Time for a Jolly Jumper!

Our little girl is growing up far too fast! She seems to think she needs to stand all the time now (she IS over two and a half months old after all!), so we went out and bought her a jolly jumper. She still looks pretty small in there, and she didn't really know what to do but I know she'll figure it out in no time. She seemed to like it already so we'll just keep trying to put her in it. Tomorrow we're going to visit her new cousin Ezra - finally she won't be the smallest baby we know!

More relaxing life!

Last Wednesday Lynsey had her 2 month immunizations. She did much better than I thought. She did turn bright red and scream bloody murder while the nurse was poking her, but she actually calmed down shortly after and slept a lot the rest of the day. Much better than anticipated!

So this has been quite a week for us. Monday was not a good day - quite discouraging. Just when you think you're out of the woods . . . I'd like to attribute this to an awareness of how everyone else feels about Mondays. Nobody likes them, so why should she?? I certainly don't since she seems to be cranky a lot of the time. Anyway, luckily for us, the rest of the week has been much better. I'd venture to say that this has been our best week yet! We have a small group Bible study every Wednesday night, and she never behaves at it. Her little friend Elijah, who is a few weeks older than her, sits there cooing, falling asleep all on his own (I know that he does give his mom some grief at home but at Bible study he puts on quite a show!) while Lynsey is squirming at best, screaming at worst. It's been very frustrating. HOWEVER - this Wednesday she actually sat there content and had no screaming fits! Other people even got to hold her and she just sat there hanging out! It was soo much more relaxing and I was able to enjoy small group so much more. That night, she slept from 11pm until 7:45am - wow! She has slept that long once before ages ago, but it's been a long time. Yesterday she was great during the day and then again slept from 10:15pm until 5:45am - the first time she's put two consecutive nights together like that! The best part was that after her 6am feeding, she went back to sleep (almost right away) and slept until 9:15am. I feel much more rested today than I usually do:). I've said this before, but she just continues to get better and really my days are just much more enjoyable now. We are trying to get her used to napping in her crib, which is our next challenge. She's a cat-napper right now, but I'm really trying to change that. How I can do that is beyond me, but believe me I will try! Oh another exciting thing is that Lynsey started giggling this week! The first time was on Monday and then a little bit every day this week:). It's not an all out laugh yet, but she's definitely chuckling a little bit - it's so cute! I tried to get it on video today, and I actually did catch it except that I had the camera pointed slightly beside her for most of it (if I put the camera right in front of her face than she just focuses on the camera too much distracting her from "performing"). I'll try to get a better shot of it and try to upload it (I've never tried uploading a video but supposedly it is possible). Here are some pics from the last week or so. Yes, we have a little TV addict, and yes, we are proud of that (she's still too young to really know what she's watching . . . right?? I mean she IS really smart . . . ;)).

Lynsey's First Christmas!

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but it seems like I just don't get a lot of free time during the day! Lynsey has been a bit of a challenge this last month. There were a lot of really hard days. We traveled a lot over Christmas, and she was quite fussy a lot of the time. It was very hard for me to relax when she was screaming her head off, especially since everyone wanted to hold her and cuddle her and she just wasn't cuddleable (if that's a word!) lots of the time. I had heard that at 6 weeks the crying would subside, but that day sort of came and went without a real decline in crying. Next I heard 2 - 3 months, and actually on her 2 month birthday I did notice that she had a good day - and the day after, and the day after! It was quite encouraging! We had a bit of a relapse yesterday, but today she seems good again so I'm really, really hoping the worst is over with. I love her to pieces, but there have been days where I wondered what I got myself into! She has always done really well at night, so God has been merciful to me in that! She is interacting more, playing with some of her toys now. I know I'm biased, but I just think she is absolutely adorable! I've posted some pictures from her first Christmas and some other random pictures.

Has it been 6 weeks already??

I can't believe Lynsey will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. I'm sure most people would say the time just flew by, and at times it has felt like that, but there have also been times when it hasn't. She's cried a lot at times, making the time sort of stand still, but she always seems to make up for it with a smile or other cute moment. Apparently crying peaks at 6 weeks, so I'm hoping that her happy times will increase over the next while and that we've seen the worst. I know she's not as bad as a lot of babies and for that I am very thankful - just remind me of that when she's screaming her head off and I don't know what's wrong with her! I was watching Oprah the other day and she had a lady on her show that claimed to be able to understand baby language - very interesting. I have tried to listen to Lynsey's cries to find out what sound she's making (thus telling me what is wrong with her) and I'd say I've had some success, but not really the breakthrough I was hoping for. I do think she's on to something, but it's just hard for me to hear the different sounds like she can. We're leaving Lynsey with a babysitter for the first time tomorrow night while we go to the BDR Christmas party so we'll see how that goes! Speaking of BDR, a few of my old coworkers came by on Wednesday to visit - Lynsey is pretty special to them because they were there with me from the very start to finish of my pregnancy and heard daily about how things were going with her.

Saying goodbye to baby Ty

It's been a while since I've posted, and there is a good reason for that. We've had another family tragedy, another funeral. Joyce's wee boy Ty was born on Saturday, November 24, and passed away a few hours later. His lungs just weren't developed enough to survive. We've known that this was the likely outcome for some time, but I did not face the reality of that until last week. I kept thinking that this would turn out differently, that God would choose to heal this precious little boy and spare Joyce and John the heartache of losing him. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. It was a really sad week, but I was amazed at how strong Joyce is - this is my little sister, and I can't imagine that I would have been as strong as her if this had happened to me. God never makes us go through anything we can't endure, and I guess He knew that I would not have been able to handle it. I'm sorry that Lynsey will never have a chance to play with her cousin, but I thank God for Joyce and John's faith and what a testament it has been to me.

Time with Lynsey has at times been really fun and rewarding, and at times been very frustrating. She did really well on the drive to La Crete, which was great, but she certainly had her fussy times while we were there. Luckily she has lots of aunts that know how to deal with fussy babies and I learned a lot this trip! I'm still such a rookie and can use all the help I can get! She started smiling "on purpose" while we were there - my mom in particular seemed to be able to get her grinning away:). She's definitely become more aware of us and looks at us for long periods of time sometimes - it's like she's sizing us up or something. She is growing up so fast - she's not even considered a newborn anymore! Sometimes I think she thinks she's older than she is - she is NOT too old to have naps but try telling her that some days!

Here are some pictures we've taken over the last few weeks.