Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having wonderful Christmas season so far! I think Lillian is really going to like opening presents:) She has already grabbed a few of her gifts under the tree and just wants to rip through the paper. I still have so much to do before Christmas. We went to Mesa, AZ for a few days and it was so wonderful! Lillian had such a great time playing with her little cousin Byron and his dog Chica. It was so sad to leave. Now that we are back it is kind of back to reality getting things ready for Christmas. I know everything will come together:) 
I am now officially in my second trimester! I spoke too soon in my last post saying I was feeling better because all of a sudden my nausea came back and it is especially bad at night. I am hoping after this next week it will start to go away. 
Here are a few pictures that I got from our trip. I only had my phone so I didn't get very many.

Lillian on her 2nd plane ride. She does so good.

Out to lunch with Auntie Erika

Lillian with her favorite cousin Miranda

Holiday season is here! I'm so excited for Christmas this year. I know Lillian will have no idea what is going on but it will be so fun to watch her take in all the goodness of it:) We put up our tree last weekend and I just thought she would love the lights but she could care less. She took one look and hasn't been interested in it since. So I think we are still out a few years before her or the new baby will have any clue on whats going on. December 5th will bring Lillian to 7 months old already! I can't believe how fast she is growing. As I have mentioned in previous posts, Lillian was a pretty colicky baby. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, I thought acid reflux or an allergy to something in my milk. I was told she would grow out of it after 4 months but it still seemed to linger. She had really good days but then she would just have these days of constant whining and she just seemed unhappy. As a mother it is so hard to watch your baby seem unhappy. I fell pretty depressed by all of it. She was a good baby when we would be out and about so no one really understood. Most people thought we were over reacting and i was beginning to feel the same. When I became pregnant I was still breastfeeding exclusively but was told that I might dry up due to pregnancy hormones. After about a month I was noticing that I was already starting to so with much sadness I started to give Lillian formula. It took a few weeks to transition so for about two weeks now she has been strictly fed formula and has also started eating solids three times a day. Oh my goodness, what a difference it has made! Lillian is just SO much happier. We saw a change almost instantly. I now see joy in her eyes that I have never seen and she is just so much more content. She stays up for longer periods and her naps have been longer than her usual half hour. I am so grateful! I am glad I was able to breastfeed her but there was something in my milk that just didn't agree with her even after I gave up all dairy and egg. She is on a special formula that I am hoping we can ease out of over the next few months for one, its very expensive and two I am really hoping she will grow out of this allergy. So all of that has been a huge answer to prayer. Lillian is still immobile for the time being. She seems like she wants to crawl but just isn't sure how to do it. I'm not complaining. I am enjoying having a Christmas tree and not having to baby-proof everything just yet. She can crawl after the holidays, I'd be very happy about that:) 
As for the new baby, it is now in it's 11 week in my womb. This pregnancy seems to be a little different than the last few. I am not as sick anymore and with Lillian the sickness lasted well into the second trimester. I have had zero food aversions. I think that has helped with my sickness because I can eat anything, I always feel a little nausea after I eat but it hasn't kept me from eating like last time. I am very tired though. I have days where I think I could sleep for hours, obviously I can't do that and take care of Lilly:) We will be finding out the gender of this baby so I just can't wait until January! My sister in law finds out what she is having today and I just can't wait! My first niece or nephew, so exciting!
Here's some updated pics of our little family. No belly pics yet but I can assure it that it is already made its appearance and I am slightly insecure about it because I am still so early. But I just need to get over it because I beyond excited to be pregnant again and for Lilly to have a sibling:)

She is such a good eater!

So happy at 6 months

Lillian's first time out in cold, snowy weather.

Getting ready to go to her 2nd wedding

Helping mama unpack Christmas decorations

Such a big girl!

