Lake Baby

There are many things that continue to prove to me that Chris and I are soulmates, but one of them is our joint love for the lake. My grandparents had a lakehouse that I could have lived at all summer long if my parents would let me. My childhood is full of wonderful memories from Possum Kingdom Lake and I was so excited to learn that Lake Travis is so similar.(especially since it only takes us 15 minutes to get there from our house). Well, Chris and I have spent many long summer days hanging out at the lake over the past 5 years I've been here and we wondered what it would be like once Taylor came along. Let me just say.. Taylor is our little lake baby. She has been out on her Mia and PawPaw's 4 times now and continues to love it. I may love it even more when she takes nice LONG naps during and after the boat rides. Here are some pictures from last Sunday when we went out for a morning ride before all the July 4th weekenders came out.

Taylor started off the morning hanging out
with Mia and avoiding the sun. Must keep
a little girl's fair skin out of the harsh Texas sun.

Chris looks like he's focusing really hard on driving, but he was really posing for the picture!

While Chris drove the boat, PawPaw had fun playing in the front hatch. Can you tell that we are a family full of Red Raiders???

Taylor was still worn out after a morning

on the boat that she was fast asleep when

we got back to the marina.

PawPaw and Mia love their boat!

Taylor makes her photo debut in her Bjorn.
After a few practice rounds at the house she was ready for the marina. This was must easier than pushing her stroller back up the steep hill. I just make sure to clip paci to the carrier so that it didn't end up in the lake!

Update: I just realized that some of the 'lost pictures' included ones of me, Chris, and Taylor at the lake. Guess we'll just have to take a little girl back for more lake time.

Pics Update

Who has the best husband in the world??? I do! Chris worked some of his technology guruness and recovered almost all of the pictures from the SD card. I think I lost about 10 pictures, but I am so happy to have any of them. Be prepared because I now have to make up for those few pictures lost with lots taken over the next few days!

I love you Chris for staying up late to try and recover the pictures off my SD card! You are the best husband!

Lost Pictures

Taylor is asleep and I thought I would finally post some pictures of our adventures over the last few weeks and I think my SD card decided to wipe itself clean last night. I thought my laptop was just being funny about reading the card and figured I would upload them to my desktop today but they aren't there. The cute pictures of Taylor out on the boat last weekend and even some of her in her Bjorn are potentially gone. I am so frustrated and really hope it's something that I'm not doing right so Chris is going to try and look at it for me in a little bit but I had to vent. Shame on me for not blogging more regularly or less pictures would be lost!!!

Thanks for listening to me vent!

Unique Workout

So I figured that Taylor is almost 3 months old and I really need to keep up with my workouts to get rid of that last little bit of baby belly. I think I look like I'm about 3 months pregnant and it's not as cool to have a belly if there's not a baby in there! I try getting up early to go walking with Taylor, but in this Texas heat you have to be back in from walking at 8am to keep from completely melting. Therefore the Wii Fit looked very enticing. Monday I feed Taylor and then put her in the swing to watch Mommy workout. Well that lasted for maybe 10 minutes before she decided that swinging was not for her. I really wanted to get in a few more minutes of Wii so that I could actually count it as a workout, so I grabbed Taylor and proceeded to do the Step Aerobics. This can be quite challenging to begin with and was even more of a workout with a baby on hand, but after a little bit I got into a groove and baby and I were both happy.

Now, fast forward to today when I wanted to do the Wii again and Taylor was still not wanting to nap. I've really been wanting to get Taylor to like the Baby Bjorn so she'd be ready for shopping in Wimberly, so I strapped her in and started my step routine again. This time it was a bit more challenging due to not being able to see my feet, but Taylor loved it and even fell asleep to the rhythmic bouncing. She stayed content for me to do 30 minutes of workout on the Wii, including some Hula Hoop, all thanks to the lovely Bjorn. I'm sure this had to do some kind of extra workout for my legs with the extra weight so I'm hoping it burn fat even faster. I'm sure that Bjorn did not have Wii workout in mind when they created their product, but it works. I'm going to keep working out with her in it as long as she doesn't want to swing or sleep and hopefully she'll grow to love her Bjorn so much that she'll let Mommy do lots of shopping in Wimberly while she hangs out in it.(Most Wimberly shops do not allow strollers so I had to come up with an alternative so I can shop while Chris plays golf)

