Happy Birthday Lilah!

If you don't already know it, today is Lilah's one month birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILAH! Each month (around the 30th) we will be measuring Lilah's growth against my childhood bear to watch her growth. This is the first photo taken today.

Lilah had her one month pediatrician appointment today and she continues to do well. She gained another 13oz and is 8lbs 13oz - great growth. She is a bit short, but as I told the pediatrician - "have you seen our family." :)

She also had her first real bath today and was a complete trooper even when I poured the water over her head to rinse her hair.

So to catch up since my last post:

Yesterday Lilah visited The Nature Conservancy headquarters in Arlington, VA. After peeing all over her first cute outfit (and my cute outfit) she got dressed in the outfit to the left and could not have been more adorable. She was an excellent traveler and showed off her cute faces and noises to all of mommy's (that's me!) friends.





Every year since Jason and I met his mom and I have had "joint birthday weekend" since her Bday is October 23 and mine is the 31st. This past weekend Lilah got in on the fun and also got to meet her Aunt Sarah for the first time. We had dinner at Nick's Chophouse that I recommend both for their excellent food and their accommodations to mothers who need to nurse and have fussy babies.

And as you can see, it's never too early to see if what kind of martini's Lilah likes!

Tomorrow as you probably know is Halloween and you know that that means - Lilah in costume - so tune in for even more cuteness.

Mom! Don't take my picture!

Although Lilah is quite cute when she is awake, sometimes she is even cuter when she is sleeping. Because she does not have complete control over her muscles yet, sometimes they end up in the funniest and cutest positions. The one on the left is what I call her paparazzi photo - telling all the hordes of photographers to go away :)

She is getting a lot better at putting herself back to sleep when she wakes herself up which is great. We even got a whole 5 hours sleep in a row two night ago - Go Lilah!


Coming to your mailbox soon will be the official "Welcome Lilah" baby announcement. But in case I don't have your mailing address and you want to see it, I photographed it so you can checked it out. I LOVE the squishy face. A big thank you shout out to Darryl who took this photo, but who didn't get the actual photo credit on the announcement (I deal with photographers for a living so photo credits are very important!). If you don't think I have your mailing address, but you want a real hard paper announcement, please feel free to send it to me as I love to show my daughter off in as many ways possible.

Sometimes I have to smile at life's little parallels. Yesterday Lilah and I took our first trip to Giant by ourselves. After having to have to pick her up and carry her through the store while pushing her stroller with my other hand literally throwing my groceries into it, I congratulated myself for an exciting day being a brave new mom. So when my sister called me last night I was all set to tell her about her brave sister when she first informed me about her day SKYDIVING.

At least I know none of us are ever bored :)

Wow I am a slacker!

So I was getting ready today to post how proud I was that I finally reached 70 blog entries and was even awake enough to do another one today. But then (sigh) I read Darryl's blog http://nobodylikesajerk.blogspot.com/ and realized wow I am a slacker - he has reached over 100 blog entries (check out his top 10 list) in just under four months. I better step it up :)

So when last I wrote, Jason and I had been left to our own devices with Lilah as all our visitors had left (THANK YOU FAMILY!). We spend Friday afternoon relaxing around the house and even got a 45 minute nap in. Friday night Jason, Lilah, Hunter and I crashed watching lots of TV and generally relaxing. She slept very well and I woke up a new woman on Saturday (OK the same women but a much more rested and happy one).


Saturday Jason and I finally got to clean through the mounds of papers that had been accumulating around the house and we celebrated by taking Lilah out to Giant and (of course) Buy Buy Baby. We also had a wonderful lunch at Lebanese Taverna. If you have not been to one of their locations, I highly recommend it for tasty food. So a compliment to Buy Buy Baby..."Thank you Buy Buy Baby for not only saying that you cater to moms and babies BUT actually proving it by having a private feeding room in your store.". I am sure I am not the only new mom that has misjudged feeding time and caught themselves in the middle of a store on a crowded Saturday with a screaming hungry baby. What a wonderful service to have a private room for those (like me) that are still not 100% comfortable with the whole breastfeeding in public thing (I know it will get easier but what is easier than a private room!). So even through their clothing prices are totally insane, I will still make it a point to shop there for diapers and other items to support them since they support me.

On Sunday, Lilah got all dressed up for some visitors. Darryl, Beth, Liz and Santiago came over to hang out, watch some football and (unsuccessfully because it was Sunday and we went too late) get me out of the house to get my nails done. It is amazing that even though she has grown 1lb and 1in she is still swimming in her smallest dress! You can see from the photo on the left that she likes hanging out with Santiago and I even got to eat my dinner warm because she was so good with him!

Yesterday I had my first Mommy follow up appointment and I happy to report all is good with me. I even got permission to start using our Ergo Carrier and so yesterday Hunter, Lilah and I went for a walk together. Unfortunately I was out of hands to take a photo, but the next I have company on my walk I will make sure to get one.

