Bre and Thomas!!: February 2015

The boring section that isn't about Lydia

Good news!- In my last post I talked about how I was struggling with my weight. Well, I still am. I am eating really healthy and a lot less than I used to and I am running 1-2 miles daily. Yet, I gained 10 lbs in the last month. I have been more exhausted than ever in my life. Some mornings I barely have the energy to brush my hair. There are days where I literally lay on the floor next to Lydia while she plays because I am so tired. I am also freezing cold most of the time. After a while, I realized something wasn't right so I went to the doctor. The blood tests came back and I have Vitamin D deficiency (not surprising!) and hypothyroidism. It is nice to at least have a name, besides laziness, for my being tired all the time and my ridiculous weight gain!

Great news!!- Thomas got in to medical school! He was accepted to Midwestern in Arizona. He had another interview in Washington at PNWU last weekend. Before he left for the interview he was 80/20 favoring AZ. Once he got to the hotel in Washington, he was 70/30 favoring AZ. After he left the interview, he was 50/50. We have talked a lot, made lists, and prayed and we may have a decision. It isn't final so I can't say which school we are leaning towards, but we are so excited to start this new chapter of our lives!

Miss Liddy Marie

Lydia is such a crazy girl. She does what Thomas calls "butterfly crawling." It is similar to the butterfly in swimming. She gets up on her hands and knees and leans forward. She occasionally will crawl like a normal baby moving her hands and knees, but she usually quits and goes back to her butterfly crawling.

She has started driving me a little crazy because she now pulls up on everything. In other words, I have to use a lot more energy to watch her. I feel like a lot of babies have pretty good balance but aren't brave enough to let go of the couch or whatever they are holding on to. We have the opposite problem here. Lydia gets too brave and lets go and she doesn't have very good balance. Sometimes she just throws her head back for fun, too. She likes to scare me!

Lydia whistles while she crawls now. She purses her lips and breathes in and out and it really sounds like she is whistling. I can't whistle, so I am slightly jealous.

My itty bitty pretty Liddy is a miracle. I take that for granted a lot now. I don't realize how far she has come until I go back and look at pictures and videos from the NICU. I love my crazy miracle girl!

I wanted to see what she would look like with hair. She now has enough to have a comb over to hide her bald spots!

This is how she sits when I try to feed her. She also likes to eat her feet while I am trying to feed her...I don't just have to wipe her face when we are done-I have to wipe her feet.

Lydia loves her Paw Paw

Sometimes we just chill and watch Elmo

Peeking out of her crib when she is supposed to be asleep

I put Lydia in her high chair and then go get her food. When she sees her food across the room, she will open her mouth. Thomas and I were eating dinner on the floor and I looked up to see her opening her mouth because she wanted some too. She kept crawling over to our plates and opening her mouth.

Her new scrunchie face

She loves giving kisses!

For V-day we went for a picnic by the Woodlands Waterway. We saw a lot of people kayaking and Lydia had a blast feeling grass!

I layed Lydia down in her bouncy chair and when I came back she had decided she wanted to sit, not lay.

A change of scenery for bouncing! We went out to our little patio!

I told Lydia I was going to chase her down the hallway and she turned towards me and started crawling up me instead. We will have to work on the concept of chasing...

Probably my least favorite place for her to pull up.

Another scrunchie face.

Lydia busted out of the bottom snaps of her sleeper to get her feet out. She hates socks and anything on her feet. She has been a little Houdini since she was born and was constantly pulling out her feeding tube and oxygen.

Lydia is doing so well! We have been so blessed that she hasn't gotten sick yet. We have been really careful, but we can't shield her from everything. She will be 9 months old on Monday. She can sit...if she isn't being lazy( when you try to get her to sit up she will push against you to lay down), she scoots around, and has started to try to pull up on things. She isn't really that close to pulling herself up, but she is trying. She loves eating solids. She loves the green stuff the most. Her favorite is green beans but she likes peas a lot too. Lydia really likes having frozen fruit in her safe feeder. It is wonderful because she can feed herself and it's cold on her gums so it helps with her teething. She still has no teeth.

