pictures

Written updated post, pictures to come later today!

Wow! Who knew how busy life would get once you have a baby! So many things have happened since I posted last. Ilya just turned 5 weeks old today - we are past the one month mark and she is already wearing 3 month old clothes! She is growing more long ways than width wise but is definitely beginning to fill out more! She is beginning to get more of a personality every day. On the 17th of June, during our 3:00 feeding time...I was exhausted, sitting in my green rocking chair feeding Ilya. Afterwards she was wide awake and I kept thinking to myself that this was going to be a long night and I would never make it back to sleep! She just kept staring at me and then all of the sudden gave me the biggest smile in the whole world, the kind where her eyes light up and her cheeks get a red glow and her mouth takes up her entire face! My heart melted and all of the sudden it didn't matter what time it was in the morning or how tired I was. All that mattered was that I was holding my little girl and she was smiling at me! I told her that I would stay up all night long if she smiled at me like that all night. It made it all worth it. Ilya seemed to smile from the minute she was born, but this was different...I can honestly say that this was the first "real" smile I have seen. It was awesome! I tried to wake up Sean but he was out! She finally smiled real big for Sean on fathers day (she was saving it for him).
Speaking of sleep, I have been so impressed with Ilya. She LOVES to sleep. She has slept the entire night through 3 times now. The only thing is that I never know when it is going to be...and after she does it I think she might sleep the entire night the next night only to be awakened between 3 and 4a.m. But even then she only wakes up once during the night and for the most part goes right back to sleep. I guess she takes after me in that respect. It is quite amazing. I asked the pediatrician if this is o.k. and she was amazed. She said that if she will sleep then let her sleep. Her weight looks great so there is no concern and I should take advantage of it.
Since she has passed the one month stage I am beginning to ween her off of the bassinet and into her crib. We just started today. For her naps I am going to lay her in her crib to see how she does. If everything goes well then I am going to let her sleep tonight in her crib and keep the monitors close by. I am a little sad but at the same time I know that if I wait too long then it will be hard to keep her in the crib. I asked Meggan (my sister) when she stopped using the bassinet and she told me a month...my mom gave me the suggestion to try it out first and see how it goes. So far she loves the crib! I laid her down after we played and she just looked around and made little noises and then went right to sleep like always.
We are beginning to get into a routine around here. We begin our day at 7:00a.m. with her first feeding, then we play by rocking and talking to each other, listening to music and sometimes dancing around the room. After our play time I put her down for a nap. According to the book Baby Wise she is supposed to sleep about an hour and half to an hour and forty five minuets. I wake her up at 10:00a.m. and feed her again. This time I read to her while she is feeding and then we take our bath for our play time. After the bath she lays down for her nap. Then we feed at 1:00p.m., by that time Sean is home from teaching summer school so he likes to play with her and then lay her down for her nap. She feeds again at 4:00p.m., 7:00p.m, and her last predictable feeding is at 10:00p.m. After 10p.m. we lay her down and then let her wake up on her own. She usually wakes up between 3:00a.m. and 4:00a.m. but the last several nights she has switched to between 4:00a.m. and 5:oo a.m. (this is if she doesn't sleep the entire night, but she has only done this 3 times so I don't count on it).
I have been desperately wanting to take her out for walks in her stroller but the weather has been crazy resulting in thousands of mosquitoes. I tried one morning and it was too much for us to stand. And then it is scorching hot in the afternoon so we are locked inside. Sean said that we can start trying for the evening. I'm hoping we can start that tonight!
Overall, motherhood has been wonderful. There are times when all I feel like doing is crying but then I look at her as I hold her and everything is worth it. She is such a blessing and I can't imagine life without her!
Last but not least, Sean and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary! I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing man. He is everything I have ever prayed for and I look foreward to many more years!

She's so tiny!

"She's so tiny!" everyone says. . . And she is.

But something happens when you say "GoGoGadgetLEGS!"

She's as long as her tall daddy's arm!

