baby Fiona

So, apparently, getting your baby through RSV (and other sicknesses, I'm sure) is not for the faint-hearted.  I absolutely hate that I can't do anything to help her breathe easier and lose this nasty cough she has.  Lily has also been skimping on feedings, so I'm kind of concerned about dehydration.  We're keeping a close eye on her today and tomorrow, and things aren't improving, she and I will probably be heading to the doctor.  She has been sounding like she's able to breathe a bit easier, and she's still been happy, so I think we're on the mend, though slowly.

Last night was the worst night's "sleep" that Jesse and I have gotten since Lily was born.  Easily.  It was awful.  He had to go into work at 5 this morning for some sort of something, so it was already going to be a short night.  And, naturally, Lily just decided not to sleep.  On top of all of this non-sleeping, my body decided to revolt and give me a nice fever and sore throat, and Jesse decided to have a sore throat as well.  So we're all kinds of awesome over here, and none of us feel that great.  Plus, lack of sleep has been loads of fun.  Needless to say, Jesse and my parents both voted that I skip my run today, and I am gladly obeying.  

On the positive side of things, Fiona was born on Thursday night and I got to be there for it!  I'm really thankful for the friendships I've developed here, and I'm also glad I was able to witness a natural childbirth so close to when I got to experience it myself.  I detest using my camera's built-in flash, so some of the pictures came out pretty dark and when I went to edit them, they were kind of grainy, but you get the general idea.  Jesse asked if I remember when Lily was as small as Fiona is and I had to remind him that Lily was only that small before we got to meet her.  Fiona weighed in at 7lbs, 12oz and Lily was more of an 8lb, 8oz kid.  But it's ok, they will be best friends: Fiona was born exactly 5 months after Lily; Lily has already borrowed some of Fiona's clothes and toys/car seat/bouncer seats/etc.  How can they not be best friends in a few years?  Jesse held down the fort at home with Lily, and our good friend, Jen, came over to help him out.  I hear the night went okay, even if Lily refused a bottle.

probably the best picture I took- proud big brother

just a little comic relief..Julia was practicing her version of a face she might have during a contraction

love love love

Fiona Marie, so adorable

I'm planning on every one getting better this weekend/this week..sickness is not so much fun, and we all could use some better sleep.  Plus, I need to get better so I can continue with my training for my half marathon..The good news is that even with a lack of sleep, Jesse and I have plenty of coffee, and pretty much any way to brew a cup minus a good ol' fashion drip coffee pot, hah.  Additionally, I still have the amazing ability to sleep (for the most part) as soon as my head hits the pillow, so when Lily naps, I have a good shot at also getting some rest.  Dishes, laundry and cleaning will still be there when I wake up!

one more time..

Alright, today is seriously the 5th day I have tried to finish this blog post.  Actually, this is a new one, since the one I had been working on for the past 4 days is no longer relevant, and it has gotten to the point where a whole new post was/is necessary.  So here we are, hopefully for me to finish and post before I am needed elsewhere..

First off, we just found out today that Lily's 'cold' is really RSV :( which is no good.  Poor little girl..I was hoping she was getting better, but she started sounding so awful in the night.  It makes my heart sad to see her so miserable.  Please keep her in your prayers: she was upstairs whimpering in her sleep last night and pretty much breaking my heart that I can't help.  I ended up getting her up around 3 and we just cuddled in our recliner until 730 or so.  We both got some sleep then..

Lily got to hang out with her first for real babysitters last Thursday.  We asked our good friends, Jen and Chris, to watch  Lily for us so Jesse and I could go out for his birthday.  It was really relaxing for us, and I only text Jen for a few minutes to make sure Lily wasn't screaming herself silly.  When we went to pick Lily up, she and Jen were just as happy as could be, cuddling on their couch.

More recently, Lily has definitely gotten the hang of rolling.  She gets one wing trapped on occasion when she tries to roll from her back to her stomach, but she gets things pretty well figured out if she works on it.  I have been trying to get her to crawl, but nothing yet.  She has a pretty impressive 'mountain-climber' thing going on, where she is trying so hard to get up on her hands and knees, but we're not there yet.  Lily does pull herself around in circles, and roll all over the place to get to where she needs to go, so at least she's happy..