Just waking up

Life Lately

Where to begin, we have had a very busy September and October. Mostly very good things but we did have to temporarily move out of our house due to a sewer main break, what a mess!! We are back and ready to get back to a routine again, especially with Lillian. She has been such a trooper through all this chaos. We finished the month of September with a much needed weekend in Bozeman with our friends. They have two beautiful little girls, so it was so fun to have all of us together for the first time since Lillian had been born. We had great fall weather and Lillian was such a great baby, I don't think she cried once. A week later we found ourselves in Bozeman again with Bryce for his job. The weather wasn't as nice and I wasn't feeling too good but we still enjoyed ourselves. Lillian got to meet my old boss, finally! She just loved Jen, didn't fuss at all in her arms, that doesn't happen too often. And most recently, we just returned home from a trip to Denver. It was a wonderful trip and was so nice to get away from all of our house problems. We just soaked up time with our good friends and got to know the city of Denver, who knows, we may call it home someday:) OH, and remember how I said I wasn't feeling so good in Bozeman? Well there was a very good reason to that. Yep, you guessed it, I'm expecting! AGAIN, for the third year in a row! We were in shock, but SO excited too, and a little scared. So many emotions, but we are just taking it day by day and trying to enjoy our time with Lillian while it is just the three of us:) Through an ultrasound I found out I'm seven weeks along, so still really early. I'm very hopeful and at peace with God's plan and timing. So that sums up life. Lillian is growing up so fast! She is going to be a great big sister! Here's a recap on Lillian at 5 months:

She is a great traveler, she did so good on the plane.
She started the month barely sitting on her own and is now sitting up on her own, mostly:)
Rolls over from both sides and can scoot herself around the floor, so i really have to watch her now
Still really loves her daddy, he can make her laugh so easily
Started officially eating solids, lots of bananas-not a good idea she got very constipated
Sleeps through the night for about 10-12 hours, but will get up once every couple nights and need to finish out the night in our bed
Babbles constantly-trying to get her to say mama and dadda, but she just looks at us and smiles
Still very scared of other people holding her, but getting better
We are pretty sure she is teething so we put a Amber necklace on her and it seems to be helping
She is starting to get more hair! I can't wait to see what she will look like with hair, she gets called a boy a lot:( 
She loves to swing!(pics below)

We are just loving every minute with Lillian, well mostly, she still can test our patience, but it is worth it:) I have really been struggling with morning sickness so I am trying really hard to not let it get the best of me so I can take care of Lillian and give her the attention she needs right now. Some days are so hard and I know they will just get harder as she grows and as I grow too:) It will be very interesting. But I am very excited for another baby and for Lillian to have a sibling close in age!
Here are some random pics:

Lilly with her friend Gable. We have already arranged their marriage, just to make things easy:)

Growing Lillian

Fall is officially here! We got all stocked up on baking pumpkins from the farmers market so I have been putting pumpkin in so many things: pancakes, brownies(amazing!), and bread. Oh how I have missed enjoying this season:) Lilly is busy developing, it seems each day brings new things. She is  starting to giggle and figure out what is funny to her. Her daddy seems to be the funniest person to her. The minute he comes home she gets really happy and he can instantly make her giggle even if she is tired or crabby. I find myself getting a little jealous but then have to stop and realize how special a father-daughter relationship is and be so thankful. I will be in the kitchen and just love the music to my ears hearing her play with her daddy. I really loved the newborn stage but Lillian is really starting to be a lot of fun! I look at her now and am in such awe of the things she is doing, rolling over, putting everything in her mouth, singing and babbling. Bryce and I cant get enough of her! We watched What to Expect When Your Expecting the other day, oh my gosh, such a great movie! I loved it:) I always think of the part when the dad says "I love my son so much I'm afraid I'm going to eat him", we feel the same way:) All you parents can understand that! The one thing that has been hard is that she doesn't really care for anyone except mom and dad. If we are out and about and someone gets in her face she starts crying and she doesn't like anyone holding her except us. We have tried numerous times to take her to the church nursery and end up having to leave within 5 minutes of the sermon because she is so upset I cant even get her to calm down. She has her moments where she will let others hold her but it usually doesn't last long. Bryce and I really want to start having regular date nights but just don't know how she will do with a babysitter. We did go out for the first time last weekend but she was already in bed for the night when the babysitter got there. We had such a great time!! We stayed out pretty late and Lilly woke up about 5:30am that morning. We were so exhausted but is was definitely worth it and so much needed! So recap on Lilly at 4 months:
She giggles, sings, and smiles as she plays
Sleeps on her stomach with her butt in the air, so cute!
Gave her, her first bowl of rice cereal and she loved it but her stomach didn't so she is back to just breastfeeding, which could be the reason she is attached to me so much. We will try the cereal again at 6 months
Loves her Daddy, when he puts her on his shoulder, plays the guitar and calls her goober. 
I am convinced she loves Charlie Hall, i have recently had it playing in the car and as soon as i turn it up she starts singing, I swear:) I guess it could just be in my head because I LOVE Charlie Hall's music so much!!
She loves her feet, is getting close to getting them in her mouth.
Loves Mamas IPhone and when I reverse the camera so she can see herself, I have the best pictures of her and I:) I will post some soon.

