4 months or 16 weeks or 120 days!

I've been a mommy now for 120 days, thats 120 days of the best calling God could give, being your mother. Oh Lydia Kate I can't tell you how much of a blessing you have truly been to your daddy and I these past 4 months. You are truly a delight to have in our home and have taught us so much!

You like to look at people as they talk, like you understand what they are saying. This was really noticed at your well baby check up when you stared at Dr. Mir the entire time she was talking. You can almost sit up by yourself with the occasional tilt to the side or folding yourself in half. You are 13.7lbs (50th %) and 24in (90th %) We think you are going to be a tall skinny little girl.

During tummy time you like to kick your feet like you are trying to go somewhere, you are rolling to your side but you haven't rolled to your tummy since the first few times a month ago.

We found your ticklish spots and heard your first laugh, LOVE it!

You had your first play date with Leah Schultz, her mommy was nice enough to take you for a few hours so I could get some things done being as you don't really take naps during the day and when you do they are catnaps but as I sit and write this you have been sleeping soundly in your swing for the last 2.5 hours! That could be because we started feeding you baby food yesterday. You have had sweet potatoes so far and I couldn't feed them to you fast enough, you got mad at me when they were all gone!

We moved you to your crib this weekend and you are sleeping through the night, getting about 10 hours of sleep a night. We still swaddle you despite your almost outgrowth from your swaddle blankets. You lounge with daddy and watch tv in the evenings. I love it because again, its like you know whats going on. You still like your Baby Einstein videos. You are currently learning your numbers! I am convinced that you have already said your first word ( HI) I swear I keep hearing you say it as you are cooing on the floor or in the swing when I look at you.

You went for your first walk yesterday and you slept the whole way to the park, while we were there and the whole way home. Your cousin Luca was sad because he wanted to see how you would like the swing. You love to sit on mommy's lap and read books. We think you are finally teething with the amount of drool that has been dripping from your mouth. Last night you were laying on your tummy and you reached for my hand and stuck it in your mouth. You are growing up so fast. You sit like a lady with your ankles crossed and your hands nicely folded in your lap like in the picture above.

You have already accomplished so many firsts and we can't wait for so many more!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

* I do want to make note that at your 4 month check up you didn't cry when you got your shots! You were laying on your side sucking your fingers and when they poked you, you just stopped for a second and looked around like, wait a minute did someone just touch me and then you went about your business!

Snuggles

Napping with Daddy.

The many faces of Lydia

She is getting so big and developing quiet a personality.

I love oatmeal!!!!!

Jump up jump up and get down

13 weeks old and she has been introduced to her bounce bounce and she loves it.

We have been hit!

Last week Lydia and I caught the nasty bug that's been going around. Poor baby had an ear infection and a nasty cough that led to her needing to have nebulizer treatments. I had to take this picture because it's so cute. She likes to hold the mask on all by herself. She's already miss independent like her mommy. The cold is on the way out with us but now poor daddy has it. Here's to hoping it he gets better fast and it stays away.

3 Months

We've hit the 3 month mark and some new milestones Miss Lydia. You managed to get your first cold the day before you hit 3 months old. I took you to the Dr. and you got put on antibiotics, a steroid to help with some congestion and you got your first nebulizer treatment. I wish I would have gotten a picture of how calm and cute you were. You slept through the entire thing while holding the mask with your hand. It made mommy sad that you were so sick but I am thankful you have such a wonderful pediatrician who knows what she is doing and is great at her job. We have learned that with you being sick, all you want is your mommy. You took your first trip to the emergency room this weekend because mommy didn't like the wheezing sound in your lungs. Everything turned out to be ok but we just wanted to make sure. You love to fall alseep on my shoulder these days then in your swing. Its ok, I like the extra cuddles.

You have almost mastered the art of rolling from your back to your tummy. Its kind of cute to watch you get so mad and frustrated as you try to get past your arm so you can make it all the way. When we lay you on the floor and you move yourself in a complete circle. You love your piano kicker mat, using your feet to make lots of music. Your new thing to do that I absolutely love is when I go to get you out of your bassinet in the morning or get you out of your swing, you kick your feet and laugh. You are so excited to see mommy and I love, love, love it!

