Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Seriously... three months already?

The day was actually kind of sad for me - I was calling our photographer to schedule Paisley's 3-month pictures. How could three months have gone by already? I suddenly felt like I needed to cuddle her more, kiss her more, worry less about routines and good habits and just hold her while she sleeps more, take more pictures, stare into her deep, blue eyes more... Someone once told me, about her own child, "I tried holding her tightly, but she just kept on growing..." Aww, sad... : (

Three months has marked a fun age for Paisley of grabbing toys, entertaining herself for longer periods, lots of smiles and some giggles even; but it's sad in some ways to say goodbye to the newborn phase... I keep telling myself, "I need to remember this moment." I hope all my scribbly notes in her journal and thousands of pictures taken will help me to hang on to those precious memories.

Sad tears aside, three months is really turning out to be a fun, fun age! Melts my heart every time Paisley looks up and gives me one of her big, "That's my Mama!"-grins. And what better way to enjoy this fun time than take some fun pictures? Here are some of our favorites from the professional 3-month photos, taken from Paisley's very own room (more pics of her room to follow... someday... soon... I hope...). : )

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Catching Up...

I feel like I should re-name this post with one of my last post's title: where does the time go? As you can tell, quite a bit of time has passed since my last post. Dare I say it? - Four months! (Aside from the draft I just posted from a while back, that is...). And oh-my-goodness has much happened in that time...
Baby Paisley decided to make us wait until one full week after she was "due" to make her appearance. We tried all kinds of craziness to get her to come early, but in the end, decided that she'd just come when she was good and ready. So, New Year's Eve came and went (and so did our tax break and this year's PFD for Paisley), and then it happened... January 6th, we welcomed little Paisley Spring Luber into this world. I'll spare you the details here, but our midwife sums up how things went pretty well, "You... you had a rough labor." But, Mama and Baby were well, and our new family headed home from the birthing center just 4 hours after our Lil' Pea was born. I know people think we're crazy, but I have to tell you that it was the greatest feeling walking into our home that afternoon. We were all happy to be home.
The first month was a blur of diapers, feedings, picture-taking, visits from friends and family, figuring each other out, naps, tons of ooh's and aah's and "oh my goodness she's so adorable!'s." I can't recall how many times I turned to Scott and said, "I just can't believe it... she's ours! We don't have to take her back; we get to keep her..." There were many, many hours that passed as we just sat and stared at her. There were also many, many tears shed on the part of our little one. What we thought was just her having a hard time letting herself fall asleep was actually her trying to tell us that she was still hungry. At 6 weeks, per the recommendation of a great lactation consultant due to the fact that Paisley was losing more weight, we started supplementing after trying all the tricks in the book to boost my milk supply. From the first day we began supplementing, it was as if we had a new baby... Paisley would nap well, sleep well at night, and she just had a happier demeanor in general. The difference was amazing... Thank God for great lactation consultants! : )
Since then, I can not even begin to tell you how much we have enjoyed our little Paisley, poopy diapers, fussiness, and all! If this tells you anything, Scott has commented over and over how he looks forward to those early morning diaper changes. My husband, who once became quite grumpy over lack of sleep, now looks forward to his loss of sleep because it means he gets to spend a precious moment with his little girl. Is that not the sweetest thing? I'll never forget the moment he got up with her in the middle of the night to hold her while she was crying so I could run to the bathroom... I came out to the living room expecting to find a grumpy hubby and fussy baby, but what I found was a calm baby with a hubby who was grinning from ear to ear (mind you, at 2 am!) saying, "I love this..." Just melts my heart. God is so good... I imagine him saying to me, "Why were you even worrying about this? I've got you covered... Trust me."
Paisley Spring is a bright, happy, smiley little girl with deep blue eyes with long eyelashes, auburn hair, a bald stripe across the back of her head from rubbing, who sleeps 8-hour stretches at night, constantly kicks her legs as if she's riding a bike, loves brights toys and anything that she can put in her mouth, drools like a crazy woman and must wear bibs with every outfit as a result, needs to be woken up slowly and gently just like her Mama, falls asleep at 10:30pm each night like clockwork, hates being strapped into her car seat but loves the riding in it after the car gets going, loves the sound of her Papa's voice, always wants to see where Mama is, looks stinkin' adorable in her fun cloth diapers, has to be in a position where she can see what's going on around her, takes the cutest pictures, needs her little snuggly-duck partially covering her face in order to fall asleep, LOVES her diaper changing table (thank you, Jesus), and is so loved by so many people that it constantly amazes her mom and dad.
I still have moments where I pick her up from a nap and think to myself, "My goodness... This is my daughter I'm picking up. My daughter. My daughter that I get to spend the next decades getting to know, making memories with, and loving more and more. Parents have always said that even though kids are hard work, they wouldn't trade it for anything, and now... now I really understand, and now I really believe them!


A few more recent favs.: