a routine? We'll see what hits us.
- Finding the motivation to make better use of my free time. How about working on Lily's baby book or framing one of her pictures? Jeez, get with it Nicole.
- Getting more Nicole time back in the picture like more regular exercise. I never thought I'd actually consider going to a 6am workout class. We'll see on that one. Making exercise a priority is just now something we're doing more of now. Yup, yet another thing that was harder than I thought it would be.
-Figuring out more things to do in the neighborhood with Lily.

Lily's demons have left her body. Our priest told us this during her baptism last Sunday, cute little joke. Nate said it would have been funny if Lily projectile puked right after he said that, no spinning head though, too scary. Lily's Godfather (my brother) and the rest of the Biegansky Hinsdale crew were in town and it was super cute seeing my niece and nephew interacting with Lily. Seeing Lily baptized was one of those heavy moments filled with tradition, goodness, and family.

I'll leave you with a picture of smiling Lily. Nate's parents and sister arrive next week. Lily is ready and excited to smile for the next visitors.

Lily's Dip in the Pacific

Just wanted to share the video we tried to put in the last post. Here it is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8lzCj-Gnazt6lms9DOa1qg?feat=directlink
You'll probably want to click on the "view HQ video" link right above the video window to get a higher quality version.

Aloha

O' Maui, how we've missed you. 3 years ago, we spent 2 weeks in Maui for our honeymoon and what a difference bringing a baby along can do to the type of trip we're used to. The only alone time Nate and I got was the 15 minutes we enjoyed in the pool and on the water slide. Our evenings ended quite early (9 pm was going wild) and dodging the sun for Lily was our primary activity of the day. Only Nate was able to make it out surfing because Lily decided to be a major fuss ball at the wrong time. We did manage to play some tennis, go to a luau, and celebrate a really beautiful wedding with friends. Tony and Stephanie, congrats again! Your wedding was a lot of fun.

We heard "you guys are brave" on our Maui trip from lots of people which is a nice way of saying "you are stupid" as we toted our six week old Lily around everywhere we went. Yeah, it was hard at times but overall, Lily did really well. We catch ourselves often playing the "at least she didn't do xyz" to make us get past a difficult time with Lily quicker. At least Lily didn't have a breakdown at the wedding after she had one on the flight back. At least Lily didn't poop on me after she just threw up on me.

As far as baby learning's go, we discovered that at about the six week mark, the decrease in poopy diapers is replaced with a "did that much really come out of someone so small" size poop. Lily introduced us to the "no diaper can hold this amount in" at the rehearsal lunch and my dress changed from purple to brown. I brought a change in top but not change in dress. Good times. We got longer stretches of sleep at night, anywhere from 5 to 8 hours between feedings for the first time ever. Lily is definitely awake for longer stretches during the day now and loves to look outward because she's apparently already sick of looking at our goofy faces. She can tell the difference between us sitting and rocking her and us standing and rocking her. She likes to move and doesn't care if the wind is blowing in her face. She also really likes a painted picture of a pineapple that was in our hotel room. I should've taken a picture of the picture and get it framed for our house. She would always stop her cry for a moment and smile at the pineapple, so strange and cute.

I want to leave you with a video of Lily taking a dip in the ocean for the very first time but I'm having computer difficulty so hopefully it can be posted soon. Instead, I'll just post a family pic. Check out more pics of our trip at our usual picasa link.

Proud, Firsts, and Daddy's Little Girl

I am proud of myself. It took me a few tries to type it and not immediately delete it. Darn it, I AM PROUD OF MYSELF. Those first few weeks with Lily were the hardest days of my life, no question. I couldn't adjust to the pain, pain I did not expect to have starting with labor and it resulted in a dark time (Keep in mind, strep throat was probably the pain level peak I had experienced up to that point). I'll probably have more funks down the road related to more emotional reasons versus physical pain but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. For now, I will be proud of myself for making it past the first month and that I'm enjoying Lily so much more now.

There have been quite a few firsts recently for both me and Lily:

- I have breastfed in public now a few times. (I said I was done talking about boobs but seriously, everyone needs to respect a new mom's boob. They have a life of their own and it's easily the 2nd most thought about topic on my mind - after Nate of course -just kidding, it even beats out Nate. Pain, leaking, engorgement, cramps causing, what to wear because of them, nipple weirdness, hose effect, can you tell I'm wearing a breast pad? Shoot, where's the lanolin? Will this shirt color hide milk leakage better? Will this shirt work for nursing? Does she really want boob or just to suck on something?). I still keep a log of when and how long the last breastfeeding session was. I think I do it more now because I think it's quite the accomplishment and it's my little way to recognize myself for still doing it.

- I went to the movies and saw Away We Go - cute movie. There was one memorable line that hit me hard because of my tendency to worry too much. "The only thing we have control over is to be good to our kid, that's it."

- I baked! I promised the boob whisperer a home baked treat if I didn't have any setbacks.

- I had my first full beer with the girls and it was soooooo good. I think a margarita is calling my name next.

