Lucy 24 Month Update

Wow - it has been a long time since I have done an update on Lucy! She has changed so much in the past 4 months, I'll try to capture as much as possible here!

Stats:
Weight: 32.1 pounds (97%)
Height: 36.2 pounds (96%)
*Doctor said she is the average height of a 3 year old, which makes sense because all she wears is 3T and some 4T clothes
Sleep: This is currently back to normal (8pm-8am nights, one 2 hour nap around 1pm) but we had about a month when Lucy was skipping her nap (staying in her room the whole time talking) and/or staying up for and hour or two after we put her to bed talking. This was a tough time for me because I knew Lucy needed sleep (I could tell by her temperament during the day) but Lucy just kept fighting sleep. I'm not going to lie, this crazy sleep schedule stressed me out a little, I was definitely not ready for Lucy to give up her nap but luckily I had read about a lot of kids doing this at two years old, so we continued to stick with the schedule we thought she needed and she eventually got over her sleep funk (at least I'm hoping we are done with it!)

*side note, the day that I wrote this Lucy actually decided not to nap, I went up after an hour because she had started to cry which is weird for her and I discovered she had pooped (which I was thankful for bc we are having poop issues) but she had gotten it all over her sheets, blankets, 4 pillow cases, the wall, up her back, on her arms and legs... let's just say I spent the rest of the day cleaning and disinfecting.

Temperament: Lucy continues to be an extremely sweet toddler. She definitely has her moments, or sometime weeks, where she seems to be in full-swing toddler mode, but for the most part she seems to be a pretty easy going toddler. Our hardest moments are when Lucy is over tired and I want/need her to do something that she doesn't want to do. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this! Months 20-22 seemed to be a breeze and I thought maybe we had skipped over the whole terrible twos, but around the time we started potty training I saw the real toddler come out! I think potty training, bad sleep, and a momma who just didn't know how to manage a toddler led to several crazy weeks. We are through that time (although I'm sure we'll go through another phase soon) - I think a lot had to do with Lucy's bad sleep schedule and my needing to get a little more creative with my parenting (finding ways to make going potty fun instead of just forcing it, for example).

Eating: Lucy is a great eater and continues to love food - her appetite and palette continue to amaze me. I can't help but smile when she requests baby trees (broccoli) and hummus for lunch, this girl seriously eats better than her daddy!

Potty Training: I think I need to do a separate post with an update on this because it has been a major roller coaster, but I'll do a quick summary here - after about two weeks of great potty success it seemed things started back tracking with Lucy refusing to go to the bathroom and having lots of accidents... boy was I overwhelmed! W pushed through this, and Lucy seems to be doing pretty well with going pee on the potty now only having accidents every once in a while. A couple things I learned - I have to be creative with getting her to the bathroom most of the time, I need to remind her to go, especially if people are over, and a lot of times it is just easier to leave her naked if we are alone at home so I don't have to stress about helping her as much. Poop has been a challenge (she likes going in the potty, but keeps forgetting to stop playing to go) and we are currently working with the doctor to figure out how to keep Lucy regular by using Miralax... this has been awful for me to work through, and I've just been praying that she understands the importance of pooping on a regular basis soon.

Discipline: This is something I've been trying to read up on, ask friends about, talked to the doctor about, etc... It's tricky to know the best way to approach disciplining a toddler when you've never done it before! I've played around with a couple different approaches, but currently I am using time out as a last resort (for major offenses like hitting, running in the street, etc.) and trying to use options or "breaks" for the minor offenses (she likes and sometimes needs to take breaks in her room, which she loves because it's the only place she is allowed to have her pacis). I sometimes have to walk her through what I want her to be doing, but typically she is willing to go along with my requests. I have found ignoring unpleasant behaviors, being consistent in my discipline, and staying true to my word all to be important in parenting Lucy. I still need to continue learning about this and adapting as Lucy gets older, but for right now this seems to work for our family.

This girl continues to amaze me every day! She can count to 13 (this is the number of steps we have, which we count every time we go up and down), she knows most of her colors and major shapes, she can sing her ABC's (for the most part) and lots of other songs, she runs, jumps, kicks throws and climbs anything she can. She uses complete sentences most of the time (from what her sunday school teachers say she's very verbal and very independent!), I'm not sure there is a word she won't at least attempt to use (today while we were reading Hop on Pop she repeated back to me "Constantinople and Timbuktu"... it was pretty cute). She makes me laugh several times per day with the stuff she says or does - just the way she says stuff is adorable, everything she says is usually accompanied with a "momma" - i.e. "no mama, yes mama, read books mama?", she also loves to says things in exclamation (imagine the way Oprah welcomes people, literally) and shakes her hips back and forth - i.e. "We're going to the PARK-Y!!!", "I want PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!!!", she also loves to make silly faces and look at her reflection while doing it... I think she's starting to realize just how cute she is. She's adorable, I wish I could remember more of the specific things she does... hopefully I'll write more in the future!

Lucy loves going to church, going to either of her grandparents house, going to the park, going on walks, playing with her baby dolls, doing puzzles, playing with blocks, playing in sand/water/noodles (or whatever thing I let her get into), playing with play dough, coloring, dancing/music, watching anything on TV or playing with my phone/computer (although I still really try to limit this, I don't like it to be a daily habit, not yet anyway!), reading books, her pacis (these are limited to the bed, but this girl would seriously want to have a pacifier in all day if we would let her!), and best of all snuggling!

We have had lots of play dates lately, but Lucy still seems to play pretty independently (I don't notice that she is super interactive with other kids unless it is fighting over toys, although sometimes she'll want to give hugs and hold hands with other kids). She has definitely become more possessive with toys and we have been working on playing nicely with others lately! Her favorite playmates are JJ, Jordyn and "Drew-Erin", I think because she gets to see them the most. She also loves all of my girlfriends who don't have kids yet and come over and shower her with love and attention. She's super outgoing and loves when people come over or when we go to visit people. She's also been getting better at playing independently at home for longer periods of time - very nice for Momma and Hank!

These last couple pictures make me crack up laughing. Lucy always wants to look at the pictures I take so I took her downstairs so we could upload them to the computer. She asked for some of mommy's coffee so I gave her a coffee mug with water in it. When I stepped back to look at her I couldn't help but snag a few more pictures because she looked hilarious - like a little business woman sitting at a meeting...




Look at all that hair!! Still business on the top, but major party in the back..

Lucy 18, 19, 20 months

Well we are still waiting on Hank to make his arrival, so I figured I'd do one last update on Lucy before our lives get turned upside down. I haven't done a general/monthly update on her in a couple months, so I wanted to make sure to write down what things are like as Lucy moves closer to her 2nd birthday.

Things have been great! I think these have been some of my favorite months, of course I think I keep writing that... maybe I just keep falling more in love with this little girl! She sleeps so well, and continues to love her big girl bed. She usually sleeps 11-12 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, but will always play in her bed if she is not quit tired yet or wakes up a little before I am ready to get her. It's amazing, she has no desire to get out of bed till I come get her.

Lucy's temperament has been pretty great too - she continues to be a very happy baby, and as her vocabulary has grown I have been able to interpret her needs better. She still has melt downs, and I am currently still just walking away and ignoring her as a punishment, but overall she seems to be a really happy kid. We haven't started time outs, I'm not sure when we will, but overall she seems to do pretty well at listening and when mommy says "no" she knows I mean it.

She loves, loves, loves babies right now. Baby doll usually accompanies us wherever we go, and usually does whatever we do - takes baths, eats dinner, gets her diaper changed, etc. I love watching her be a mommy to her baby, but sometimes it gets a little crazy when I am doing something and Lucy needs help with the baby (i.e. she needs me to wrap the baby in the blanket so she will say "wrap it", and continues to repeat that getting louder and louder until I come, "WRAP IT", "WRAP IT"... we are working on not whining and asking politely for things right now!

Which reminds me, she is talking up a storm and I have found myself sometimes missing the quiet during the day! She likes to say things and then repeat them until I repeat what she is saying... I need to record this someday... it's cute, but makes for a long day sometimes! And she picks up EVERYTHING we say... I find myself not wanting to say words like "dangit" or "shoot" because then Lucy walks around saying "shoot, shoot, shoot"... but it's also pretty fun because she'll sit at dinner and say the most adorable things like "hey girl"... and one of her favorites, "no way".

