six months old

Dear Lilah,

One June 13th, you turned six months old!!  Six months is a big one.  I can't believe it's already here.  We did a little photo shoot to celebrate.

Last night you also celebrated by sleeping through the night for the first time in months!  How sweet of you to give me a gift on your half-birthday.

Early in this month of your life, you found your toes.  You love chomping on them.

Also this month, we discovered that you find basketball pretty much the funniest thing you've ever seen.  Caleb keeps saying, "Mama, Lilah's really good at laughing now!"  I've tried to get a good video of it, but you get distracted by the camera.

At your six month appointment, you weighed exactly 14 lbs.  That puts you in about the 10th percentile for weight.  You were 26 inches long, which puts you in about the 50th percentile for height.  And you have cute chunky thighs.
 


You are getting close to being able to sit up on your own.  You still topple over if left to your own devices though.  Speaking of milestones, I don't think I've ever mentioned rolling over on here.  You rolled over for the first time right when you hit four months, but you've only done it 3 or 4 times total.  You're pretty content just hanging out on your back, and while you don't like tummy time much at all, you haven't seemed to figure out that rolling over gets you out of it.

We trialed some baby carriers this month.  I'd wanted to get pictures of you in each one, but this is the only one we got...

You really like to face forward and look at the world, so we didn't end up getting any of the carriers we trialed because they are not designed for forward-facing front carries.  But we did get a similar one that allows for four different carrying positions so that you can face the world when you want to.

I'm really enjoying you, my sweet girl.  You are a joy and a blessing, and I'm so glad you're mine.

Happy six months!

I love you,
Mama

five months old

Dear Lilah,

Another month gone by.  Wow.  I'm pretty sure it goes faster the second time around.

This month I realized that I have not done a good job at taking videos of you.  We were looking back at videos of your big brother when he was your age and realized how few we have of you!  We'll have to work on that.  We definitely don't have a shortage of photos since you were born though.  Here are just a few...

 
 



  

Let's see...what have you been up to this month?  Just recently, you started blowing raspberries.  I feel like maybe you've done that before, but not quite as purposefully as you're doing it now.  It's pretty funny.

This month, we finally started putting you in cloth diapers.  We got a few new ones and I'm excited to be using them.  You don't seem to notice the difference really, which is nice.  Speaking of diapers, I don't think I've ever mentioned how much you enjoy having your diaper changed.  Some babies scream during diaper changes.  Not you.  You smile and giggle.

You love hanging out in the Moby with Mama.  It has been a lifesaver because you often don't like hanging out by yourself for too long, and sometimes I just need to get stuff done. 

It's not the best for the warmer weather though, or for my back as you get heavier...so I'm looking into getting a new carrier.  Hopefully I can find one that we both like!

You seem to be getting more social.  At church a few weeks ago, you were just smiling away at everyone you saw.  You also seem to like being the center of attention.  We went to lunch with some of my friends, and when they were paying attention to you, you were all smiles.  As soon as their attention was drawn elsewhere, you started making noise until they turned back to you, at which point you immediately quieted down and smiled again.  It was pretty funny.  I wonder if you'll like attention as much as your brother does.

You definitely seem to have a special place in your heart for your daddy.  You give him the biggest, sweetest smiles.  It's fun to watch.  That's not what you're doing in these pictures, but they're still cute...

You seem to think that your mama is pretty okay too.  Your mama thinks that you are amazing.

I love you with all of my heart, sweet girl.

Love always,

Mama

four months old

Dear Lilah,

I can't believe you're four months old already.  Seriously.  Could you maybe slow down a bit?

This was a big month for you.  You went on two trips and had surgery!  You surprised us with how well you traveled on your first ever trip.  We went to MN for a wedding just the three of us.   You brother got to stay with friends for the weekend. 

You did great!  You had your moments on the flights, but overall you cooperated rather well.  And you slept better at night than you had slept at home for weeks!  I decided that maybe you just needed to travel more often.  Then we went on our second trip.  You did not quite live up to your reputation.  Could have been worse for sure, but definitely not as good as the first trip.

In between those two trips, you had your surgery.  That you handled like a champ.  I was proud of you. 

Let's see...what else?  You have definitely found your hands.

  

 And entered into the phase in which just about everything goes in your mouth. 

You've gotten better with our frequent outings.  I don't think you mind them so much.  You don't nap very well when we're out and about though.  Not that you nap that much better at home, but your short naps are even shorter when we're out because you are so easily awoken.  But you usually seem to do okay with the short naps (though sometimes I don't).


That thing I said last month about you sleeping well at night?  Perhaps I jinxed it.  Because right around the time you hit three months, your nighttime sleep took a major turn for the worse.  It was a little rough to have gotten used to you sleeping well at night and then to have it stop.  You've shown improvement though...I'm hoping we got past the really rough patch.  At least until the next one. ;-)

You really like to exercise your legs muscles and have liked standing (with support, of course) for much of your life.  

 When being held, you like to face out so that you can check out the world.

You know what you want and aren't afraid to voice your opinion.  Sometimes, when I stop in the middle of feeding you to see if you have any burps, you scream frantically as if to tell me that you weren't done and I'd better not be stopping.

You still smile lots, but you can be a little choosy about who you share your smiles with.  You always have plenty for Mama and Dada though.

You're laughing more too.  Except that every time I get you to laugh, you get the hiccups.  And then I feel bad.  But not enough to resist making you laugh.

You get cuter by the day, I think.  I can't get enough of you really.  I mean, look at this face...

Love you, sweet girl.

