There are two reasons why today is amazing. Here they are:
First and most important: Lucy has now slept through the night the last two nights. Like, completely slept through the night. Slept through the night as in 7:45 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. without so much as a peep- I'll do the math for you... that's 10.5 straight hours (okay last night was actually only 9.5, but still)... we're breaking records here, people. Slept through the night as is no middle-of-the-night feeding. Slept through the night. I can't say that phrase enough because I'm still in shock. I hope it's here to stay... but I'm certainly not getting my hopes up.
Second: 87 degrees and sunny. Need I say more? Okay, I will. Lucy and I took full advantage and went for a long walk outside in our new jogging stroller and by the end, I was sweating like crazy and Lucy was in a deep sleep. That's what I call a successful walk.
These pictures were actually from yesterday when it wasn't as hot on our walk. I wouldn't make her wear pants and close-toed shoes in today's heat.
Back when we first got married, we had a disagreement about something and both were convinced that we were right and the other person was wrong. And there was no budging. I don't even remember what it was about now, which just goes to show that it usually doesn't matter in the long run. So right then and there we decided to take turns being "right." Ryan kindly let me have 2009. So come May 2, 2010, it was his year to be "right" and we've traded each year since. It obviously started as a joke but has worked great several times in the last three years in keeping disagreements from becoming heated, simply because we have to let the other person be right sometimes and we end up laughing over our silly rule. So, Ryan, since I had 2011, I now give you your turn of always being the "right" one in 2012.
But since I have one more day of being "right" (I'm actually writing this on May 1st), I would like to mention a few things that actually, no matter the year, I am always right about:
Ryan is amazingly patient and kind.
Ryan works SO hard for our family.
Ryan will drop almost anything (I say almost because I don't know about a BYU football game- and I don't dare try) to help me when I ask for help, and often even when I don't ask for help.
Ryan is the best husband (for me) and father (for Lucy).
I am one lucky girl.
It's been a great three years and I love that each year just gets better! Happy Anniversary, Ry! Thanks for marrying me. :)
So I titled this post before I actually wrote it, and it should really just read, "mostly another Lucy update." So here you have it... mostly another Lucy update. :)
I had to make a "fun" dessert for a church activity, and since I have no ounce of craftiness in me, which especially applies to baking and cake-making, I found the easiest fun-looking dessert I could find online and copied it. I figured it would be hard to really mess up basic cupcakes.
I had to get an MRI and found out when I got there that I couldn't nurse Lucy for 24-48 hours afterwards due to a dye injection that they had to give me. I had been trying to get her to take a bottle for over a month with no success. I had no other option but to go cold turkey on nursing for the day, and it worked! She refused to eat for 5 hours straight and then she sucked dry every other bottle after that. It was weird pumping out very blue milk for the next 24 hours! I am happy to say that, even a week later, she will now do both- nurse and take a bottle. Just what I've been wanting! It's such a relief. And I can wear a dress to church now, which pretty much doubles my outfit choices. Might I also mention that towards the beginning of those 24 hours that I couldn't nurse Lucy, I made sure to pound down all of the food I can't normally eat while nursing her, such as pizza and ice cream. Ha! Oh, and my mom even got her to hold her own bottle!
Just the other day Lucy was pretty hungry and as I was about to feed her, I thought, why not try some of the baby food I got her? She refused it a week or two earlier, but this time she gobbled up the whole thing, and washed it all down with a full bottle, too! In these pictures it was squash, but she's had carrots as well. This baby food stuff though is messy business... by the time we were done, there was squash everywhere (hair, clothes, hands, face... on both Lucy AND me!).
Lucy was so tired the other day but she was only about an hour away from bedtime so I put her in her swing for a little bit with a doll. She sat there zoned out in her own little world like this until Ryan came home from work. It was cute.
I think Lucy went through a big growth spurt. For a few days she was pretty grouchy and fussy and was tired after being awake for only 30 minutes at a time. After those few days she was all of a sudden super duper happy and not as fussy as usual, and she had gained a pound, too (that's a lot considering she gains weight at a snail's pace). Anyway, this video is just a little glimpse of our happy Lucy!
Lucy is 5 months! I can't believe she has been here for almost half of a year. She is SO much fun these days. Seriously, there's lot's of smiles and giggles around here. I am three days late on this post, but here's the latest and greatest of Lucy at 5 months:
Let's start with sleep. She sleeps!! Yes, she sleeps. Thank you so so much to everyone for their tips, encouragement, etc. On a typical night now, she will sleep from about 8pm until 7am, waking up once at about 4am to eat. Although, she has always woken up crying one other time before her middle of the night feeding and I haven't quite figured that out yet, but she goes back to sleep quickly and hopefully she's done with that for a while. Anyway, Ryan and I feel so much more rested already. It's amazing the difference it makes in your day when you get a few more consecutive hours of sleep.
She found her feet and is constantly grabbing them, playing with them, and trying to suck them.
She watches our every move at dinner. She will follow our fork from the plate to our mouth while drooling and smacking her lips. haha.
She struggled with eating and gaining weight yet again (can this cycle please stop?) and I had to take her to the doctor. Turned out she was constipated, which apparently makes little babies feel full, thus making her not want to eat. Some milk of magnesia has been helping remedy that situation.
Lucy loves going on walks outside (as long as we are holding her. She continues to dislike her car seat).
Every evening when Ryan gets home he says how much bigger she looks.
She always crosses her ankles. Every time I put her on the floor her little legs go straight out and she crosses her feet.
Still refuses to take a bottle.
Does a really good job at paying attention while we read her books.
She sucks on her fingers like crazy and has been pulling her fingers against her bottom gums until they snap away from her face. She likes doing that for some reason.
We have been trying for weeks to get Lucy to take a bottle and she refuses. At dinner the last week or two she's been watching our every move and trying so hard to grab our cups of water, so I finally just let her have a sip and she did great. So I put formula in a cup and she actually drank it! Baby steps. (And in case you were wondering, she IS wearing a diaper in this picture). (And please excuse the blurry cell phone pics).
She is not usually a cuddly girl because she likes to move around and see everything going on around her, but last night she just stayed like this laying on my shoulder for a while and I loved it.
Ryan was sitting on our couch and declared out of nowhere that homemade bread sounded good, so he got up and made some! It was so yummy with butter and honey.
This was Lucy's first Easter and it was fun getting her a little basket of goodies, even though she didn't really know what was going on. We went to church and had great talks and lessons and then came home, watched Music and the Spoken Word, and had a traditional Easter dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, banana cherry jello, corn, and coconut cream cake for dessert. Last week for FHE we watched some of the videos about the Atonement and Resurrection and it was nice to be able to focus on the true meaning behind the Easter holiday. Happy Easter!!
Ryan says that Lucy inherited his sister, Rachael's, impressive stink eye as proven in this picture. :) haha. Those are some fierce eyebrows!
