Christmas Lights

Another rite of passage now that we are owners of a single family home is putting Christmas lights on the house. Isn't it pretty! (Please disregard the horrible yard & landscaping. Matt & I are giving each other green grass & plants for Christmas).

Christmas Card Pictures

As a rite of passage now that we have a kid Matt & I decided it was time to start sending out Christmas cards. So naturally I embarked upon my mission to get the "perfect" picture.

Failed Attempt #1: The Cute Candy Cane Outfit

This one was doomed to fail from the beginning with a bow that doesn't match all that well & is too big. Plus an unwilling subject...we didn't stand a chance.

Failed Attempt #2: The Cute Smile

Since Adelyn usually has the most smiles for us right after breakfast we thought that would be the perfect time to capture her Kodak moment. Unfortunately Adelyn has never even heard of Kodak.

Failed Attempt #3: The Cute Snowflake Outfit

Everyone knows the 3rd times a charm...except for this time.

Mission Aborted.

Happy Birthday!!!

We have lots of celebrating to do at our house as Adelyn turned 2 months old yesterday & drum roll please... Matt celebrates the BIG 3-0 TODAY!!! As you can imagine some of us are more excited about the age we're celebrating than others. At her 2 month check up Adelyn weighed 9 lbs. 12.5 oz. (Aunt Darla's birth weight!) and is 23 inches long. So we have a long skinny girl on our hands who will be sporting the baggy clothes look for quite sometime I think. Over the past couple of weeks she has started to smile more and more. Every once in a while I hear a little laugh out of her too. So that's been fun to watch. I missed posting a Happy Thanksgiving blog so here are some pictures from that day.

Matt watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while Adelyn got an early start on one of her Thanksgiving Day naps.

"Mommy, what is this thing on my head? It is as big as me!"

I'm ready for my turkey & stuffing!

What a sleepy head! It must be from all that turkey & stuffing.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun & I was so glad to finally feel really full! As we are gearing up for Christmas Adelyn is getting excited about her first trip to Kentucky as Matt & I are debating...will it take us 3 or 4 days to get there & will we need 1 car or 2?

Kids these days

HEY...

Dad...

This phone doesn't have text messaging!

Adelyn says "Hi!"

Adelyn celebrated being 6 weeks old today and what a "big" little girl she is! We still don't know what color her eyes will be but I think they are looking more blue all the time. Which means that she is going to look nothing like the mommy who worked so hard to make her and now keeps her alive at 3 am (and all the other am & pm times she's hungry). Oh well...maybe she'll have my teeth...I have nice teeth.

Bath Time

Excuse me, I

have a question...




Can we do this again?


All Clean!

One Month Update

Greetings from a hungry baby & a sleepy mommy! I can hardly believe it but Adelyn is 5 weeks old and getting so big. At our 1 month check up she weighed in at 8 lbs. 4.5 ozs. and is 21 inches long! Both Adelyn & her mommy are so proud of themselves. In the past couple weeks I've noticed so many changes in her. She has been much more alert and started "talking" to us. Every once in a while it sounds like she is saying "hi". She's also started to focus her eyes on our faces & toys. She can even follow toys as I move them by turning her head & moving her eyes. I've also noticed that she's been opening and closing her hands a lot. Other than eating & sleeping Adelyn's favorite things are to look in the mirror, stare at lights & cuddling. She really doesn't like tummy time and has gotten so mad about it a couple of times that she rolls herself over. I've also found her in her crib turned a completely different direction than the way I layed her down. So even though I'm tired, she makes me laugh and I'm having lots of fun with her. Here are some pictures from the past week...



"That's very interesting, mommy. Sleeping through
the night is something I haven't considered."



I love to swing!



Look at me holding my head up like a big girl!



Have I mentioned that Dakota thinks Adelyn
has cozy places to sleep?

Adelyn & Dakota

While Dakota is still not a fan of Adelyn when she crys, I think he's decided they can be friends. After all she does have a few perks...

Like cozy places to nap...


And great toys!

Bed Time Stories & New Tricks

While at first glance it may just look like Matt is holding Adelyn while browsing Southern Living he is actually reading her a "bed time story." I know, her childhood is ruined. But she is very knowledgeable about the natural springs in FL that are great to visit.

We hit the 3 week mark today & Adelyn has several new tricks. She's been able to hold her head up for a couple of weeks now and turn it from side to side during tummy time. But the other night while I was burping her she held it up and looked around the room for about 3 minutes. She has also figured out how to use her legs (although she doesn't know it yet) by putting her feet on the changing pad and pushing back. As you can imagine, this makes changing her diaper a breeze. And yes, there is a voice inside my head saying "be afraid, be very afraid!"

Here are some more pictures from the week...

Thank goodness, someone gave us Pat the Sleepy Bunny. Now Adelyn doesn't have to read Southern Living anymore. I know this looks like a weird way to hold her, but it makes her stop crying which is our #1 goal of the evenings!

Aunt Corrie comes to visit!

Thanks for my big bunny Aunt Corrie!

Adelyn loves to look at the baby in the mirror!