Love,

Your mama

Lilah's surgery

At Lilah's two month check-up, I asked the pediatrician what was going on with her belly button.  It had been leaking fluid ever since her umbilical cord fell off.  Not a lot of fluid, but enough to not be normal.  I was surprised when he referred me to a pediatric surgeon.  I hadn't thought too much of it...certainly not that it might be something that would require surgery.

But sure enough, when we took her to the surgeon a few days later, she confirmed that surgery was the only way to remedy the problem.  Lilah had what is called a urachal remnant...basically a connection between the bladder and the umbilical cord that usually closes up in utero, but had not.  Which meant that the fluid leaking from her belly button was actually urine.  And the only way to fix this was to go in and tie off that connection.  So our baby girl was set to have surgery...general anesthesia, incision, and all.  And while that was not the first thing on my list of things I'd hoped my daughter would do in the first few months of her life, I had a peace about it.  It seemed like the best thing for her.  So on March 29th, that's what she did.

We showed up at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at 6:30am.  Entirely too early, really.  But two hours before her surgery like they'd told us.  Check-in was quick, and before long we were in the pre-op room.  Lilah was sleeping soundly in her car seat and in retrospect probably should have stayed that way for at least another half an hour.  But they had us wake her up so they could start to get her prepped.  She was in surprisingly good spirits for having been awoken early in a strange place with bright lights and unfamiliar faces.

And that lasted for a while.  But let's remember that they had us come two hours before the surgery.  And add to that the fact that she had to fast for four hours before the surgery.  So needless to say, by the time they were ready to take her back to surgery, she was not a happy camper.  In fact, she'd been screaming her head off for some time.

But off she went, and off we went to the lobby to have some breakfast and wait for the surgeon to check in with us.  We prayed for our baby girl, and then we found ways to keep ourselves occupied.  And in less than an hour, the surgeon came out to tell us that everything had gone well, and Lilah was in recovery.  They would come and get us soon to bring us back to the recovery room.

It was a little strange to see her right after the surgery.  She was groggy and her cries sounded strange. 

I nursed her, although she was extremely sleepy and it was hard to get her to eat much.  Almost every time she moved, she would cry.  Which, of course, made her mama sad.  But the nurse said she was looking good and told us we could go whenever we were ready.  So we got ourselves ready to go and, with tylenol in hand, headed home.

Lilah and I both headed straight to bed.  I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because I had to wake her up an extra time to feed her before her fast and then get up early to head to the hospital.  And of course, it had been somewhat of a stressful morning.  So I was exhausted.  Lilah was too.  She slept for most of the six or seven hours following her surgery.

Any time she did wake up, she would cry her strange-sounding cry.  I would nurse her and she would drift off again.  At the end of her very long nap, she stayed awake for about two hours and seemed in much better spirits.  I even got some smiles out of her.

We were told to give her tylenol around the clock for the first 24 hours and then as needed.  She did not like taking the tylenol, but we managed to get it in her.  She had a dose in the middle of the night the night of the surgery, and the next morning when it would have been time to give her another, she seemed perfectly fine.  It was 24 hours after her surgery and you wouldn't even know that she'd had surgery if it weren't for the incision!  I was so glad that my baby girl was herself again.  And so thankful that the whole experience was behind us. 

Ever since we found out about the surgery, I felt like I should be counting my blessings.  We have enough friends and acquaintances who have gone through such tough things with their babies that this seemed to pale in comparison.  It was surgery.  But it was one surgery.  And then it would all be over.  I can't say how grateful I am for that.  And for how quickly Lilah bounced back.

"Take that, surgery!"

three months old

Dear Lilah,

Today you are three months old!  You are growing and changing before our very eyes.  I have to keep reminding myself to treasure every moment.  The moments right after you've eaten are some of the best...

You've started to grow some new hair in the place of the little bit you were born with.  It's blonder than your birth hair so it's not real noticeable, but it's there!

You started laughing this month.  It was pretty exciting when I heard it for the first time.  You're not doing it a whole lot yet, but you are awfully smiley...





You aren't the most predictable baby.  Sometimes when I let someone you don't really know hold you, you are totally fine.  Other times, you lose it.  You also don't deal so well with us dragging you around from place to place during the days.  I think you'd prefer to just stay home where things are more familiar.  Here's an example.  We tried to go on a family hike.  This is pretty much how you felt about that...

Actually, that was during the brief time you weren't screaming your sweet little head off.  I had to take you back to the car and let your daddy and brother enjoy a little hike on their own.

Speaking of your brother, he still adores you...



but he isn't as gentle with you as he was at first.  I think you're a little scared of him sometimes now. 

This month, you moved from your bassinet in Mama and Dada's room to your crib in your room.  I was expecting that to be a rough transition.  You barely even seemed to notice!  You also surprised me by sleeping through the night a few times this month.  It wasn't like you started and just stuck with it though...it's already been a while since the last time you did it.   Still, I can't complain about your nighttime sleep.  You typically only wake up once and get back to sleep easily after you eat.  Naps are quite a bit less predictable, but if I had to choose, I'd choose the good nighttime sleep any day...well, most days at least.

It's gotten much easier to get you down for naps lately too.  I have your pacifier to thank for that.  You didn't always take one before, but now you quite like it for getting yourself to sleep.  In fact, you don't even really want me to snuggle you before you go down for a nap anymore.  You just scream as if to say, "Just put me in my crib and give me my paci, Mama!"  I'm a little worried about getting you to stop using it down the road, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  For now, it's a huge plus not to have to spend 20 minutes or more trying to get you to sleep for every nap.

 I'm having so much fun being your mama, Lilah Jane.  Sometimes, when you smile your big, adorable smiles at me, my heart feels like it might explode with joy.

 

You are so precious, my sweet baby girl. 
I love you.

Love always,
Your mama