Saturday, September 7, 2013

Photos Lately...

I have taken so many pictures of Lilly Belle!
Here are some fun ones from this past week or two...


Lilly's first time on a ferry!
I fed her in the car and then we hung out.





I am so obsessed with her red hair! I hope it stays!!!




After my mom left I had a hard time so we snuggled on the couch for a while before leaving for the beach house.


One of the first times I didn't have a chance to dry my hair because she kept me too busy. I was beginning to wonder why on earth moms didn't have time to do their hair lol. Oh, now I know...


Clare loves holding "wiwwy". 

Quenton is Lilly's little protector. He is totally smitten with her. If she's not in the room with me he will ask where she is. He likes to check on her and will want to help her when she's crying. He loved holding her. I barely had a chance to hand her to him and he basically just scooped her up from me. It was the cutest thing ever. He's definitely going to watch out for her. I think they will have a special bond growing up and be best buddies. I can tell already. We all can. 



Some football time with Daddy.



Caitlin's still not too sure about Lilly. She held her for maybe a minute before she said, "Okay Auntie Chelsea, do you want to hold her?" Ha. 


The Lanese Girls just hanging out :) 


First time wearing shoes! I'm obsessed. 




Friday, September 6, 2013

Lilly Belle: One Month

ONE MONTH OLD

Really? A month already? Time is just flying by. I want it to stop, stand still and keep going all at the same time. I already miss how teeny she was a month ago, I'm absolutely in love with how she is this very second and I'm so looking forward to what she'll do next! 

"Mommy, really...we don't need anymore pictures."

"I refuse to take any more..."

"Enough, mommy, enough!"

"Okay, fine. If I give you this adorable little smirk will you stop?"

Here is what is new with our sweet Lilly Belle

Weight: 8 lbs. 11 oz. as of her one month birthday. I took her in just to have her weighed. I thought for sure she was going to weigh more than that, but that means she has gained just over 2 lbs. in one month. She still weighs a lot less than Matt did when he was born, lol.

Health: Lilly has had no health problems in her first month and we are so thankful and know we are blessed for that. She spits up a lot and I think she has a sensitive tummy, but it doesn't bother her to spit up. As our pediatrician said, it's more of a laundry problem than anything. Can't complain about that.

Sleep: Little Miss usually wakes up every two hours to eat. If we have a stretch longer than that, it's never more than 2.5 or 3 hours. During the day she might do a 3 hour stretch, especially if we're in the car. For the most part though, I can count on feeding her every two hours 24 hours a day.

Social: She still sleeps a ton so she doesn't have enough awake time to be "social". We have moments where she is super alert and she just likes to look around. After we wash her hair is when she makes the most eye contact because she's so relaxed.

Diet: Breast milk, breast milk & more breast milk. My favorite thing right now is the little noises she makes while she is eating, it's like "mm. mm. mm. mm...." in her sweet little baby voice. It's the best. Girlfriend can chug milk like crazy. She makes the "glug, glug, glug...." sound while she eats and I'm always rubbing her face gently telling her to slow down. It's like she thinks she's going to have to share her food and needs to get it down as fast as she can. Which then in turn ends up with her spitting a ton of it back up. This past week, she has been spitting up a lot less and I'm really thankful for that. She had it come out of her nose twice and it's so sad. I hate seeing my baby in any kind of discomfort.

Clothes: She can still fit into a few of her newborn onesies and pajamas. Okay, actually just one onesie and one pair of pajamas. The rest of her clothes are all 0-3 or 3 months now. 3 months in Carters and 0-3 months everything else. She is wearing a size 1 diaper now, too. The newborn ones are way too small.

Baby Gear Love: She loves her paci (all 6 of them) & also her Aden & Anais swaddle blankets. She spends more and more time hanging out in her 4moms Mamaroo and sleeps all night in her moses basket. We have the Boba Wrap but at this point neither of us are big fans of it. I'm looking forward to her fitting in the Ergo. We also have a phone app called Sound Sleeper that we couldn't live without right now. She sleeps so well when we put our phones in her basket or carseat and just let her listen to the "womb" sound.

