21 and 22 weeks

Lila is 22 weeks old! She also turned 5 months old on June 24th. Our baby girl is growing up so fast!

Lila at 21 weeks...


And Lila at 22 weeks. She was so smiley on Sunday, it was hard to choose just one photo. So instead of choosing just one, here are 3!




These past few weeks, Lila's personality has really started to emerge. She is talkative, giggly, and she reaches for and grabs on to things that she wants. She watches everything, and you can practically see the gears turning when she sees something for the first time. She has really taken an interest in her reflection in the mirror, especially when we play "peek-a-boo" with her in the mirror. She laughs and squeals when the dogs approach her, and she reaches out to pat them and grab their ears. She's always got a fist full of my hair when she's in my arms, and no earrings or necklaces are safe from her tight grasp. She loves taking a bath and has "graduated" from the infant tub to a foam mat in the bathtub, so she can now splash about as she pleases. It's adorable! She has a few swimsuits and I can't wait to get her in them and out into the kiddie pool in our backyard this summer.

If you can read this, we probably owe you an email, a phone call, a thank you note, or a get-together. We promise that we are not ignoring you all, it's just that it's all we can do to keep our heads above water these past several weeks. Along with all of the wonderful, amazing, beautiful things that Lila is doing right now, she's also having a terrible time sleeping. For the past 7 weeks, she has been screaming for up to 3 hours at bedtime, and has been waking nearly every hour every night. Sometimes she sleeps for as little as 20 minutes at a stretch. To be perfectly honest, we are beyond exhausted. I now know why sleep deprivation is a form of torture. We have really been struggling these past several weeks. Nothing we do for our sweet girl seems to help, and we've been assured by her pediatrician that this is just what babies do sometimes, and hopefully she'll grow out of it sooner rather than later. I can't tell you how much we are hoping and praying that is true. Just tonight it took 2.5 hours to get her down to sleep, and that was after one screaming session that was so intense she vomited. Unfortunately the scream-til-she-pukes scenario has been a regular occurrence lately. We were back at the doctor's office again today, and the only new thought is that she's probably teething. We're so tired of seeing our girl so sad. It's heartbreaking, frustrating, and exhausting. I honestly don't know who has shed more tears lately - her or me. (I should add a friendly disclaimer here: While we love and appreciate everyone's desire to help, we are not open to advice at this time. This mama doesn't deal well with advice on little sleep. Besides, I can assure you, whatever the suggestion, we've probably tried it. We've been at this for Seven. Long. Weeks. Also, stories about how your baby didn't sleep 'til he or she turned 3? Not cool. Thanks.)

The daylight hours are, however, some of the most wonderful that we've had in Lila's little life so far. She is such a sweet, happy baby by day.

Here we are trying to capture her hilarious growl on film. We got a tiny growl that you'll hear if you listen closely. (Think she might be teething? Even her chair goes in her mouth!)



Here's another video taken a few weeks ago at bedtime. She loves being on her changing table- it's one of her favorite places in the world. Sometimes we get her laughing so hard she'll pee - which is why there's usually no more than a receiving blanket on her changing pad. Put on a cute changing pad cover and a minute later it has been peed upon! Oh well. :)



That's it from the Z household. If you think of it, please send some sleepy pixie dust our way!

Dad.

(belated because we were spending the weekend together enjoying the sunshine)

A very happy Father's Day to two extra special dads...


We love you.

Ahh, summer...

Happy Saturday, and happy SUMMER!

19 & 20 weeks

Our little girl is getting so big! Here she is at 19 weeks. All smiles!


Hey, Baby Z! What's that? It's the zebra your Godmother Alex brought back for you from her trip to South Africa! Z is for Baby Z, and Z is for zebra, too! (Zebras are very serious business. This is a full-on zebra stare-down, folks!)


And at 20 weeks. No smile. If she was smiling, she wouldn't be able to put the 'Z' in her mouth, and everything goes in her mouth.

