Happy Birthday Lyla!

Today Lyla is 1 month old! She now weighs 8 lbs 6.5 oz and is 20 inches long. It's amazing how much she's grown in just 4 short weeks. Just yesterday she was able to roll from her tummy to her side - although I'm not so sure she enjoyed it! She's also been better able to focus on mommy and daddy's face and a few other interesting objects. Did I mention last time that she loves the ceiling fan! And just a few days ago, Lyla teared up for the first time :( She had a pretty rough weekend battling oral thrush, a fairly common infection seen in infants. Fortunately, it only took a few days of medicine before she started feeling better. Even better news - Lyla tends to only wake up once in the middle of the night to feed and then again in the early morning (usually between 6:30 and 7:30am). Mommy and daddy are very thankful for that!

After four weeks, we've finally been able to settle into a routine - sort of :) Let's just say it's a flexible routine. As a new stay-at-home mom, I've really been striving to embrace the monotony of the routine - at times I feel like it's GroundHog Day every 2 hours. Feed her, change her, play with her, put her down for a nap, pump - and then do it all over again. Aggghh! But, then I'm reminded of a few things: 1)This phase is temporary 2) Appreciate and savor every precious (and not so precious) moment that I have with Lyla - I'll never get it back 3) Find joy even in the most mundane tasks - like washing bottles for the 6th time today! On the other hand, I wouldn't change where I'm at for the world. I get to experience every little moment with her. Watching her learn about her world and grow into her own little person is fascinating. And her little coos just melt my heart!

We now have a full appreciation for how hard parenting is - you give every ounce of yourself to your child and it's exhausting! But, wow - we've never done anything more meaningful in our lives. Recently we've been enjoying playing on her activity mat, tummy time, going on short walks in her stroller (thanks to the sunny Texas winters), reading with Daddy, and hanging out with Ditty and Ginger. Every day with Lyla has been a wonderful adventure and an amazing blessing. We can't wait to see how she grows over the next several weeks!