2 Months Old Already?

It's hard to believe our little girl is 2 months old already! How time flies when you're busy!

We love you sweet angel! You've put so much love and joy in our lives in just 2 months!

Our Easter with Lily

Sleeepy Bunny....

All that egg hunting makes a girl tired!

Dad, Mom, & Lily


Dad, Mom, & Bunny

Lily was SIX WEEKS OLD the day before Easter! We decided she was still too young and volatile to try to take her to church, so we went out to Kiesel Park to take some pictures with Lily and her grandparents.

Lily with John's parents, her Papa and Gigi.

Lily with my parents, her Poppy and Nanna.

The Easter Bunny brought all kinds of fun goodies!

"I was just hanging out in my swing on a lazy Easter afternoon when Mom and Dad whipped out the camera and started making silly faces! Then all of a sudden...."

"I gave them a HUGE gummy grin! A few, actually!" This was the first of many! What a perfectly sweet way to end our first Easter as a family of three.

Two's Company, and the third brings a CROWD!

Lily is SIX WEEKS OLD today! To say that life has been a little crazy the past few weeks would be a tremendous understatement. I never would have dreamed that it would take me over a month to post more than one set of pictures of her on the blog! For those of you who do have babies- stop laughing. You understand. You've been there. Days are filled with feedings, diaper changings, spit-up, consequent outfit changes, breast pumping, bottle washing, baby rocking, etc. until the baby finally goes to sleep for the night (ahem, a few consecutive hours at some point in the wee hours of the morning) And then you start over again the next day. The advice everyone gives you is "Sleep while the baby sleeps"- riiiight. When exactly do you want me to wash her bottles, her clothes, my clothes, mySELF, and somehow keep the house somewhat tidy for visitors? Uh-huh! That's what I thought.
Speaking of visitors- we have had lots of wonderful visits of friends and family since Lily was born! We have also been blessed with lots of kind people bringing us food! Thank you to Jacqueline who so thoughtfully set up a meal schedule online for us- I can't tell you how nice it was to not have to worry about dinner most nights with all of the aforementioned chaos.
I have also started back at work. Not full-time mind you. I am only working a few hours a day a few days a week to start. I am so blessed to have the flexibility to spend time with her and still get work in too. Alot of work I can do from home too, which is nice. Enough about ME! More about Lily!
She is a WONDERFUL baby. She is so sweet and LOVES to snuggle! She is quite a people-person and loves to be held. She is starting to notice things and people, which is a wonder to witness. She LOVES a bath but hates when it is over. She is eating every 3 hours (on the DOT) and growing well. Her first well-baby visit with her pediatrician was last Friday. She weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz.(50th percentile) and is 20.5 inches long (which is the same as she measured at birth, and is 25th percentile). She is also (fingers-crossed) starting to sleep a little better and a little longer at night.
Here are a few pictures from some of Lily's visitors...

Jacqueline, Baby William, and Candice came to visit Lily and bring us dinner one day! We swapped babies for this picture. We had fun introducing them! William & Lily were due the same day, but William beat her here! He was born Jan. 12th- 5 weeks and 4 days before Lily. It was fun to see them both!Our friends Neal & Lauren came to visit from Montgomery too! (Ok, so we pretty much forced Neal to hold her for the photo.)Of course, Haley and Isabella. Ginger, Kenlie, and Maddie came to surprise us too! I could just cry that we didn't take any pictures while they were here!Of course GRANDPARENTS on many occasions, but I guess they don't technically count as visitors... Above are her Nanna and Poppy (my parents) and below are her Gigi and Papa (John's parents)Lily has TWO uncles- Danny, my brother and Sam, John's brother. Below are Danny and his girlfriend, Annette visiting Lily.

Oh, Uncle Sam! You've been waiting a VERY long time for that title! :)

Lily's Great-Grandmother, Mimi (my dad's mother) came to visit in the hospital.

Our friends, Seth and Elizabeth visiting at the hospital. We sure wish they would give Lily a little friend!

My cousin Evan and her ADORABLE baby York came to visit us for lunch at Chappy's. We had a great time!

York wanted to touch her SO BADLY!

Meet NaNaw, Lily's other Great-Grandmother (she actually has 3!) She came all the way from Hope, Arkansas to meet her! We will be celebrating NaNaw's 90th birthday next month!

All of the Arkansas visitors and Sherry (Gigi). NaNaw & Gigi standing behind John's Aunt Debbe who drove NaNaw and cousin Elizabeth who is in Vet school at LSU. We are so glad Elizabeth was able to drive up and meet Lily too!That's all for now, folks. The next post will be more pictures of LILY!

Baby Lily is here!

Miss Lily certainly took her sweet little time getting here... Her due date was Feb. 17th, and at my doctor's visit that day I was begging to be induced! I was getting larger and more uncomfortable with each passing day. Dr. Marino's next day on call was Saturday, Feb. 20th, so we decided on 7:00 that morning!