And, the other video is just not cooperating, so you'll have to wait until I can figure it out to see her roll the other way!

Other than that..not too much has been going on!  

Catching Up

This week absolutely flew by.  I'm not sure where it went, exactly, but yesterday was the only day I felt that I didn't have anything going on or have somewhere to go.  I was really hoping that I would be able to catch up on everything this weekend, but considering it's Saturday night and the laundry is still sitting unfolded in the baskets downstairs, I'm guessing that probably won't be happening.  

I feel really drained from the week.  This week started with me fighting a cold, but the cold won and settled in my chest.  Now that it's the end of the week, I think I am emerging from it victorious, but it just left me feeling wiped out at the end of the day.  With the wonderful combo of work + working out + daily life activities, I've just been tired.  Plus, training for my half marathon starts next Monday or something (not this coming Monday, the next one), so you can anticipate lots of complaining about how that's going..hooray!

Lily also has been working on a cold.  And while mine seems to be getting better, today was probably the worst she has sounded so far.  Poor kid..while she and I were at work today, she just sounded so congested and stuffed up :( when I tried to lay her down for a nap, she woke right up crying, even though she and I both knew she was still tired.  As a result, we ended up cuddling for the majority of her nap, which ended up being a pretty long one!  Poor baby :(

And speaking of work, I would just like everyone to know that Jesse was successful in putting her to bed the other night without me while I closed!  Champs.  Both of them.  

Lily is continuing to explore what she can reach and put everything she can in her mouth.  While she might not get a tooth anytime soon, she's teething a lot.  Swollen gums, diaper rash, grumpy, off sleep schedule, cold, multiple diaper-related-explosions...the whole nine yards.  Oh, funny story..the other day at work, we experienced a blow out.  No worries, I had a change of clothes, but I did have to warn my boss that if we had another blow out, I would be out of wipes.  So, considering I jinxed myself, should I have been surprised when we had a second explosion?  No..but regardless: Lily got wrapped up in a blanket while I ran to the store and bought more wipes and another outfit.  If anyone at the Y needs diapers and wipes, there are some under the counter for emergencies now!

I guess that's it..I feel I have so much going on, but then I sit down to blog and realize it's nothing exciting.  I will try and come up with some great stories for next time.  Check out my other blog with updated pictures..

from our walk the other day..

So recently, I've been feeling that so much is going on and I just have all kinds of stories to update everyone on, and then when I sit down to share them, the thoughts go out the window or I get distracted and they are forgotten.  We'll see how this post goes; I'm guessing it will be scatter-brained.  

I've really been enjoying the past several weeks with Lily and watching her develop.  The first few weeks/months were exciting because I had a cute cuddly baby..but now it's more exciting/interesting/entertaining to watch her discover the world around her.  Within the past few weeks, she's started to reach out and grab for anything and everything, including faces.  She is fascinated by touching everyone's face, and unfortunately for some of my male friends, she loves facial hair and will pull it if she gets the chance.  

Lily and Zeke are also bonding more..he will lay down beside her, especially if she's crying, and let's her flail around and hit him on the head.  He also likes to lick her hands, which now makes her smile so big.  Now that she's developing enough to enjoy certain textures, she loves reaching for him to feel his fur, and he patiently lets her.  The only thing he doesn't like is when she kicks him while he is laying at her feet.  

The other thing I'm noticing more is that she is rolling from her stomach to back more often.  I may have mentioned this before, but Jesse also claims he saw her roll from her back to stomach a few weeks ago (I wasn't there, so we'll just have to take his word for it).  When she's on her back, she will roll onto her side to look at Zeke, but doesn't seem too interested in flopping over the rest of the way.  

This past weekend, we got to go to our friend Kayla's 5th birthday party at a..well, it was warehouse full of inflatable jumpy things, a climbing wall, putt-putt and other random things.  It was a lot of fun!

This is the wall where you would put on magnetic boots and gloves and stick to the wall.  Here, Lily is stuck to the wall and licking said wall..ew.