Off to tackle the mound of Thank You notes I have been avoiding. If you don't see me back online it's because I got writers cramp!

Lilah Who?

Disclaimer: This blog posting is being written by a very sleep deprived, very tired mommy in between Lilah feedings after having dealt with a leaky basement. No responsibility for the content, grammar or flow of this posting should be contributed to Lilah or her mom. More coherent posts to come soon.

Wow a lot can happen in two weeks. Thank you readers of this blog for hanging out even thoughts its been a while since I posted. I hope to be posting on a more consistent basis - but no promises.

So catching up on the "Life of Lilah" from where I left off on October 8th:

After Aunt Ashley left, my mom stayed for the rest of the week to help out. In between trying to catch some zzzz's we were able to get quiet a bit accomplished and Lilah went on some fun adventures to Buy Buy Baby, the pediatrician and my office. She was fantastic at the Dr. (as fantastic as anyone who has to strip down and get placed on a cold scale would be) and she continues to be a great baby only crying when she really wants something (usually food!).

When my mom was here, Lilah also got her first sponge bath. Until the umbilical cord falls off, that is the main way to get her clean. She was pretty good about it, especially since it took four hands to get it done!

My mom left on Saturday morning and Lilah attended Darryl's 31st birthday party at The Flaming Pit in Germantown, Maryland. She entertained the masses (ok not really, but she did sleep the entire time under the table which is amazing considering how loud it was). Although you couldn't see it as she was in her car carrier - she sported a onesie in honor of Darryl that said "You done with that!?".

This bring us through the 14th when Lilah got a visit from her Bubbe (Jason's mom). Lilah got to have her first offical Jewish brunch of lox, bagels and Bubbe's home made gefilte fish. (OK I got to have all those things, but they get to her eventually). Uncle Steven also came back over for a visit, along with Darryl's parents; Beth and Darryl; and my Aunt Missy and Uncle Bennett. It was a mini party for Lilah.

Then Tuesday through this morning my Aunt Karen and Uncle Fred (photos to come soon) came down to visit. Miss Lilah is very popular. If you recall from earlier posts, my Uncle Fred is the one who painted the mural on Lilah's wall, which looks even more fantastic now that her room is actually done. With Karen and Fred here Lilah went back to the pediatrician (she is now 8lbs - whoohoo) and we did another trip to a different Trader Joe's and her first trip to Baby Depot a place we just found as part of Burlington Coat factory.

So today is catch up day- on the blog, emails, sleep, etc. Speaking of Lilah wants to catch up on some eating now so good day to all!

A most excellent weekend

Happy 1st week birthday (plus two days!) to Lilah.

For only being a little over one week old, Lilah's social calender is already getting quite full - what a popular lady :)

On Saturday her Uncle Steven came to visit. Steven is attending American University undergrad and so Lilah is lucky that she will get to hang out with him a lot. Lilah and Steven got some quality relaxing time!

On Sunday, Aunt Ashley and the rest of us took Lilah on her first trip to our favorite grocery store - Trader Joe's. It was also Lilah's first time in her Ergo Baby Carrier and I have to say that this thing rocks. She was totally secure, comfortable and warm. Thank you Heather for the recommendation!





Heather also brought over a swing that her girls were no longer using and this is Lilah checking it out. So far she seems to like it!

Yesterday Lilah got her first sponge bath...and...um...she is clean and so exhausted that she slept a ton last night. Hmmm maybe I should bathe her every night ;) Photos of that to come tomorrow.

We have also set up Skype with both of her Grandma's, Uncle Steven and Aunt Ashley. So in addition to visitors and outings, Lilah is setting aside time for her photo ops as well - she is a superstar!

Lilah's life in photos

Lilah will never be able to say there were not enough photos of her during her first week of life! We have been lucky that not only do we have photos from most of our friends as well as ourselves, but that our daughter happens to photograph quite well (better than her mother is this week let me tell you!).

Although I haven't written much about it in this blog, I am a pretty avid organic gardener and was able to develop a pretty decent plot this year even will pregnant. We took down the majority of the garden a few weeks ago, but left in some of the zucchinis that were growing. Before she was born, I had the idea off measuring Lilah (then MBB) against one of the super longer variety ones. Well we finally picked it and you can check out the photographic evidence.




My sister Ashley flew in yesterday from California to meet her niece.









Lilah loved playing with her Aunt Ashley and we broke out the play mat for her first playtime and tummy time experience.







That's all my sleepy brain can process today - until tomorrow when you can expect photos of Lilah and her Uncle Steven!

PS. Oh wait - a few folks have asked how Hunter is doing with Lilah - he is wonderful and calm. We just keep forgetting to take photos - so those coming soon as well.

Even the pediatrician says she is cute!

