Our Lily Patch

Really?

You’re truly prepared?

Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Feast your eyes on this Red Hot . . . LILY PEPPER!

Courtesy Grandma Donna. Check out a few more shots in the Gallery. (I know, Halloween’s a few weeks away, but can you blame me for being eager?)

YUM.

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How lucky were we?

First Grandma Fay came to celebrate the fall colors of New England for the week of her 65th birthday . . .

and then Grandma Donna came to attend a women’s blogging conference (to which she kindly took me along). We all hung out in the Boston area hotel over Columbus Day weekend and had a grand(ma) old time.

And while we were there, miracle of miracles, Lily started saying “Mam mam mam mam maaammmmm” for the first time. What a great 6 month milestone!!!

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That is all.

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Hi everybody!

We have some upcoming visits that have prompted questions about gifts for Lily, things that we need, items that we prefer and so on. With those visits and the upcoming holidays in mind, I thought I’d go ahead and take a tip from some friends of ours and post some general gift guidelines. Check them out – they’re in the “Pages” section in the left hand column of this page, right above the listed “Archives”. Click “Lily’s Gift Guidelines”.

This isn’t intended to cramp your style! And we so appreciate the generosity that so many of you demonstrate on a regular basis. Hopefully just a few tips and rules now will eliminate any awkward situations or hurt feelings in the future.

Thanks for your cooperation!

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She is just so close – I can’t quite believe it. She revs herself up like crazy with her legs and sometimes even gets onto her hands & knees to rock back and forth a bit – she just hasn’t quite figured out how to incorporate her upper body. Yet. She also does an adorable sort of pike position, with her face buried in the bed and her booty up in the air, legs straight – like so:

AND she is now sitting unsupported for up to a minute at a time before comically toppling over, totally unfazed.

It’s all happening so fast! Can you believe?

P.S. You may have noticed an increased frequency in my postings. It’s true – I’m finally getting a little bit more time on my hands, since, at long last . . . Lily is finally nursing, and I no longer have to pump around the clock (which totaled at least 4 hours a day, not including regular cleaning of all the equipment). We still have a few weeks of weaning off the pump altogether, and making sure she’s really solid in her abilities, but we’re almost at the finish line. It took us five months, but she did it, against incredible odds. She’s amazing.

So yes, you might hear from me more often now, with a little more content, not just the latest photos uploaded as quickly as possible. I eventually will finally share not only the whole nursing saga, but also our birth story in all its wild and wonderful glory. I might even get to those thank you cards one of these days!!

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I just got my medical records in the mail from CCOG, the OB/GYN and CNM practice which provided me with some parallel care throughout my pregnancy (those who don’t know, parallel care refers to when prenatal care is given by both home birth midwives, a.k.a. CPMs, as well as by a conventional allopathic practice). I was scanning through them nostalgically just for fun, when I came across a surprising, unknown detail.

Included in the records is the evaluation from my Level II Ultrasound, taken at 18 weeks. You remember that ultrasound, the one that diagnosed my placenta previa, the condition that shadowed the whole pregnancy, not ruining it, but overcasting it at times with fear, anxiety and grief; the condition that put me on five months of pelvic rest and forbade me exercise. This ultrasound, the top-of-the line technology, the one that is used to assess potential fetal conditions and complications, this ultrasound that we are, thanks to a whole series of insurance snafus, STILL paying for.

Take a gander at this and see if you notice anything surprising.

Yes, that’s right! Though I had, at the time, asked for it to be a surprise, so they didn’t mention it that day, I was, apparently, carrying a bouncing baby BOY! Thank goodness we put so much faith and power into these infallible machines!

Here’s another recent shot of our little guy:

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