The Germ X days are over

Maybe no one else did this but when I wrote my title I actually sang it to the tun of "the dog days are oover!" ok so it doesn't fit exACTly but humor me here!

The other day I was being lazy so instead of washing with soap and water in the kitchen sink before making Lilly's bottle- I used the Germ X that has been sitting on our counter since she was born.  Tommy and I instantly became obsessed with this stuff the moment she was born-we practically bathed in it.  We have lightened up a bit since then but every now and again I will scoop up all of her toys and blankets and wash them for fear they may have picked up some germs in the last week or so.  As soon as I pumped out the gooey gel and rubbed it into my hands the smell took me back to those first few weeks of Lilly's life.  Looking back it seems hard to remember she was ever that tiny and that we were ever that sleep deprived or that we were ever that germ-a-phobic.  These 5 months of her precious life have both gone by slow and fast at the same time.  That first sleepless night we had -her first night home- seemed to go on forever but as I look at my smiling giggly little girl today I cannot imagine where the time has gone!  My Lillian Grace is 5 months old.  A LOT has happened in her 5 little months.  It's AMAZING how quickly they change and develop into little people.  Long gone are those new born days.  In the scheme of things it's a fleeting moment.  A moment we will never have again (well, with Lilly that is).  Life continues to amaze me now more than ever.

 Since July Lilly has had many more firsts and continues to grow into that BIG personality of hers. She's funny, sweet, and can be a little bugger- all in the same day.  She can sing, and babble, and man if she needs something or wants your attention boy can she get it!  She is getting very good at communicating her needs and wants to us.  She is very alert and seems to take in all of her surroundings wherever we go.  For the most part she just goes with the flow!   

Lilly loves people and is very comfortable hanging out with just about anyone.  She is starting to show affection too.  When she doesn't see Tommy or I for a period of time she snuggles her arms around our necks as if to say: "I missed you-where have you been!".  She even will grab my face with both hands and 'kiss' me.  Mainly she wants to just eat my face but I like to think of it as a big wet kiss!

Lilly also loves to giggle and belly laugh especially when mommy and daddy are being silly.  She's a BIG fan of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" especially the ahwhemawep part.

Lilly loves taking walks now more than ever because she loves to just look around.  She is riding in her big girl stroller now-no longer in the car seat- and she loves that she can see everything.  The other evening on our walk her head just kept going back and forth and all around taking in all of her surroundings.

Lilly can now roll from belly to back and back to belly and is now a rolling maniac.  She's practicing on siting up and can do so now for short periods of time.  She loves her toys, especially Mr. Moose and is a jumping fool in her jumperoo!  She still likes the bouncy seat but she seems to get tired of it more quickly these days-she wants to be up and about-not laying down!  We've also been reading more and more books and she loves them.  We're a fan of "Wherever you go my love will find you" although her mommy cannot seem to get through it without bawling like a baby-to that Lilly laughs sometimes, "The Bunny Book", and "Lilly's Purple Purse".  We are not a fan of "Love you Forever"-it makes Lilly worried that I will drive over to her house when I am old and sneak in her window to rock her.  I promised her I would never do that and hid the book in the back of her closet.

For a while now Lilly has been sleeping through the night but a few weeks ago her night time sleeping habits were not all that stellar (to us at least).  She would be up ready to party at 1 am and sometimes 4am too.  Sometimes she would be fussy-others she would just be awake ready to play.  After talking to our pediatrician we tried something new that worked like a charm.  Silly us thought if we fed her a bottle right before bed it would hold her over through the night.  When Dr. Minton suggested having her last bottle at 6:30 and bedtime be 8 or 8:30 we thought she was crazy.  Sure enough the first night we tried it it worked and has been working ever since!!! Lilly eats at 6:30, is asleep by 8:30 and sleeps until 5:30 or 6 in the morning.  One morning she even slept until 7:30!!!!  Turns out that feeding her so close to bedtime may have made her tummy upset once she laid down to sleep.  Whatever the case may be-it's working and we're loving the uninterrupted sleep!  Although...since she's started rolling she has now become a stomach sleeper.  Needless to say the first night she decided to roll and sleep on her tummy I was constantly checking the monitor and going in to make sure she was ok.  She was.

