Lily Rolled Over!

Today Lily was playing on her play mat. She was making cute sounds, so Josh ran to grab our flip cam. Amazingly, while we were filming, she rolled over for the first time completely on her own! She was super cute and "celebrated" with me like she knew she had done something important. We caught the whole thing on film! It was a serious parenting WIN! :)

Back to Work

Well, I survived the first week back at work. Tuesday was my first day back to work and it went surprisingly well. Getting out the door that morning was a bit rough. Lily unexpectedly woke up at 5am and I had to feed her. I had just gotten back to sleep when my alarm went off at 6. I did not want to get out of bed. After a couple of snoozes (I'm a snooze button junkie) I got up and got myself ready. Then I had a dilemma. Do I wake the baby now (at 7) after just two hours of sleep to feed her before I leave? Do I not and let Josh give her a bottle around 8? I can't pump until 11, what about my overabundance of milk?

In my emotional state, the stress of making this decision almost pushed me over the edge. There were some tears, but my wonderful husband reminded me that there really wasn't a wrong decision and I chose to wake her up. I think it was the right decision because it was really nice to get that sweet time with her before I had to leave. Putting her down was a bit tough and there were a few more tears as I got the last of my things together to head out the door.

In the car I had to switch from the sappy Country radio to Bob and the Showgram to keep me from tearing up again, but I managed, and once I actually got to school I was fine. The students were all excited to have me back, which was nice, and I have so much to do to get back in the swing that I didn't hardly have time to think about what was going on at home.

Of course I did call and text to check in, but, as usually, Lily did great. A bit short on the naps, but good overall. The pumping at work was a bit disappointing as I didn't get as much milk as I would have liked, but I hope that will get better as my body gets used to the new pattern. At the end of the day, I hightaled it out of there right behind the buses and was home just before 4. Lily was happy to see me and ready to eat...perfect!

The rest of the week went smoother. She took better naps and I was able to pump more. I didn't even have any more tears. We both seem to be settling into a new normal routine.

Tummy Time

Lily is not really one for much tummy time. She love to lay on her back, and isn't a big fan of being held too much, but she tends to squirm and fuss when I put her on her tummy. All the books, however, say that it's essential for them to develop their core muscles needed for rolling over and crawling.

I think part of the problem is that with our hardwood floors there wasn't really a convenient spot to lay her down downstairs, thus I didn't give her a ton of tummy time when she was really young. In an attempt to create a downstairs play spot, I purchased this pinwheel playmat for her. She love it...on her back. She will lay on her back on it for long periods of time. She's even gotten to the point that she'll roll onto her side so she can grab the ears or rings and see the designs. She'll even spend more time on her tummy. Not a lot of time, but more time than before.

This past week she has almost rolled over on the mat several times. She will roll from her back to her side and even get her leg over, but can't quiet get her shoulders to cooperate. At one point Josh helped her by rolling her over to her stomach and using the momentum he helped her with she kept right on going back over to her back. I think we are getting very close to having a rolling baby!

Last Day to Vote!

Today is the last day to vote for Lily in the Parents Magazine Kid of the week contest. She is currently in 58th place out of thousands, but this proud momma thinks she should be #1! Please Vote!

You don't need to sign up for anything to vote. Simply click the link below, click vote for me below the adorable picture, and enter the confirmation code to prove you are a real person!

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/670127

Snow Days

Ok...so I know these don't really count as snow days since I'm not even really back at work yet, but I have to say that I've really relished these last days home with little Lily. They seem like extra little stolen bits of wonderfulness! You see, Tuesday was supposed to be our first day with her new nanny. She was going to come and spend the day shadowing us to get a feel for Lily's routine. Then today I was going to leave Lily with her and go out for part of the day. *

As much as I know I have to go back to work. As much as I think it will probably be good for me to go back to work. As much as I know that Lily will be well taken care of. I dreaded Tuesday coming. When I got the two calls that told me school was canceled Tuesday and today, which meant our nanny would be with her kids, not coming here, I rejoiced.