Greetings from Babyland

It's hard to believe but Adelyn is 12 days old! I'm not sure what I've been doing for the last 12 days but sleeping is not high on the list. We are really enjoying getting to know our baby girl. She makes lots of funny faces, has the cutest mad face you've ever seen, and looks like a baby dinosaur going in for the kill just before she starts to eat. I have lots of different updates to share & thought you'd like to see some more pictures. So scroll on down & you'll see some of our highlights from the week. Sorry my labor & delivery post is so long. : )

What a Busy Week!

Thanks for coming to visit and taking such good care of me, Mimi & Grandpa!










I Bleed Blue!!!

















Is it take your baby to work day or take your
daddy to work day??? Hard to say...













A basket of chocolates bigger than me...life
doesn't get much better than that!

I'm A Growing Girl!

Mommy & Daddy are so proud of Adelyn because she is growing like a weed! She regained her birth weight in only 5 days and the dr. was very impressed with how strong her neck is. At our second pediatricans appointment she weighed in at 6lbs. 15.5ozs. which means that she had gained 9.5 ozs in 6 days! Even though we got a great report at the drs. it still wore us out. This is the first time Adelyn has ever slept through and held still while having her diaper changed.

My Labor of Love

I know... it's a cheesy title. But seriously, the only reason women have more than one child is because they know how much they'll love them once they've arrived. So, for those of you who are interested here is what I will try to make a brief summary of our bringing Baby Adelyn into the world weekend...

Late Friday night I started having some pre-labor signs - my stomach was in knots and my entire back was really achy and sore. Within a few hours I started having contractions & getting really nauseous. Saturday morning I called my dr. because I didn't want to get dehydrated and she said I should come on into the hospital. It took us awhile to get there - I wanted to take one last long hot shower and we had to run a couple of errands. Plus, because my contractions were so far apart we figured she would send us back home. Once we got into triage they hooked me up to a fetal monitor to see what the baby was up to. Because her heart rate was lower than usual they decided to do an ultrasound test. She had to demonstrate some different skills such as 2 major movements, 2 minors movements, practice breathing, and a couple other things within a 30 minute time period. When she didn't demonstrate one of the skills they decided it was time to admit me to the hospital and get things going. By the time I got to my room I was 3 cm dilated and my contractions were much more consistent. They went ahead and started me on pitocin and the waiting game began.

In lamaze we learned that you should ask yourself - "Can I do this for 20 more minutes?" if the answer is yes, don't get the epidural. If the answer is no, get the epidural. So I remember thinking "I can do this for 20 more minutes but not 40 - it's time for the drugs!" Turns out, I made that decision at the perfect time. Just as the epidural was taking effect my contractions took a major turn. I went from 3 cm to 6 cm and my water broke in about 30 minutes. It was pretty intense! Because my contractions got so much stronger so quickly poor little Adelyn's heart could not quite recover after each contraction. They gave me a shot to slow things down a bit and give her some time to rest before things really got going. It was also nice that Matt & I were able to rest a little bit too. Once my contractions got going again her heart rate was still not recovering well enough. At this point I was still on the pitocin and the dr. talked to us about having a c-section. Because I was really not wanting to have surgery we decided to turn off the pitocin and give my body a chance to have some contractions on its own and see how she did then. About 45 minutes later they came back and said that Adelyn had not moved in about 30 minutes so it was time for a c-section. Of course Matt & I agreed immediately. Not long after that we had our precious baby girl! I loved hearing her cry because it was several minutes before I got to see her. When they did bring her over to me and laid her on my chest she let out a big sigh and stuck out her bottom lip as if to say "Mommy, you have no idea what I've been through." It was so cute!

So that was not very brief and the crazy thing is, I'm not even finished. All of that was the easy part! The surgery went great & Adelyn was safe & healthy. Unfortunately, I had a tough time recovering. We're not sure why - possibly because of my heart murmur, but my blood oxygen levels were really low and I was really out of it! It was about 5 hours before I got to see Adelyn again. They actually brought her down to the recovery room because I kept asking for her and we didn't know when I would get to move to a normal room. I was falling asleep mid-word and could hardly hold the baby. Poor Matt, he had been up since about 3 am on Saturday morning, been an amazing coach during labor, held my hand during the c-section, now his wife is looking pretty rough and completely out of it (hooked up to every machine imaginable by the way), and has a brand new baby in the nursery on another floor. While all of this is going on they had given us a room & Matt had brought our bags in. But then they told us we had to move to a different room so that I could be monitored more closely. So some random hospital person was going to move our stuff for us. Considering the lack of sleep and all the different emotions we were experiencing it was very overwhelming. At this point my parents had gone home because they had been at the hospital since 5:30am and thought we were going to our room to get some rest. So we have a really good friend who ended up coming down to the hospital and spending the day with us. He held Adelyn so that Matt & I could rest and intercepted all the medical people coming in and out of our room. He was such a life saver and has lots of good dirt on us now that he's seen us at our worst moments.

