I feel so blessed right now. Yesterday the package from my Mom arrived. After six weeks on the road from Europe... I thought it was lost. My Dad and my Mom have both written us letters. I was so touched to have received that package. I cried when I read my Mom's letter to us aloud to DH. It was so beautiful. Grandma got Lilli not only the newspaper from the day of her birth, but also a beautiful little silver bracelet with her name on it. As well as some bigger onesies that I am sure she will be able to use soon. But the coolest thing was that she also packed some clothing that I had worn as a baby. It was really funny because there were all these seventies clothes and I was wondering whether my Mom had a problem with her taste recently or why she send me these weird clothes. I only found out about it when I was reading the labels that those were clothes that were from me. 34 years later they might be reused again (at least some of them, because the polyester dresses might be a little out of style). What a wonderful surprise. I didn't know that my Mom had kept clothing from my childhood.
Today was Lilli's baby dedication in church. She looked adorable in her beautiful dress that her godparents have given to her. She was wearing Grandma's and Grandpa's beautiful bracelet. It made me feel like there was at least a part of my parents there with us in church.
We also had a friend in town from Pennsylvania. It was wonderful to have her here. The pastor did a wonderful job dedicating Lilli. We went up on stage with her godparents. Lillian means "My God is a vow". With the pregnancy last year while on the pill we felt that God had made a promise to us. God has kept his promise to us with Lillian. After everything we have been through it was just natural that we wanted to give her back to God.
At church we were quite a big group of people and afterwards we invited everybody to our house for some coffee and cake. I had baked three cakes yesterday and dh made one as well. Usually I am not a big baker. I prefer cooking to baking. Nevertheless once a year I bake a cake for hubby's birthday. My cakes never turn out the way they should. They rarely look like my Mom's who is a fantastic baker. One year I served my husband his birthday cake on the kitchen counter. When I opened the spring form, the cake ran out of the form, because it wasn't baked enough. We had a good laugh about it as he licked it off the kitchen counter. It is a running joke in our family that it is dangerous when I try to bake a cake. The last cake I made was a coconut-cherry-chocolate cake. The cherries were to moist, so the cake didn't look the way I had seen it at my aunt's house. I made it for today and this time it looked and tasted really nice. I also tried out another cake I had never made before. It tasted really good. Also the other cakes were a big hit.
I feel so blessed by our wonderful friends. They were celebrating Lilli's special day with us. They have walked this long "road to adopt" with us and have encouraged us when we were down. They have truly been what friends are for. In good and bad times. There was so much love for her in our house. Sometimes it still feels unreal that we have a real live baby living in our house. It has been just a couple of weeks and on the one hand it feels like it is been forever, but on the other hand it has only been a very short amount of time compared to the time we longed for her and prayed for her. It is wonderful to be able to parent her and I enjoy every moment with her.
Showing posts with label Lillian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lillian. Show all posts
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Home, sweet home...
We arrived back in Virginia very late on Saturday night. Lilli was so sweet. She slept during the first flight and didn't even notice the take-off and the landing. She loaded her diapers twice during the second flight. After that she was still fussy, but eventually went to sleep. When we arrived home, I changed her diapers and she had another load in there. I felt terrible to have had waited so long to change her.
It is great to be back home. Lilli now understands the difference between day and night and goes right back to sleep after we feed her her bottle during the night. The first few nights home she decided at 4 a.m. that it was playtime and Daddy had to play with her for an hour...
She has met already some of our friends and neighbors here. Everybody loves her and tells us how sweet she looks with her head full of hair. She even already had two playdates. One with our friend's daughter on Monday and one today with the twins of some other friends. The twins were so tiny compared to her. They are 16 days older than she is, but they look so much tinier. Lillian has already outgrown the newborn onesies we had received from some of our friends. She is wearing 0-3 months clothing now...
On Monday night her belly button fell off. It was time, because that thing smelled really rotten. We have saved it so far, because I can't bring myself to throw it out yet. What have you guys done with yours???
Yesterday we had a little shopping trip to Target and Babies R us. We bought a little bath tub and gave Lilli her first bath. She seems to like it much better than the sponge bath we usually give her in the mornings.
Lilli also has started to smile occasionally. But I know that she is not yet doing it consciously. It is still very nice to see her smile. It makes my heart melt.
She loves her little playmat. When we put her underneath she gets so excited that she eventually spits up from excitement. But she loves moving the little animals and things that hang from up there. And she understands that she can move them with her hand. Off course we have the smartest baby in the world. :-)
Tomorrow she will have her first doctor's appointment. We are very excited. Two friends and my mother have recommended we write everything down we want to know. We will do that tonight.
I am surprised how fast and how easy the transition to parenthood was. It feels like we have made bottles forever and changed diapers forever.