Crying: She has her moments, but for the most part just cries when she needs something. Well actually, it's always when she needs something but she freaks out when she doesn't get what she wants fast enough. We were in Starbucks the other day and she was in her carseat/stroller & she was hungry but we were in line so she had to wait a few minutes (she woke up while we were in line and literally started screaming). She was screaming at the top of her lungs. That's happened one other time and that's it so we really can't complain here. When she does get frustrated, she goes all crazy with her hands and sometimes even pulls her hair. Poor girl has no hand control. She likes to soothe herself by touching her hair and then she'll get mad and grab it and then she'll scream because she doesn't know how to let go.

Likes: Paci, being swaddled, being held, eating, & most of all she loves getting her hair washed under the faucet in the sink.

Dislikes: Being hot, the Boba Wrap & getting strapped into her car seat (she's fine once it's all clicked, but hates us getting her in -- cue crying).

Postpartum: I am feeling good. Started teaching again on September 3rd and other than it being hard to be away from her, it felt good. I still get pretty emotional, especially when it comes to her growing so much. I'm exhausted most of the time which doesn't help the mood swings either. I'm not 100% comfortable with my body right now but I know once I start dancing full force again that it will be back to normal. Just wishing my hips were how they used to be so I could fit in my clothes. I gave all my pants and shorts that I owned away to one of my dance kids because it's a lost cause to ever fit in a size 2 again.

Milestones: On September 2nd, she found her thumb. She had it in her mouth for a good 5 minutes just sucking away. The only downside to that is that now that she knows she has it, she gets super frustrated trying to get her thumb to her mouth. We try to help her but usually she gets too mad for that to work because her hands start going everywhere. Hopefully, she'll be able to control those hands a bit more soon so she can have her thumb instead of the paci. This morning she found it again for about a minute and her other hand was rubbing her hair. It was the cutest thing. I hope that's what she does, suck her thumb while she plays with her hair. Seriously...could she be any cuter?

At this point, everything she does is a milestone. Everything is so new. We've said "Aw, this is her first...." so many times.

The amount of love we have for Lilly Belle is beyond explanation. I keep wanting to write a post about it but every time I go to sit down to write it, I have no words. Truly, it's something I cannot explain. I guess that's how I'd explain it. I love her so much that no words do it justice. Matt is head over heels in love with his little girl and she is definitely a daddy's girl already. He's always giving her kisses and snuggling with her. It's the best. This has by far been the best month of our lives. We are beyond exhausted but we are so in love with our Lilly Belle that it doesn't matter. Everything is just a season. We are just soaking this all up. I don't want to miss a second of it or forget a second of it. Life is everything I've ever wanted it to be right now and more. Could not be any happier.

Nama Visits Lilly Belle!

My mom came to visit and meet Lilly Belle this past week. She stayed with us for 8 days and soaked up every second of our sweet girl. We had such a great visit. We didn't do anything too exciting, just enjoyed spending time together and letting her have as much cuddles with Lilly Belle as possible.

We did do a few fun outings together. We went to Bellevue Square & Alderbrook Mall. That day ended up being a bit rough because I drank way too much caffeine and it turns out Lilly Belle isn't a fan. (Duh & oops!) She had the worst tummy ache all day and I felt awful. My mom & I took Lilly to Ikea for her first time as I needed to get some shelves for our studio. Lilly slept the entire time which was actually awesome. My mom helped us a lot with Lilly Belle & with the studio. On Sunday night, we went in to clean before a camp we were having started on Monday. My mom scrubbed the floors and cleaned the bathroom for us which was so nice! Matt cleaned the main area floors and I did a bunch of organizing. We also took my mom on a day trip to Bainbridge Island & Poulsbo.