Sunday was very long and hard. I really did not start to improve until early Monday morning but once I did they let me move down to our original room so that we could be on the same floor as the nursery. Matt put it best when he said that Sunday is the only day that ranks in the top 5 best days of his life and the top 5 worst days of his life. While it was a very challenging weekend we are so grateful for the Lord's protection over me & Adelyn. I'm also very thankful that I went into labor on my own and didn't have to push for several hours before having a c-section. Being home has been nice - it's a lot quieter here and no one checks my vitals or draws my blood every couple hours. And while I still have a while before "recovery" is complete, recovering from the c-section has been easier than I was expecting.

Ok, I really am finished but I just have to brag on Matt for a minute. He was so amazing! Calm, cool, collected. During those times (pre-epidural) when my contractions were getting really bad and I was a little panicky he stayed so calm and helped me to focus. And once Adelyn was born he did a wonderful job taking care of both of us in the hospital. I think I'm just now starting to catch up with him on the number of diapers we've changed. I was never worried about him being a wonderful father, but he really is a natural. I love getting to watch him with Adelyn. They have lots of fun together!

Adelyn Grace Lilly

We welcomed Adelyn into the world at 4:17am on Sunday October 5, 2008! She weighs 6lbs 6oz. and is 20.25 inches long.

The Lilly family on their way home from Winnie Palmer Hospital!

Important Discovery

Well, it is 5:20am and I've been awake since 4. What to Expect when You're Expecting says that I should have a snack and go back to bed. It didn't work. So I've decided to share with you a very important discovery I made yesterday during my afternoon snack...Baby Lilly is the perfect size for balancing a glass of milk! And she's at the exact right height for dipping Oreos!!! Bet all you skinny people with flat stomachs can't do that! Anyways, this got me thinking about some of the other things I've enjoyed about being pregnant...

• Watching Matt read the pregnancy test directions just to make sure I had in fact peed on the stick correctly & that there couldn't be a false positive.
• Our families & friend's reactions to the big news. Corrie won the award for best reaction.
• Hearing the baby's heartbeat & seeing her for the first time.
• Eating Matt's food on behalf of the baby.
• Weekly emails comparing the baby to produce. (Week 39 is a mini watermelon - of course)
• Hearing the excitement in Matt's voice the first time he felt the baby move.
• The silly grin Matt could not wipe off his face for 30 minutes after finding out its a girl - he was so proud of himself!
• Waking up from a nap and finding Dakota curled up next to me with his head resting against my belly.
• Consuming 400+ Tums in a 3 month period. (oops wrong list)
• Waking up from a nap and finding Dakota curled up on top of my belly (literally!).
• Getting to hear Matt talk in his sleep on a nightly basis. (The fact that I'm awake is not a perk but hearing Matt tell a joke and laugh out loud at himself in his sleep was definitely worth it that night!)
• Torturing our family & friends by taking forever to decide on a name and not telling them now that we have. : )
• The funny bumps and weird things my stomach does when the baby is moving around.

I'm sure there are others but my brain is still foggy. I really am so thankful for having a great pregnancy but am serious about the number of Tums I've eaten. I'm expecting a call from them any day about being their new spokesperson.

Nursery Pictures

Yeah! We finally have the nursery all ready for Baby Lilly! (Except for the table topper I still need to hem). Hopefully she'll be joining us any day now!

38 Week Update

Well, here I am at 38 weeks pregnant. Don't let my smile fool you...I'm not very happy. These doctors, they just toy with your emotions. One week they tell you "the baby is probably going to come early" the next week its "you need to start thinking about how long past your due date you want to go." Why would you say that to someone whose shoes are making puffy lines in her feet!? In case you haven't guessed, I had a doctors appointment this morning. It was not encouraging. That's ok though. When they told me the baby might come early I knew that she could still be late. So whatever happens happens. The good thing is we are a lot more ready for her to come than we were a couple of weeks ago. I even have our bags for the hospital packed. While the waiting game is no fun we are trying to enjoy our last few baby free days. One things for sure - they're going to include a lot more long walks and spicy foods!

Welcome...

To our new blog! I have great hopes that this one is going to be a little more user friendly. So for the real updates...I am 38 weeks today and we are making lots of progress on the baby front. Matt got lots of baby gear put together and he & Dakota took the stroller for a test drive around the kitchen. Slowly but surely the nursery is coming together. Hopefully by the end of the week it'll be picture ready. We have even kind of settled on a name but are going to wait until she gets here just to be sure. Sorry...no hints! I attempted to install the car seat but it was all wrong so that is next on the list. Pregnancy is still going well. I've had a few restless nights and my feet have started to swell but overall I'm doing good. As far as baby development goes it has pretty much been the same for the past couple of weeks. She is packing on the lbs - about 1/2 lb. a week and producing more surfactant - the stuff that keeps the air sacs in the lungs from sticking together once she starts breathing. The produce of the week is that she is as long as a leek. I'm pretty mad at the dr. who told me she would probably be early because we're starting to get impatient and so I'm sure she'll come late now. I think Matt is feeling more impatient than I am but that'll probably change the fatter my feet get. Yesterday some of the people Matt works with had a baby shower lunch at the Cheesecake Factory for him. It was lots of fun and we got some really cute things! Well, those are all the updates I can think of for now. Hopefully the next time I get so far behind will be because I'm having a baby!