Lola spits

spitting, a new hobby

Babies are extremely entertaining with each new pastime. Lately, in addition to rolling over, eating rice cereal, giggling, and other various "new things" Laurelei has taken up spitting. At first I was a little concerned when Laurelei started turning red in the face and concentrating, but I soon realized she was simply trying to accomplish something. She has begun "blowing bubbles" as often as possible. She will spit all over the place for a while, then look up at you with her big blue eyes and just smile. She loves it, and I secretly love it too. Today since I was home sick I could almost tell she knew it was a special day. She wanted to be close at hand, which was unfortunate since I couldn't really hold or cuddle her, but it allowed me to experience some of the spitting up close. Strangely, it was a very sweet moment. I guess I just cherish every little second I can get! I took a little video of it to send to Matt while he was at work. Hopefully I can get it to upload and share it with you soon!

first moments

As more and more people seem to be bringing precious babies into the world I start to think back four short months ago to when Laurelei was born. Her whole delivery seems like such a haze when I think of how quickly it all happened. We got to the hospital around 3:30 am, got the epidural around 8:00am and Laurelei was born at 10:24. In the end, everything happened so quickly because of the complications that it is sometimes hard to remember each step of the process. I had always imagined labor would be a long process, and it turned out it seemed to fly by! The big emotions I remember feeling were excitement, immense fear when our heart rates dropped, disbelief when she was born and I saw her for the first time, and overwhelming confusion when they whisked her away.

When I look back on December 16th I feel so blessed to have made it through such a scary time with a healthy baby. Sometimes, however, it still makes me a little bit sad to think of how I missed the first 10 hrs. of Laurelei's life. After holding her for about 30 seconds, (which felt like a lifetime at the moment), I spent the rest of the day hearing about all of her "firsts" as friends and family told me what she was like from what they had observed through the window. If I could go back in time, the one thing I would do differently is to have spent that entire day thanking God for a life I had faith would last. 

real food, here we come...

At our dr's appointment on Monday we were told to start Laurelei on cereal. Matt and I were anxious to try it, but we had to wait a couple of days to let her get past her shot fussiness. This afternoon after work, we took the plunge. Laurelei was acting extra hungry so we gave "real food" a shot.


She did really well at first. She never cried, just sort of licked all over the place. Laurelei is certainly not sure what to do with the spoon. In the end, out efforts seemed to be pretty fruitless because most of what went in inevitably came back out. I guess the important part is giving it a go! Hopefully next time we will be slightly more successful. I am already excited to move part the mushy cereal, so I am hoping we can make progress sooner rather than later!

Easter!

Anyone who knows me knows that holidays are my absolute favorite. With Easter being up there on the top of my favorites, I was excited to celebrate Laurelei's first Easter this year! We had such a great time. We spent Saturday dying eggs with my mom, which Laurelei chose to sleep through. On Easter morning Laurelei loved playing with her Thumper the Easter Bunny brought her. I have never seen her so "excited." After church with my family, we headed to Louisville to spend the afternoon with Matt's family. It was a lovely well rounded day. I don't think I will ever forget her smiles that day. She was happier than she has ever been, she must take after mommy! :)

Oh the Doctor

Laurelei has had a slew of dr.'s appointments in her short little lifetime. While sitting in the waiting room today I figured we have had nothing short of about 15 trips to the doctor! Yikes! Each one has brought its own interesting struggles. Most notably have been the needles of some sort. Today, Laurelei received four more shots and an oral vaccine. Each one was more traumatic than the last. There is absolutely nothing worse than hearing your little baby scream in pain. It was truly awful. All I can say is at least for now there is no planned doctors visit until June 17th! The longest we have ever gone without being poked and prodded! Now that is something to celebrate!
Laurelei is now 12.4lbs, 23in. It is funny when the doctor says "Wow, what a jump! She is now in the 10th percentile!" We sometimes forget how small she is because she seems to have grown SO much to us. We are supposed to start her on food now, so we will see how that goes!

Our running stats...
As of today Laurelei has had
15 trips to the doctor
11 times blood taken
8 shots
2 oral vaccines
1 ultrasound

The first one, and we caught it on tape! She has been rocking back and forth for a couple of days, and rolled over when propped up yesterday, but I wanted to see if she could do it on her own! She did it 4 times in a row today. We were so excited!