Lily and I have spent the last two days at home enjoying each other. Yesterday we went back to sleep after her morning feeding and didn't even get out of our pajamas all day. We have had extra snuggle time and even took a nap curled up together in my bed. We've been able to establish a good eating and sleeping schedule, and had lots of fun play time. She has been a super happy, smiley, and talkative baby, and I've loved every minute of it.

I sit here writing this with Lily on my lap and tears streaming down my face. These two extra days have been a real blessing, but I'm afraid they are making this even harder by prolonging the inevitable. I just have to hope that there are a few more snow days before this winter is over!

*This photo was taken of Lily's first snow a few weeks before Christmas. This most recent one was not nearly as pretty.

Lily's Photo Contest!

I feel a little vain even asking for this, but last week I submitted some photos of Lily to Parents magazine's kid of the week contest. She is so darn cute. I just couldn't resist! One of my favorite photos was chosen, so...VOTE FOR LILY!

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/670127

You can vote every day this week, so please come back and vote again tomorrow.

Leaving Lily Part 3

Success...On Friday night Josh and I joined some friends for a double date! It was the first time I've left her with a sitter and actually really enjoyed myself and not worried about her at all. I will admit that I thought about her a time or two, but I wasn't really worried. Perhaps it was the good company, good food, and good wine. Perhaps it was that I knew she was in good hands.

The friends 13 year old daughter volunteered to watch Lily while we were out. She is the most responsible 13 year old I know and she is wonderful with the babies, but I have to admit that I was a little nervous about leaving Lily with someone so young. I was thrilled when my friend Sarah volunteered to stay with the girls as well. Sarah has been around Lily quite a bit and is one of the "baby whisperers" who is able to easily soothe her or put her to sleep. I knew that between the two of them, Lily would be totally fine.

All of this has got me thinking that I might actually enjoy and look forward to leaving her sometimes. In fact, the last two times I've tried to take her shopping have been less than successful. She is getting to the point that she is no longer content to just sit or sleep in her stroller. I used to be able to take her out when she was sleepy and count on her sleeping in the stroller. Now, she fights sleep in the stroller and gets fussy. I've resorted to carrying her while pushing the stroller which makes shopping virtually impossible.

Don't get me wrong. I still sort of have a dread of leaving her, but perhaps babysitters might be my new best friends!

Returning to Work

I've been working on this post ever since our return from the holidays, but, to be honest, it makes me upset every time I sit down to write it, so it's taken a while to publish.

I am absolutely dreading returning to work. There...I said it, well, wrote it.

Don't get me wrong. I totally miss teaching. I miss my students. I miss the people I work with. I miss lesson planning (I can't say I miss grading). It has been hard for me to trust someone else with my classes. If I could go to work and take Lily with me, I'd go tomorrow.

What I dread is the leaving her behind. I just can't imagine going through a day without feeding her every few hours or napping with her on me on the couch. I've gotten so accustom to having her with me wherever I go, I feel like there will be a void without her. I also know that part of this is my acknowledged control freak tendency. I know part of me feels like I am the only one who knows how to take care of her. Logically, I know that isn't true, but every time I think about it, I cry.

I know that she will be taken care of. I know that we are incredibly lucky to have in home care by a friend we trust. I know that as a teacher my day ends fairly early and I'll have a lot of time home with her. I know that I'll have Spring break, and Summer, and hopefully some snow days. Yet somehow none of this helps the way I feel every time I think about it.

Just this past week I've had the opportunity to talk to several other working moms, and they've all said the same thing. It is hard, but the anticipation of it is worse than the reality. They said that after a few days you get used to the new reality, and you are busy with work, and you don't worry as much. With only nine days until I go back, I sincerely hope that they are right!

Baby Toupees - Hilarious!

I was hanging out with some friends the other day who have a one month old son. The dad was lamenting the fact that he is loosing all of the hair on top of his head. Lily is also getting a rather large bald spot on the back of her head. From what I hear this is totally normal and at some point they will have normal hair growth again.

This dad, however doesn't want his son to have "male pattern baldness" and was even debating cutting the rest of his hair so he doesn't have a bald spot. Not to worry though...there is a better solution. Baby Toupees! I'm not kidding...check out this site...it's hilarious.