Here's the Reader's Digest version of our incredible day:

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45, which you understand if you know my oh-so-prompt husband. We started the pitocin at around 8:15, had an epidural around 1:00ish, and broke the water around 2:00ish. Somehow between 5:30 and 6:00 I went from being 6cm to 9cm... things were finally happening! At 6:30 it was TIME to push! I knew it! I told the nurses to find the doctor and FAST so my poor baby wouldn't plop right out onto the floor. But my doctor couldn't come! Just so happens, he was in an emergency C-section in the O.R. down the hall! Somehow there were 4 women in labor and ready to deliver all within a couple of hours of each other and I was lucky enough to be one of them. The anesthesiologist was sent to my room to up my dose... after which I was totally numb! Total relief! Dr. Marino finished up with the emergency case after what seemed like days and made his way to our LDR suite. After pushing for almost 2 HOURS our little miss priss made her debut!

Feb. 20, 2010 ~ 8:18pm ~ 7 lbs. 13 oz. ~ 20 1/2 inches

Our First Photo as a Family of Three!

The night nurses in the nursery made bows for the little girls' hats! So cute!

Sweet Cheeks!

I have a ton of pictures from her first couple of weeks at home, which I'll post soon. I just wanted to get a few up from the birth! I can't believe it took me so long to finally sit down and get this up! Coming Soon... Lily meets her furry siblings & visits from friends & family

Snow Pictures

Just a few pictures from the Snowy Day last Friday...

John and Gypsy playing in the snow...

Gypsy LOVES it! She tries to catch snowflakes in her mouth like a little kid!

My two boys... Ryder wasn't allowed to play in the snow, he gets little ice balls in the fur on his feet and it's a HUGE pain to get them out- I have rainboots for him (that are HiLaRiOuS by the way), but it's just as much trouble, and these days, I'm trying as hard as humanly possible to take it easy!

And finally, a belly picture at 39 1/2 weeks pregnant. We were hoping for a little Valentine surprise, but we are still waiting patiently for our little angel! We will definitely meet her by this weekend- if she doesn't come on her own, we are going to induce on Saturday. FINALLY!

Hurry Up & Wait...

I can't believe February is already here! I feel like we have been waiting FOREVER for it! Lately, I feel like getting ready for Lily has been alot like a high-schooler getting ready for the prom... In either case, you think about it and plan for it MONTHS in advance. You decide on your "look", whether it's the perfect dress & shoes or the colors & fabric for the nursery... You get as ready as you possibly can, whether its getting all dolled up or packing for the hospital... Then you sit around and WAIT for your date (or baby) to arrive... and WAIT... and WAIT.

We've had the carseat installed for what feels like weeks now and our hospital bags (mine, John's, and Lily's) have been packed and loaded up so long I've forgotten what's in them!

We are so prepared for her to make her appearance we feel like she will NEVER get here! Without getting too graphic, at my last doctor's appointment on Wednesday we found out that we are getting close! I'm about 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. The fetal monitor they put me on shows that I'm having contractions (little mini-ones) about every 4 minutes on average (that I usually can't feel) ... and Dr. Marino thinks we will see her within the next week, but who really knows???

I feel like I'm staring out the window waiting for my date to pull into the driveway...

Please pray for a HEALTHY LITTLE GIRL and a relatively quick and painless (ha!) labor & delivery... We will post pictures of her as soon as we can! We are so excited!

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME~ I have VERY EXCITING NEWS! My friend Jacqueline, who was due the same day I am, had her baby, WILLIAM (Lily's boyfriend-to-be) on January 12th. We are so happy that even though he was just over 5 weeks early, he is a very healthy little boy! He is absolutely adorable & I promise I'll add pictures of him soon, I have them saved on my other computer! (This is another reason for the overwhelming sense of anxiety for me, knowing Lily really could come ANY unexpected minute!)

My Baby Shower, A Few Nursery Pics, and Christmas 2009

THE BABY SHOWER

Haley, Ginger, Jacqueline, Evan, & Meredith hosted my baby shower at Haley's house. (I happen to LOVE how Haley decorates for Christmas!) It was so much fun and Lily got LOTS of great stuff. I can't thank you girls enough!

Opening an afghan knitted by John's mom (Lily's Nanna)

My Belly Buddy and Me! Jacqueline and Baby William, due the same day as Lily (Feb. 17th)!

AND NOW FOR THE NURSERY...

Lily's nursery isn't quite finished, but alot of you are asking for nursery pics, so I'm indulging you...

Lily's dresser and changing table. Look at the organizer, made by Sherry. How cute is that?


The picture above the changing table is one of the maternity pics I had taken by Flip Flop Foto, mounted and signed by the attendees of the shower, who all wrote sweet notes to Lily!

Lily's crib and bouncy seat. You can't really see the door hanging well in this pic, but it is from her Aunt Ginger and I LOVE IT!

Close-up of the bedding, all made by Sherry! Including the cute bunny pillow!


The glider and ottoman will go in the corner that the stroller is in whenever it comes in... and the lamp on that table was my great-grandmother's!

CHRISTMAS AT THE GWIN HOUSE...

And finally, our den and pups all decked out for Christmas. This was taken on Christmas Eve. I had to work and John had the day off. When I came home my house was clean, food was cooking, every candle in the house was lit, my pups were dressed up in red and green, and Christmas music was playing! It was a wonderful Christmas Eve surprise!