Lily's First Birthday - Part 2

One year ago today we welcomed Lily Grace into the world. Life has not been the same since. I still find it hard to believe I am the mother to three girls. So much can happen in the course of a few years.

Lily is a cutie for sure. She is far from soft-spoken. She knows what she needs to do to get our attention. She's been recently spotted "fighting back" when competing for a coveted toy but also has moments where she is welcomed by her sisters in whatever game they are playing. Here are a few other developments in the life of Lily:

Sleep
We decided a few weeks ago to stick to our guns and push through the whole sleep training thing. It was tough-going in the beginning. I mean, what else should we expect when Lily had been used to being rocked or nursed to sleep for her whole life? A few days ago things just clicked-for me and Lily. When she's done feeding I pleasantly bring her to her room and go through our own little routine before I sneak out and leave a smiling and awake Lily behind in her crib. It seems like lately rocking her to sleep has been the exception rather than the rule. Thank you God!

Mobility
Lily is still not walking, but she is cruising like crazy. Occasionally she'll practice standing herself up either using the floor to push up or a small toy or box (rather than pulling up on furniture). She'll then stand for a good while before plopping down and trying it again. She's also taken a few steps between pieces of furniture and me and Jonathan. Lily really doesn't let much get in the way of her getting to where she wants. She isn't really all that into climbing onto things, and I am in no hurry for that to happen anyway.

Teeth
Lily still only has two teeth. I think maybe two more on the bottom may be on the way, but I'm not too sure. I think Sarah had five teeth at this age and Abigail had her two top teeth. She's still able to chew on a few table foods though.

Communication
Lily can shake her head "no" and nod "yes", but not always when it makes sense. She's better at letting us know "no" than "yes". She's got the "da-da" sound down. Almost every time I ask her to say, "ma-ma" she will either shake her head or say "da-da" instead. And, like I said before, she is good at making her voice heard. She can squeal like the best of them.

Our baby is one! I cannot believe it. We look forward to continuing to see her little personality develop. Happy real birthday Lily!

Lily's First Birthday - Part 1

Lily will officially be one on Tuesday. We celebrated a bit early though because Papa Kapaldo was in town for the weekend.

I really wanted to do a pumpkin cake again, like Sarah's first birthday, but figured it might be a cop out. Instead, I made pumpkin cake (a different recipe), but made a small one for Lily and cupcakes for everyone else. It ended up being a cross between Sarah's first cake and Abigail's first "cakes".

Lily didn't know what to make of everyone looking at her and singing to her. She also didn't know what to make of the cake. She dragged her hand through the frosting a number of times and then proceeded to wipe the frosting on her leg and high chair tray. She finally ended up tasting it, but didn't get all that into it.

After making a mess of herself we gave Lily a quick bath before she opened her presents.

It's funny to see Lily do more big girl things as she approaches the one year mark. Before our guests arrived Lily would push herself into a standing position using the floor (versus pulling up on a piece of furniture).

It's hard to see the baby of the family turn one. Before we know it she'll be a walking, talking, giggly little girl. Happy early birthday Lily!

Leaf Peeping (Sort of)

I think we can pretty much count on an occasional warm fall day every year. Monday was one of those days. My plan was to take the girls outside to play in the leaves after afternoon naps were over. Well, during Lily's morning nap the staff at our apartment complex mowed over all of the leaves! The day was a breezy one, so more ended up falling by the time we went outside, but it just wasn't the same. Though, Lily certainly had no problem finding all sorts of delicious looking leaves to sample.

Here are two other posts of the girls playing in the leaves - a blast from the past.

Abigail in the leaves
Abigail and baby Sarah

Eleven Months!

Once again, I missed taking Lily's monthly photo until a few days later. I guess it's better missing them all-together! And I guess they can't all be of her smiling :-)

Lily is all over the place. She cruises like a pro and still uses her stroller. She has even started letting go to stand on her own for a second or two.

She still only has two teeth, but she still manages to inflict pain with them.

If you haven't heard our little Lily (wherever on the globe you may be) I would be surprised. She is very loud and very vocal. If you aren't meeting her needs (or wants) she will give out a shrill scream. She's also been seen making the "mmma" sound. I'm convinced she's referring to me, her mama.

She spends more time playing on her own and even playing with the girls. Sometimes Abigail and Sarah are good about including her when other times they ask me to take her away.