I think Lily could really rock the Lil Kim!

They Grow Up So Fast!

Just this past week, Lily turned three months old. As I believe I've mentioned before, the passing of time is a strange thing. Sometimes it seems like she has always been with us, and sometimes it surprises me how much time has passed.

It's funny, but now she seems to be getting bigger and heavier almost every day. When I look back at pictures of me holding her those first few weeks she seems so tiny and fragile. Now she is a strong hearty girl. She holds her head up and has started to smile and laugh in delight. It is precious and I love to see how she is learning and exploring now.

But I have to admit that I am quite sentimental and a bit sad about her "growing up" so fast. Yesterday I packed away most of her three month clothes because she is too big for them. (Well, I should say she is to long for them. Many of them would still fit around, but her little legs can't stretch out in anything with feet!) It made me tear up a little. I love her in those little clothes, just like I loved her in her newborn clothes and it seems like she hardly wore any of them. It simply amazes me how fast they grow!

Look at the pictures below. You'll notice that in the first two pictures the baby is cuddled up against me, and in the second two she is looking up at me, but in the last, and most recent one, she is facing out as if watching the world...sigh!

I know this might sound crazy, but I'm already missing the newborn days and starting to think about having another little one. I always thought I would want a boy next to round things out, but I'm starting to see how nice it would be to have another little girl. Who knows, maybe by this time in a year or two there'll be another little girl to wear all of those cute clothes!

Look at that growing baby!

1 week

3 weeks

5 weeks

8 weeks

12 weeks

Lily's First Christmas

We just got back from Virginia where we spent the last five days celebrating Lily's first Christmas, and what a Christmas it was! As I've mentioned before, I think everyone was extra excited for this Holiday season, especially me. It was quite joyful! This Christmas was made extra magical by the fact that the entire time we were in Virginia, and even when we returned home, there was snow! Lily even got her first snow suit!

Last Wednesday we arrived at my parents house just in time to join them at the Pulaski Fire department Christmas dinner. I haven't been to one of those in years, but my dad wanted all of his family there. Check out that proud "Deano" holding both of his grand babies! There were in fact, many proud grandparent moments. Lily fell asleep with my mom holding her three different times and spend time snuggling with both of her Hall grandparents.












Both of our families went overboard buying special presents for Lily and we came home with our car fully loaded! In reality, this was much more fun for me than for her. I greatly enjoyed opening all of the cute clothes and toys and have already washed them so she can start wearing or playing with them!
This week was also special because of all of the family that Lily got to meet. At Josh's grandma's she met not only her aunts, uncles, and first cousins once removed (yes, Josh and I researched how these relationships work...I know...dorks), but also her new second cousin, Kyra, who is just a month younger than she is. On my side, she also got to meet some cousins and second cousins including my cousin Chris and his family who were in on a rare visit from Botswana!




It was truly a special five days filled with family, food, and fun. Everything a Christmas should be! I'm sure this is one I will never forget. Now I just can't wait for future Christmas when Lily can make memories of her own!

Leaving Lily Part 2

At Thanksgiving we left Lily for the first time, with her grandparents, while Josh and I went to a movie. It was nice, but stressful. Being away from her is an interesting thing for me. It can be very freeing. Just this past Sunday Josh watched Lily in the morning while I went to the grocery store and then took her with him shopping while I made dinner. It was really wonderful. It was so much simpler to go to the store worrying about getting her in and out in the cold. It was also nice to clean and cook without having to keep checking in on her or entertaining her. That day, being away from her was freeing because I knew she was safely with her Dad who loves her and knows how to take care of her.

This coming weekend, however, is another story. Josh's band is playing the cocktail hour for a wedding of a friend of a friend and I just found out that I'm invited. Normally I would be excited. It would be a fun way to spend an evening. With Lily, however, it's a tough decision. I know that Josh would like for me to go. I know that it is just a month before I'll have to leave her all day (that's another post). I know that I should probably go. Still, it has been stressing me out. I asked one friend who I knew I would trust with her and who I know would take good care of her, and had just started to feel comfortable with that situation when I found out she had other plans and couldn't keep her.

