The Fruit of Our Labors

So since Lila got sick on Christmas she only got worse. Her fever didn't break until early Monday morning. She was ornery all day Monday and again would only breastfeed but wouldn't eat anything. Plus I had work so she only got two feedings in. Yesterday I didn't get much sleep after my shift because she was awful again. Crying most of the day. Last night when it was time for bed, I fed her and she was leaning towards her crib when we got upstairs and she went right to bed. Then this morning it was glorious. A happy, normal Lila awoke from the night! Although we could see the teeth during all this, she wasn't quite so smiley. Here are some pictures for you all to see result of these last three days:

Lila's First Christmas

Part IV: Endure to the end

By the time we got back to Scott's house Lila was out. She slept a good 2 hours then we woke her up because she was sleeping so long. The rest of the night I held her and we cuddled. Sometimes we could get her interested in some toys, but most of the time she was grumpy. Wouldn't eat anything. But it was ok. She wasn't openly screaming most of the time, just whiny and grumpy. and she still went to bed at her normal time which was good.

For your first Christmas, maybe not the best, but a happy first Christmas anyway!

Lila's First Christmas

Part III: Pictureless

We left Scott’s house to do some other things, and forgot to bring the camera. So here is simply an account of Lila’s time.

She had refused to eat any food all morning, and I am trying to wean her from breast milk so even if I tried I wouldn’t have had enough milk to fill her little tummy. At 12:00 we drove home, I changed into a skirt, and Todd dropped me off at the church. He went down and put Lila to bed. Kyle was going to skype at 1:00 so we knew Todd would be late to church. Lila ended up sleeping until 1:30, then Todd got her and brought her downstairs and she basically fell asleep in his arms so they didn’t end up coming. After the call Todd cam to pick me up from my “1 hour meeting”. At 2:25 the meeting finally finished. Our Christmas program went way over and I couldn’t go home early since I was directing the choir. I don’t know why we had so many, many songs. I knew it would go at least 15 minutes over the second I saw the program. Oh well.

We drove down to my parents house. Todd had brought the thermometer since Lila had been acting so weird all day. We checked her temp and it was 102.5. Yeah that is not very good. So we gave her some tylenol and I fed her and we gave her a cool bath. She cried the whole time and of course peed in the bathtub. But she was much happier once we had her all wrapped up in a towel and had finished wiping her nose off. I sat rocking her for a few minutes, and her toes were definitely much cooler. When we checked her temp again it was down to 101.9. Not a huge drop but we’ll keep working on it. We just put on her onesie and pants and left her arms and toes bare. (We did keep her covered with a blanket when she was outside but let her skin breathe in the car.) She was out cold again before we even left the driveway. Poor thing. I think it wasn’t just her teeth after all.

Lila 's First Christmas

Part II: From Her perspective

The drive to my uncles house was nice. I was all cozy in my blankets and I got some poop out which felt good! When we got there I stayed content in my carseat for a little while as everyone ran around like usual. After a while they took me out, and I stretched out on the floor and just enjoyed the moment. I like being around people and I like going places. Then everyone sat around in a circle. Every single adult had a one of those silver things that sometimes burst with light, it was crazy! Then all this red, green, and silver paper started getting torn apart. I mostly ignored it.

My cousins were pretty excited about all the funny colored paper boxes. I'm not sure why. Mommy and Daddy tried to sit me down and stick one in my lap but that didn't make me very happy. And I started remembering that my mouth hurts for some reason. So I decided I wouldn't be happy without my mommy. She sat down on the floor and let me sit on her lap. Then she let me tear some paper! Normally she steals the paper from me and puts it in a plastic bin. I tore it a little, but then I just wanted mommy so I started whining. She tore the rest of the paper off for me and there was a surprise inside! I wanted to play with it but it was stuck to the box so I whined again. Then mommy took it out and I pushed the buttons and looked in the little mirror. I'm so cute! For the next little while the cycle continued. I don't think my mommy knows what I like because she kept stealing away the things I was playing with and making me mad. As soon as I would find another thing to play with, away it went. You would think she'd learn!