She loves singing and music, I downloaded a couple kid songs on my phone and we usually listen to them when we are driving and at least one time at home (if not several times more). She knows the names of all her songs and is even picking up on some of the words. She has specific requests and again, repeats these requests until I comply. A car ride usually goes like this... "elmo song, elmo song, elmo song"... elmo song playing... "spider song, spider song, spider song".... itsy bitsy spider playing... etc.

She continues to love reading and would probably sit in my lap all day and read if I would let us. She loves being outside and taking walks to the park, although we haven't been able to do this as much since the weather is getting colder. She seems to be very sociable, but she still mostly plays by herself when we are with other kids or when she is at the church nursery. Although she seems to love it there - we go twice a week (once for Bible study and once for church) and she always goes right up to the door and walks in without even looking back to say bye to me!

I'm sure there is so much more to say, but these are the things that stick out to me. I'm trying to soak up as much time with my baby girl these last days she is an only child. I'm so excited for the joy Hank will bring to our lives, but I do find myself wondering if I'll be able to snuggle and cuddle and give as much love to Lucy once he comes. I know it's worked for millions of families before ours, so I'm sure we will adjust and not even remember what life was like before Hank in a couple months, but for now I am cherishing the one on one time I get with Lucy as much as I can.

I wanted to get some updated pictures of Lucy in this post, but I realized I hadn't taken any since I last posted - so I made sure to go out and grab a couple before publishing this... for that reason, these are a bit random, but still showcase our adorable, goofy little girl!

The weather has been pretty crappy lately, so we went to the mall twice this past week to play at the indoor play park and get some pretzels...



Stuffed...


I'm so thankful for indoor kid areas!!


We did still venture out this week, but just bundled up to make sure we stayed warm...




I love this little girl in a hat :)


Instead of playing at the playground, Lucy decided to walk around the softball fields - which were super muddy so Ruthie and Lucy had to get washed and changed once we got home!

12 months

I have a lot of catching up to do! This week has been all about rest and recovery (well for me anyway, I don't think Lucy got that memo) since our house is now painted and Lucy's party is over.... but I don't want to forget my final month update!

Well, we did it! Lucy is officially 1 year old, and moving out of her "baby" months and into toddler-hood. So many things have been changing over the last couple weeks as she grows up and becomes more independent. We are officially done nursing, and fortunately, it was totally baby-led. I was nervous she was going to be upset when I tried to wean her, but I honestly think she was more upset that I was trying to nurse her towards the end. My busy-body little girl just did not want to sit still and eventually I think I just lost my supply... but I made it till she was 11.5 months old, so I feel very accomplished about that! She is officially drinking whole milk now and LOVES it.

She has still been taking 2 naps, totaling about 3 hours (although this past week that has changed... not sure if she is ready to drop down to one already???), and sleeps a good 12 hours every night. The best part is, even if she's awake in her crib, she sits and is content to play, so I've laid her down for naps a couple days and just heard her talking away... I suppose that's better than not having a break at all!

She is loving the warm weather and wants to be outside every second she can, and when I don't let her she has been throwing little fits - collapsing onto the floor and fake crying in hopes of getting her way. Hopefully she'll learn soon that her tactic isn't working! She is into everything and loves to open and close doors, cabinets and drawers and then empty out the contents of whatever drawer/cabinet she has uncovered... this has obviously made for a messy, messy house! This curiosity has also led her to discovering the toilet and what she can drop into it (like my iPhone!) and trying to climb up and stand on top of just about anything... I have a feeling we'll be using a lot of band aids in the near future.

She loves going to the park and going down the slide, or just exploring and watching the other children play. She LOVES other kids and always gravitates toward them whenever I put her down. One day I took her to the library and could not keep her away from another family... it was kind of awkward, she kept walking over to them and staring and pointing at the baby! She still loves reading and sits and reads with us several times throughout the day... and of course loves the TV whenever its on. I even have to turn the news off, otherwise she'll sit and stare at the TV... doesn't she know that's boring to watch? She loves going up and down the stairs, although hasn't mastered the going down part and usually likes me to give her a piggy back ride down.