I think it is all worked out now and I've found two other friends who are going to tag team and keep her. I know for a fact that they will take good care of her. I know that they both know how to take care of a baby. I know that she will be fine. Still...it's stressful. Do all new mom's feel this way?

The Hall Family Christmas Card!

Did you know that those photo Christmas cards that everyone sends are expensive! Since we didn't send out birth announcements, I was really excited about making and sending Christmas cards this year. I set up a photo shoot in our guest room and took pictures of Lily in all of her Christmas outfits. I put together an extensive list of over a hundred people that we would want to send a card. I went online and researched the different companies that made cards. I was shocked at the prices. The cheapest I could find the cards was around fifty cents per card. Add to that the fact that stamps are forty-four cents per card and that gets quite expensive.

For those of you who don't know, Josh is quite frugal. He balked at the idea of spending around a hundred dollars to send Christmas cards, so we got creative. We realized that you can print 4x6 photos for ten cents a piece at Wallgreens and buy 4x6 envelopes for ten cents a piece at Staples. By using Josh's amazing Photoshop skills to create our card we were able to cut the cost of our cards almost in half! Below you will find a sneak peak of the Hall Christmas Card 2010! Check out that cute baby!

Gotta Love the Christmas Spirit!

Since having Lily I've noticed that when parking I tend to try to leave a little extra room on the driver's side of the car to make it easier to get her seat out. Today we were headed to Target which was pretty crowded and the spot that I wanted, close to the carts had a car parked pretty close to the line on my driver side, so I ended up parking a bit further over than I typically would. I intentionally checked to make sure that the car on my passenger side would be able to get out and, while I know it was a bit squinchy, it was not really that close. When I got back to my car after shopping, however, I found this note on my window. Seriously...who hasn't had someone park too close to them and had a difficult time getting in the car. Heck, I've even had to crawl across from the passenger side on one occasion, but I wasn't that upset, and I've never left a note. It amazes me that on such a cold day someone would go to the effort to find paper, write the note, and put it on my windshield. Some people...

2 Months, A Check Up, & Immunizations

Lily turned two months old on Sunday. On Monday she had her two month check up. She was eleven pounds even and twenty-three inches long! She is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Her head circumference is the 25th percentile, but in all ways the doctor said she seemed perfect! What a wonderful check up after all of the drama of her first few weeks. I'm so glad that she is right on track.

Part of this check up included her two month immunizations. Vaccines are a hot parenting topic right now and I have to admit that I had some hesitations about the current recommended vaccine schedule. I just finished reading the book House Rules about a boy with Autism who's mother blames his disorder on his vaccines. After some research (none of which showed a link between current vaccines and Autism or any other disorders) and discussions with a friend who is a pediatrician and parent, however, we decided to follow the AAP recommended vaccine schedule.

This meant that Lily received six vaccines on Monday! When I read that schedule in some of my parenting books I was a bit freaked out. I couldn't imagine my little girl getting SIX shots. I really was nervous about her short term reactions (pain, fever, fussiness, etc.). I just hate to see her suffer and couldn't stand the thought of putting her through that. Going into the appointment I was quite apprehensive. It didn't help that I ran into a friend there who's son had just received his four month vaccines and was screaming his head off. Still, for Lily's sake and to keep face with the pediatrician, I tried to remain calm.

Luckily, it was not nearly as bad as I had feared. For one thing one of the immunizations (rotavirus) is an oral vaccine, and several of the others are combined, so it was actually only three shots. Amazingly, the two nurses who came in to give them were able to give all three at one time, so Lily only had one big scream. Granted, it was the biggest, breath caught, scream I've ever seen from her, but she recovered fairly quickly. She was only slightly fussy as we left the doctor.

Later that day she did seem to be a bit sore and would whimper and sort of cry every time I moved her, which was a bit sad. I spent much of the afternoon in my bed holding her and trying not to move too much. A dose of baby Tylenol helped and she has seemed fine ever since. Overall, it was not really that big of a deal. I'm starting to learn that I'm going to have to accept that there will be things that hurt her and times when she will be sad, but she and I will both survive!