Merry Christmas... on New Year's Eve...

She actually smiled for the first several pics, but Blake was not quick enough to the draw to get those on our camera!

Here is LIlly in her rocking chair... a graduation present from Sarah Koontz, our Christmas tree is in the background... and Grammy made both the dress above and this one. "Man am I a lucky girl."

Merry first Christmas from the home of the ever-crazy Bergeron family. Blake and I had the pleasure of working over the holiday, which prompted him to comment... "do you think we will be a family again soon?" All that being said, we were blessed to have Blake's family join us to celebrate/watch Lilly while we worked. Blake was in the NICU and I have been working nights in the ED.

Blake and I at Dr. Bugnitz the Peds program director, and LIlly is ready for Christmas Eve service. Check out her ever so stylish red shoes.

We could have never made it, nor would our holidays have been so wonderful without the help of his family. Nonnie, Poppaw, Grammy, Grandfather, and Kera came to Memphis for the occasion. We somehow managed to scramble together Christmas gifts at the last minute, and clean the house enough for company. Consequently the only presents bought prior to Christmas were the ones of the family we had to face :).

Lilly in the tub with Aunt Teresa's toys at good work, and another shot of Christmas eve.

Here WE are trying to get her to open her presents.... and SHE is trying to get the ribons and paper out of the garbage which have already been unwrapped. TYPICAL!

If you are one of our family members/friends wondering where your gift might be now that we both have jobs... Be patient, and stop being so greedy, that is not what CHristmas is about.. hee hee. Here are some pics to whet your appetite while you anxiously await me getting my act together and sending out our holiday/2010 greetings.

Stephen Choate came to meet Lilly for the first time, and Snickers is being a good sport.

Sporting the full baby's first christmas outfit. The hats don't last that long these days. Here she sits... fully recovered... in one of Godmother Greta's generous gifts.

Lilly CRAWLS

Hi everyone! At last, Jaclyn and I have a little time on our hands, so we have decided that we are going to do a rush of blog posts, at least one every other day for the next 6 days, PROMISE! We will update 1st Christmas among other things.

BUT, today is Lilly's 9 month birthday (man, where does the time go?), and she has finally learned to crawl, albeit in a half army crawl/half sitting manner. Enjoy this video (sorry it's sideways, we haven't upgraded to new software to be able to rotate the video yet.)

Happy Thanksgiving x 2 one month late

November has been a most welcomed respite for the Bergeron Family. I have been on a rotation in the ED which has allowed me time to spend out of the hospital and regain a sense of normalcy. Blake has been on a rotation in Cardiology which only requires him to have 4 half days of clinic per week. It is amazing that even though I am working significantly less than I have the past four months, I am jealous of how much of a slacker Blake can be :) I suppose that is something for me to look forward to.

The first sign that things were looking up was a most welcomed surprise visit from one of my best friends from college. Mary and Adam McCulloch and their dear daugthers Katie and Caroline (who is 7 days younger than Lilly) came to visit overnight. I was so happy I cried! (not unusual these days... I must say I am looking forward to regaining my hard skin, although I fear I may never achieve that) We had a wonderful time catching up and letting the girls get to know their soon to be, God willing, best pen pal friends!

One of the other bright spots in this past month was our trip home to Virginia to spend time with my family. Although trips home are always busy, because they happen so rarely, they are always rich in joy. We visited my granddaddy wampler who had never met Lilly. I think he was suprised at how big she was. We also spent time with Grandma, her friends and MaMa. Of course Tara and MOm and Dad got in on the Lilly loving. Uncle Sean and Kyle's family were deeply missed. During that stay all the cousins got together for an early Thanksgiving. Second to Easter, Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE. We have always had a rich time of fellowship and laughs in the family... this year was no different, and when you don't think you will have the opporutnity to share this, and then you can, it makes it that much sweeter.

Today... real Thanksgiving, has also held a first in the Bergeron house. Blake and I, well mostly Blake, but I helped, made our first turkey and hosted our first thanksgiving. Our Nashville family came down to celebrate with Lilly (an us) as I had to work.. in fact am working right now... hard as you can tell. We bought the turkey, stuffed it with lemons, onions, celery and garlic, and rubbed it up. We then put it in the set it and forget it Ronco rotisserie. Let me tell ya, this bird was the best we have ever had! It was amazing. I will never do a turkey another way. Growing up I had always wanted a large golden, crispy bird as the centerpiece of a thanksgiving table. When you have 40 people to feed ( a norm for us as a kid) that does not happen. This year... it was like a magazine. This thing was gorgeous. Of course Nonnie was on hand to provide the fixins. Man were they good.

A taste of things to come... Great grandma gives us our first gift.

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.

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.