Over the past few weeks, Lila's personality has really emerged. She laughs more, talks more, and you can watch the wheels turning as she interacts with the world around her. She didn't used to take any interest in the dogs, no matter how interested they were in her, until just recently. Now she talks to them and laughs whenever they are nearby. Ed was petting Wally while holding Lila the other day and Lila reached out and grabbed Wally's ear. The look on Wally's face was priceless! "This was NOT part of the bargain when you brought that baby home!"

Oh, the grabbing. She grabs everything now! I love watching her excitement when I dangle a toy in front of her face. She lights up and then reaches for the toy, taking it in her own hands and then straight into her mouth.

Lila definitely went through a growth spurt over the past few weeks. Our little sleeper, who was only waking once in the middle of the night, suddenly decided that sleep was nowhere on her 'to do' list and gave it up almost entirely. It has been a really rough couple of weeks. The lack of sleep paired with the sudden increase in her milk intake are, I guess, classic signs of a growth spurt. I've heard there's another big one around 8 months. At least this time we'll be somewhat aware of what's going on, because we were completely caught off guard this round.

I still think that Lila is teething. She puts everything in her mouth, and she can chomp down on fingers and hands with a vengeance. The other night she put a soft toy in her mouth and bit down and then wailed. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, and nothing we did soothed her. I finally stripped her naked to see if she had a bug bite or something in her diaper, but found nothing. Finally we concluded that her gums were sore and the chomping aggravated the pain. She's drooling like a mad woman, so we're hoping that these are all signs that a tooth (teeth?) will break through the gums sooner rather than later.

It's getting harder and harder to leave Lila at daycare every day. She's just so much fun! She laughs and smiles and plays, and all I want to do is stay home with her and watch her so that I don't miss a single thing. She does really seem to be enjoying daycare, though, and I know that they are so good to her.

Tonight Ed will be out with friends and I'm looking forward to some girl time, just Lila and me. I do love watching Lila with her daddy, but sometimes I just want to have her all to myself to snuggle and blow raspberries and giggle with all evening long.

If you do one thing today...

It's hot outside today. Hot and humid and sticky and thunderstorms are on their way. One of the ickiest things about hot weather is getting into a hot car. The steering wheel is too hot to touch and the air is thick and stifling.

For as long as we've had our puppies on our lives, we've been cautious about cars and heat. We know not to leave our dogs in the car when it's hot outside, even if the windows are cracked. We know that in just a few minutes, a hot car can become a death trap to a dog.

Now that we're parents, we must take that caution one step further. Never, ever would we leave our sweet daughter alone in a car, even for a moment. Even with the windows cracked, even with the windows wide open, even on the nicest of spring days. Never.

By the grace of God our baby girl will grow and grow and grow and with each passing day she will become more and more curious. She will play hide-and-seek and she will mischievously get into things she shouldn't. One of those things could be a car on a warm day.

In memory of little Ava, please take a moment today to tell one person about Ava's rules.


(click the photo for more information.)

As the weather warms and we all head outside, curious little ones in tow, please take a few extra moments to keep them safe.

For Ava and for all the littlest loves of our lives.

Where has my baby gone?

Have you seen our tiny baby who was born just about 5 months ago? Because yesterday I strapped the baby I thought was her into a stroller for a walk. But when I looked down I discovered this little girl instead.


She's getting SO BIG!

(Still no photos from our camera. The pic above is a cell phone photo. Hoping to get other pics posted later today.)

If you don't have anything nice to say

I haven't forgotten about Lila's blog, I promise! I have plenty of nice things to say, but it seems that our camera and our computers are not speaking to one another. I'm sure it's a fairly easy fix, but life has been more bananas than usual and so I've not had the time to sit down and get it all straightened out. Once I can pull photos again I'll update you on all of Lila's goings-on.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo I already have on my computer. Miss Lila loves to help her mama bake. Here she is offering a helping hand with the baking of the cupcakes for her baptism celebration.

18 weeks

Lila is 18 weeks old today! As usual I forgot to take her weekly picture until she had already changed out of her cute outfit of the day, so here's Lila in her jammy jams.


