Where's Lilyyyyy?!

Lily has changed so much in the last few weeks. She has learned tons of new things, and I love it!

She recently decided her favorite this was to play peek a boo. For a while I had been covering up my face with my hands and I say "where's mommy... Here I am!" and she's go nuts giggling. Now she does it too!. she hasn't figured out putting her hands over her face yet but she ducks her head down in her arm and you hear her little giggles as you say "where's Lily?!" the she pops her head up and goes crazy when you say "there she is!" It just cracks me up. She will also grab my hands if she is in my lap and put them on my face to make me play peek a boo!

She has also learned to oat her arm across her mouth as she's making noise and she loves the sound it makes.

She's yells babababa all day, haha.

She also has started to hold my hands when I clap. When I sing patty cake she loves to put her hands over mine. it's just adorable.

time is just flyin' by!

Fears have been creeping in.

I Love being a mother. I am positive that I'll never accomplish anything bigger in my life then carrying, birthing and raising Lily. Having Lily has re- introduced me to the love, I always knew I had for children. Me and Mike have been chatting about when the best time to have a second baby is. Yes , Lily is only  7 months, it'll be a year or so before we decide to go for number 2, but I want my children to be pretty close in age.

So as me and mike have been talking about this, I'm getting really nervous about the prospect of another pregnancy. I loved being pregnant, and am excited about doing it again, however, Mine wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Every one has a vision of what it will be like for them and I was sure I'd have an easy going pregnancy, after all, it's what my body is made to do, right? My reality was so far off from my vision. Fighting off preterm labor for 10 weeks was not part of the pregnancy I was going to have. I am so thankful to God for allowing Lily to make through our 36th week, but here's where the fears start... What if the next doesn't wait that long. I went into labor for the first time with lily at 26 weeks. it took 5 days to stop it, but they did stop it. What if  it happens again, and they can't. I don't know if i could handle delivering my baby and it not making it, or going through months of NICU life. Of course I would, and would just be thankful for anytime I'd have with my future baby, but I am so terrified about the what ifs involved in having another baby. We we're so lucky with Lily, I truly believe bed rest made such a difference in my contractions, and labor. But how can I do bed rest with a toddler?! Lily will be running around and needing my attention, Mike will have to work, so how do I manage both?? I pray that when we decide to have another baby Things will go smooth and that the pre term labor with Lily was just a fluke, and it wont happen with the next, but it's something I'm very worried about.

I Know deep down it's silly to worry. After all, God is in control and I trust him with my future. For years I was told that I'd be lucky to even get pregnant so I know God is working miracles in my Life. It's so apparent when I look at Lily. Every now and then I just need to vent some fears.

My sweet pea is 7 months old!

Seriously?! slow down. Lily is 7 months old as of Monday. I'm a little late with my post, Like always.

 This is SUCH a fun age, and although I miss my sweet 5 lb baby, I am loving the fun I am able to have with her now. I am stunned that we are now closer to her 1st birthday, then the day she was born. It still feels like yesterday to me! She is growing, and discovering new things everyday and I enjoy playing with her, and singing to her and really... doing just about anything with her :)

Here's what My 7 month old is up doing these days..

Modeling her new Halloween bow :-)

• Lily Loves to be sung to, and anything That lights up or makes music.
• She is getting to the age where she likes to be tossed up, spun around in my arms or anything involving us playing with her. She is a dare devil baby and loves to be danced with and tossed around ( in a baby friendly way, haha)
• She is about 18 lbs
• She is wearing 6 month cloths and size 3 diapers still.
• She is sleeping through the night, but will have an occasional "off" night.
• She has really started to notice Bailey and Riley. She loves to feel their fur and gets kisses from them.
• She has discovered real food. She still has 3 jars of baby food a day along with cereal at 7 ish But she is reaching and begging for whatever me or Mike is eating. We have begun giving her little pieces.
• She is a total ham, and loves any attention she gets. She LIGHTS UP as soon as you say her name and flash her a smile.
• She thinks it's the coolest thing ever to check herself out in the mirror.
• She is really splashing during bath time, I usually end up soaked too.