My dear husband and I are still debating how to write Lilli. Lilly, Lili, Lilli, there are so many possibilities. I was writing it first with a y, but for some reason I like it better with an i at the end now.. Any suggestions?
It is great to be back home. Lilli now understands the difference between day and night and goes right back to sleep after we feed her her bottle during the night. The first few nights home she decided at 4 a.m. that it was playtime and Daddy had to play with her for an hour...
She has met already some of our friends and neighbors here. Everybody loves her and tells us how sweet she looks with her head full of hair. She even already had two playdates. One with our friend's daughter on Monday and one today with the twins of some other friends. The twins were so tiny compared to her. They are 16 days older than she is, but they look so much tinier. Lillian has already outgrown the newborn onesies we had received from some of our friends. She is wearing 0-3 months clothing now...
On Monday night her belly button fell off. It was time, because that thing smelled really rotten. We have saved it so far, because I can't bring myself to throw it out yet. What have you guys done with yours???
Yesterday we had a little shopping trip to Target and Babies R us. We bought a little bath tub and gave Lilli her first bath. She seems to like it much better than the sponge bath we usually give her in the mornings.
Lilli also has started to smile occasionally. But I know that she is not yet doing it consciously. It is still very nice to see her smile. It makes my heart melt.
She loves her little playmat. When we put her underneath she gets so excited that she eventually spits up from excitement. But she loves moving the little animals and things that hang from up there. And she understands that she can move them with her hand. Off course we have the smartest baby in the world. :-)
Tomorrow she will have her first doctor's appointment. We are very excited. Two friends and my mother have recommended we write everything down we want to know. We will do that tonight.
I am surprised how fast and how easy the transition to parenthood was. It feels like we have made bottles forever and changed diapers forever.
My dear husband and I are still debating how to write Lilli. Lilly, Lili, Lilli, there are so many possibilities. I was writing it first with a y, but for some reason I like it better with an i at the end now.. Any suggestions?
Friday, August 1, 2008
ICPC clearance
We received ICPC clearance this morning and just signed all the necessary paperwork at the agency. That means we are ready to fly back home. Yeah!!! We can't wait to be back and introduce Lillian to all our friends and family and are very excited that we won't even have to change our flights.
This week here has been great. Bonding with her has not been an issue at all. It feels like we have been taking care of her forever. And we love to do it. Sometimes we just stare at her while she is sleeping and are utterly amazed how lucky and how blessed we are with her. We are so proud to be her parents. Even at the agency they admitted that she is the most adorable baby they have ever placed. :-)
We basically spent a family vacation here. Everyday we went somewhere else and did something fun. Lilly is so easy going, it has been no problem to take her everywhere. She went to a State Park with us, shopping, to a library, etc.
Lilly sleeps most of the time and only wakes up for her feeding. And if she wakes up, she usually wants to eat. It is her favorite thing to do. Afterwards she has this milk coma look on her face and it is just the cutest thing.
Because I am not breastfeeding (that would have been to much stress after all), it is really easy to prepare her bottles. I always thought babies needed warm bottles, but they don't. They drink formula at whatever temperature they are used to. We just pour the water in the formula, shake it, press out the air bottles, and she is good to go. My dh has started calling her formula "Baby crack".
I know that you all would like to see more pictures. So here they come. The first one shows Daddy feeding his little princess and the second one is her in her cute little Outfit.
This week here has been great. Bonding with her has not been an issue at all. It feels like we have been taking care of her forever. And we love to do it. Sometimes we just stare at her while she is sleeping and are utterly amazed how lucky and how blessed we are with her. We are so proud to be her parents. Even at the agency they admitted that she is the most adorable baby they have ever placed. :-)
We basically spent a family vacation here. Everyday we went somewhere else and did something fun. Lilly is so easy going, it has been no problem to take her everywhere. She went to a State Park with us, shopping, to a library, etc.
Lilly sleeps most of the time and only wakes up for her feeding. And if she wakes up, she usually wants to eat. It is her favorite thing to do. Afterwards she has this milk coma look on her face and it is just the cutest thing.
Because I am not breastfeeding (that would have been to much stress after all), it is really easy to prepare her bottles. I always thought babies needed warm bottles, but they don't. They drink formula at whatever temperature they are used to. We just pour the water in the formula, shake it, press out the air bottles, and she is good to go. My dh has started calling her formula "Baby crack".
I know that you all would like to see more pictures. So here they come. The first one shows Daddy feeding his little princess and the second one is her in her cute little Outfit.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Lilly reloaded
Last night I let husband sleep a couple of hours and fed her at 2:30 and 5:00 a.m. She was really nice because after every feeding she went straight back to sleep. This morning she slept really long. We had to wake her up to get her ready for her visit.