Bringing Lillian into this World

I realized that I never wrote about the birth of sweet Lillian so I am going to share it now. I love using this blog as a journal and being able to go back and read posts so it just doesn't seem complete without the story of my birth in it. As I said in a previous post, I never thought I would make it to my due date and technically I didn't, I was an hour shy of making it to May 6th. Lillian came into our world at 11:19pm on May 5th weighing in at 7lbs 3oz of perfect:) My water broke at exactly 2am on May 5th, yep 2am I started labor and didn't have a baby until 20 hrs later, it was a VERY long day! So back to my water breaking, I was asleep and felt a very strong urge to go to the bathroom, which wasn't anything new being 9 months pregnant, but this was different because I felt like I wet the  bed so I jolted out out bed and ran to the bathroom and a gush of water came out and I was pretty sure my water broke. I yelled at Bryce and said "I think my water just broke! This is it we're having a baby today!" I thought any moment contractions would kick in and we would be on our way to the hospital, well that's not exactly how it turned out. We waited for two hours and still nothing! I was able to shower and get ready, eat, make coffee and get all my things packed up. My doctor was out of town so I called the on call doc and he told me to just go in and that labor should be starting soon. At around 4am we made our two minute drive to the hospital and got all checked in and started walking the halls just waiting for some action. I was on cloud nine in the hospital! I was so thankful to be there anticipating the birth of a full term baby. The first lap Bryce and I took around the hall we saw a door with a butterfly on the outside. I had a butterfly on my door the last time I was in labor and delivery so we knew that the mother's arms in that room were empty and that her precious baby was in heaven. We both looked at each other and started crying and praying for her. We were humbled and grateful that we made it this far and continued to walk and walk and walk. We walked the halls for SO long and not one contraction. I so badly didn't want to get induced but knew my time was coming before the doctors would intervene. They let me walk for 6 hours, so around noon I got induced and instantly the action started happening. I was still determined to not have an epidural at this point. Bryce was an amazing coach and stood by my side for every contraction. Our nurse, who was so wonderful and encouraging, helped too. She checked me every hour and I kept making progress, I was at a 6 within a few hours. Then I got in a very hot bath, which felt SO good and dilated two more centimeters before the pain really got intense. I was so miserable and started to get the shakes from being so exhausted. The nurse came in and checked me and there was no progress, for two hours I hadn't dilated any more. She gave me a good pep talk and encouraged me to get an epidural because I was so tense that I wouldn't be able to dilate unless I relaxed. With lots of tears and disappointment I decided to get an epidural. WOW, what a difference!! The guy who gave me my epidural was amazing and had me pain free in a few minutes. At that point I was having contractions every second and he was very calm and patient. So within minutes my labor went from chaos to calm and happy. My nurse was so happy to see my smile again:)  And Bryce's color returned to his face. He was so worried about me and watching the pain I was going through. So at this point it was evening, I believe around 6pm. I took a nap and Bryce ate dinner and within a few hours I was able to start pushing. Pushing was really tough with my epidural. I coudn't feel anything and my legs were completely numb so the nurse had to turn off my epidural and I had to push without it. I pushed for two hours and in the last half hour I didn't think I could do it, my doctor and nurse went out in the hall to talk and I just knew they were thinking the same thing. I started to praying really hard and begging God to let me do this without a C-section. When they came back in they said okay one more chance to push real hard, so I gave it everything I could and out came our baby, a beautiful, sweet, precious girl! I was so exhausted and couldn't believe that it was all real. I held my daughter for the first time and don't even remember it until I saw pictures. She came out great, really quiet with her mouth wide open looking for food, she is still that way to this day:) After they got me all stitched up I took little Lillian and took all of her goodness in. She was so calm and tired, she just stared at Bryce and I, it was a very tender moment for us. Labor was so long and intense but once it was all over I felt just fine. I was up and walking right after the delivery since the epidural wore off long before she was out. Things didn't go exactly how I planned but none of that matters when you have a happy, healthy baby in your arms. I think Bryce and i are going to wait some time now before we do it again. This will be my first fall in 2 years that I haven't been in the early weeks of pregnancy and feeling nauseous. I can't wait to enjoy it and not feel sick at the site of pumpkins. 