- I went for my first swim over the weekend and I seriously was smiling a big toothy smile when I pushed off the wall.

- I'm not as scared to have her be awake when I'm away from the house. So what if she cries (wow, I definitely could not say that at first).

- Lily has been introduced to the swing and it really does keep her asleep a little while longer during the day.

- Lily loves looking out at her surroundings more and more now, especially at the mirror. That's my vain baby.

With Lily, I have never stared at someone so intently and with so much curiosity. If Brad Pitt was standing right next to her, Lily would still win and that is saying A LOT! If his shirt was off, it might be a different story. :) She already makes me laugh hard out loud, like when she goes from an all out cry to a huge smile in a blink of an eye or the "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" grunting with the "Jabba the Hut" look she does when she stretches.

The last thing I'll mention that I've recently noticed is how hard I try to maximize the free time I do get in bursts throughout the day. I want to do something I really love to do and I spend too much time thinking about what I want to do and being too picky that I end up wasting time and losing the window. I did manage to enjoy an online episode of the Colbert Report the other day. I watched those religiously while I was pregnant.

Nate had a great first Father's Day. He enjoyed a nice long bike ride and quite a few smiles and coo's from Lily. Here's a picture of the two of them - like Father like Daughter.

We leave for Maui on Wednesday. Even though she'll probably hate it, we're excited to dip her foot in the ocean as her introduction to what we hope she falls in love with - playing in the water.

PS I put hand soap on my toothbrush the other night, yummy. Yup, still exhausted.

Lily's A Month Old!

Monday was Lily's one month birthday. We didn't do anything specific to celebrate other than tell her it was her birthday. She gave us a list of gifts she'd like to receive, but we thought it was too early for a pony and tennis racket.

She's definitely changed over the course of the last month, but it's hard to recognize the changes when you're in the thick of things every day. But if you look at pictures (there's a new album posted in the usual place) and compare, her face has filled out a bit and changed. She's added two pounds to her 9.1 birth weight, and probably an inch or two also. She's wearing mostly 3-month old clothes, since at least the newborn sized onsies were fitting like sausage casings. She's holding her head up longer and controlling it better. And as of a couple of days ago she will smile in reaction to our smiles when she's calm and happy. To me, the smiles have been the biggest feel-good moments yet with her.

Nicole's work with the Boob Whisperer continues, and things are going well on that front. She's moved away from pumping since things have improved significantly and that's made the logistics a lot easier. No more warming up bottles and pumping = more time for everything else, like rest.

Lily got to meet her Auntie Sonya over the weekend, and they really seemed to hit it off. Lily decided that Sonya had a good shoulder for a nap and spent almost three hours sleeping on her one evening. I was actually out of town in Chicago for Tony's bachelor party for the weekend, so I missed most of the bonding. But I did manage to get almost nine straight hours of sleep Friday night, quite a luxury.

The days are still full of ups and downs. Last night is a good example. For about two hours after we wanted to go to bed, Lily just wanted to eat and would not fall asleep. So Nicole ended up feeding her on and off and in between we both tried to get her down to sleep without luck. It was really frustrating for all three of us. The only up side of those couple of hours was that during a time out, I got to see Conan's monologue on the Tonight Show for the first time. Not bad. Anyway, back to the story... After all that frustration, and thinking as I tried to fall asleep around midnight that it seemed like we'd be up all night, what happens? We wake up after 6AM. She slept over 6 hours for the first time! I don't think either of us believed it, I know I woke up assuming I had slept through a middle of the night feeding. Hopefully tonight has another 6 hour stretch without the craziness leading up to it.

Now that we're a month in I guess it's on to the next challenge. We leave for Tony & Stephanie's wedding on Maui next week, our first trip as a family. We're just hoping to be able to get in some good pool and beach time with a little surfing. But of course we'll play it by ear and just see how things go and what we're comfortable with.

Week 4

What a difference a week can make. Not having the foot stomping pain about every 3 hours around the clock and seeing improvement in my boobs after doing my homework of pumping so much it felt like it was a breathing machine has helped my mood and perspective some. I had a really good follow up appointment with the boob whisperer who gave me yet another new strategy to try and I plan to see her at least 2 more times just to help minimize the chance of a setback. I'm just so sick of boobs and you're probably tired of hearing about them.

I went to my first Mom's group at the nearby hospital and I'm glad I went. I learned a new soothing technique by bouncing on a workout ball with Lily. I have one at home and the thought to do that never crossed my mind. After meeting other 3 week old babies, Lily definitely looks older than she is. Not only does she have a full head of hair but she was more similar in size to the 2 month olds. Lily is now 10.5 lbs and probably a little longer than 22 inches.

Nate leaves for Chicago this weekend to live it up at a bachelor party (and enjoy a nice long deep sleep) and my sister arrives to help me out and meet Lily for the first time. My sister is 12 years older than I am so she took care of me quite a bit when I was a baby. It'll be really cool to see her taking care of Lily now. Lily is going to love her.

I'll end this post with a cute video of Lily smiling a few times for the camera. Don't forget the sound. Enjoy.