She talks a lot, and we've made out mama, dada, dog, woof, baby and hi... but they are all still pretty inconsistent. She mostly just likes to babble and scream and make funny noises with her tongue... all of which make me laugh throughout the day. And it appears she is beginning to understand a lot of what we say... she'll bring me a ball, book, or baby when I ask, she'll wave bye-bye when we say "say night-night" or "say bye-bye". She'll even shake her head "no" when we ask her to give us kisses! Not sure if that's the response we want... but it's pretty cute. At least we can get her to blow us some kisses every once in a while.

She continues to be a super happy baby and pretty independent. She still loves her mama and needs to be held/cuddled every once in a while, but ultimately she's most happy running after Ruthie in the back yard... have I mentioned how much she loves dogs?

We went to the docotor this month... Lucy has gotten huge! I remember bringing my sweet girl home from the hospital and always being nervous about her weight gain. Well I have nothing to fear now, she loves to eat and drink and has shot up on the growth charts.

Weight- 23.3lbs (83%... her last two visits she was 52% and 38%)
Height- 29.8in (73%... last visit she was 58%)
Head- 18in (72%)

Doctor said she is healthy and everything looks on track with her growth and development... although she did discover Lucy had an ear infection, so I was glad we went when we did! We are lucky though, this is Lucy's first ear infection, so she made it an entire year without getting one!

Now for the birthday girl!


being a goof ball... as usual...


happy as can be!

10 Months

I'm a little late getting this up, but we had a lots going on last week! Lucy is 10 months now, and too close to a year for comfort! She continues to grow and change every day and seems to be a whole new person every week. This month she worked on mastering walking - which she now is great at, has been working on her sign language - getting better at "more" and "all done", and has picked up some new dance moves...


We just got a blu ray player in the family room and so most days we crank up the music and get down to the Sesame Street channel... I'm glad Lucy doesn't judge her mom's dancing skills yet.

Sleep has been great this month, Lucy had a minor cold that kept her up a little more than usual, but other than that she has been sleeping 12-13 hours at night and still take two 1-2 hour naps during the day (or more! today she slept for 3.5 hours in the afternoon... it was AMAZING!)

She is still nursing 4 times a day, but I can tell she is really uninterested in the lunch and dinner time nursing sessions, so I think those might be the first to go... it's crazy to think that I am going to be weaning her soon, it really feels like this year has gone by way too fast!

As mentioned before her personality has really began to blossom, Lucy has been so much fun to play with this month. She loves to walk around babbling and screaming, and laughs all the time now. She has started showing more preference for me, but likes to scream and yell for her daddy to come play with us if he's not in the same room. Despite her preference for me (which again usually shows up when she's tired or hungry) she still has been great to drop of at the nursery and with family, and everyone says she is such a happy baby while we are away. She loves to nod her head yes and shake her head no when I say "yes" or "no", and is still working on words - I think she is saying mama and dada about us, but again, not totally sure here... also, I think she is making out dog and woof sometimes... but other days not, so who knows!

And besides dancing, another one of my favorite things Lucy developed this month was a love for reading... up until this point, we have tried to read to Lucy and she has wanted nothing to do with it- wanting to get out of our laps and be on the move. But this month she has started to actually bring books over to us and will sit in Ben's lap while he reads her several books at a time. It is absolutely precious.


Lastly, another favorite (I have a lot of favorites this month!) Lucy has started giving kisses, she first would only give them to her baby doll, but now Mommy and Daddy sometimes get a kiss every once in a while too- I love those sloppy wet lips on my cheek! Speaking of baby dolls, they are still probably her favorite to play with and get drug around the house with her, get lots of kisses, and sometimes get rocked and hugged while we are dancing... precious.

A few more 10 month pictures...


Such a ham


Looking for books while we were taking pictures


This is a popular face... Lucy loves to growl and scream all day long... such an intense little baby (wonder where she gets that from???)

9 Months

I meant to get this up a little bit ago (on the 17th, to be exact) but with the holidays and Lucy's exciting new skill, I got a bit behind... oh well!