You took your first "road trip" this last week to go see your grandma Sheri in Decatur. It was a round trip of 4 hours and you did pretty good. You slept most of the way home.

You still hang out in your swing talking to your birdies and I love listening to you coo. Your personality is beginning to show and I love it! We bought you oatmeal to start once you are over this cold of yours, can't wait to have you try it!

Love,

Mommy

What a cutie pa tootie!

These days....

I spend my days sleeping on mommy's shoulder.
I am grateful for my mommy & daddy, my birdies on my swing, my fingers and my play mat I get to kick on

Love,
Lydia

February 1

So I was told I have been a blog slacker and technically I have, not many posts for January. I am clearly not off to a good start. So with a new month, here's a fresh start. This year, our ward is working on provident living goals. The goal for last month is to keep a journal and write 5 things you are grateful for each day....well I am obviously behind on that one so I will start it this month.

Today I am grateful for...

1. The mild winter we have been having

2. My daughter, who makes me smile

3. My husband being off for the last 3 weeks, I have been spoiled and may have gotten used to having him around all the time, lol

4.Being a stay at home mom and able to earn an income while being with my princess

5. The Gospel

As for my little princess, Miss Lydia, she is doing wonderful! She spent most of yesterday asleep! She slept from 10:30pm-8am (her norm), I fed her and put her in her swing to "talk" to her birdies like she does every morning and she conked out about 10 minutes later.... she slept from 9:30am-1pm! She woke up and played with mommy for a bit and fell back asleep in my arms around 3, slept for about an hour and then last night she took another 1.5 hour cat nap! I'm thinking maybe she is hitting a growth spurt!

Dennis has been off for the last 3 weeks because he hurt his knee at work. I have gotten really used to having him around, I am really going to miss him when he goes back to work.

Me, well the only new thing for me is that I have to have gallbladder surgery at the end of the month. It will be outpatient and they think they should only have to do one incision through my belly button. I have been having problems since Thanksgiving and during an ultrasound to find the source of my pain, they discovered some gallstones.

That about sums up our January. We have just been enjoying the very mild winter weather we have been having. It was almost 60 degrees yesterday! CRAZY!

Highchair

We brought your highchair out so you could sit and have dinner with us and I think the pictures show that you like it!

2 Months

Dear Lydia,

I can't believe you are already 2 months old! It seems like just yesterday we brought you home from the hospital. You have changed so much since you were born. You are still a great stretcher and I see lots of yoga in your future. You are a master at holding your head up, you have actually been good at that for a while now. When you are asleep in your swing you put both of your arms out when I walk by like you are trying to give me a hug. It really is the cutest thing ever. You make the cutest sound after you sneeze. I like when you fall asleep on my shoulder and how you pat my back when I burp you. You aren't a fan of afternoon naps but you sleep through the night and take a nice morning nap but you do fight sleep in the afternoons and that makes you cranky. You get excited when daddy comes home. You mastered the art of nursing this last month which has cut down the amount of formula we give you to almost nothing. I am guessing thats because you wanted to prove the lactation consultant wrong when she told momma that at 5 weeks you probably wouldn't catch on the latching on and wouldn't nurse. Did you prove her wrong! You do this cute little thing when you nurse. You stop and this big grin just shoots across you face. The other day while you were nursing you actually put your fingers in the position of the sign for I love you. I took a picture with my phone because I thought it was so cool. I will show it to you one day.

You discovered the kickin coaster these last few weeks and you love it. We brought out your highchair and you sit in the while momma makes dinner and while daddy and I eat. You are cooing more and you have your own conversations with us, you really do the cutest things. I put you on the couch sitting up yesterday and you stayed up right all by yourself the entire time. You laughed and thought it was the coolest thing. You have learned that when momma points the camera at you that means you need to smile and that smile melts my heart.

Daddy and I thank Heavenly Father for you every night. We are so blessed with you being a part of our family and I love you pieces. I can't wait to see what you accomplish over the next month.

Love,

Momma

Happy New Year

Lydia wanted to tell everyone to have a safe and Happy New Year. She will be kicking it with the family tonight at Uncle Joe's house. She said mommy will try to do better at taking more pictures of her and updating the blog next year.

