Wednesday, November 4, 2009

October is finally over


I have had several comments about the brief stall in blog posts from some faithful readers. Well, October has been our most difficult month. It has been all we could do to see each other, spend time with Lilly, not quit residency, and just survive. You know how some people tell you to just take it a day at a time, well, this month I found myself shortening that and trying to make it half way to lunch before I needed to re-pep-talk myself. Blake and I were both on wards in the pediatric hospital. For me, it was something new and incredibly busy, for him, the same old junk, but with an unhappy wife, who at times was emotionally unstable. We had the great misfortune of being on call back to back. What this means for my non-medical friends is, I would have a 30 hour shift where he would be alone with Lilly. After not sleeping for 30 hours, I would come home, during which time his 30 hour shift would have begun. I would sleep for about 2.5 hours or 3, and have to get Lilly from day care. 3 hours being quite insufficient, I would then be on my own with her all night, trying my best to be exciting mommy, not dead dog tired mommy. Then we would get up and take her in the next day at 630am, and I would start another 9-11 hr shift. Blake would be finishing his 30 hours and then come home and crash. So for a solid half the week he and I were either working or sleeping. Throw a 7 month old in the mix and you have the recipe for low morale in the bergeron house. Whew... that was tough to relive through typing! All that being said, it is a new day! I am now doing shifts int he ED, only 15 for the month, I am going home in a week, the first time since lilly was born, And blake basically works 3 half days and 2 full days a week with no weekends. Grace abounds, just when you need it most.

Now that you are privy to the type of month we just survived, you can appreciate why lilly's 7 month pics are in her high chair and not a better locale. :) She is still super cute, and super huge! Please appreciate the barrette progression.



October also brought our first Halloween. We were a pumpkin, very original, I know, but I wanted to make the costume, since made ones are much better, but once again refer to the top of the blog tirade... thus we were a pumpkin because it was the cutest Babies R Us had to offer, and I refused to make her a whoopie cushion much to Blake's chagrin. Malinda and Anju were in tow for Zoo-Boo. On actual Halloween night I had the privilege of being on call, so Lilly graciously reverse-trick-or-treated to the hospital to bring the team candy!

Last but not least the one great thing that came out of October was the visit from Anju and Malinda, my two best friends from medical school. They now live in Cincinnati and Minnesota respectively. BOO. Here we are at our favorite restaurant, and the gorgeous wedding of two dear friends.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

6 months of pictures (more than you bargained for on this one!)



Wow, I just realized that it has almost been a months since my last post. I have been in the adult ICU for the past rotation, and have really enjoyed it, however, it has not lent itself to much time for blogging. It has been very challenging, and very fulfilling. The hardest part has been the crazy hours I have had to work. I have cherished every minute I have had outside of the hospital. Lilly has grown so much in the past few weeks. This is and forever will be the hardest part, but I know deep down when I really think about things that I am doing what I have been called to do.

Lilly is six months old today... wow how sweet it has been. She is soooo funny. She has learned to grin, more than her surprised smile- if only I could learn to capture it on film. She can sit all by her self. When I picked her up from day care the other day, her teacher said that she had dumped all the toys out of the bucket and was running the show, handing them out to other kids. I suppose I am raising the alpha dog. I have no idea where she got such a personality! She loves paper... today, for her month-a-versary, I let her do what she always wants to do, play with the junk mail.... she had a BLAST. She loves her exer-saucer, she is so good. She hardly ever cries, and just rolls with the flow. She loves to play, take baths, and now... I am happy to report that in the month in which it was most important for her to sleep, she has slept through the night since about 1 week into the month. What a wonderful little girl, bless her heart!

Here we are at zero days/months/years

One month

Two month birthday she shared with another event. And she got her first shots :(

THe real three month birthday she was sick, as evidenced by the car seat picture. She started to hold toys, and still loved the swing

Four months she was smiling and playing. Grammy made this great smoked masterpiece

Five months and she was sitting alone. What a big girl!

Here are some more pictures from the fifth month which have been neglected until now. Some have already been seen.


Here you see her first swinging expedition, and yet another beautiful smocked dress. She is the best dressed kid on the block.

Sometimes you just have to watch her sleep... how could you not.

as you might imagine, daddy is wrapped around that little finger, and thanks to aunt andrea, she is learning her letters! She can spin it all by herself.

Here we are.... Six months!
In other, less exciting news, I turned 29, which is almost 30 for those of you not so savvy with your counting. Blake's mom and nonnie came down and threw me a party post call, complete with tinkerbell tiaras... there is no better way to turn 29 than with tinkerbell tiaras and soul food... like chicken pot pie and macaroni and cheese :)




On my real birthday, my friend Cindy and I went to eat sushi. Since I had my birthday on a Monday, my traditional Bahn Thai was out, and I wanted to wait on Boscos! Man am I a creature of habit or what.



