9 Months

9 months!!! 3/4 of the way to 1 year. I know I have said it before, but I really, really need time to slow down. She is getting so big. 

Weight:17.16lbs (33%)
Height: 26 inches (6%)
Head:43.3cm (34%)
LOVES: pulling to stand and cruising, eating food, being tickled, sucking on her two middle fingers on her right hand (think I Love You sign), baths and swimming
HATES: being still, naps
SLEEPING: 11-12 hrs each night, 2 naps usually 1-2 hrs each
EATING: 3 meals a day, 4 oz of breast milk or nurses 5-6 times a day. Favorite foods- strawberries, french fries and green beans

She now has 6 teeth. She loves to eat, play patty-cake and peek-a-boo. She's really into the dogs now. She's still continues to be a little small for her and we are going back to the doctor in a few weeks for another weight/growth check. Otherwise she is right on target/a little ahead.

Here is her usual monthly picture in her chair with Grant Bear.

7 months

8 months

9 months

 

My Dad

My Dad passed away on April 16, 2014 at the age of 61. He was a great father and taught me many things growing up. He was always there for us, supporting us in our sports, school, and life. Every time he talked to me he told me how proud he was of me. He was one of my biggest fans. He loved Amelia and Jonathan. My best memories of him are from when we were kids growing up. He loved to take us fishing and hunting and to teach us to appreciate the outdoors. He coached me in basketball and helped me practice softball. He was always there to cheer us on. I'm sad that Amelia won't grow up knowing him but can't wait to teach her all of the things he taught me. We had his memorial service on April 21 (2 years to the day after Grant's, it was special to me that they were on the same day). It was a really nice service honoring a great dad. Amelia wore her Easter dress to my Dad's service.

My Dad and I at my wedding.

My beautiful mom and Amelia at my Dad's service

Some of the flowers from my Dad's service.

Easter 2014

Amelia's first Easter wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it still turned out great. My dad passed away a few days before Easter, a post about him is coming, so Easter was a little different this year. We traveled to Dallas to be with family, which was the original plan, and enjoyed spending time with those we love. On Saturday (April 19) evening we had a BBQ at my brother's house with all of my siblings, nieces and nephews. It was fun to sit back, relax and enjoy the time together. We also wrote my Dad's obituary while there (see, not a normal Easter) which was nice to be able to reflect on his life with my siblings and mom. Amelia enjoyed watching everyone and all of the attention she got. On Sunday Jonathan and I went to my brother-in-law's parents with my mom, sister and brother-in-law. We wanted to be able to spend as much time with my mom as possible. Amelia was doted on there too. She is such a ham and LOVED the attention. Thank you to the Johnson family for including us and for sprinkling Amelia's head with her first confetti egg!

Casey's House. "WHAT IS THIS THING"

First Easter Basket: bunny and book

Easter Sunday. Still trying to eat plastic eggs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Egg Hunts are exhausting!

First Wedding

We went to a wedding this past weekend, Amelia's first. It was an outdoor, western themed wedding and so much fun. We had a great time celebrating our friend's big day! Amelia is such a great traveler. She doesn't sleep well in hotel rooms but she is still such a happy baby. She had little cowboy boots to wear with her dress but by the time we took pictures the boots had come off (it was hot). I think she was pretty adorable anyways! I made her dress and headband out of a mens western shirt and some lace.

2 years...Happy Birthday Grant Oliver

2 years have passed since I've held you in my arms. I think of you every day and miss you always. We had a party to celebrate Grant this year and it was so much fun. So many of our friends came and my sister even drove down from Dallas to be here. I decided that we should make tiny hats to donate to local hospitals so that other families would know that their baby is special and loved. We made over 200 hats that day. Our small group at church got us a card and donated money to MEND in Grant's memory. So sweet. I loved being able to celebrate his life with everyone. I had to work on Grant's actual birthday. I was a little bummed about it. However, at work that day someone I work with came up to me and asked to talk to me later. When I was done seeing patients she came down and met me in my office and proceeded to tell me that she lost a baby earlier this year. They received one of the diapers we had donated to our local hospital and she said how much it meant to her. It was amazing hearing about this on Grant's birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday in Heaven baby boy. I can't wait to see you again.