It was a really nice visit and I wasn't ready for her to leave yet. She helped so much while she was there and it was just comforting to have her there even when she wasn't the one physically holding Lilly or helping with things. Just knowing she was there if I did need her was so nice.

She may be coming back again for another good visit mid-October. I really hope so!

First time Nama held Lilly Belle.

This picture cracks me up, popeye face! 

Day trip to Poulsbo & Bainbridge Island


Morning snuggles


Photoshoot :) A Hampe's favorite pastime lol





Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Our 2nd Anniversary

2 years! We celebrated our 2nd anniversary on September 2nd.
It feels more like 5 that we've been married. We've been through so much together. And gotten through so much together. Our 2nd year of marriage was so much fun. Starting off on our Alaskan Disney Cruise and trips to Whistler, Disneyland & Wisconsin and ending with the birth of our sweet Lilly Belle. It has been quite the year and I'm so excited for what is to come. I love Matt more everyday and even more now that I love him as my husband and father of my child. He is such an attentive husband and daddy to Lilly and I am so thankful for him.

Our 2nd anniversary was the perfect day!
We enjoyed the beautiful weather and spent the day together as a family of 3 in the city.

We started the morning off with breakfast at our new favorite breakfast spot, The Sammamish Cafe. Matt had steak and eggs and I enjoyed cereal crusted french toast. Yum! Lilly Belle slept the whole time. Actually, Lilly Belle slept through most of our adventures that day.



After breakfast, we came back home for a bit to gather ourselves and feed Lillian. We wanted to make sure she was well fed for the next part of our day.

I've been wanting to go to the Chihuly Glass Exhibit for a long time now and we finally had a chance to go. It was incredible. I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one...





















Lilly made it through the whole exhibit before waking up and getting hungry. Good timing, girlfriend!
This was the first time I'd fed her breast milk from a bottle, it felt super weird. I tried to feed her using the cover but we were at Seattle Center and it was Bumbershoot so there were tons of creepers everywhere and after attempting to whip my boob out while hiding with the cover and then fearing it wasn't working, lol...we resorted to the bottle. Good thing we brought some frozen milk! 


Seconds after this photo was taken, Lilly spit up ALL over both of us lol. 

When we left the exhibit, I fed her more in our car while we were parked in the garage. This girl eats a ton! We were going to then head home and call it a day but Matt surprised me and took us to my absolute favorite place in the city, Greenlake! I was so excited. I know it sounds silly, but I've been dreaming of walking my own baby around Greenlake for almost 5 years now. I have taken many kids on walks around Greenlake and always told Matt about how I can't wait until one day I'm walking around with my own baby. When we first moved here so far away from anyone or anything I knew, Greenlake was my place. It was my place to get away and my place I felt comfortable. I was so excited when Matt took us here! I haven't been in a while and it felt good. I will definitely be going back with LB really soon! 


(Mommy is excited and Lilly is putting a spell on me as usual, lol.)

We made it halfway around to Starbucks. Lilly slept the whole time. Then, we got into Starbucks where there was a crazy long line because it was Labor Day and we were at Greenlake. We finally got to the front of the line and bam! Lilly woke up and was like a hungry animal lol. She just woke up screaming immediately, no warning cry or anything, just bam! Disturbing the peace. Matt ordered quickly and I pushed her around in circles while we waited for our drinks.

Then, I did it. I conquered a new mommy fear. 
I nursed Lilly right in the middle of the park. 
It felt so natural and awesome. I love breastfeeding so much! 
We chilled in the grass for a while just playing with Lilly and changed her diaper while she got to be nakie and feel the breeze lol. She got to feel all Seattle hippie, too. 



We had the best time!
After, we came home and just hung out with Lilly for a while and got her ready for bed.

Then we brought her basket out by us and Matt brought Chinese food home and we finally rented Silver Linings Playbook (amazing movie!) 

It was a wonderful anniversary and such a great day as a family.
I can't wait for so many more days like that!