Friday, April 29, 2011

Baby's First Easter

Leighton had a wonderful first Resurrection Sunday, also known as Easter. The day began with the opening of Easter baskets at her "Bella's" house.



We usually would have been off to church but this Easter was a little different. Sadly, Leighton's great- grandmother's body is dying. There is no other way to put it. We have no idea how much time she has left nor when we will be able to travel back down to the Eastern Shore to visit. She could be meeting Jesus very soon and she had yet to meet her one and only great grandchild. So, instead of heading to church we headed to Fairhope for her to say "hello" to Leighton and for us to possibly say "goodbye" to her.The visit went better than we expected. Leighton was in a great mood long enough for Nanny to hold her and take this picture.



I can barely look at it without getting teary eyed. Papa (her husband) was off at church so we got to visit with just her, uninterrupted, for a good couple of hours. Leaving was hard. Knowing it may be our last time to see her here on this earth but we look forward to that sweet reunion we know we will have with her some day. Papa got home from church right before we left. This picture captures his first time seeing Leighton.



We headed back to my mother's for Easter lunch with my mom and Mark's family. Oh how I cherish the time spent with family. I wish our busy lives permitted us to all get together more than just for the holidays. Here are a couple of good shots from lunch.



4 Generations 




We then made our way to Leighton's  "Honey's" home to see that side of the family and were so glad Leighton got to meet most of the rest of this large and close knit family.





I love how beautiful the weather was because we got to spend most of the day outside. I cannot remember a more beautiful Easter Sunday.

Leighton is, of course, too young to understand any of what was going on that day, and she does not yet know that she has a heavenly father who loved her so much that he suffered the most horrific of deaths to save her from sin and hell. We know she is entirely too young to grasp this. However, she is currently learning trust. She knows that when she cries, I will come running. Instilling this trust in her is so important because she has to learn she can trust me so that one day she will believe she can trust in a man, a father, a savior whom she cannot even see. She has to know she can trust his word. I am doing my very best to ensure that she develops a strong sense of trust in those who love her and want what is best for her. We look forward to Easters in the future, I cannot wait to see her fall in love with her heavenly father!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

When My Daughter Fights Sleep


 I am pretty sure that most every baby in the world will "fight sleep" at some point in their life. When my now 9 week old daughter is screaming at the top of her lungs even though she is not hungry, has a clean diaper and has been played with, she is clearly fighting sleep. And ya'll this baby girl fights it HARD. It's sad to watch them fight this battle that you know they will eventually lose. So, When this happens I will pick her up and rock her in my arms and say:

"Sweet Angel, sleep now. Sleep as often as possible, for as long as you can. Dream sweet dreams while you are still innocent, not a worry on your mind. Before the world hardens you and nightmares sometimes take the place of those dreams. There will come a time when all you will want to do is sleep and you won't be able too. You will be all grown up with responsibilities. It might be in High School in the middle of class because you are tired from going to school all day and working a part time job in the evenings. Maybe you'll be in college when you have to pull all-nighters a couple of times a week to finish an English paper or study for that Calculus exam. Or it could even be when you have a daughter of your own who is fighting sleep. That day will come upon you in what will feel like the blink of an eye. I know you are curious about this big, strange, bright new world you are in but trust me baby girl, you have plenty of time to try and figure it out and, hopefully, change it for the better. But you don't have to take all of that on today. No, today you can sleep. Get lost in a dream full of beautiful colors and peaceful sounds, knowing you are safe in mommy's arms and that when you wake up I will still be here. To feed you, change you, play with you and, once again, try to talk you out of fighting sleep."

If only you understood what I'm saying, precious one. If only...

                                           
                                 Ah, much better! Sweet Dreams, Angel Baby

***Note: I took the top photo as soon as she began to cry and as soon as I did, I picked her up. No need to call DHR on me, promise! ***

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Two Months Old


It certainly does not seem like two entire months since I brought my sweet baby girl home! She gets bigger and more beautiful every day. Yesterday was her 2 month appointment which meant, you guessed it, shots. She got three shots ( for DTaP, Polio, HIB, Hepatitus B, and PCV) and took one vaccine by mouth (for Rotavirus). I held her hands and talked to her the whole time because I definitely could not watch. She only cried a tiny bit after each needle, she was SUCH a trooper. Then, when she took the oral vaccine, she lapped that sucker up. The nurse was laughing because she was loving it, where as most babies her age try to spit it out. I guess it helped that she was hungry. She has had no reactions to any of the vaccinations thus far.