Lila had lots and lots of family in town for the weekend, including two grandmas, a great grandma, a second cousin, and her great aunt and uncle. Lila was baptized today and we were so lucky to have so many people in town to share in the special day.

Here's Lila with her Grandma W last night at dinner. She was the life of the party!

Lila surprised everyone by not crying during her baptism this morning. She's not always a big fan of water on her head. Thankfully the water in the font is nice and warm, so I think that helped. I love this picture.

Here's Lila with her mom, dad, and her wonderful Godparents, Mark and Alex.

Look at this cutie pie with her Grandma Z. I love her wet baptism hair. :)

Lila is fortunate to have four living great grandparents - eight if you count her step great grandparents. One of Lila's great grandmas was able to visit for the baptism, so we took a four generation picture! This is Lila with me, my mom, and my mom's mom.

Here's Lila with two of her grandmas. There was a lot of Grandma love for Lila this weekend! So much love in fact, that it wore her out. Midway through taking pictures, Lila fell sound asleep. It was so funny! One minute, awake... next minute, droopy, then bam! Asleep. Unfortunately the sleepy didn't last long. With all of the excitement today, Lila was so wound up that she barely napped and bedtime took over three hours. Yee haw.

And lastly, Lila with Mom and Dad. See the little onesie she's wearing? That was the very first piece of clothing ever purchased for little Lila, before we even knew we were expecting a little girl. I remember shopping with my mom and picking it out. We bought the 6 month size and at the time I could hardly imagine our baby ever being big enough to fit in it.

Lila turned four months old on Monday! Monday was also our anniversary, so it was quite a day for celebrating around here. I apologize for not writing an entry as promised, but things were a little crazy at our house.

Unfortunately, Lila was not feeling well at all. She came down with another cold - or the second giant whollop of her first cold - I'm not sure which. Monday night we all got about 3 hours of sleep and early Tuesday we landed in the doctor's office with a screaming baby who had not slept in 10+ hours. It turns out that Lila had sore little ears. Poor baby was absolutely miserable. On top of everything, it was humid and in the 90's on Tuesday. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Needless to say, our little four month old had had better days. Thankfully, save for some congestion, she is feeling much better now. Knock on wood! This sick thing is getting O-L-D for all involved.

On her four month birthday, our baby girl rolled over! She rolled from her back to her side, something she does quite often, and then she chillaxed on her side for quite a while. Suddenly she suprised everyone - herself included - and rolled onto her stomach! Once on her stomach she was none too pleased. She hates being on her stomach. We were so amazed and proud that we kept her on her tummy for a bit to see if she'd roll back over onto her back. No dice, but wow! I was not expecting that. She's been flinging her legs to the side for quite a while now, but I didn't think she was anywhere near rolling over. She's yet to do it again, but that doesn't mean that we haven't been putting her down and encouraging her. :)

Lila's other new trick is growling. It is the funniest thing I have ever heard. She'll get a really serious look on her face, lean over, and then let out a big, "errrrr!" We've been trying to tape the growl, but so far the little growler has been camera shy. She did put on a few cute growling performances for her visitors this weekend, though.

Well, since the little growler took so long to go to bed tonight, I should probably head to bed. Who knows when she'll be awake next. Last night she slept from 9:30 pm - 6:30 am, which was heavenly for me. Maybe she's tired enough for a repeat performance tonight? Cross your fingers.

17 weeks

Lila is 17 weeks old today!

Today's photo shoot was quite comical. For starters, Lila did not want to keep her skirt down. I'd put it down and not a moment later she'd have it up by her chin. I'd smooth it out again and by the time I'd picked up the camera, she had the hem in her mouth. Something tells me that she won't be wearing a lot of skirts, at least until she understands that undergarments aren't for the whole world to see.

I got a few shots with her skirt down, but she was less than enthused about posing today.

Seriously, Mom? Can't we be doing something more fun? I'm bored.

Hey, this thing's edible, right?

