Lorelai is TWELVE months old

Twelve months. 52 weeks, 365 days, 8765 hours, 525,948 minutes, 31,556,926 seconds. It feels like a life time one second and then the next if feels like just yesterday. I truly can't believe its been a whole year since the scariest words I've ever heard were delivered to Adam and I. "Baby B's ductus flow is Absent and Baby A's fluid levels are steadily declining. We need to deliver, its not worth waiting" Although we were as prepared as we could be to have micro preemies, nothing could have prepared us for the roller coaster that is being parents to two micro preemies. This last year has truly been a blur. A blur of emotions that I'll never adequately put into words. But I suppose I could try. This year has been crazy to say the least. It's been a year full of love, a year full of tears both in sadness and in unbelievable JOY. We are truly blessed beyond measure with our 4 perfect children. Watching Lorelai grow and hit her milestones has been one of the greatest joys of my life. With each milestone my heart swells because there is always a small part of me that wonders if she will ever hit them. Having a baby so early can do a lot damage and can cause all sorts of neurologic and physical delays, so with each milestone I'm so overjoyed that she hasn't been damaged too much by delivering so early.   I'm in awe of my tiny baby girl who daily struggles with things that are the result of her extreme prematurity and she takes them all in stride. She is one of the strongest people I know and Adam and I are so blessed to be the ones who she calls mom and dad.

So here are a few of her milestones and some super cute pics of our girl. 

• This month her personality has really come through. She's sassy, opinionated, sweet and very loving! I tend to take pics when shes pissed bc it happens so rarely and is usually around a meal time when I'm rushing to get the boys food so she unfortunately has to wait!

Less than thrilled to be awake

She was hungry and I was just a few minutes away from finishing pumping.

• She has become very mobile. She army crawls everywhere. If she gets down on the ground she's off on a mission. I often can't find her...But I don't put her down too much because the boys are not the cleanest of eaters and I'm afraid she may get ahold of something she shouldn't. So she still spends quite a bit of time in her jumper which she loves. but she's liking being more and more mobile. 
• She has also mastered the art of going from laying to sitting. She just brings those legs up under her and then pushes herself to sitting. It's so super precious. 

She crawls everywhere and sometimes is hard to find :)

• Sleep is still her number one favorite thing to do (girl after my own heart). She sleeps 12-14 hrs at night (and no she doesn't wake to feed ever) and then takes 2 naps a day. often a 1-2 hr in the morning and then a 2-3 hr in the afternoon. She's a champ and this is one department that she truly excels at...she needs to reteach Landon this skill. 

I love my night time snuggles

• occasionally i'll forget to take off her bows and this is often how she wakes up

• We celebrated her first Ash Wednesday!! She went to church and got Ashes!! My heart is so full! 

• Her hair is getting super long and so I of course had to try to braid it. It's still super fine baby hair so it won't hold I'm sure. but I'm going to have fun with her hair while she lets me

AH!

• I found some small hair clips and pony tail holders at the store so I had to try....She is not a huge fan and I think thats because her hair isn't quite long enough and I have to pull pretty hard to get them in. She must have a sensitive head like her mama. 

pig tails!

The boys just love her!

Too cute!

• We've had a lot of fun just being together this month. It was cold so we didn't do a whole lot outside or really go anywhere. Any time we get to do things or be together as a family is a good day!

snuggle sesh

<3 td="">

• She had another cold this month and was just not herself. One night was particularly bad so we brought her into bed with us to calm her down and get her to sleep. I love these times with just the 3 of us. 

• with her cold shes been a little more demanding and wanting to be held. so bring out the Ergo..time to wear the baby! I wear her a lot to keep her comfortable while I make dinner or get some things done! 

• She got to sit in the cart for the first time. Even though she's been sitting up on her own for quite some time, I never go the store with just her and I DO NOT trust Landon to be roaming about the store, plus with Lincoln and Landon both roaming free...trouble will all too soon ensue. So we went to Costco and since their carts have 2 places for kids to sit, she got to partake in the fun! She loved it!

Such a big girl

Pure bliss

• Feeding has been a little bit more of a challenge this month. She had a bad cold and was really congested so I feel like she just was uncomfortable eating. But we ended up having to put her back on her Nexium. She went from taking 4 oz every 3 hrs last month to barely 1 oz. We typically can get her to take about 2.5-3 oz. Hopefully the Nexium will start to work again and she will be back to eating better. She is showing more and more interest in table food so we've given her a few things (sweet potato, squash and carrots {hates those}) and although she seems to like some of them, she ultimately gags and then pukes. which is hard considering we have to try so hard just to get her to eat her milk! So we are exploring some other options, I might have to go back to making pureed baby food...The good news is that although she didn't gain any weight she also did not lose weight. She's still a whopping 15 lbs 14 oz. 

mmmm sweet potato. 

• Lorelai is lucky to share her birthday with her twin sister. But she also somewhat shares her birthday with my mom and sister. My mom's is the day after hers and then my sisters is the day after that. So my sister was in town to celebrate all the birthdays and Lorelai LOVED the ice cream cake. We had ourselves a little March 3, 4, 5 party!

Happy Birthday Lorelai, Mom and Stacie!

• To celebrate her first birthday, and really for me, I just couldn't bear to be in town and in my house for Laynie's day. I needed a change of scenery. We took our first family vacation to the beach! We drove through the night to Gulf Shores Alabama and had a wonderful time celebrating our girls and enjoying some much needed family time. I'll write a specific post about the trip later. 

we made it to the beach just before her first birthday!

first time in the ocean

• She was a fan of the sand the first day. But every day after that she wanted NOTHING to do with it. She wouldn't even let me put her down!

Hmm what is this stuff. 

I think I like it

Love

• I had a beautiful vision of these perfect photos of her on the beach for her monthly pics. One it was super rainy and overcast and two, she wanted nothing to do with the beach. Oh well...

extra pissed

Love this family of mine

Happy birthday sweet GIRLS!!!

off the beach and all better. 

• The boys and I made cupcakes and we sang, ate dinner and enjoyed celebrating Miss Lorelai!

She Likes sweets like her mama and dada

putt putting

Since we were gone for her actual birthday and we did the photo shoot on the beach I waited till we got home to do our traditional photo shoot.

• Although we did them at the end of the month here are her 1 year pics! LOVE THEM!!! Alicia you out did yourself yet again!

Lorelai this truly has been the best year ever. We love you and adore you. You're a light in the darkness. you bring us joy, love and laughter everyday. You're strong and your smile truly could move mountains. Your as sweet as you are beautiful and We are so blessed to be your parents. HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY to our beautiful GIRLS!!!