Where did the time go?

Lilly is 8 weeks old today.  I can't believe it!  It's been a whirlwind of an 8 weeks and we have loved every minute of it.  I have spent every possible minute with our girl and have only left her once (with Greg) to run to Walmart when she was 4 weeks old.  LOL, I hate Walmart so much that it's a bit ironic that my first trip out after having a baby was to that particular spot.  But we needed things for vacation and it was faster for me to go than to explain to Greg what to buy, so there you have it.  Anyway.

Lilly at 8 weeks old is a bit of a surprise to me.  Even with a decade of babysitting and nannying experience plus 3 years in a pediatrics residency, the fact that she is no longer a newborn (basically sleeping and eating ALL of the time and doing nothing else) at this point was slightly surprising.  I kind of miss her tiny, newborn-looking self, but mostly I just love how she is now discovering new things every day.  The amount that she interacts with Greg and I and with her environment at this age is so amazing!

I think I'm just now beginning to emerge from that strange my-life-has-just-been-radically-altered phase and am starting to figure out what life looks like now that there are three of us.  I haven't gone back to work yet, but I am feeling the need for a schedule of some sort and not the sleep-when-you-can-eat-when-you-can state I've been in for the past 8 weeks (and loving every minute of it!).  I just began "sleep training" with Lilly yesterday and today she shocked me by taking a 3 hour nap.  THREE HOURS!  Sleep training for Lilly at this stage means that I'm starting to put her in her crib for her naps (rather than hold her... which YES, I held her for the majority of her naps for the first 7 weeks of her life!  Judge away...) and am trying to let her fall asleep on her own.  I think I was scared to do this because I can not handle hearing her cry, and was afraid that putting her in the crib would mean just that.  But she has yet to fuss even a little bit, as long as I help her fall asleep in the crib.  Let's hope it continues to go this well!  Sleeping at night has been pretty easy so far... for about a week now she's been sleeping from 10 PM to 4 AM and then going back to sleep until 6 or 6:30.  Nice.

I really wish I had been blogging each week as it's been happening (I have tried to make little notes for the baby book) so I may try to back track and see if I can do that.  We have about a gazillion photos from this first 8 weeks.  Seriously.  Well maybe not quite a gazillion, but at least 4,000!  We've hit so many milestones already, plus just documenting all that cuteness!  We bought a fancy new camera when we were expecting Lilly, and Greg has been trying out all sorts of new settings and learning how photography works.  I have figured out how to use the thing on auto... and even then I mess it up occasionally... but it does take some great photos (well, when Greg is behind it!) and we are taking advantage of that.  It's amazing just how fast you can snap 100 photos!  Sometimes I'll find I've taken 200-300 in a day... trying to work on cutting that down a bit... we don't want to run out of storage for all of those photos!

Overall, I just love being a mother and the love I feel for Lilly is everything I expected and more.  She is amazing and Greg and I are so blessed!  She already has a fan club established...

 Lilly and her Nana :-)  6/25

Poor girl has quite the case of baby acne :-(  It looks worse when she is warm and we had been sitting outside before this photo was taken.

Elisabeth helping change Lilly into her pajamas.

 Lilly and her Aunt Elisabeth 6/25

Lilly and Grandpa 6/25


And now I hear the girl herself waking up from a nap...