This past month was a bit of a mixed bag - we were in GC for 10 days, so when you think about it, a third of our month was spent traveling. Throw in preparing for vacation and recovering from vacation, and it seems all I can remember about last month was TRAVEL! It did make me think about all of the places this little girl has been in 9 months... some vacations, some visits to see friends who have moved (many of our best friends moved this past year... giving us even more reason to travel!):
1. Pigeon Forge, TN
2. Lake Wawasee, IN
3. Lake Michigan, MI
4. Panama City, FL
5. Haubstadt, IN
6. Cincinnati, OH
7. Blacksburg, VA
8. And of course, Grand Cayman

What a well traveled little baby! Needless to say, I think we'll be staying in good old Indianapolis for the next couple months to recover a bit!

Anyway, no major changes in Lucy's milestones this past month (she walked the day after she turned 9 months, so technically she hadn't made any major changes from 8-9 months). Her personality did blossom a ton this month though, with much more laughter and squealing. She has become quite the little ham. My favorite memory from this month was when we went to Jenn and Nate's for "Thanksgiving" and everyone was going around saying something they were thankful for. Each time the group would laugh, Lucy would mimic the laughing right afterward... it was adorable, and everyone thought it was the cutest thing there! And my favorite quote from Ben - "I'm really starting to like playing with her"- hmmm, I guess I'll take care of the babies pre-9months, and he'll deal with them after. :) But in all seriousness, she really has become so much fun to actually play with - we love tickling her and wrestling with her and throwing her in the air and chasing her, she IS a lot of fun.

She also loves to nod her head "yes" and "no" in response to us talking to her (not sure if she knows what this means, or just likes the movement) and still loves to wave hi and bye a lot. She is babbling a lot more now too, with clear mama and dada's mixed in. We're pretty sure she uses mama to get my attention, but not sure if she has associated dada with Ben yet... do we dare say "Mama" is her first word?

She continues to mostly eat finger foods and will only be spoon fed if it's something really tasty. And she now eats just about anything and everything (although we're steering clear of the major allergic foods for now - egg whites, PB, etc). A typical breakfast consists of yogurt/cottage cheese, some cherrios, fruit, toast and/or eggs. Lunch is usually pasta, veggies, chicken, cheese and/or fruit. And dinner is usually a variation of what we are having or something from the above. We finally knocked out the middle of the night feeding, so she's down to four nursing sessions a day and the doctor says over the next couple months we need to work on slowly bringing that down to one nursing by the time she is a year... weird!

Which brings me to sleep - sleep has been mixed this month, the day after I wrote how amazing Lucy was sleeping in her 8 month update she got a cold and started teething and was not sleeping well at all... alas, I forgot that nothing lasts in the life of a baby. Another mom from my Bible study made a good point, whether it's good or bad, you can only expect your current state to last for about 3 weeks... then something is bound to change! The good news is, she's back to sleeping great (for now) and she dropped the middle of the night feeding on her own. She just started sleeping till 7-8am! She does still sometimes wake up, but the doctor recommended soothing her in other ways besides nursing because we know she doesn't really need that 5am feeding anymore.

Her schedule these days is wake around 7-8am (she has been waking about 7am to nurse and then snuggling/sleeping with me till 8am... this is my favorite part of the day), go down and eat breakfast. Play till about 10am, take a 1-2hour nap. Nurse and eat lunch around 12pm. Run errands, or meet friends for lunch (and by friends, I mean Beth and Court... they're the main people we've been meeting up with these past couple months). Home for a 1-2hour nap around 3pm. Nurse and Dinner around 4:30-5:30pm. Play with dad until about 7pm, then bath, story (she is finally somewhat interested in books!!), nursing and songs to prepare for bed (about 7:30-8pm).

We did see the doctor this month and got new stats. Despite all the food this girl eats (which is a ton) she dropped in percentile... the doctor said she wasn't concerned though, as she sees that happen with a lot of babies as they get older an level out.
Head - 17.3in, 52%
Length - 27.8in, 58% (every other visit she has been 90%+, so this was a major change!)
Weight - 18.1lb, 38%

Look at my adorable new hat!


Not sitting in one place... as usual!


Showcasing her two front teeth that are coming in... I think she's got 3-4 coming in right now


Such a happy baby!


Last one, no coat, no hat... just baby

8 months

Wow, 8 months feels way to close to 1 year for comfort... these months keep flying by! This month brought lots of needed sleep and a lot less tears...