Saturday, September 5, 2009

friends visit, will turns 1 and look how cute I am




Somehow amidst all the craziness, we have still managed to stay somewhat social. That is not to say really social, since all of my friends are most likely still awaiting return phone calls. I started my ICU rotation last week. I used to like the ICU. It is amazing how much this sweet little girl makes my main goal of the day to get home, not start central lines. To my friends, please know that I am not ignoring just you... i am ignoring everyone. Since starting work, I have really struggled with why am I working and is it worth it. This translates into a lot of uncertainty and a lot of hard days. Usually after those days, I just want to come home and be absorbed in the life of Lilly and Blake. I only have a limited amount of time with them lately so I try not to be on the phone. I still really love you all. I am so sorry, I will emerge from my hermit/borderline depressed state soon (I hope). Or I will quit and emerge indefinitely. Just needed to make my disclaimer. Now for the pics. The reason everyone checks this blog. I am a realist!

Geoff and Ashley Watson were in town for David Holt's wedding. We had a great time at the wedding and the following day they came over with Greer. Greer and Lilly were born about 6 days apart. As you can see they are instant friends, though Lilly has not yet learned that when you are sharing your mat, you cannot roll over your friend.


Will Boman turned 1 year old on 9/4. Today was his birthday. We had a great time watching him eat his cake and run his party. The Bowmans had a swimming pool, ball pit, and a baby moon bounce. While Lilly did not partake, it was fun to watch others. Conner and Caroline, Ryan and Harper were also in tow.



In the meantime we managed to get some great pics in her cute cupcake outfit. I think I will try to be a photographer. Maybe then I can pay back my loans and not do residency! Although I don't think I would like taking pictures of other people as much as I like taking pics of her. Enjoy her cuteness... we sure do!





In other news... Lilly learned how to actually bounce in her jumper instead of just spinning around.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Lilly learns some new tricks at 5 months





Here is some documentation of Lilly's last few days. She is becoming a reliable sitter. She is also gaining more and more rolls! She has been so much fun. I think month 4-5 is my favorite. It has been sooooo much fun. She still does not sleep through the night. I know it is most likely my fault, but unfortunately since I never get to see her, I just get up and get her when she cries because I like to hold her. Well enough jabber, here she is...

Here she demonstrating how adept she is at posing for the camera and rolling over :)

My big girl no longer needs her carseat adapter to go trotting!


this, my friends, is quite possibly the best baby toy ever. The exer-saucer is BRILLIANT

And now for the big tricks...Lilly can sit! I can't even believe it!

Thanks Grammy for this sweet dress!



Thanks Grandma Ruth Ann for bringing me this awesome outfit from the Big Easy! Not every girl can have a biker grandma who loves her so much~

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lilly SWIMS!

video

Today was Tucker Chipman's 1st Birthday Party...A pool party. We thought we would take Lilly for her 1st swim. Loaded down with her swim suit that Grammy bought her, we took the plunge. As soon as we lowered her into the water, we could tell by her face that it wasn't going to be a great experience. Jaclyn quickly ran to get the camera, b/c we knew this fun wasn't going to last long. Here's all we got! The video isn't 5 minutes long this time...only 39 seconds.It didn't start out so bad...

But quickly got out of hand!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Lilly eats cereal!

I know we are way behind blog posting...i still have to talk about the end of vacation, father's day, etc...but we just shot this video of Lilly eating rice cereal for the first time! It's so cute! It was too big to upload straight here, so I'll uploaded it to YouTube and had to embed it here. So fun. It's amazing how fast they grow up!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Four months





My apologies for the lack of pictures and posts over the past month. It has been nuts. I will not muse about this past month at this time, since this is meant to be a happy, light and fluffy post. Lilly celebrated 1/3 a year on earth with 2days of fevers! Luckily she perked up enough to pose for her portrait. Check out the dress that Grammy (Blake's mom) smocked. She is AWESOME!

The past month has been one of the most fun months of Lilly's short existence. She started to smile, giggle, screach, and play. She has rolled over from back to front and front to back... ONCE. She now just screams when we try to make her do it again, and without fail, Blake rescues her. No wonder she won't roll over, daddy does it for her :) She plays with her lion and monkey and various other weird animals on the mat my friends Anju and Carol Sue gave her (miss you guys).

She holds her tongue out to catch water in the bathtub the way you or I might try to catch snow. She has definitely learned to prefer her parents if given the option.

As far as sleeping goes, she gets a big fat F. She rarely sleeps more than 3 hours, and even that has become more rare. As you might imagine, this is an unwelcomed habit given the 2 times a week both blake and I pull 30 hour shifts. But we love her nonetheless. Hopefully she will grow out of it before my eyes have permanent circles under them.

It has been the best 4 months ever. I love being a mom, and every day is richer. She is so curious, and it is amazing to watch her discover the world. I used to wish that she would stay little and cuddly so I could always hold and protect her. I thought it would be so sad to watch her grow, but it is just the opposite. Sure I am aware of the passage of time, and how each minute is only here once. (more on that later... therein lies my problem with residency) But what a great joy it is to watch her grow and develop, to smile, and coo. I love my life! I am so blessed. Happy 4 months.