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas to you!

This last year was by far the best year for our family. Our greatest event was the birth of our daughter, Lydia Kate on November 9th. She was highly anticipated by many and welcome with love by all. She has truly changed our lives and I couldn't image life without her. As for the rest of our year, not many exciting things happened. I graduated with my Masters in Education Reading Specialist degree, a goal that I hoped to accomplish before our first child. Matter of fact, I had my last class just days before I found out I was expecting our little miracle baby. Talk about impeccable timing!

We spent most of the year preparing for Lydia's arrival. We decided to skip a vacation this year and save up some cash. I was a nanny again this summer, this time for a family of three girls. We spent our days hanging poolside at the water park in town, a great place for a pregnant woman on those hot summer days we had.

Dennis was kept busy this past year running his business full time while working a full time job. He has gotten the Barbeque sauce into many more stores and restaurants and is working on a lot of other projects. One of which he completed just days before our little girl arrived. Talk about time crunch!

I continued with my daycare business this year so I could stay home with Lydia. I am so glad I made that decision because I don't think I could leave her every day to go to work. The kids have adjusted well to her, actually I think they sometimes forget she is here! I am thankful everyday that I get to have this opportunity to stay at home.

As I look back at this year, I count my blessing and am very grateful that we were blessed with such an adorable sweet spirit to be a part of our family. We enjoy watching Lydia grow each day and are looking forward to the many days of joy we have ahead with her.

We wish you a Merry Christmas & a fabulous & blessed New Year!

Love,

Dennis, Tara & Lydia Larson

One Month

Dear Lydia,

You are a month old today and have brought so much joy to our home. You are such a good baby, letting us sleep through the night more than your average newborn. Some of your favorite things are your swing, pooping on mommy when she changes your diaper, sitting facing out holding that strong head of yours up, sticking your tongue out, sucking on your thumb and all your little fingers, being rocked to sleep while mommy sings to you, you seem to favor "You are my Sunshine" and "I am a Child of God" a song mommy played over and over again for you when you were in her belly, you like laying on your changing table and staring at your ceiling fan, staring at mommy while smiling and letting out these cute little noises, cuddling with daddy at night and staring out the window talking while you rock in your swing. Daddy thinks you are talking with angels or Heavenly Father when you do that, it really is the cutest thing. You were sitting there the other day waving your arms back and forth and just going on and on. You really have brought Heaven down to our home, a true blessing.

In your first month of life you managed to have your good share of diaper blow outs. Last weekend we had to change you in the rug department at IKEA, don't worry we used your changing pad. Too bad we didn't buy that rug as a souvenir! You got mommy good the other day when she was changing your diaper. I went to wipe your bum and you just let it all rip, getting poop all over the place. You even pooped out the back of your diaper all over Uncle Jerry as Aunt Tonya was getting your bath ready.

You can already roll to your side. You even try to sit up when we put you in your swing. You love to stretch, be naked and love bath time. You aren't afraid of noise, you actually sleep through the 8 boys mommy watches screaming and playing around you. You must get that comatose sleep from your daddy.

You are a joy to have as a Daughter and one of the greatest blessings we have been given. We look forward to watching you grow even more.

Love,

Mommy

A Name & A Blessing

On Sunday November 27th 2011

I witnessed my husband give our daughter

a name & a blessing,

A moment I have waited a very long time for!

Labor & Delivery

Tuesday November 8th, I went out the dinner with some family to Sweet Tomatoes, one of my favorite places to go. I had been up since 4am that morning not able to sleep so I just got up and got ready for the day so I was ready to go home and crash after dinner. When I left home, I was having contractions but they were sporadic and not very consistent. During dinner, my back started hurting and I was noticing they were about 30 minutes apart. So I sat through my dinner while my sister rubbed my lower back for me.... we got home from dinner around 9ish and I changed into my pajamas and planned to just take it easy on the couch and watch the news before bed. As I sat down on the couch I had a contraction and as soon as I laid my head down I was out only to be woken up 15 minutes later by a killer contraction that sent me leaping off the couch and feeling like I was about to pee my pants. So I headed to the bathroom and noticed some bleeding that caused some concern. So I called my doctor and told her about this and that my contractions were about 15 minutes apart. She advised me to come in and told me that she was going to keep me since I was overdue 5 days already and was set to be induced just days later.....

