Lily Update: Month 6

Playing catch up! It's been a year since I posted the last Lily Update. I can not believe how quickly time has flown by. This update will stretch from Christmas through the end of February when she turned seven months old and pick up from there with the month seven update.

So Miss Lily turned five months old just after Christmas. I remember how much we enjoyed that Christmas Eve. It was 2009, the year of the massive snow blizzard. We were stuck inside, just the three of us, and it was wonderful. I was playing with Lily in the living room on the floor by the warm and cozy fire. Houston was installing our new kitchen cabinet hardware and making us beans and ham with a ham bone we had leftover. And cornbread. Can't forget that. I remember that about 5-6 months seemed like a big turning point for us as new parents. Lily was such a good baby on a great schedule and maybe the start of the new year had something to do wit it too.

Here are Lily's top 6 for month 6:

• Rollin, rollin, rollin - It was Christmas Eve and we were playing in the floor. Lily was laying on her back and she threw her little legs up towards her head and rolled right over! She had rolled only a few times before that and it was always from her tummy to her back. From that point on she was rolling every which way and all the time! Very exciting!

• 6 month check-up - Lily weighed in at 17.8 lbs and was 27" at her six month well baby appointment. She was doing great! She was around 75% for height and weight and wearing size 6-12 month clothes.

• Big girl highchair - We began feeding Lily in her highchair when we started her on baby food. She looked so tiny in it but she loved it. Some of her favorite new foods were sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, pears and bananas.

• Learning to say "No" - This girl knows what she wants, or should I say what she doesn't want! She learned how to tell us no this month by vigorously shaking her head. It caught me off guard one day while I was feeding her. She did not want any more to eat and made her point very clear! From then on it seemed there were a lot of things she did not want and was quick to "tell" us her feelings.

• Squealing - Let the squealing begin! Lily turned on her squealer this month. She was always making the funnest squeals, grunts and other noises. Of course we loved it and couldn't wait for her to do it more and more.

• Sitting up - By then end of her 6th month she had mastered sitting up on her own! This was such a fun milestone because now she had a whole new perspective on her surroundings and I think she really liked the new position.

Sweet Lily Grace we just love you so much and are so proud of each of your new milestones this month! What an amazing and special little bundle of joy you are.

Month 5 continued, A few more photos...

So I found another group of photos for this month that were hiding out in another folder. I figured I'd post a few of the 9,657 of them because I'm feeling a little frisky..., or maybe just because!

Silly with Daddy or maybe just Silly Daddy

Grandma & Grandpa Sneed

GiGi & PaPaw Brown

I think I'm in love...

Lily Update: Month 5

Month five began at Thanksgiving, just after Lily turned four months old. I love Thanksgiving. I love November. It was one year ago that we found out we were expecting this little miracle and now here she was smiling and giggling at us!

Here are Lily's top 5 for month 5:

• Cereal - Lily had her first bites of cereal this month! She really seemed to like it. It was pretty messy with it being so runny at first but she did really well. It was exciting at first, then I realized this meant feeding her took twice as long!


• Tummy/floor time - Lily seemed to start really liking tummy time and playing with her toys on the floor. She was grabbing things and putting everything in her mouth. It was really exciting because she was all of a sudden so content to "play".


• Rolling - Lily rolled from tummy to back for the first time during this month! However, she only did it every once in awhile. She didn't seem too excited about it so I guess she just didn't have much motivation to keep doing it.


• Sitting- Lily started to work on sitting this month. She was really pretty strong and doing it mostly on her own. I placed the boppy around her to help give her a little more support. She seemed to like the new position.


• Laughing - This is my favorite! She had been giggling for awhile but it really seemed to kick in this month. Her personality was starting to show more and she was getting pretty silly. It was so much fun!

What's wrong with this photo photo? Ellen watchers? Anyone?



"Mmmmm"

First Thanksgiving with the Sneed/Elkins Family

Lily and Great MaMaw Sneed

The world's longest drool.
And look at her sitting up ALL on her own!

Christmas already?

One of the few good ones I got from our little Santa hat photo shoot...

... and these well, these are the bloopers!!

Laughing in the tub!

Lily Update: Month 4

The fourth month was kind of a roller coaster for me. Near the end of this month when Lily was just about to turn four months old I stopped nursing. I had very much intended to nurse Lily for a year but I started having trouble and after an emotional couple weeks of trying to fix things, I gave in. In the end it really was a good thing. I loved nursing and really really missed it but after a little while I began to realize that I was a lot more relaxed and that was a good thing for us all. Thankfully, Lily didn't seem to mind and I prayed so hard that she wouldn't get sick and that by at least being able to nurse her the first few months her immune system would be strong. And once again, she was our little Champion!

