It's a Birthday Girl!

Today is Hadley's birthday. My heart is swelled with love and pride for my little girl. I had so much fun celebrating this little life with my friends here in Lubbock. I always tell Hadley, "I always wanted you." Since I was a young child I knew I wanted to be a mommy someday. My mother did daycare- so there were always babies and children in the home. I grew up enjoying children and helping to care for them. Even when going to college and unmarried I still felt a longing to have a baby (just needed to find the man). Quickly after we got married I started talking to Chris about it. I am glad we got to have time together, but I think he did get sick of me crying to him about it. We would come home from church and I would cry- literally cry because I saw all the babies and felt an absence within myself that I didn't have one.

I was made to be a mommy. Pregnancy was not tough on me. I loved being pregnant- it felt so magical to me! And I had been wanting this for a long time! I liked seeing myself get bigger and feeling the baby move was watching a miracle in action. I was so excited when Hadley came, but it also was a bit nostalgic- there was a big part of me that I couldn't return to!

And now my little baby is a year old! She still lacks in the hair department. I look forward to putting bows in her hair- if she will let me! At one year old she is almost 19 pounds. She is in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for weight. She has been in this part of the spectrum consistently for quite a while now. She started life pretty scrawny, and stayed it for a few months. Around 5 months she started to chub up some. Now she has cute chubby legs! She is walking a but- mostly with our prodding, but sometimes she does it on her own. It is usually just a few steps.

I have experienced a lot in the last year. The hardest thing is working a job with more than full time hours. I teach high school Spanish and coach volleyball and soccer. Coaching takes a ton of time- as most of the schools that we play are between 2-3.5 hours of driving distance each way! My evenings and weekends were shot- and many days I left her before she woke up and came home after she was in bed. It is no wonder that the first thing she said was, "Da-da." And it continues to be her favorite word. She rarely says my name. I have been fortunate to come home or to the sitter's almost every day to feed her. Now that I am done breastfeeding I only make it 3-4 days. But this was more difficult than I can describe. I am fortunate that next year I will be staying home. I will never take that for granted. One of my deepest desires is to stay home with my child and take care of her myself and the house. I know that there are many people who can't do this who also want to. I can't wait to teach my sweet girl more about Jesus, sharing, books, etc.

As I reflect on the last year I have leared many things. As I mentioned, I was around babies a ton. Most things about babies didn't surprise me and I can honestly say I knew mostly what to expect. I assisted my older sister with her baby from birth- helping to care for her during the day when she worked and at night sometimes when she went to classes for her Masters Degree. But there are some things I can do now that I never could before:

1. I can pick a boogie of a baby with my bare fingers. Yes, I still gag a bit at this. I still cringe as I reach in. But I can do it. It took quite a few months- I used to HAVE to have a tissue. But now if none is available I can still take care of it.

2. I can multi-task SO much better! I never considered myself lacking in this skill, but now I am amazing!

3. I can live on little amounts of sleep. All through college I made sure to get enough sleep. I get really bad migranes when I don't. But now I can go on like 4 hours and still function. Not for more than a day, but the fact that I can still function is a feat in itself.

4. This one is a big one. So- I read all sorts of books when pregnant about what my body was going through. I read quite a bit about baby's sleeping habbits, and tried to learn how to help them be good sleepers. Hadley started off sleeping pretty well. The first night I let her sleep without waking her to feed her she slept about 6 hours straight. All through last summer she slept from about 7:30 or 8pm to about 8am with usually just one wakening during the night. Usually between 4:30 or 5, and then she would go back down no problem. Being the prideful person I am, I thought, "Wow. I am good. These books are good. I followed the instructions and my baby sleeps wonderfully." Life was good. Hadley wasn't even tough to put down. No rocking, nothing.

Then the first day I went back to work she stopped sleeping like that and it all went downhill drastically. Now she has recently been sleeping straight from 7-7 without wakenings. But she has had MANY nights that have kept us up- to say the least. And I still manage to get up and go to work (once in a while with the help of an asprin).

5. They DO grow to fast. When Hadley was born a visitor came over said, "Wow, you forget how small the come." I looked at my baby and thought- no way. I will NEVER forget this. I will savor it, tuck it away and remember it always." Well, now I see new babies (often ones who start life bigger than Hadley did) and I think the same thing!

Of course, I have learned many more things than these. But these are some of the things that jump out and that cross my mind often.

Hadley in the hospital just a few days old. I loved her perfect little lips! They are shaped like Chris'.
My sleeping angel at about 1 month. Now I can't get her to keep on a hat.

In this picture Hadley was nearing 2 months- but not quite there yet! She was smaller than anticipated at birth- so her clothes were too big at first. But a friend sent us some of these sleeper outfits. She lived in them for the first 6-8 weeks!

Hadley was 3 months here! I made this outfit for her when I first found out I was having a girl!

Hadley was 4 months here. We were in Dallas during the summer. I thought this shirt was so cute when I found it!

Big girl was 5 months in this picture! I loved the stage when she grabbed her feet and ate her toes! SO CUTE!

Ahhh- six months in this picture. I love her big blue eyes and so does everyone who sees her! She truly looks like a sweet angel here!

Seven months old and being tickled by Daddy! Hadley wasn't very smiley in the beginning. Her smiles were few and far between until about 7 months. And now Daddy can ALWAYS make her smile!

Christmas came and my girl was 8 months! Hadley enjoyed the paper on her presents. She even got a cousin this month- 8 months apart to the day!

Hadley was 9 months here and being silly! Chris says that tongue is like a lizard's!

Hadley was ten months here. This was a fun time because she was becoming sillier. One of her favorite things to do (and it still is) was to get into laundry after we had just washed it out and started to fold and put them over her or in her mouth. Socks were usually the preferred item!

Eleven months here and the shirt says it all! I DO thank heaven for this little girl!

Twelve months to the day here and loving her cake! She ate the half of a cupcake I gave her and was grabbing at the table trying to get more! Looks like we have a sweet tooth! More birthday pictures will come!