I think I am beginning to see a pattern in my blogging times as you can see from the time stamp on this and yesterday morning's posts :) In case you are wondering how I am typing and caring for my half asleep daughter the scenario looks something like this:

Which is both her and my favorite Lilah sleeping position. Yes, she does actually sleep in her co-sleeper at night (she is up to about 1 and a half hours a shot), but after her midnightish snack I enjoy just hanging out with her a bit (also allowing her poor father time to get some sleep as I am not yet coordinated/healed enough to do all the things to get her back into a prime co-sleeper slumber). So middle of the night blog postings it is!

Today's adventure consisted of Lilah's first trip to the pediatrician where we learned she is perfect and normal - although as her grandfather (my father) said when I called him "Perfect I already knew, normal I think we should wait a few years before making that determination" :)

We of course dressed her in a super cute outfit to show her off, but took the advice of the sales person at Encore Kids (remember that blog posting - it seems like a lifetime ago) and brought a blanket to wrap her up in and keep her warm between the nurse weighing her and the doctor coming in. She is in the 50th percentile for both height and head circumference - who knew they measured that - and the 25th for weight having gained 5oz since we left the hospital - go us! After checking her all over and giving me some wonderful advice on how to manage healing after a c-section, the pediatrician said all looked great and we are released back into the world with her...at least till our appointment next week.

Starting today Lilah is going to have much fun with many visitors, starting with her Aunt Ashley (my sister) who is flying red eye in from California. Then tomorrow her Grandma Ellen (my mom) comes in for a week and her Uncle Steven (Jason's brother and a student at American) is coming over for a visit. So adventure's abound with new experiences to come - and to blog about.

Until then - goodnight and sleep tight to all!

PS

PS. Check out our new ticker!

MBB is LRB!

This week the e-mails all say our fruit/veggie/inanimate object should be well....a baby. And since we never like to disappoint - meet Lilah Rose Boig, born Sept 30, 3:45 am. Making her way into the world at 7lbs, 19inches she is quite the cutie as you can see below.

As everyone who reads this blog (or generally knows us) knows, Jason and I spend a lot of the pregnancy working with the midwives at the DC Birth Center for a natural birth at the Center. Well not surprisingly this was not Lilah's plan :). (Warning: Labor details to follow, so skip to the end if you don't want to know.)

Aprox, 7:30 on Friday night I realized that Lilah was soon to be on her way as my water broke - a sure sign that labor is beginning. However, I had no contractions at the time so knowing the midwives would tell me to eat dinner and head to bed - off to Darryl and Beth's for a home cooked meal we went - talk about it being hard to keep a secret. After dinner with no sign of contractions yet to come, I talked with one of the midwives who said (not surprisingly) "Go to bed as you will need your sleep and we will talk in the morning". For all of you who may be doing labor math - the Birth Center will allow you to go 48 hours after your water breaks before they will induce labor if everything else looks good.

So Saturday morning comes around and Beth calls to tell Jason she had a dream that we had the baby and didn't tell her - wow the look on his face when he hung up the phone without saying anything to her. With only sporadic and slightly painful contractions at that point., we talked to the Birth Center again and agreed if my contractions had not started and were progressing by mid-afternoon (after long walks with Hunter) I would try to take Castor oil, a non medical remedy that in many cases can induce labor. And boy did it! By 9pm both moms were getting packed and we were getting in the car to head to the Birth Center to follow our plan as scheduled. (NOTE: Here is where Jason gets extra kudos for not driving off the road while his wife was having contraction 2-3 minutes apart). It was at this point that ALL of the natural birth class work we had done kicked in and was worth every class and every penny spent.

As promised when we arrived at the Birth Center there were two midwives - Maria and Diana - truly the most exciting site my sore eyes (and back) had ever seen. They had the room set up for me and were ready to go. So for anyone who doesn't know - this is where it got fun! Upon checking to see how far along I was - we discovered that Lilah was no longer (if she ever was) head down - instead she was a butt first baby! (insert jokes here). So the good news is I was 7cm along - the bad news was that was no longer a good thing as breech babies are not delivered naturally and we had to keep her contained until we could get to Washington Hospital Center for a very unscheduled c-section.

So this is where the kudos to the Birth Center folks begin. Clearly this was not our plan or their plan - but turning the plan on a dime (or a butt - hehe) they could not have been more wonderful or supportive. It would have been quite easy at this point for craziness to ensue, but they kept it calm, reassured me constantly and made sure that Jason and they were with me every step of the way. To keep the rest of this very long story from becoming too much longer - Lilah came out healthy, happy and screaming her lungs out - just perfect. We got discharged on Tuesday late afternoon and are so happy to be home.

I plan to keep this blog going as Lilah grows since it has worked so well for our pregnancy at keeping in touch with friends and family. So check back frequently and we will update when we can. The first update will be fun filled information on our first pediatrician appointment later today as well as our sleepless first week at home.

Thank you so much to all our friends and family who have been there for us the last few days. Jason and I can not express how grateful we are and also how happy we our that our little girl is surrounded by so much love.

Go LRB!