In less than a month she'll be a year old. I think I've said this a few times...some days can seem incredibly long, but a year sure does fly by!

Ten Months!

Jonathan asked me two nights back, "Did you take Lily's monthly picture?" I responded by asking, "It isn't the 15th, yet, is it?" That is evidence of a long day, folks. Lily was born on the 13th of November, not the 15th.

So here it is, just two days late:

Lily is on the move. She climbs and cruises. Sometimes it seems like she'd rather find a piece of furniture to cruise on to get to her final destination rather than crawl (which turns out to be the faster alternative). She's also using her walker to get around.



Lily still only has two bottom teeth. We've started adding more finger foods though, because she manages fine with only two teeth. Let's face it, she's had lots of practice with random bits of paper she's managed to find on her crawling adventures. She's had cheerios, very cooked carrots, and shredded cheese.

Our almost one year old is also starting to shake her head "no". I'm not sure she's always trying to say "no" but it comes at times when you'd think she was. For instance, she shook her head at me when I put her in the crib for a nap. She also shook her head two minutes into a feeding when she decided she wasn't into it anymore and I plopped her on the floor. Here's another cute video of her "saying no":



So a lot has changed since last month. Lily definitely is seeming less and less baby-like as time passes.

Eight Months!

Lily hit the eight month mark over the weekend. She is scooting around like crazy and now sits unassisted like a champ. For a time we would sit her up to keep her in one place, but then she quickly figured out how to get back on her tummy to make her escape. Her favorite forbidden area is the bathroom. She'll sneak her way to the hallway and make a bee-line for the restroom. She will stop briefly when we call out to her, give us a smile, and then go on her merry way.

Lily is still all gums. I think her bottom front teeth may be on the way out, but I've been thinking that for a few weeks now, so who knows!

We still see Lily once or twice during the night. I figure it's teething, so I let her get away with it. Plus, it's just easier to feed her then try to get her back to sleep any other way.

Oh, and can I say it was not easy getting her onesie picture this month!

Seven Months!

Lily is now seven months old. Here's a quick summary of what's been going on with our youngest:

Mobile Baby!

Lily is rolling and scooting all over the place. She is always in search of the nearest scrap of paper, teeny hair clip, or other forbidden object. I have already had to snag a few things out of her mouth. It comes with the territory when you have two older girls who don't always pick up after themselves (ok, sometimes it's been me leaving things behind too).

Food!

I'm still making Lily's baby food. Really though, I've only made two more things because when you make a food once you have a good inventory in the freezer to last a while. So far Lily has sampled sweet potatoes, squash, carrots (store-bought but I plan to make some soon), apples, and pears.

Sleep.

You can't use the words "baby", "sleep", and "consistent" in the same sentence. One (or two) night(s) she'll sleep through the night when other nights she'll still wake up once or twice. Naps end up being 30 minutes to 2 hours long depending on if she's sleeping deeply and we're all quiet enough for her. Some nights she'll fall asleep on her own while other nights (when she's over-tired) we have to help her out.

Other Milestones

Lily is still toothless. Also, she can sit, but only with assistance still. She's always diving for the nearest thing she can stick in her mouth. Also, she does plenty of babbling and screeching and laughing.

Mealtime Shenanigans

Mealtime with the Kapaldo family can be lots of fun. Mealtime with the Kapaldo's at Nonna and Papa's house can be tons of fun! Maybe two weeks ago we were having dinner with my parents and grandparents and Abigail felt the need to stand in her chair, look to Papa, spread out her arms and say, "Papa, are you out of your mind?!" Before we knew it Sarah was saying it too. Every time one of the girls would say it everyone roared with laughter. It got quite loud in that dining room!

Last night Sarah uttered the silly phrase a few more times, and we got it on camera this time. No one says it quite like Sarah, and she probably gets the most laughs out of it.

Photo Fridays 06.01.12

Remember how I mentioned that Abigail was getting more gutsy with Lily? Well, Abigail has not let up one little bit. I was on the phone with Jonathan in the kitchen when I went on my way into the living room to find Abigail standing up, holding Lily, and attempting to place Lily in her toy stroller! For my own peace of mind and for Lily's protection I unpacked and set up our play pen.

My friend Kelly gave us this play pen when Abigail was a baby. We used it a lot with Abigail, but not so much with Sarah. Abigail really wasn't interested in lifting Sarah, and most of Abigail's toys were not choking hazards. I am really happy we still have this handy baby gear and Lily doesn't seem to mind it either!