Just starting to get induced

pushing through a contraction

Lillian has arrived!

Mouth wide open

Our family of three, pure bliss

Summer Love

Summer is approaching it's end for 2012. This is summer was completely different than all the rest being new parents. With it being so hot it made it really hard to get out and enjoy it,but when we did, we had a good time going on walks, to BBQ's, live music, and weekend trips to see family. We also got all moved out of our house and into a rental for the time being. We are not sure what the future holds but we are learning to be content on where we are and be patient in God's timing.

She's our chunky monkey

Our first home as a family

She is a total Daddy's girl

Lillian with her Uncle Domenic and his wonderful girlfriend Lacey

I loved this pic for 3 months because she is always talking and singing. I love it!

Lillian is going to be 4 months in a few days, I just can't believe how fast it goes by. Everyday brings new things and excitement as she develops. She plays and sings more than crying, YAY! She is still really uncomfortable most days, not sure if it is gas or acid reflux, but she handles it so much better. She doesn't like to be rocked anymore, which brings relief to mom and dad's arms, but is making it hard to get her to fall asleep. For two weeks she was waking up every couple hours in the night crying and nothing seemed to soothe her. I finally just resorted to putting her into bed with me. I, of course loved sleeping next to her and waking up in the morning to her smiling face but it was not a habit I wanted to continue. I prayed hard about these sleepless nights and for the last couple nights she has slept through the night in her crib! We are so thankful for the rest and hopeful that it will continue.

Lillian is now just over two months! She has become a bit of a difficult baby over the last few weeks. It has been very challenging for both Bryce and I. She does great most of the time but has moments of crying and seems very uncomfortable. The doctor says its colic and she will grow out of it, but the more I research on colic the more I am not convinced that she has it. I am pretty sure it is acid reflux. I am hoping she will grow out if it in a few months because this is miserable dealing with a fussy baby all the time. Thankfully, she still does good in the car seat so that has been a life saver! She is really starting to interact now and respond to us with smiles and little giggles. Those moments, even if they can be brief, make all the crying worth it:) 

Is anyone else over this heat?! It has been so hard taking Lillian anywhere past 11am because of this heat. Bryce and I have an offer pending on our house and will be moving at the end of the month. We are moving to a house with no air conditioning so I am praying hard that this heat eases by the time we move in.  This summer has just flown by with a newborn! We have had lots of visitors this summer. My sister was here for Memorial Day weekend. My best friends threw Lillian a welcoming shower in June so Lillian got to meet her Aunties that live far away. It was so fun! Just last weekend we had our friends from Wisconsin passing by on a long road trip. We went up to Red Lodge for one of the days and the next day Bryce took them rafting on the Stillwater. I am excited for when Lilly is old enough to go. This weekend we will head to Sheridan for their annual Rodeo Days. It should be a good time but it will also be SO hot that we wont be able to be outside much:( We will have another shower in Miles City at the end of the month. If all goes well with selling our house Bryce will move us out and into our new place that weekend while Lilly and I are occupied. I am glad to be getting out of moving:) So that is what is new in the Bennett house. We are also planning a trip to Leavenworth, WA this fall. I sure hope it works out and that Lillian is starting to feel better by then. 

Lilly with Auntie Courtney

Lilly and Kensley with their Aunties

Lilly and Christen

My sister and Lillian

 

Sweet Lillian

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