Sleep: I was so excited to write this post because I can officially report that we've had an awesome month of sleep... I'm now a full believer in crying it out. I wrote about this in my last monthly update, but we had just started so I wasn't sure if it would work out or not, but it definitely did! We had 3 nights of crying when Lucy would lay down, the first night was an hour, the second night was 40 minutes and the third nigh t was 20 minutes... these nights she would also wake sporadically through out the night, but I wouldn't go in unless she continued crying over 15 minutes and typically she'd put herself back to sleep before that. After three nights of this, I now have a baby that goes down for naps and bedtime without crying and doesn't wake in the middle of the night except to nurse around 4-5am (of course this is about 90% of the time... we do have rough days here and there).

I was a little apprehensive about this whole "crying it out thing" but I was really at my wits end, and I was starting to notice that Lucy was becoming more manipulative with the crying, for example, she would cry for a minute than wait for a minute to see if we'd come get her, then repeat. She'd also gotten into the habit of crying till we'd come in, so we would do the 5, 10, 15 minute wait schedule, but she got used to knowing after a certain amount of time we'd be back in to soothe her and give her a paci and would never stop crying.

I think this, in combination with kicking the third nap has led to some amazing sleep! Her schedule right now is two 1.5-2 hour naps (9-11am and 2-4pm roughly) and then night time sleep is from 7:30pm-7:30am (with a nursing at 5am).

Eating: Lucy is still nursing, and is on a normal meal schedule (breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a bed time nursing and a middle of the night nursing). She rarely wants to be spoon fed anymore (totally her strong willed personality coming through) and mostly likes to eat finger foods so I typically give her frozen mixed veggies, cut up fruit (apples, grapes, pears, prunes), cheerios, or sweet potato chunks.

Milestones: Not many changes since last month, besides perfecting the skills she has already acquired - she still loves to practice holding no hands, cruising and crawling. She did recently start waving, but typically won't do at the normal "hi" and "bye" times, usually just randomly throughout the day... it's pretty adorable. She also can get up the stairs now... which adds a new dynamic to baby proofing the house! She is "talking" more, using her ba's, ma's and da's a lot, but hasn't associated them with anything yet. She still loves to squeal in delight.

Temperament: This month was probably one of my favorites so far in terms of easiness and routine... probably mostly because of the increased sleep I got, but also because I felt like things became a little more predictable. When Lucy was first born, she was very routine and easy for me to take care of, but months 4-7 seemed to be a little wild in terms of knowing why she was crying and what each day would bring. This past month I felt like I totally understood why Lucy was crying, what not to do to avoid the crying, and what to do once the crying started... now that I write that I realize 90% of my day is shaped around avoiding tears!

Some things I have noticed about Lucy's personality - she is constantly on the go and hates to be strapped down for a diaper change or in her car seat... she is such a go getter! She doesn't like to sit in my lap to read or sing songs, no matter how animated I get, she'd rather be crawling/cruising on to the next thing. She knows me! this is has been fun and not so fun, I love that Lucy sees me and wants me when she's sad, but at the same time, this has been difficult when I've been trying to do something and need to set her down or need someone else to hold her. At the same time, she's totally comfortable with other people (she typically only prefers me when she's hungry or sleepy), she has not showed any signs of stranger anxiety yet when she goes to the Grace nursery every Saturday for church or Ben's parents every Thursday for my Bible study.

New also this month have been little baby temper tantrums... I can't help but laugh when she does this... whenever Lucy wants to be held (again bc she's hungry or sleepy) and I set her down, she wips her head back or forward and starts whaling, like it's the end of the world... I know it won' t be later, but for right now, I just think it's so darn cute!

Stats - thinking Lucy is around 18 pounds

Pictures! Again, I could not get Lucy to sit still or really look at the camera... but I snagged a couple good ones.

This is how we started...


The she moved to one side...


The back...


Now to the other side...


Towards mommy...


Down to the ground...

7 Months

Lucy turned 7 months a couple days ago so thought I'd report on what's happening with us lately... Lucy continues to grow and develop extremely fast! She has mastered crawling, pulling up, standing while not holding on to anything (for 20 seconds or so), and is working on creeping... I think she'll be walking in no time! She still does the usually babbling (mostly screeming and grunting), nothing distinguishable yet, and she's actually been a little quieter lately (she did this when she was working on walking too... I think her brain is saying - "one skill at a time please").

She is in a bit of a transition as far as her schedule goes, some days she takes 3 naps, some days she takes 2, it all depends on how good the first two naps are and how long she last between them (some days the naps are 1.5-2hrs, some days they are more like 1hr). If she wakes from her second nap any sooner than 4pm, I know we'll need the third one that day. This all determines the number of times she eats - if there are 3 naps, she eats 5 times and if there are only 2 she eats 4 times (with solids at three of those nursings). And when I say she eats 4-5 times, I should actually say it's been 5-6 times a day because she has yet to go away from the middle of the night feeding that magically appeared when we got home from Florida last month... I thought it was vacation, I thought it was crawling, I thought it was teething... who knows! But whatever it is, it's here to stay... Lucy has been eating once around 4-5am and then keeps sleeping till about 7:30am or so. That still means she's doing an 8-10 hour stretch... so I guess I can't complain... plus I've been bringing her in to bed with me to nurse (bc I'm so sleepy) and I've been loving the extra cuddle time and the way she immediately passes out lying next to me once she's full.

Sleep continued to stink this month (carried over from last month). I'm blaming most of it on her first two teeth that appeared this month and then I think she just got used to us coming in to comfort her. Most of this month Lucy woke 3-4 times throughout the night, needing us to put her pacifier in each time. She has also been waking up mid nap about half the time needing me to put the pacifier in for her then as well.

I finally told Ben we had to do something because waking up all through out the night was driving me nuts so we finally decided to give Lucy the paci when she went to sleep but we agreed not to give it to her again throughout the night. The first night we only had one night waking (besides the feeding) and she cried for ten minutes, I went in to lay her back down and she picked the paci up and put it in on her own. The next night she started crying a couple times but each time only lasted 5 minutes or so and she comforted her self back to sleep, until about 1am - she started fussing and I turned the monitor down to make the waiting a little more bearable and ended up falling back asleep. Not sure how long the crying lasted but when I woke up an hour later it was quiet - I felt like such a bad mom for falling asleep... but I was secretly so glad I didn't have to lie awake listening to her scream! Plus, I figure she couldn't have been crying that long, otherwise I would have woken up... right?!? Night number 3 there was no crying except for her one feeding at 4:30 am... success? maybe... we'll see how things go the rest of the week... naps have still not been great.

We have gotten into the swing of things with solid foods, Lucy eats a good amount 3 times a day and seems to really like just about anything I give her. She has now tried banana, carrots, peas, plums, prunes, avocado, pumpkin, sweet potato and pears. Her favorites are the fruits and the sweet potatoes (I think she has a sweet tooth like her mama!)

She continues to be an extremely happy and smiley baby, honestly if she didn't have to sleep alone in her crib, I doubt she'd ever cry.

On a mom front - things have been going really well as I get more and more used to this mom thing... Lucy continues to surprise me daily, but I think I've gotten used to the surprises and have become a lot more relaxed about her schedule (I think anyway... Ben can correct me if I haven't). I've joined a Bible study with other moms that have young children and it has been such a breath of fresh air to hear what other moms are struggling with and to realize I'm not the only one going through the challenges of motherhood. And physically I am finally feeling 100% myself... I fully healed from surgery when lucy was about 5 months and I'm now back to my pre-pregnancy weight (give or take a few pounds... I'll blame on the extra milk I'm still carrying around).

No doctor appt. this month, so based on our home scale, Lucy is weighing in at 17.2lbs... finally double her birth weight!

There's something different about my smile...


Take a closer look and you'll see my first two teeth!


Being a dare-devil... like always...


Notice the tongue in all these pictures - she's been much more active with showing it since her first teeth came in...


Laid back...

6 month update

Wow, 6 months! Can't believe it's been half a year already! Some days I feel like a pro at this whole mom thing... some days it feels like I just brought Lucy home from the hospital.

This past month once again brought tons of changes - crawling, pulling up, solid foods. Lucy is so active! Fortunately she hasn't learned to go outside of the toy circle I provide for her in the family room yet, but I'm sure some day I'll turn around and she'll be sitting next to me in the kitchen.