My mommy left me for a while with a pile of stuff that she had just put in front of me. I thought that I might be able to play with some of it for a minute, but then I realized my teeth hurt and I wanted my mom. She came to my call and I snuggled with her, only occasionally looking around to make sure I wasn't missing anything too exciting. I love her. She also tried to feed me some food but I didn't want it. She gave me to daddy for a while. I like him too, but I wanted mommy so I squirmed and cried until daddy gave me back to her. Everyone was in the kitchen doing weird things so we watched for a bit. After I had been with mommy for quite a while I started getting tired. Gramma Itri picked me up and I was too tired to fight it. Finally I couldn't stay awake anymore. Gramma bundled me up in a blanket and laid me down to sleep. Maybe sleeping isn't so bad after all.

Lila's First Christmas

Part I: I love tylenol!

Lila woke up early. My plan had been to get up at 7, get ready, and wake her up at 8 to feed her and get her ready. Lately there have been a few days I’ve had to wake her up at 9 to eat because she has been sleeping in so late. So when she started stirring just after 7, I thought she would go back to sleep. But she didn’t. She kept crying and crying. So finally about 7:20 we got her up to eat. I fed her on one side, then she was too mad to eat on the other. She was crying with tears streaming down her face. She is teething, she’s got three teethers coming in on the top. So Todd got the tylenol and I sat with her in the recliner in her bedroom and rocked her. It was probably about 15 minutes before she was willing to finish eating. But eventually she did, and slowly got more happier through the morning. I told Todd how happy I am to live in the post-tylenol (post any medicine!) invented days.

Her first present she didn’t get to open because it was too hard for Santa to wrap. A big pink ball! You can see how much she loved it!

Then we all got ready for the day, and she puttered around on her hands and knees as usual. She even found an old toy mommy had tried to hide from her.

She also got into some chocolate. Luckily mommy was there to take the chunk away and carefully navigate a small chip into her mouth. Therefore no cute chocolate faced pictures to show. Now we are on our way to Todd’s brother Scott’s house to open the rest of her presents. She is happily cuddled in 2 of her warmest blankets in the back seat! Tune in later for more about Lila’s first Christmas!

A fun toy

Lila sure likes to make toys out of non-toys.

A good Idea Gone Bad

The hardest thing to do with Lila is shower. She can't be alone in a room, even a baby safe room because she freaks out when we leave her alone. I have tried leaving her in her high chair or pack-n-play at the bathroom door so I can poke my head out of the curtain at her, but even then as soon as I get back to my shower she is crying again. So we recently finished(ish) remodeling our bathroom, so the floor and the toilet weren't all gross and peed on. So I had this great idea to let her play on the floor in the bathroom since she loves drawers and had already spent some time happily playing on the floor. So I put some extra toys on the floor, closed the door so she couldn't get away, and hopped in the shower. A few minutes into it this is what I saw:

So I kept putting the shower curtain back over her face, she would get mad, crawl back to the end of the shower to get the edge of the curtain again, and slowly move it out of the way so she could get down closer to where I was. It was a terrible cycle. She was sopping wet by the time I was done showering. But to her, when she was rewarded by cuddling with mommy once I was all wrapped up in my towel, it was all worth it.

Lila is 10 months old!

Wow. As a kid I always went crazy when people told me how fast I was growing/growing up. But as I get older I see the wisdom in those who came before me. Lila is huge! Here are some things about her:

loves blowing raspberries. still pretty bald. has a killer smile, still with just two little teeth. LOVES mommy. likes daddy if mommy isn't around. likes most people as long as mommy is still holding her. only gets antsy at church instead of ornery. pro crawler. flies up stairs. doesn't like to walk (with help) as much now that she gets around so well by herself. wears size 9-12 month clothes. some of her favorite toys-whether we actually let her play with them or not-include: mirrors, spoons, chapstick, keys, cell phones, lotion bottles, outlets, cords, paper, books, and sometimes washcloths. finally has a set bedtime. likes going out. sometimes hates having her diaper changed and sometimes is ok with it. stops what she's doing when mommy says "no no" in a soft but warning tone. sometimes even completely stops what she's doing and doesn't go back to it (but sometimes she just wants to do it too much to leave it alone). still loves being outside even when it's freezing. wears size 3 diapers. always recognizes and loves her grandma Faber. definitely has mommy's eyes. most people thinks she looks like daddy more. has figured out how to open the kitchen cupboards. loves to play on the dishwasher or dryer when it's open.