My turn!  They had big-kid sized boots and gloves :) I was awesome.  And yes, for those of you with a keen eye, I did get my hair cut.

flowers

 Lily Bear is 4 months old today.  In my opinion, it's gone really fast, and I can't believe she's already 4 months.  In Jesse's words, "that's it?!"  And today, a lady looked at Lily and said, "so, I'm guessing...8 months?"  Close.  We've also gotten 9 months.  Really?  She can't even sit up on her own yet, but yes, 9 months is a good guess ::note- slight sarcasm:: I guess it's because she's so awesome.  Speaking of which, she's giving the sitting up a valiant effort :)

And, without further ado..4 month pictures!!  I was laughing during most of these, as taking pictures of her continues to become more of a challenge and more entertaining.

  

Jesse was the attention-getter and the dog-keeper-away-er.  And also, the guy panicking the photographer's ear with "don't let her eat the lily, it'll poison her!!!!"  We're a great team.  

naps

I love the days that I am able to trick Lily into taking a longer nap.  Longer meaning a nap more than 30 minutes.  I feel so productive, and sometimes, can even get in a power nap myself.  I.  Love.  It.  I just wish she would take the hint and make them part of our daily routine, but I'll take what I can get.

She has been sleeping through the night for the most part..but waking up some nights around 3 or so for a feeding.  But getting up once in the night isn't a big deal in my book, so we roll with it :) We went to her 3-4 month check up on Monday, and she weighs 15 lbs, 6 oz now, and is 25" long!!  Lily is getting so big!  The nurse picked her up and made the comment that she is "solid" and I have to agree: I'm pretty sure I'm building up some awesome arm muscles carrying her around everywhere..and more often than not, her plus an armful of other stuff.  I'm getting pretty good at multi-tasking..

Anyway..what else.  She typically does really good with the babysitters I leave her with while I go work out at the Y.  This morning, I guess she didn't cry at all, so yay!  I've been enjoying my workouts, that's for sure.  It's really nice to get an hour or two of just "me" time (even if I have to be working out to get it!).  I've been switching it up between running (to get in shape for training for my half marathon..seems backwards), Tai Chi, fencing, swimming, and other aerobic classes at the Y depending on my schedule.  And for the record, as far as fencing goes, Jesse and I are taking fencing classes at the Y together, and basically, we're awesome.  Well, not really, but we're getting there.  He's better than I am, but we've both agreed that just because we like each other does not mean we'll take it easy on each other.  Thus, the bruises I have on my leg and rib cage where he stabbed me yesterday.  It's ok, I got him back.  I did tell him if I won all the matches last night he owed me ice cream..he won after I said that :/ I'll see about getting pictures of this at some point.

That's about it for now, and I have to go get ready for work.  Woohoo..I close tonight, which means Jesse will be on an adventure by himself in putting Lily down for the night!  Everyone say a prayer for him!

pretty sure I need to give up and admit she likes to suck on her fingers..

more swimming

Lily went swimming today for the first time ever!  And, as my friend Julia (aquatics director at the Y) would agree, she's a natural.  Julia and I 'borrowed' a swimsuit that fit Lily, got a swimming diaper, and away we went!

Little Mermaid!

I look kind of creepy..

Miss Jodi

She was very calm during the whole thing and really seemed to enjoy floating around (as much as a baby can at 3 months old?).  Lily seemed to naturally want to float..and since I don't know if babies float by themselves, we kept a hold of her just the same.  She was also fine floating on her back some, which apparently, older kids (like toddlers) aren't too fond of.  So go Lily!!

Aunt Julia

haha, Lily's face..

And yes, I dunked her.  Lily came up a little confused and trying to figure out what just happened while she tried to blink the water out of her eyes, but there were no tears!  We might have a future swimmer on our hands :) she was really quite adorable (as always), and by the end of our time in the pool, she was trying to kick her legs and splash with her hands.  

That's really about it..Mom and Dad H came to visit for the day and we really had a good visit with them.  They haven't really seen Lily too much since Thanksgiving, so I enjoyed getting to talk about Lily's new developments and how much she's growing/changing.  Sadly, I didn't take any pictures though :( 

Oh!  I probably didn't mention (did I?): Jesse gave himself a concussion Monday.  The reason I mention this is to pass on the information that he's doing much better and his head doesn't hurt as much now, so that's good.  And  yes, it's a good story.  We have a sloped ceiling in Lily's room and he walked into it.  And gave himself a concussion.  He's slick like that.