Sit still, skirt down, think about smiling? Okay, fine. But I'll only think about smiling. Then we go find Daddy. Deal?

Lila got her 4 month shots on Thursday, and I'm so happy to report that this time, the whole thing was super easy. She didn't enjoy the actual injection, nor did she enjoy the oral vaccine she received, but she only cried for a minute or two before settling in for a snack. After her snack she took a long nap and she awoke with seemingly no memory of the vaccines. She did come home with a few stickers and an animal sounds book, rewards from the nurses for her bravery.

Yesterday and today it has been hot and humid here. I'm so thankful that Lila has outgrown the need to be swaddled because it has been too dang hot for her to wear much to bed. Last night she wore a sleeveless sleep sack and tonight she's in just a diaper and a short-sleeved onesie. Poor baby seems to have inherited her mom's propensity towards overheating and sweating when the temperature rises above, oh, 70 degrees.

Last night I spent a night out with the girls, so Daddy bathed Lila and put her to bed. She was very, very unhappy about not being able to nurse to sleep, and cried for quite a long time before finally succumbing to exhaustion. She wouldn't take a bottle (that has never happened) and went to sleep without eating. When I got home I thought for sure she'd be awake soon looking for food, but she wound up sleeping until 6 am - a solid 9 hours since she had gone down and 11 hours since she had last eaten. While we were thankful for the sleep, we were a bit concerned that she could sleep so long without eating. It's very out of character for her. She struggled a bit going down again tonight, but I think that had more to do with being warm and uncomfortable. We'll see how she sleeps tonight.

Tomorrow is a big day for Miss Baby Z and her parents...watch for another update! :)

16 weeks

Lila is 16 weeks old today, and next Monday she'll be 4 months old. Four months! She's growing so fast.

We've been out enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend. Lila has a new toy, which has kept her busy for hours.

See how she's grabbing the toys? She's never done that before, but when she's on her back on the play mat, she laughs and grabs at all of the colorful toys dangling above her head. There's a mirror at one end of the play mat and she enjoys rolling her head back to look at herself. She's even a bit more tolerant of tummy time while she's on the mat. I think it's all of the fun colors and pretty shapes that keep her stimulated and less aware of the fact that being on her tummy is actually a form of torture (or so she'd have you believe...)

Lila is still struggling with some congestion from the cold she picked up a few weeks ago. It sucks. She has been sleeping better the past few nights, not waking up snorting and choking because of a stuffy nose as she had been for almost 2 weeks straight. I took her to the doctor on Thursday and basically the doctor said that there's not much that can be done short of waiting it out. I figured as much but wanted to play it safe in case she actually had allergies or something more serious. To me 15 days is a long time to hang on to a cold, but I guess it's not that long for a baby to have a cold. The doctor told me she could be sick for up to 4 WEEKS. The thought makes me want to cry. Four weeks of misery for our little girl, and 4 weeks of tiring days and nights for her parents. What makes matters worse is that every parent of children who are in daycare has told me that colds are par for the course, and to expect her to have a cold pretty much constantly for the first year of her life. We had dinner with our neighbors last night and they told us that it's more abnormal for a child in their son's daycare room to not have a cold than for them to have a cold. Great. Makes me love being back at work all that much more.

This working mom thing is hard. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. When Lila was born, it was hard, but I thought almost every day that being a mom was definitely easier than what I was expecting. Then I went back to work and now, well...it's hard on a level I could have never imagined. I hate that we only get to spend a few hours a day with our baby, and I hate that her happiest and most playful hours are spent in the company of others. I miss her so much. On top of that, our house is a disaster, because when Lila is asleep for the night we have a choice between going to sleep or doing everything else that needs to get done - stuff like eating, cleaning, laundry... I hate cramming everything I value and enjoy into just a few hours each day, and I hate choosing between sleep and keeping up with the rest of life. I'm hoping that things will start to balance out a bit more once Lila gets a little older.

The sun is shining, so I'm going to sign off and join Ed and Lila for some time outside.