Lily's First Veggie

In an effort to save money I thought I'd give homemade baby food another try. Last night I made butternut squash and sweet potatoes. I got a lot of great information and "recipes" from momtastic's Wholesome baby food website. Here's what Lily thought of the squash.

 

 

I think she really liked it. I was surprised we didn't get more of a reaction from her though.

We'll see how things go with the whole homemade baby food thing. I tried making food for Abigail back in the day but didn't stick with it. At the moment I am pretty determined to go this route because it will be such a money-saver.

Six Months!

Lily officially turned 6 months old yesterday, but I didn't get around to taking her monthly picture until this morning.

Lily is trying her hardest to scoot. I'll see her reaching for a toy (or something she shouldn't be going for, like a little girl's sneaker). Then she'll bring her knees in...and then...she goes backwards. She has mastered moving sideways (like the arms of a clock).

We've been better at giving her solids and will probably introduce a few veggies now. I think she is eager to eat. Jonathan often holds her during dinner time and she'll follow his fork with her eyes.

We haven't done official sleep training yet. On occasion I would put her in her crib awake. The problem we have now is that the two older girls will sit up in their bunk beds and squeal, laugh, and talk with her. I think sleep training will involve training the other girls as to how this whole thing will work.

I cannot believe half a year has gone by since Lily came into the world! Time flies!

Time for Solids!

Lily had her first experience with solid food this week. She had a modest helping of rice cereal. I'm not sure what she thought was more strange: the taste, the consistency, or four crazy people hovering over her while she ate. It was quite the event!

She did a great job. Towards the end though she started playing with her food by blowing raspberries. I'm looking forward to trying things with a little more flavor in the weeks to come.

Oh, and I just wanted to let you all in on a little secret. Really, I just want to dispel a myth that I have known to be false since Abigail. Rice cereal (or any solids for that matter) does NOT equal better or longer stretches of sleep. I'll leave it at that.

Five Months!

Lily is a whopping five months old now! She recently became an expert in rolling over from her back to her belly. She now just needs to master rolling from belly to back because after being on her belly for just a short while she'll get bored and fuss until I turn her back over.

Our beautiful blessing is still struggling in the sleep arena. Part of me wishes that she hadn't teased us back around 3 months when she slept like an angel. If she was a consistently crummy sleeper I wouldn't expect anything different. But I know she is capable of great sleep! She just doesn't do it.

Jonathan and I plan on doing the sleep training thing in the next few days. With Abigail and Sarah we noticed great sleeping improvements when we helped them to learn to fall asleep on their own. Experts say babies are best able to do this around 4-6 months. Stay tuned!

Four Months!

There is not much to add to Lily's update from last week. Lily did have her first cold. It started out as mainly a fever with a little congestion. For the most part she was her same cheerful self. She had the hardest time at night. We ended up riding things out without medicine or having to visit the Doctor, which was a blessing.

The funny thing about the cold is that it seems to have knocked Lily out of her nice sleeping pattern. She's been going to bed later and waking one or two times more a night. Hopefully once she is 100% she'll go back to going to sleep earlier and waking only once during the night.

Lily Update

Things are going very well with Lily. I hesitate to put this out there, but Lily has been sleeping amazingly! She'll go down for the night between 8-9:00 and will sleep for 5-6 hours. Then she eats and sleeps for another 3-4 hours! She also has a more predictable schedule of wake/play/nap times. She's even done this on occasion:


Yes, Lily has fallen asleep a few times on her playmat, despite all the noise and craziness going on around her.

She hasn't managed to roll over yet. She'll get onto her side and then is quickly distracted by her fist, which she proceeds to chew/suck on. With all her finger munching I'm beginning to wonder if we'll be seeing teeth soon.

Three Months!

Lily is three months old now. I was changing her this morning and thought, "Wait a second, what is today's date?" I realized she hit 3 months and had to change her for her onesie picture:

Lily loves to smile. She also loves to stick her hands in her mouth. She's reaching for her toys now and she tolerates tummy time better than before. We see more of Lily's beautiful blue eyes during the day as she is spending less time napping than when she was younger (I feel silly saying "when she was younger").

Nighttime sleep is not going so well. It seems that all three girls went through a phase where they just did not like sleeping in their crib. Abigail spent a lot of time sleeping in our bed. Sarah spent time sleeping in the swing. Right now Lily will start in the crib, but oftentimes will end up with us or in the swing. If I remember correctly, this issue got better once the girls went through "sleep training". So, anywhere between four and six months.