 

Some other firsts that happened this past month...

Lilly went on her first vacation to Bethany Beach DE.  She loved it.  She put her toes in the sand, the ocean, and she even ate a little bit of sand.  She actually got a little tan too!  We did our best to keep her out of the sun but we did put some sunscreen on her-we used Aveeno because it's natural and gentle and it was fine even though you aren't supposed to use it until they are 6 months...we figured it was close enough and the risk of her getting sunburned was worse than what would happen if she wore sunscreen.   While on vacation Lilly rode her first merry go round and loved it.  She met her new cousin Coral who lives down the beach-lucky!  And she even got her first pair of kicks while we were outlet shopping.  I am working on editing the thousand or so pictures I took while at the beach and will be doing a separate post soon with pictures and more details!

Lilly also had her first girls day.  She got together with Sydney-7 months and Clara-3 months.  They had a blast-well at least their moms had fun talking.  I worked with Lesley and Laura at UMBC although all three of us are longer working there now.  I love that I have been able to keep in touch with them.  We're hoping to have play dates regularly with our girls!  We know they will have so much fun together!  This picture was taken at the end of the play-date so the girls were a little worn out-Clara really was a doll the whole time even though she doesn't look too happy in this picture! :) 

Lilly experienced her first earthquake!!  It was mommy and daddy's first one too.  She slept right through it and missed it but we will certainly be able to tell her that she experienced a 5.8 earthquake when she was a baby-one of the largest earthquakes to hit the east coast since the 1800's!  How cool! 

Now for her stats:
Lilly is 15lbs 15oz...so basically 16 pounds!
She is 25 1/2 inches long
She's wearing size 3 diapers and has been for the past 3 weeks
She is still fitting into some of her 6 month clothing depending on the brand although she is too long for her onesies and footie pj's. She is pretty much solely in 9 month onesies and footie pj's and can wear some of her 9 month summer outfits.  She will be in 9 month clothes only once it gets cooler and we put away the summer clothes.  It makes me sad packing up her clothes.  I cried when I packed up some of her newborn and 3 month clothes.  It may sound crazy to those of you who don't have kids but there are memories attached to those outfits and sleepers-  Like the sleeper we brought her home in.  Or that sleeper that made night changing soooo much easier.  Now as I put away a few of her 6 month outfits I think about the memories we had-like her I love Daddy onesie that she wore on Tommy's first Father's Day or the dress she wore on her first 4th of July-both too small now. 

I got this idea from the March 2012 group on The Bump and thought it was such a cute idea-to take a picture of Lilly wearing one of her current sleepers/onesies alongside a sleeper/onesie she wore when she was a newborn.  I dug out the first sleeper she ever wore.  It was newborn size (which she was in for about 2 weeks)  Since she was due on Saint Patrick's Day- I got this as a shower gift and even though she wasn't a Saint Paddy's Day baby I still wanted to have this be the first thing she wore other than the undershirts they put on at the hospital.

Here she is in the sleeper in the hospital

and here she is now wearing a girly frog sleeper size 9 months next to her very first sleeper:

How she has grown!  Again-amazing!

I don't have the shots from her 5 month shoot yet-who am I kidding- I haven't even taken them yet.  Since this post grew to be quite long I figured the photo shoot deserves to have its own post-so stay tuned!  The photographer who took Lilly's newborn shots just started her own Etsy shop to sell photo props and headbands for child photography.  She just sent an e-mail out today announcing the launch of her shop and look who I found: 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80450459/pretty-petals-decoupaged-newborn

I cannot believe that was my sweet baby 5 months and 5 days ago on her first full day home from the hospital.  Tommy and I had had a total of 1 hours sleep the night before but we were thrilled to welcome Jewell into or home-she was like a part of our family! 

I couldn't resist posting a few other newborn Lilly pics I revisited tonight...

Happy 5 months sweet sweet Lillian Grace-mommy and daddy love you more and more each and everyday.  You bring us so much joy to our lives-we can barely remember what life was like without you.  We cannot wait to show you the world!