Here are Lily's top 4 for month 4:

• The Jumparoo - I often found myself wondering what to do with my little 13 week old. Of course I could hold her and love on her for hours but when you are doing that all day everyday, you start to want some other options. We bought Lily the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumparoo and it was such a hit. It was so fun to see her in an upright position learning to push off with her legs and bounce. We love you Jumparoo!


• Extended nights - During this month Lily dropped her late evening dreamfeed (waking her at 10pm to eat, then right back to bed) so when she went down around 7:30pm she didn't wake up to feed until 7-7:30am! Some nights she'd still wake crying and we would give her the pacifier and she'd go back to sleep. She didn't do it every night and would sometimes go a week or more without doing it. But when she did, we continued to stumble our way up the stairs and put off CIO (cry it out) a little longer. It still just seemed easier to give her the pacifier.


• Road trip - This month we went on our first over night trip. My friend Kacy was getting married in Lee's Summit, MO and I wouldn't have missed it for the world! I even got to spend the night with the girls the night before. Lily and H stayed at a hotel and Lily did amazing! The trip was very much a success and I was so proud of how well she did!


• 4 month check-up - At her 4 month well baby appointment Lily weighed 15lbs and was 25 inches long. I believe she was around the 70-80 percentile for both height and weight. I feel horrible for not remembering or writing it down. I do remember it went down a little for the last check-up. Her little head was only in the 25th percentile but was still growing appropriately. She got a great report and we were so thankful she was such a healthly little booger.

Here are some pictures from month 4, weeks 13 through 16:

I love this one. Terrible quality but so cute in her Daddy's shoes!



From batting to serious grabbing!







Oh Lily, my cup runneth over!

Lily Update: Month 3

By her third month of life, Lily really started doing some fun new things. It is amazing how big a deal those "little" achievments can be.

Here are Lily's top 3 for month 3:

• Batting her toys - It was so fun to watch her stare so intently at the dangling toys on her Baby Einstein, Around the World activity gym waiting for the perfect moment to bat one of the them and watch it dangle and sway in amazement.
  


• Holding her head up - Lily was getting really good at holding her little head up during tummy time. She was a strong little one, no doubt! I loved watching her eyes get so big and bright as she held her head up high.


• Giggles and Coos - Every once in awhile she decided she had something to say. They were the sweetest little girgling noises. We would try so hard to get her to do it again and again. We just couldn't get enough of those sweet sounds.

Here are some pictures from month 3:

9 weeks old

I love this one. I often found her like this when it was time to wake her up from her nap. She would work her little arms out of the swaddle. Little stinker.

Hey there Bright Eyes, 12 weeks old

12 weeks and holding her head up so well

Happy Baby. We love you so much Lily Grace!

Lily Update: Month 2

The two things I remember most about month two are sweet smiles and the wubbanub. Wubba huh? It's a pacifier. http://www.wubbanub.com/ Strange name, amazing results. It was loads of fun to really start getting some good smiles from our little dumpling. No more of this gas hogwash. Her sweet little personality was beginning to show and we were loving every minute of it. Schedule-wise things were still going great. Around 6/7 weeks we knew she was capable of making it through the night without the middle of the night feeding which usually occured around 3-4am. We decided to try giving her a pacifier when she woke up. It worked great and she would go right back to sleep. Wonderful and perfect right? Well, yes and no. We knew we were potentially starting a habit that would need breaking in the near future. We certainly didn't want to have to give her a pacifier when she woke in the middle of the night to get her back to sleep. We knew she needed to learn to put herself back to sleep. Well so much for that. Most nights it only happened once but some nights 2 or 3 times. It seemed like she was getting a little too addicted to the paci and was waking up when it fell out. We got adventurous and decided, no more paci and bring on CIO (Cry It Out). That didn't last long. There was a time or two that we let her cry for an hour and it nearly killed me. I was literally traumatized. My mom came to the rescue and found the infamous Wubbanub. Basically, it is a soothie pacifier with a little beanie baby-like stuffed animal stuck on the end of it. It is designed to help keep the pacifier from falling out. It helped and Lily seemed to really like it but we still found ourselves getting up to put it back in to help her get back to sleep. It's not so bad when she is two feet away from your bed but up and down the stairs is a different story. We moved Lily to her crib in her nursery upstairs when she was eight weeks old. Kind of scary. Since she was no longer nursing in the middle of the night I was ready to go for it knowing I'd have to do it at some point anyways. She did great and I think it helped us sleep a little better too. Lily just made things so easy for us. I am so thankful for that but worried that next time could be a totally different story. At her 2 month check-up she weighed 11lbs 5oz and was 23 1/2 inches long. She was in the 90th percentile for both height and weight!

Here are some pictures from month 2 of precious baby Lily's life:

Trying to hold her head up and doing pretty good for only 5 weeks old!

Bathtime with Daddy, 7 weeks old



Mommy's little sweetie, 8 weeks old

Last but not least, The Wubbanub