A couple more pictures my mom took

Ilya is growing more and more every day. I feel like every time I look like her she changes. On Monday she will be 2 weeks old! We had our first outing on Friday...we went to OHanas (a Japanese steakhouse). Sean and I have gone every year on the last day of school to celebrate the completion of another year.
Today we finally went to church as a family. I wanted to go last Sunday but due to the jaundice we were unable to take her off the light. It was wonderful holding her in my arms and sitting next to Sean. We were late because I was desperately trying to feed her before we went so that she wouldn't get hungry during the service but she flat out refused to eat and slept through the entire thing. She is more about schedules than I am! If you try to do things early she wants nothing to do with it. I must have somehow taught her that in the womb, along with her cute scowl! These last 2 weeks have been amazing...an up and down roller coaster at times but I wouldn't change anything! She is my angel.

May 18, 2009

On Monday Ilya will be one week old. Thousands of memories of that day flood my mind. I was a ball of emotion and didn't get much sleep the night before. So many thoughts, so many feelings...We were instructed to call the hospital at 5:00a.m. and then report by 6:00 a.m. Once they had me hooked up to the machines the only comforting thing to me was Sean and his strong hand beside me. He opened his bible and read from 1 Samuel 1-3. The story of the birth of Samuel, Hannah's Dedication of Samuel, Hannah's Prayer, and when the Lord Called Samuel. So many people had constantly asked when Sean and I would have kids...and it seemed to intensify once my sisters both had their beautiful boys. Sean and I were not in any hurry and we had both decided to wait upon the Lord...his timing is perfect. We had prayed for Ilya though then she was merely an unnamed dream. Sean was finishing his masters at LCU in biblical studies and ministry, coaching, and teaching. I was busy teaching...and when you work in Meadow you do it all. We were perfectly content and knew that when God called we would answer and obey. We found out I was pregnant on Sunday September 22nd. I had woke up with a little bit of a headache and was looking for my medicine when Sean said I may be pregnant and should take a pregnancy test first. I rolled my eyes and said "I'm not pregnant" but took the test anyway. I didn't want to get my hopes up and I really didn't think I was. The test result was one and a half lines. What does that mean? Two lines mean your pregnant, one line means your not...but one and a half, there is nothing on the box about that. My heart started racing and tears filled my eyes because in my heart I wanted it to be true so bad. Sean and I decided not to tell my family at church since we were unsure and as soon as church was over we raced to the store and bought some more pregnancy tests, this time the digital ones that read pregnant or not pregnant. Because I felt that there would be absolutely no way for it to read "not sure, try again later." And the result was a definite pregnant...all three times I took it! We cried, laughed, and jumped up and down with joy and then spent the next few days calling everyone we knew! As the months progressed we talked all the time about what it will be like, and possible names. One thing that was sure was that this girl was a blessing, a gift from God and we knew that like Hannah, we to wanted to dedicate Ilya and her life to the Lord. While we are not going to leave her at the door of the church once she is weaned we understand that we are raising her for God alone and will do everything in our power to teach her about Christ. Her name came once we found out that we were having a little girl. I was driving home from Brownfield and on Air 1 they were talking about baby names and a man called in saying he named his daughter Ily (I love you) so that she would know that no matter where she is she is loved. I came home and told Sean about it and he said he liked it. We decided to add an "A" to it to be a little original and came up with ILYA (I love you always, pronounced "I-Lee-Ya").

When Dr. Belle-Henry came in to break my water she said "Are you ready for a birthday today?" And I knew that sometime that day Ilya Ruth Grose would be born into the world. I was in labor about 10 hours and at 6:44p.m. I gave birth to Ilya, weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces and 21 and 3/4 inches long. She is beautiful and now my life is forever changed. Its almost been a week and I am still brought to tears at the sight of her. She is truly a miracle and I am beside myself to think that just a week ago she was wiggling around in my stomach. When I look at her I see a perfect mixture of Sean and myself and think how amazing God is. Knowing God is love, and seeing how God can take two people madly in love with one another like Sean and I and create such a beautiful child that truly represents two people becoming one. All I can say is I am in love.

Welcome to Earth Ilya

Tomorrow my life will change forever
is what everybody seems to agree upon
Well yeah
I think as I think do they think I don't know?
Maybe they do - and maybe I don't.
Tomorrow will tell how tomorrow my life will change forever.

-Sean Grose (May 17, 2009)

..........today is tomorrow forever..........