The fastest first year of them all

A year ago today, we welcomed our beautiful Lorelai into the world.





And then apparently we stepped into time machine that promptly transported us to today.


Seriously, out of all of the first years I've had, I think Lorelai's went by the quickest. Even in the throes of the sleepless newborn period when you typically feel like days drag on for weeks, I felt time passing way too fast.

Maybe it's because she was an easy baby who slept pretty well (for the most part), maybe it's because I was more laid back, or maybe (probably, most likely) it's because she's my last baby and I was truly enjoying and savoring every moment because of it. And you know what they say, time flies when you're having fun.



It probably also flies when you're crazy busy going in three different directions for three different kids, but do I dare say that was part of the fun?



I'm not weepy in the same way I was on Aidan's birthday, but I'm very nostalgic about her birth and all the excitement and anticipation that surrounded it. All day yesterday I kept thinking to myself what I was doing at this exact moment this time last year: eating lunch with Adam and starting to feel contractions, walking in the neighborhood to get them going, the moment when I knew for sure that this was it and we headed to L&D (I stayed up way too late last night for me to recall that moment!), laying there in the hospital laboring (it was a restless night sleep for some reason, I kept waking up and looking at the clock). I even found myself awake at 5:41 this morning with a nasty headache, and realized that one year ago at that moment, I was pushing to get her out. I stayed awake and watched the clock turn 6:03, the moment she was born (read her birth story, part 1, part 2 and part 3). I smiled and tried to wrap my brain around the fact that I my baby is a year old. (Then I took some Tylenol and tried to get some more rest!)

The boys and I went in to sing happy birthday to Lorelai and she was all smiles. I got some morning snuggles (they're the best!) although Daddy missed out on them since he had to go out of town at the last minute and didn't get home until after she had fallen asleep. BIG HUGE sad face.

We had an impromptu morning photo shoot before we had to leave for the bus stop, which she was having none of. The birthday girl was way too focused on climbing the stairs to pose for a picture.



Speaking of climbing, she LOVES it now. Stairs, slides, anything she can get her feet on, she tries to climb it. Our cute little monkey. She's cruising everywhere and has mastered the push walking toy thingy, but has yet to take off on her own. She's kind of stubborn about it, too. When Adam and I want to try to get her to walk, she'll immediately pull up her legs (oh to have that kind of ab strength, lol!) and refuse to put them down. Silly girl.



I don't want to talk too much about the sleeping situation because I don't want to jinx it, but let's just say that June (and some of July) was a rough time for sleep in this house and I hope it was just a fluke. She's normally such a good sleeper. Unfortunately, there were a few times she just wouldn't sleep in her bed and ended up on the couch with Daddy. No bueno, but major props to Adam for letting me sleep (although he wasn't complaing too much because who could argue about getting more snuggle time with that sweet girl?!).



At her checkup yesterday, she weighed in at 23lb 14oz and 30in (80/85 percentile for both) and 100% perfectly healthy. Although decidedly not happy, due to the three shots and finger prick...OUCH, poor baby. But she handled them pretty well and stopped crying quickly.

Eight teeth are in, and she's working on at least two molars, with the other two not far behind. She definitely putting her teeth to good use with all the table food she's eating. Pretty much the only things she hasn't had are peanut butter and shellfish. No more bottles for her either! She only drinks out of sippy cups now, thank goodness, cause those Dr. Browns bottles were a PITA to clean. She's still 100% on breast milk, but we're down to only nursing in the morning and at night. We'll need to start mixing in some whole milk to start the transition for when my freezer stash of breast milk runs out and she starts drinking the milk at school. Crossing my fingers for no opposition there!



She still loves her brothers and if she hears them in the morning, she'll literally quit nursing and try to jump off the bed to go find them and play. They love entertaining her, and she easily entertained by them. A win-win for all of us!

We are just so beyond lucky to have such a wonderful, sweet, silly girl. Happy 1st birthday, baby girl!





PS: She's got her party tomorrow so I'll have more birthday pics later. (Hopefully before her 2nd birthday. But maybe after the beach and Aidan's birthday pics? I'm so behind!)