6 month Pictures

Here are some of her 6 month pictures taken a couple of different days. She didn't cooperate much the day of her "Valentines" pictures but we still managed to get a few cute ones. As always, I have a pretty amazing photographer in my sister :)

6 months...1/2 yr....HOW?

HOW is she 6 months old already? I don't understand how time has gone so fast. She is growing and changing so fast. I'm loving this age. Watching her learn new things all the time is so fun, and a little sad, all at once.

Weight: 15lbs 8 oz (40%)
Height: 25 inches (11%)
Head: 41.8cm (32%)
LOVES: playing/rolling all over the floor, jumping in her jumper, sucking on her two middle fingers on her right hand (think I Love You sign), baths
HATES: being still
SLEEPING: 11-12 hrs each night, 2-3 naps each day ranging from 15 min to 2 hrs depending on the day
EATING: 4 oz every 2 hours, some baby foods and some regular foods (she prefers to self feed regular food)

She now has TWO teeth and boy are they sharp. She rolls all over the floor and is very quick. She is trying to crawl. I'm not ready for her to be that mobile yet. She loves playing with her toys and making lots of noise. I love hearing her squeal and laugh.

If you compare her growth stats from previous posts you'll notice she isn't growing very fast and is actually losing some of her chub. We have to go back to the doctor in a month to see if she is growing appropriately. She's always keeping us on our toes.

Here is her usual monthly picture in her chair with Grant Bear.

Lets Be Honest.....I Don't Love It

Warning: Talk of breastfeeding involved. Don't continue if you don't want to read about it :)

I love, love, love being a mom. I love sweet baby cuddles, smiles, giggles and squeals. She is precious and perfect and I wouldn't trade this for anything. What do I not love then? Breastfeeding/pumping. I really really wanted to, but I don't. I actually despise pumping. I can't wait until she is no longer taking breast milk. I want to give her breast milk until 1 yr, that has been my goal. I don't hate breastfeeding as much as pumping but I don't love it. I like that it's our quiet time. Only me and her. I don't like how she has a terrible latch (always has) and that I still have to use a nipple shield. I don't like that she is super distractible so what should take15 minutes takes 30 and instead of it being a relaxing experience I am always having to try to get her attention again to get her to re-latch. I'm sure some will say that I should enjoy this because I'll miss it when it's over, and you know what, maybe I will. I've learned to never say never when it comes to parenting. I may miss our early morning sessions where she is still sleepy and looks at me and smiles. I know that I most likely won't miss being attached to a machine for 15 minutes at a time every 4-6 hours when I can't breastfeed.

Squeaky Clean

I can't get over how adorable she is :)

Gospel Community...Being More Transparent

Church this morning was AMAZING. It was all about community. Why we need it and how it should look. I stole our pastors phrase...gospel community. It means making our church look like the community that God has in mind. Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, outgoing, introverted all fellowshiping together, being a community. This means that we rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. We support each other through burdens and hard times. We pray for each other, encourage each other and speak truth to each other. While he was preaching I was thinking about our COM group (small group) that we have recently joined. We have begun making friends in this group and are enjoying getting to know them. However, as he was talking about how we should be more transparent in our COM groups, in order to allow us to really be a gospel community, I was thinking about how most of our group doesn't really know about Grant. One couple already knew Grant's story. I used to work with her and we were friends before we started going to church there. However, only 1 or 2 more girls in the group know about him. It's not because we aren't proud of him. I think it's because we don't want to burden others with the sadness of a baby dying. The look that people give you when you say your baby died is heartbreaking and we aren't always open about it. We need to be though. I was talking with my friend Melinda (who is in our COM group and knows about Grant) after church today about this. I think the next time our group gets together we will share Grant's story. The whole story. These are our friends, fellow believers, those who are supposed to be there to support and love us, they should know about our first born, our son.