Lily is the absolute best thing in mine and Mike's Life. I never knew how fulfilled my life could be.

This precious baby reminds me EVERYDAY why I wanted to be a mother so bad. 

Lily's first "daycation"

This past Saturday me, mike and miss Lily decided to drive to Gwynne's island. His grandparents, uncle and cousin's were already camping there for the weekend.

Sorry this post contains 48,412 pictures.

Lily has been sleeping AWESOME the past few nights but Friday night( the night before we were waking up at 6 am to head to the camp ground) Lily slept terrible. Seriously, like a newborn. Up every two hours or less. We ended up downstairs in the swing around 2 and she slept until 6 when we headed out the door. We Had such a great day there, and I'm so glad we went. We got there around 8 and we just hung out, had some muffins and enjoyed the nice weather. We attempted to go to the beach, that didn't last long. there was SO many flies. Like mean, biting flies. Not fun. Which led us to putting her in the pea pod. This cute little mini tent that she can hang out in, but mean flies can't get her..

But Lily loved the water and the sand. It was her first time that we just sat her down and let her feel things out.

Fists full of sand, ha

After the beach we took a little family nap in the camper, which was much needed for all of us due to the night before. I snapped a picture of my two cuties after I woke up.

And this was after Lily woke up, and wanted her daddy up also.

We woke up and enjoyed lunch and just hanging around with family. We also made our way over to a sweet park and Lily enjoyed swinging.

We spent some more time with family, and even squeezed in another nap. We had dinner and headed home around 8. Lily slept all night, which was much needed! We so enjoyed our "dacation' and can't wait to take a real vacation here soon! Christmas in Key West! I am so blessed with a great family:)

Ha, I love Lily's face here.

Well that was easy. ( knock on wood)

We have made Hugh strides in the sleep department with Lily. She now naps 100% in her crib, rather than in her swing. That bad boy is going up in the spare bedroom until next time. She is going down easy, and when she does wake up at night her mobile is working wonders. She is out by the time the music stops, and the best part is I'm no longer having to feed her to get her back to sleep! I have a lot to blog about, we took a mini "daycation" over the weekend, and had a blast. So after a few chores around the house I write about that! hope everyone is having a great Monday!

crap.. did I do that?

When Lily was about 6 weeks old me and Mike started a bedtime routine. Every night we'd do the same thing, feed Lily her bedtime feeding, in the chair in her bedroom. she was pretty much asleep when we layed her down, and I was so proud that we figured out a plan that worked for our family. She went to sleep SO easy, too bad I didn't know I was planting a bad seed that would spring up in the future. What we didn't realize is, by putting her in bed pretty much knocked out... now MY KID CAN'T PUT HERSELF TO SLEEP!!! We figured this out because Lily still only sleeps through the night about 4 nights a week, Which is awesome. she'll sleep from 8pm to am. But the other 3 nights she wakes up once or maybe even twice. And every single time, she would need a bottle to put her self back to sleep. Whether she would wake up from a dirty diaper,teething or just waking up because of changing positions she would cry until she got a bottle. No matter how many times we would go in and pat her butt, or back she clearly let us know that wasn't going to cut it.

So here we go, in our attempt to help her learn to fall asleep at night, we are going to start feeding her the last feeding of the night downstairs in hopes that she will get drowsy from it, but be awake when we lay her down. here's hoping. Any one have any advice on this subject?.

The only strange thing is, she has put her self to sleep a few times, So that makes me think that maybe she does know how to.. She has fallen asleep on her own during naps and sometimes she'll wake up and just whine and then fall back asleep. So that kind of confuses me. Does she or doesn't she?? Maybe  she does, she just doesn't want to at night. HA! who knows. Think positive that this will help Lily start to sleep through the night, every night!