Fast Forward to about 10:15pm, we arrived at Copley through the ER and enjoyed a fast paced wheel chair ride to labor & delivery thanks to the nurse who was walking rather quickly, Dennis and my sister had a hard time keeping up. I got registered, put in a room and was ready to go.

I was already dilated to a 3 and was pretty well effaced with contractions about 3 minutes apart at this point. At 11pm the Dr was called and I was told that if I had not made any progress by 4am they would start me on pitocin. The Dr came in to break my water when I was dilated to a 4, I think somewhere around 2am or so..... 4am came and went and we didn't need the pitocin at this point as my body was doing what it was supposed to do. Guess I will throw in here that it took 3 nurses and the anesthesiologist to get my IV going as I had my veins blown 5 times before the called in the professional who had to put the IV in, in the middle of my arm.

5:30 am....pain from the contractions was starting to get unmanageable so I asked for an epidural. As soon as that was in we turned off the lights for a nap...well everyone else napped but me. I was relaxed but unable to sleep, who would at this point with all the excitement. I was super comfy and warm though!

The rest of the labor and delivery is kind of a blur from here....I remember the Dr coming in around 7am before her shift was over to check me and I was an 8 at this point....I remember sort of dozing off and walking up to feeling the baby move down lower than she had been. I didn't feel pressure like everyone says you will I just remember it feeling weird. So they called the Dr in to check and I was already at a 10. So my nurse did some practice pushes with me and 30 minutes later at 11:03am on November 9th Lydia Kate was born weighing 8lbs 7oz, a complete shock that I had just given birth to such a big baby! I didn't get to hold her right away because the cord was around her neck and I needed to get stitched up which then led to about an hour of shaking from me so profusely that my sister said my lips turned blue and I had 5 heated blankets on me and 3 people rubbing my legs and my grandmother draped over me trying to get me warm and to get the shaking to stop. Turns out I had a fever and my white blood cell count was high, later to find out I had corioamnititis, an infection in my placenta which was caused from labor.

As a result of this, I was put on antibiotics and kept for three days. Lydia was monitored and was found to be ok, just jaundiced.

That's my labor and delivery story and I would totally do it all over again! Even though I was up for 36 hours straight and don't really remember the few visitors we had the evening being there, I spent most of that night holding Lydia and just staring at her like I was dreaming.

Lydia Kate Larson

She's here and I am IN LOVE! I am loving everything about my precious baby girl. Here is a picture for now until I get a little more time to sit down and tell her birth story (which I can't really complain about!). For now I am busy staring into those gorgeous light eyes which I think will be blue. Who do you think she looks like?

Stats:

12 hours of labor, 30 min pushing and our princess of 8 pounds 7 oz. 21 in. long was born at 11:03am on Wednesday November 9th, 2011.

40 weeks and 1 day

Well, made it to my due date and then some.....my last appointment was on my actual due date. Only dilated to a 2, Dr wanted to strip my membranes and I said no thanks! So she did an ultra sound to check the fluid and hooked me up to the monitor for a half hour to listen to the baby's heart beat to make sure everything was good, and of course everything was great! She won't let me go more than a week overdue so our little girl is set to be evicted next Friday, 11/11/11 if she doesn't decide to appear before then. I am hoping she doesn't because that would be one sweet birthday!

I continue to have sporadic contractions that don't last long and haven't amounted to anything yet. We went out to dinner for my birthday last night and I was having a few but they were more like quick sharp pains, nothing I was able to count. I am getting lots of back and hip pains now which leads to a nice warm bath at the end of the day to help me relax.

So for now we are just waiting for her to arrive....hard to believe she will be sitting in my arms for sure this time next week!

The Larsons......60 years from now

Here is our Halloween costume this year. We decided to go as an old couple. I managed to hide the bump with a black sweater and Dens grandmas blazer and hunched over a cane (not a good idea when 9 months pregnant, I felt it the next day). I did such a great job no one knew it was us. This masks are awesome! The mouth moves and everything, making it freakishly real.