I've been thinking about Grant a great deal more lately than normal. I think about him every day but most of the time it's a short thought as I see his picture on our wall or see his nose on Amelia. Sometimes I think more as I rock her and pray before bed or when I see a little boy that would be about his age. As his second birthday is approaching I've thought about him more. I've thought about how I want to celebrate him for his birthday, how I want people to remember him. I'm still working on what I would like to do for his birthday but I'm sure I will figure something out that will honor him and celebrate him. First, I will share his life with our friends.

1st Christmas

This year I was lucky and had the ENTIRE week of Christmas off! It was amazing to be able to spend her first Christmas in Dallas with our families. It was a crazy busy week but we enjoyed it and were thankful for the time we had with family. We were then thankful that we got to sleep in our own beds when we got back :) We started our week off by going to my Memaw's 80th birthday party/family Christmas party. Amelia got to meet family members for the first time and it was nice being able to celebrate my Memaw. The next day we went with my Mom to take my Memaw home and then we went to my Aunt's house and Amelia got to be cuddled by more family members she had never met. I hadn't seen my Aunts in a long time so it was nice to see them and visit for a while. Amelia loved the attention cause she's rotten like that. Monday, yes Monday (2 days before Christmas), Jonathan and I took my Dad Christmas shopping. Oh! What an adventure that was. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were full of Christmas activities with our families. The only problem with everyone living in Dallas is everyone doesn't really live in Dallas. The DFW metroplex is HUGE and it's about an hour and fifteen minutes between my families house and Jonathan's families house. Makes for lots of car time. Thankfully, Amelia is a trooper in the car and did great both days. Thursday we hung out with my Mom and Friday we headed home! We left most of Amelia's gifts at my Mom's house. No room in the car with us, our stuff and our 2 dogs. We will have to get her presents later. Good thing she's too young to know! We also spent a great deal of December in our numerous Christmas outfits and made a trip to see Santa.

I like to eat my reindeer.

Oh Christmas Tree

Me and my birthday buddy/betrothed :)

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas

Not Amused

Christmas Jammies

Cousin Maddi and Amelia

Cousin Kenzie and Amelia

More Christmas Jammies- Christmas Eve

Afternoon Nap on Christmas Day

Memaw and Amelia- 80 and 4 months

Merry Christmas from the Bybee Family

4 months...A Little Late

My baby girl is 4 months old! I really, really, really need time to slow down. Tonight I was loading pictures onto our computer from my phone and Oh..My..Goodness she has grown and changed so much. I can't believe how big she is. Here are her stats and what she is up to now.

Weight: 14lbs 6oz (75%)
Height: 25 inches (75%)
LOVES: playing on her play-mat and in her jumper, her Daddy, bottles and her fingers, baths
HATES: naps, nursing when she is tired, really hungry or it's after 3pm
SLEEPING: 11-12 hours each night (7pm-7am). about 3 15-30 min naps per day
EATING: 4oz every 2 hours when awake. Sometimes takes 6-7 oz before bed or late in the afternoon.

It's really funny that she now prefers a bottle over nursing since she hated them so much in the beginning. She especially wants them when she is really tired, hungry or it's getting later in the evening. She still nurses willingly first thing in the morning which is nice because I HATE pumping. She has outgrown her colic, actually she outgrew that at about 12 weeks. She goes to bed in her own bed around 7pm every night and prefers to be laid down awake and left alone. She hates to take naps during the day and fights it as much as possible. I may try black out curtains in her room. She started laughing 2 days after she turned 3 months old and it is the most adorable sound ever. She now "talks" all the time and tried to help preach today at church. She learned to roll from her tummy to her back on December 10, sat up without help for the first time on December 20 (when she turned 4 months old) and rolled from her back to her tummy on December 30. Today she learned how to turn in circles while on her tummy and is trying to figure out how to scoot on her belly. I'm not ready for her to be mobile! She sucks on her two middle fingers on her right hand to put herself to sleep and sometimes "talks" herself to sleep. She is the sweetest thing in the world and I don't know what I would do without her.

 

Yes I'm sitting on a table at McAllister's. When You learn to sit you have to show off!

Favorite sight ever!

Sitting up chatting with my Grant bear.