Today we went to the agency to meet with some people. Lilly behaved like a little angel. She slept nearly the whole time, woke up to take her bottle, went back to sleep after a little while. She also made that funny snoring noise when she is hungry and everybody was laughing about it. When this little girl is hungry she gets so excited, she makes these cute snoring kind of noises. And she can scream. Loud!
The nurses in the hospital had told us to burp her in between a feeding. Sometimes it is not possible, she gets really mad if you take her bottle away. We can already see that she has a strong personality.
Tonight we had a little diaper explosion. Lilly was so thirsty all day and drank every 1,5 to 2 hours. She even had 4 ounces of milk in an hour... Later I heard a noise that sounded like a little explosion. And it was. It took us numerous wet wipes, two people, and one towel to clean up that mess. 15 minutes later Lilly reloaded. Same story. But she started peeing while we were cleaning her this time. We are slowly running out of clothing...
I love Lillian so much. It has been just a couple of days, but it feels like she just belongs to our family. We love to take care of her and really enjoy getting to know her... And I love to see my husband in his new role as a father. He is doing amazing...
Today we went to the agency to meet with some people. Lilly behaved like a little angel. She slept nearly the whole time, woke up to take her bottle, went back to sleep after a little while. She also made that funny snoring noise when she is hungry and everybody was laughing about it. When this little girl is hungry she gets so excited, she makes these cute snoring kind of noises. And she can scream. Loud!
The nurses in the hospital had told us to burp her in between a feeding. Sometimes it is not possible, she gets really mad if you take her bottle away. We can already see that she has a strong personality.
Tonight we had a little diaper explosion. Lilly was so thirsty all day and drank every 1,5 to 2 hours. She even had 4 ounces of milk in an hour... Later I heard a noise that sounded like a little explosion. And it was. It took us numerous wet wipes, two people, and one towel to clean up that mess. 15 minutes later Lilly reloaded. Same story. But she started peeing while we were cleaning her this time. We are slowly running out of clothing...
I love Lillian so much. It has been just a couple of days, but it feels like she just belongs to our family. We love to take care of her and really enjoy getting to know her... And I love to see my husband in his new role as a father. He is doing amazing...
Sunday, July 27, 2008
First night home
As I am writing this the rest of my family is still asleep. Mommy didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Lillian drank a bottle at half past eight and then she was basically asleep until 1 am. But she sometimes made funny little noises like she was about to cry and then she went back to sleep until about 2:30 a.m. Then she was awake and wanted Mommy to take care of her and carry her around for an hour.
She had another bottle (from Daddy this time) around 3:40 a.m., but didn't really like to go back to sleep for a longer time after that. So I ended up sleeping with her in my arms for a while on the second bed. Lilly loves her pacifier and likes to spit it out all the time - it is a fun game, because when she starts crying I am putting it right back in.
She then had another bottle at 7:00 a.m. and has been asleep since then. I had hope to catch up on some sleep, but my Dad (who is fortunately back from the hospital) called at 7:30 a.m this morning. He knows about the time difference, but he probably thought we were going to be awake anyway. He is such a proud grandfather now and is telling everybody about Lillian.
He reminded me of something I nearly had forgotten. On July 25, the day after she was born, was my grandfather's birthday. He died when I was just eleven years old, so I never got to experience him a lot. And today is my grandmother's birthday. She died in 1991. It is like between those birthdays they have sent Lillian from heaven.
Now I have a question for all the experienced Mommies out there. How often do babies poop a day? Lilli has pooped only once so far and a lot of the times when we wanted to change her diaper there was nothing in there, not even pee. I am wondering whether that means she will have an explosion in her diaper later today. Any advice?
She had another bottle (from Daddy this time) around 3:40 a.m., but didn't really like to go back to sleep for a longer time after that. So I ended up sleeping with her in my arms for a while on the second bed. Lilly loves her pacifier and likes to spit it out all the time - it is a fun game, because when she starts crying I am putting it right back in.
She then had another bottle at 7:00 a.m. and has been asleep since then. I had hope to catch up on some sleep, but my Dad (who is fortunately back from the hospital) called at 7:30 a.m this morning. He knows about the time difference, but he probably thought we were going to be awake anyway. He is such a proud grandfather now and is telling everybody about Lillian.
He reminded me of something I nearly had forgotten. On July 25, the day after she was born, was my grandfather's birthday. He died when I was just eleven years old, so I never got to experience him a lot. And today is my grandmother's birthday. She died in 1991. It is like between those birthdays they have sent Lillian from heaven.
Now I have a question for all the experienced Mommies out there. How often do babies poop a day? Lilli has pooped only once so far and a lot of the times when we wanted to change her diaper there was nothing in there, not even pee. I am wondering whether that means she will have an explosion in her diaper later today. Any advice?
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