4 1/2 months, really?

I cannot believe she is already 4 1/2 months old. Time flies when you're busy caring for a baby. I can't ever seem to get all that needs to be done in a day accomplished. Unfortunately, as you can tell, blogging is low on the totem pole. I generally try to keep eating and sleeping at the top and now that includes for a little ome and not just myself anymore. We have been sick or busy for the past month and I haven't taken near as many pictures as I would like. And Clayton doesn't take pictures, so if I don't take them, they don't get taken. Well, Jillian had croup this week and that big of a cough should come from that small of a person. She seems to have also passed the cough along to me. Clay also started class 3 nights a week. Stress is at an all-time high in our house now, so please say a prayer for us Well, what you came for, here are some pictures.

Jillian's 1st Christmas

We had a very busy day on Christmas. We read the Christmas story as a family, then we went to my mom's for lunch and opening presents. Jillian had a small fever and a very snotty nose when she woke up on Christmas, but she stayed in good spirits most of the day. She did put on a good show for the picture of all the cousins, but still so cute. She decided she wanted to wear all 4 Christmas outfits she had. She looked cute in each one and I think was tired of being held by the end of the day. As you can see below, she slept through the opening of presents. She will enjoy all that she got though. What I want for the new year is a well baby.



Waldo and Jillian have recently developed a keen interest in one another.

I should post more often

How can we ever say no to those eyes, its just not going to happen.
What a cute little Christmas girl.
This girl can sleep anywhere, but never for very long:



She is getting sooo strong and has started rolling over this week. She hasn't quite made it, but is getting very close.

Thanksgiving and stuff

It has been a while, so I am posting a lot of pictures, but not all of them. If you want any particular pictures, just ask me if I have it and I can email it to you. We had a lot of fun in St. Louis, and Jillian did pretty well on the plane. She was extra tired when we got back from all the meeting new people and going to new places.
Awww, how sweet.
Poor Izaiah, Jillian just was not as much fun as he thought she would be. She was napping when we got to Mark and Emma's and Izaiah kept asking "Can Jillian play with me now?"
He got out this blanket and cuddled up next to her (for about 10 seconds)
Grandpa thoroughly enjoyed showing off Miss Jillian at his office and she didn't seem to mind.
These girls are getting way too big too fast.
Jillian enjoyed napping with aunt Dan and cousin Aniya.
Bailey was a pro at holding Jilly.
Riley's first question when we got to St. Louis was, "Can I hold Jillian?"
She is getting so big and strong. She manages herself well in the Jumperoo and likes to talk to the little bear.
Grandma Barber gave Jillian this cute outfit and she is fascinated with the little skirt. She grabs it, looks at it and tries to pull it to her mouth.
Cute winter bear coat!! This makes it nearly impossible to buckle her carseat.

She had her baby blessing at church on November 22. She did well on stage.
The dreaded tummy time, but what a cute head.

Managing Time

Is impossible especially with a baby. I never know what my evenings are going to look like. Will she be happy and content, will she be fussy and need holding all night? I have no idea what I will be able to get done. Unfortunately, she has been sick for about a week, so it has been the latter. Day care is great, but she has had almost every sort of sickness possible since she started 2 weeks ago. I also noticed that I have gone 2 weeks without taking pictures of her. We went to Kmart to get pics made because her baby blessing is next Sunday and I wanted some cute pics. Turns out, it takes 2 weeks to get pictures from them. Fortunately, we will get them the day before we leave for St. Louis. In the meantime, I needed cute pictures for the blessing on Sunday. This is my attempt at studio pictures from home. Not too shabby for no backdrops or props. It is hard to get a bad picture of such a cute girl. I love the dog picture, she loves dogs already :) She has really started talking to me and it is so cute. She makes several different sounds and waits her turn to talk. She will have great language skills once she is ready to use actual words. I love knowing all that I know, but it is also annoying because I find myself sometimes looking at her as a "case" so to speak. Another speech pathologist told me that she transcribed her daughter's first words, so hopefully I won't be that bad. Oh well, better too much interaction and learning than not enough.

Oh, back to the grind

Lots of pictures and very little time to talk about them. Her adorable pictures pretty much speak for themselves. I started back to work this week and want to spend as much time with her as possible in the evenings.

MOPS & cute pics

We had all "Melanie wear" on today down to the socks and it was a big hit at the MOPS meeting this morning. For those of you that don't know, MOPS is Mothers of Preschoolers. Although I won't be able to go very much if at all because I work it was nice to visit today and I met a lot of nice moms. There was a 3 month old at my table that was smaller than Jillian. Today's topic was depression, which was good for me. It is comforting to know that everyone gets depressed and stressed and even more so once a baby is in the picture. Motherhood is awesome, but it means saying goodbye to a lot of things you once knew and completely changing your lifestyle and doing all of this on less sleep than your body needs. I love my husband, but he truly doesn't understand the change that this has meant in my life. Every little thing I do, I have to first think about what the baby is doing or what she needs. I can't just get up and go to the bathroom when I need to, I have to make sure she is in a secure place first and that her needs are met. I can't go to a MOPS meeting without having to make sure she's eaten, dressed and clean not to mention myself as well and then while I am at the meeting I have to figure out how to feed her without completely exposing myself to the world. Wow, motherhood. Its good to know now, I am not alone. I looked around the room and other mothers were juggling their babies under crazy nursing wraps, standing up bouncing around vigorously to hush their babies, grabbing diapers and wipes while balancing their baby in the other arm and running from the room with a screaming baby. Mothers just do what they have to do, end of story.

Just chillin' like a big girl.
I didn't think I would, but I love the bows. She looks soooo cute with a little bow on her head as if she could get any cuter.
Those toes are just priceless.
We had to bundle up this night because it got really cold. Her crazy mom even made her wear socks on her hands while she slept.

Attempted wedding

She looked so cute in her little bow, but she decided she did not want us to watch the wedding. At least she looked adorable.
She looks so big in Kylee's lap. this was great, as soon as Kerri set Jillian in her lap she started pooping. Kylee didn't want to hold her much longer.
All I have to say is "awwwww."

Rough couple weeks...

I missed a 1 month post, so here is a 5 week 1 day post. :) This has been some week. I went to work to get a flu shot last Wednesday and ended up with a fever that night. A rash had started showing up a few days earlier and I guess the fever made it flare up more. So I had the flu and now I have the world's worst rash from head to toe. This rash is called urticaria and it is more like a mutation than a rash and it has caused so much swelling that I have gained 5 pounds. My coworkers have suggested that I need to go back to work to get some rest. I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left before I go back and I haven't had any time to enjoy with my daughter because I have had some ailment the whole time. Well, hopefully the new medication I start today will work fast and I can have a little peace before returning to work.

And what you all wanted...Isn't she sooo cute?
Clay is teaching her "So big"
"Mom, I can pick my head up, what's the big deal?"
She had the cutest biggest smile here and was just talking up a storm to me, so precious.
Miss Jillian is enjoying her time with Aunt Mel.