1 Month- The Blowout

I love to fish but one of my least favorite parts of fishing is cleaning the fish at the end of the day. I’m always doing everything possible to keep from actually touching the innards of the fish. I’ll still my knife in and wiggle it around hoping it will magically sever anything still attached and the innards will happily slide out without ever coming into contact with my hands. It never works and eventually I always end up having to stick my hands into the mess.

Although we have had incidences where the poop didn’t all stay in the diaper during the first 5 weeks, we had our first official full-on blowout yesterday. Unlike previous blowouts where a small amount of poop found its way out the diaper leg holes or into the small of her back, with this blowout, the poop extended the full length of Lily’s back, into the creases of her neck, and on up into her hair.

It’s a strange analogy, but I actually thought of fish cleaning as I stood looking down at Lily’s blowout. At first, I was doing everything possible to keep my hands from actually coming into contact with the poop…I had a handful of wipes and I was dabbing at the poop covering her back, hoping it would magically soak it all up. Instead of soaking it up, I was more like an artist spreading the thick paint over the canvas of her back…there was just far too much poop to be soaked up through traditional methods.

Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that my hands would have to touch poop and once I had accepted that fact, I let go of the inhibitions and dove in. I dragged my index finger like a squeegee along her back, moving the poop into a contained area and then, once pooled, I lifted it off and wiped it into the diaper. I then wrapped my hands around her poopy legs and back and carried her into the kitchen and set her in the sink. You’ll see in the photos how Lily immediately gripped the sink divider and held on for dear life as we spend the next ten minutes scrubbing her down. The look on her face is priceless and has to be my favorite picture we have of her so far.

In the end, once again, the whole experience was strangely endearing…much more than pulling the guts out of a dead fish.

Flash Slideshow

Week 5- More Video

Sorry this clip is so long...I am having trouble getting the shortened version uploaded. As soon as I get it figured out, I will swap them, but until then you'll just have to deal with this beast.

Three Weeks- Love Rules

Happy Valentine's Day! Lily welcomed in Valentine's Day by making this weird grunting noise every 10 seconds or so for what felt like the entire night. Luckily the holiday had me in the loving mood and I didn't get mad, but I told Lily that if the grunting happens again tonight, we're moving her room to the basement. She responded with a blank stare at the light above my head.

It being Valentine's Day, I thought I'd give an update on our little love bug. Besides this weird grunting thing she has going, Lily is doing really well. This last week she has been eating incredible amounts...I'm talking 4 ounces every two hours or so! Again, I did some calculations and if I were to eat the same ratio, I would be putting down 5.6 pounds of food every two hours or 67 pounds of food a day! We think she might have Prader-Willi Syndrome...now that I read the symptoms, I think I might have that too.

She is getting better at focusing on your face when you are holding her and loves to watch your mouth move when you talk. She also loves to be held against you chest and falls asleep almost immediately whenever you hold her that way. She also loves the Jazz and thinks that Deron Williams should be going to the All-Star game instead of Ray Allen because Deron plays on a team with a winning record. All in all, she is just about the cutest little thing to ever hit this planet and the best Valentine's Day gift her mom and I could ever ask for.

Here are this last weeks pictures, most of which were taken in her new Valentine's Day outfit given to her by her aunt Danielle. These pictures might look all the same to some of you, but not if you are her dad or if you ever stand a chance of being the Lilypad Relative/Friend of the Month.

Flash Slideshow

The Lilypad Relative/Friend of the Month

We've decided to spotlight the relative or friend whom we deem has done the most to show Lily that he or she loves her during the previous month. The spotlight will be reevaluated each month and will always be in the same place...directly below the most recent post. Work hard to show Lily you love her and watch closely to see if you are the next LILYPAD RELATIVE/FRIEND OF THE MONTH.


This month's winner is Lily's aunt Danielle. Danielle showed Lily her love this last month by buying her a great sheep blanket (which Lily loves to sleep on), a Valentine onesie (see picture in the Valentine's day post), building Lily her own MySpace page, and most of all by flying up from LA to see her. Thanks for all of your love and support Danielle and congratulations.

Lily chillin' on the sheepskin

Danielle at the Oscars (in the white dress)...One of the perks of being relative/friend of the month...

Two Weeks

Lily turned two weeks yesterday. She went to the doctor for her birthday and she is doing very well. Her doctor said that her color looks great and she is now 22 1/4 inches and 7 pound 14 ounces (compared to 7 pounds 4 ounces at he first appointment). That means that in two weeks she has grown 1 3/4 inches and 10 ounces! That might not sound like much but I did some calculations and if I were to experience the same relative growth over the last 2 weeks, I would have gone from 5'10" to 6'8" and from 175 pounds to 189 pounds. So, she is growing fast and doing great.

It is hard to believe that it has only been two weeks since Lily was born. It feels like she has been here for so much longer, and even though she has cut into our sleep time a bit, I don't mean that in a bad way. We have loved having her home and having her become the center of our attention. Here are just a few things we have learned about our little girl in the short time we have had her:

• She was born with an innate ability to wait to complete going to the bathroom until the exact moment you begin to move her old diaper from under her and the new one in it's place. This isn't just a once or twice thing. She has done this on 95% of the changings. Last week, we tried to fake her out by opening her old diaper but keeping it there until the exact moment we were ready to slide the new diaper under her. She is clever and saw through out deception and, right as I went to slide out the old diaper, she pooped on my hand.
• Not only did I not mind having my hand pooped on, but I actually found it endearing. Ash and I have also found these things endearing: being peed on, being thrown up on, being spit up on, being woken up in the night, and being yelled at even after we have fed her, burped her, changed her and swaddled her.
  
• She sleeps for long periods during the day...sometimes as long as 5 hours...without waking up once, but she has never once made it more than 2 1/2 hours without waking up at night.
• She hates the part of baths where she is getting her body soaped up and washed, but she absolutely loves the part where she is having her head scrubbed and her hair put under the faucet.
  
• She loves having her hair brushed...it calms her right downs after a bath.
• She's still not sure about the binkie but if you tickle the roof of her mouth with it, she closes her mouth and start sucking away.
• She hates the car seat.
  
• She farts as loud as her parents and has, as a result, been blamed for every fart over the last two weeks.
• She is starting to be more aware of the things around her and is making eye contact. The other day I had her sitting in front of me after a bath all wrapped up in her blanket but she was still shivering and had this look on her face like "what the crap just happened to me?" I held her up against my chest and she looked up at me and stared into my eyes for the next ten minutes. Every time I would put my face close to hers, she would stick her tongue out and try to touch my face with it. She warmed up and it about melted me.
  

All in all, we are so dang happy to have Lily in our lives. We have loved getting to know her and watching her get to know us and the world around her. Thanks to everyone for all of the help you have given us.

Here are a few pictures from her first two weeks at home.

Flash Slideshow