Lucy is also talking a lot more now - we've heard lots of da-da-da's and every once in a while I think I hear a ma-ma-ma. But mostly she likes to scream/grunt. I'm just happy to hear her voice!

Her nursing schedule has stayed about the same - eating 5 times a day, every 3-4 hours, except now we do solid foods at "lunch" and "dinner". For solids we have conquered: rice, carrots, peas, avocado and banana. She doesn't love my homemade carrots, peas or avocado though, so I usually have to sneak those foods in with banana or rice. After her first week of solids Lucy slowed way down, to the point of not really even wanting to eat at some meals... I wonder if she was going through a growth spurt when I introduced the solids? Now she will sometimes eat a lot, but typically is too distracted by Ruthie or the trees outside.

Sleep has been great and horrible again this month! In the beginning of the month Lucy was sleeping great - 11 hours at night, no paci waking and took three 1.5-2.5 hour naps. Then, either vacation, crawling, sitting up (from laying down), solids or a growth spurt caused things to go a little haywire... The past two weeks we've sometimes been adding a feeding back at night around 4-5am, and have about 4-5 night wakings each night which either require a paci pop or rocking. Naps suddenly changed from being on schedule to happening whenever Lucy wanted and sometimes only last for 45 minutes... needless to say, I'm a little exhausted as I write this.

We've tried crying it out a couple times but that typically only gets Lucy more and more worked up, and makes me go a little crazy... She used to be able to cry for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and then fall asleep, but now it seems she could go all night! We usually gave up after 45min-1hr. Especially now that she can sit up, we go in to settle her down and she won't lay back down and refuses her pacifier... needless to say after a lot of lost sleep, broken hearts (I can't stand the crying!) and confusion, I finally decided to go with the flow a little more and just be on Lucy's schedule this week (not force my own) and that has seemed to help. Of course, I find it impossible to be on time to anything and have had to skip a couple things because a nap showed up when I wasn't expecting... but mom and baby seem to be much happier this way!

Figuring Lucy out is definitely one of the most challenging things I've ever done! I realized that I loved having a boss in my past jobs because at the end of the day if I had done everything I possibly could and could not solve a problem, I could always just turn to the boss to fix things. Now... I am the boss... ugh... Even when I feel like I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do with Lucy, some days she's just a nasty client. I sometimes wish I had a panel of 3 experienced moms that were also doctors who lived with me all the time and gave me constant recommendations... is that so much to ask? Instead I am constantly having to make decisions I don't feel confident about and spend hours on the internet researching why things are the way they are... why don't babies come with manuals?

Anyway, the only conclusions that I can make from the mess these past weeks have been is that I'm definitely having at least 2 kids - because whats the point of going through all this, gaining some experience if I can't try it out on another one!

I am thankful though... thankful for a few friends who have babies I can consult with... thankful to be starting a new Bible study with other moms so I can have more mommy consultants... thankful Lucy is 100% healthy and very happy... thankful Lucy is growing and developing perfectly... thankful I have Ben to share everything with.... thankful all of our family is so close to support us and help us when we need it... and thankful for my friends who remind me there's lots of other things going on in this world besides pacifier and sleep issues - like.... when's the next Twilight movie coming out?

Ok for stats:
Weight - 15.8 lbs (48%), Height - 27 in (90%), Head - 16.8in (60%)

Things people have said about Lucy this past month that I think do a great job describing her:
"Does she ever cry?" - the nursery at Grace after they watched her for 2.5hrs, she was an angel! of course I wanted to say... yes, typically at 2am, 3am, and 5am... want to come over and hear her? but the truth is, she really hardly crys at all during the day, and is such a flexible baby

"She's 6 months, I would have thought she was 2-3 months" - a lady a the park, along with many other people that say she is so tiny for her age... but she is perfect! my petite little princess

"awww... how old is HE" - the sales associate at sears... we're still lagging in the hair department... I think I need to go shopping for some more bows

After looking through all of the pictures I took, I realized it was hard for me to get a picture of Lucy NOT smiling... she really is so happy...


She is all over the place! Could hardly get her to sit still!


Took these pictures earlier in the day - but noticed that she had gotten a nice little shiner on her forehead... did I mention she's all over the place?