Liddy likes to hear herself talk..or scream. She can make sounds with the following letters: a,b,c,d,e,g,I,k,m,p,w, and y. She is pretty manipulative. If I leave her in her crib or leave the room when she wants me she will say, "mamama." It gets me every time. I can't resist this girl. She rules the house for sure.

Thomas has a med school interview on Monday. He is nervous, but I know he will do great. I can't imagine someone meeting him and not loving him. He is just too nice of a guy and such an incredible man. Anyone would be lucky to have him as their doctor.

There have been a few things on my mind recently. You can skip over this part because it will be pretty boring but I'm going to write it anyway. First of all, I have been extremely self conscious about my weight recently. I mean, I had a 2 pound baby for heaven's sake! Why did I gain so much, dangit? I know that while she was in the NICU I stress ate a lot and we were going back and forth to the hospital so much that we stopped and got fast food on the way to or from the hospital a lot, but still. I have been eating way healthier than I ever have before and running almost every day and I haven't seen any change in weight or appearance. I hate getting dressed. Most of my clothes don't fit me anymore and those that do make me look huge. I can barely stand to do my makeup because it means I have to look at my face in the mirror and I hate it. I am so glad we only have one mirror in the house and I avoid it at all costs. Sometimes when I am holding Lydia, I flip the camera on my phone to get a picture of her and I see myself and cringe. I'm disgusting. I guess all I can do is keep trying.

On a different note.. vaccines. Typically on hot topic issues, I don't really have a strong opinion and I can see both sides. The only exceptions to this are women and the Priesthood (such a silly debate), and vaccines. It shouldn't really be a debate. Vaccines are scientifically proven to work. I understand that those that are not vaccinate are trying to do what is best for their family and I respect that they are trying to do what is best for their child, but I have to think about my own child. If you want your kid to be a vegetarian, that's fine. It only affects your family. But when you choose not to vaccinate your child, it affects my family too. The only place I take Lydia besides my parents house is to the doctor. I hate to think that there are unvaccinated children sitting in that waiting room with my baby that I have worked so hard to protect. She has a weak immune system and her lungs are not as strong as others. She goes to a high risk clinic and also at that clinic are children who have undergone surgeries and are at high risk for infections and sickness, kids that are undergoing chemo, etc. This goes for all doctors offices. If you choose to ignore your doctors advice to vaccinate your child, why are you trusting him with anything else? You already don't completely trust doctors if you are ignoring their advice so just stay home and figure something else out for your sick kid. Please. Don't expose my baby girl to your kid's sicknesses. Ok. That's all I'm going to say on that topic.

Lydia is the best and I love her dearly even though she drives me nuts sometimes when she refuses to take naps. Apparently, she thinks sleep is for the weak. I am so glad she is home. I am so glad I have her in my arms. It can be hard at times. She isn't a perfect child and she can be tough, but I am so glad that she is home that I don't even care. I can handle anything she brings at me. She is pretty stinkin' cute which helps too. :)

Liddy loves her feet

She fist bumps!

Like I said, she loves her feet

My lazy girl lays on the side of her high chair and just opens her mouth to be fed.

Sometimes she waits by the door for her daddy. Just like a puppy!

She loves chasing this little egg maraca around

Lydia's cousin, Jack, sent her a letter with some cool origami things in it that he made. Above is her wearing the hat he made her and below is her playing the piano he made.

Quite the drama queen

Lydia likes to hold the bottle all by herself sometimes. She is growin' up too fast!

Planking

Liddy Biddy is not a fan of naps anymore. I was working to get her to take a nap for about an hour. I finally gave up and just put her on the floor to play. A few minutes later I looked over at her and she had fallen asleep.