She now weighs 9 pounds 3 ounces, 4 pounds more than she weighed at birth. Dr. M said that if she had been born on time she'd have been a big baby! She's still a shorty (19 3/4 inches) which makes me laugh because I am pretty tall! However, I was one of the shortest kids in my class until high school, when I became the jolly green giant I am today. Dr. M says he is not worried, that he knows she will catch up. Her head now measures 14 3/4 inches around.

We were originally going to go to the Dr. next week, however, Leighton started displaying symptoms of Reflux a couple of weeks ago. At first, I thought it was colic, as I was a colicy baby. Then, I thought maybe she no longer liked the Dr. Brown's bottles we've been using. So, I tried other bottles. No luck. When she began spitting up A LOT during and after feedings, I knew it had to be reflux. She was miserable. Poor baby was in so much pain that she would just wail until I could finally calm her down.It absolutely broke my heart. I had a couple of meltdowns because when your child is ill and in pain and you can do nothing to help them, it's just awful. I finally called the Dr. and begged for an earlier appointment, I couldn't stand to watch her in pain anymore. I was thrilled we got to come in almost a week earlier.

I told Dr. M about the spitting up, along with her arching her back during feedings and the excessive fussiness. He confirmed my suspicions that she does, in fact, have reflux. He gave me a couple of tips like raising one end of her bed and holding her upright for 20 min. after each feeding, so that gravity will help keep down her milk. He also gave us a script for Zantac and we started her on that last night. She is much less fussy today, and spitting up less, though she is still spitting up quite a bit. I am so thankful to finally have something to help her feel better.

Dr. M also said he thought she would be fine to go ahead and start going to the church nursery on Sundays. Currently I have just been taking her to class with me. It will be strange not being with her for a couple of hours on Sundays and leaving her with other people to take care of her. He also said that her "outie" belly button is fine and will go inward on it's own. I am assuming her having an outie belly button is payback for all the times I made fun of my brother's! Who says God doesn't have a since of humor?

He confirmed, again, that her eyes will stay blue. Our next appointment will be at 4 months when we will talk about introducing rice cereal in to her diet. That seems crazy to me. My baby eating something other than milk. She is growing up way too fast already. Sigh.

Some fun happenings of Month 2:

Leighton is on the move: No, of course she's not crawling (yet), but she sure can scoot around on her belly. The first time it happened she was about 6 weeks old. I had her on her belly on her baby gym in our bathroom while I got ready and she fell asleep. After I was ready and she was still asleep, I walked from the bathroom to the laundry room to start a load of clothes, and when I came back to the room (literally one minute later) she had scooted off of the baby gym on to the bath mat in front of the tub! I was in a panic because that meant she had to cross over some tile and she could have hit her head! Cannot be left unattended on baby gym, check.

Leighton is smiling: This is a very recent development, and I don't mean gas induced smiles. These smiles happen when we smile at her and she smiles back. She only does it sometimes and most of the time it's a half smile but it's the sweetest little smile I have ever seen!

Leighton is talking: Our angel baby is babbling like crazy. She does it the most right after she eats and when she is on her changing table. It's basically the sweetest thing in the world!

Leighton is sleeping- I know, I know, all newborns sleep a lot. But Leighton, at 7 weeks old, started sleeping 5 consecutive hours at night. After her 12:30 feeding she sleeps from 1-6 am! Woohoo! Thank You Babywise!

Other:

She still likes bath time, until the last couple of minutes when I wash her hair, she is totally over it by then. She still loves her paci, it's her bff. She is still on 100% breast milk. I think I will have to do an entire post on breastfeeding one of these days, who knew I'd ever have so many thoughts on the subject! She slept in her bassinet a couple of times, so at least she no longer hates it. She is taking her daytime naps in her crib to get her used to it. She loves to snuggle. This is her absolute favorite. Especially with her mommy and her grandparents. She makes the cutest.darn.faces when she first wakes up complete with adorable little stretches. She does 3 different things while being fed a bottle. She will hold on to the bottle with both hands (she thinks she's so big). She will hold my thumb and index finger with both of her fists (making it very difficult for mommy to hold the bottle). Or, she will put one fist up to her cheek like she is modeling. She used to do this in the womb. Every time we had an ultrasound that fist was up on that cheek. Whew, writing all of this makes me realize how many videos I need to take of her before she outgrows some of it.





Mommy loves you so much, sweet 2 month old!