The girls still love Lily :-) Sarah is actually spending more time with her, which I'm happy about. She'll crouch down in front of Lily in her bouncy seat and say in a sweet, high voice "Hi Lily".

Lily is getting so big! I'm interested just how big she is, which we'll find out in a few days during her checkup. Happy three months Lily!

One Month

Lily hit the one month mark last week. Today was her one month check up. I ended up taking all three girls to her appointment and it went surprisingly well! No one ran off and no one acted up.

Lily is a whopping 10 pounds, 6 ounces, so I'd say she's doing just fine considering her "vomiting" issues. Because she isn't fussy and because it generally doesn't happen more than once a day (and because of her weight gain) the Doctor and I agreed to wait a bit before calling it reflux.

Lily has had a good stretch of sleep (four hours) pretty much only once since we took her home from the hospital. At night she'll sleep 2, 2.5, or maybe 3 hour stretches. This wouldn't be a big deal except for the times when she doesn't go back to sleep right away. Oh well, some day she'll give us a little more sleep. I'm hoping that sometime soon we can start developing a schedule.

Who Do You Think She Looks Like?

We've got this question a lot-whether it be about Lily or the older girls. There are times when I see each of us in her. What do you think?

Lily at one month:

Abigail at one month:
Sarah at one month:

When Abigail answers the question, she hits the nail on the head, "She looks like Lily!"

Life with Lily

Lily will be four weeks old on Sunday. Life has been interesting having three girls under 3 1/2, but it has been doable.

I've managed to go out a few times with all three girls while Jonathan is at work. We went to Abigail's homeschool co-op last Friday and then visited with Nonna afterward. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking the girls to Nonna's just about every day she has off (I could use all the adult interaction I can get-plus she likes to hold Lily :-) Getting the girls in the van for an outing is pretty easy, getting the girls back in the apartment is another story. Yesterday afternoon all three girls fell asleep on the way home from Nonna's. I grabbed the older girls one-by-one and set them on the bottom step of our stairwell, then I grabbed Lily. After that I had to take each of them one-by-one up the stairs into our apartment (they were all a bit grumpy and not willing to climb the stairs themselves). Normally I'm all for the girls napping in the car, but not if they are unwilling to help me out when it comes to getting in the apartment!

Lily likes to sleep a lot. Let me be more specific - Lily likes to sleep a lot during the day. The past three nights we've had a good 1 hour to 2 hours of wide-awake time for one reason or another. I'm not sure if she's confusing day and night still, or if she's sleeping too much during the day. But I've also heard the phrase "sleep begets sleep" so I am not really willing to force her to be awake during the day.

Lily's other hobby seems to be spewing her meals all over me. And, can you believe it, she manages to soak me and nearby furniture/carpeting and get barely a drop on her. I'm not ready to call it reflux yet, though it does tend to happen at least once a day. Sarah had the same problem, but took meds for reflux. Regardless, it is very discouraging and very frustrating to have a dozy little lady nice and full and ready for sleep when all of a sudden she'll burb and barf all at once. Please pray for us.

3:1

Today was Jonathan's first day back at work. I was sort of dreading this day, because having Jonathan around was such a huge help! He didn't think he was that big of a help, but he couldn't be more wrong. Most of his help involved watching Lily so I could tend to chores, etc (which is something I really wanted to take care of).

The night before Jonathan's day back was a bit stressful. Lily decided to stay wide awake from 11:15 or so until about 1:00. Once she was settled in bed I figured I was good until 4:00 or so. I was wrong-she got up at 3:00 (and this was after I had to get up to calm Sarah down when she woke up sometime between 1:00 and 4:00). After I fed Lily what I thought was a pretty substantial meal I struggled to help her get back to sleep. I was desperate and had Jonathan help me out around 4:00. He was able to get her back to sleep around 5:00.

Our restless sleep made for an easier day with Daddy away though, because Lily had a lot of sleep to make up for. Most of the day I dealt with an actual 2:1 and even 1:1 Little One to Mommy ratio because of naps. I was able to do a little cleaning and Abigail and I even fit in a preschool lesson. The only thing I didn't manage to do was take a shower (I'll have to figure that one out).

We made it! We survived in one piece! With God's help I think we'll be able to do this.