New header

After several tries, I finally got my new header posted that my good friend Mel made for me. I was asking her how she created her cool header and the next thing I know there is a header waiting for me in my inbox! Thanks Mel Mel! Go check out her blog. She has really gotten into taking pictures lately and has done some really great stuff. Mel also creates the cutest cards. I am dying to spend time in my craft room actually stamping. If Taylor keeps up her nap schedule then I should be able to sneak in there in the next day or two! :) Hope you enjoy the new header and colors. Off to continue some housework while a little girl sleeps!

Love,
Wendy

Missing Chris

Chris left yesterday to go on a business trip and this is the first time I've been overnight with Taylor without him and boy do I miss him. I always miss him when he's gone, but I now appreciate all that he does with Taylor when he comes home from work. I hate to use the phrase 'help out' because he takes such an active role in what goes on with her that it's more like a tag-out for me when he comes home. Just wanted to say 'Thank you Chris' for being such an awesome dad and husband! Your girls can't wait for you to come home tomorrow!!!

Mia(Chris' mom, that's her name instead of Grandma for Taylor) and Aunt KK have offered to help out if I needed a break, so Taylor and I went to dinner with them tonight. Taylor was just full of smiles and happy noises that she normally has for Chris when he gets home from work. She just loves her daddy time and I know that Mia and Aunt KK enjoyed taking advantage of it tonight. Here's a picture of Taylor giving KK a high-five.



To keep Chris in the loop of what happens while he's gone on his trip, I try to take pictures. I even do this while he's at work all day so that he can see what we did. Yesterday was Taylor's discovery of the link/ring. Her grip has gotten so strong that she would hold on to the ring for at least 5 minutes. Of course Taylor had to figure out what this new thing was in her hand and so it went straight in the mouth.















Here is one of Taylor's funny habits. Within minutes of being put down in her bassinet in the middle, she manuevers herself into a diagonial position. Never fails. On top of this, she is anti-blanket right now. Once the blanket is covering her legs, she will lift them over and over until the blanket is up around her waist. So she now gets footie pjs at night to keep her warm. What a funny little girl!




Love ~ Wendy

Oh Where, Oh Where has little Taylor been

You may be wondering where in the world Taylor has been. Well... Taylor has been busy playing at her Mia's while I went back to work. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I missed my little girl like crazy and yesterday started my new job as a stay-at-home mom. I am so excited to be able to stay home with Taylor and watch her grow and change. Thank you Chris for making it work! You are an awesome husband and father to Taylor and I! You will be seeing many more posts again now that I can take advantage of nap time to jump on the computer. I will try to spread out the pictures, but here is some taken of Taylor over the past couple days.

This is part of the unveiling of all our 0-3 month outfits. Taylor just recently outgrew her newborn clothes and I am having way too much fun dressing her up!
Thank you cousin Autumn for this cute dress!

Taylor is starting to really want to look around and be part of everything. She just loves sitting in her BePod chair while I cook dinner or wash bottles. I was playing peek-a-boo with her burp cloth and she decided to hold onto it by herself.

She just loved this cow and couldn't take her eyes off it.

Last, I'll leave you with a picture of the rough life of a Taylor.

Love,

Wendy

PawPaw Bonding

I was going through some pictures from my mother-in-law's camera and found these photos of some bonding between Taylor and her PawPaw. In this picture Taylor was talking to him and Dad swears that she smiled at him. Doesn't she know that Mommy and Daddy are supposed to be the first ones to see her smile?

After a little while we looked over and saw the picture below.

I think Dad found a new nap buddy!

5 weeks old

I can't believe that Taylor is already 5 weeks old today. Time is already going by really fast and I only have 2 more weeks at home with her. I am really going to miss our daily adventures, but only a few weeks back to work and we get to spend another month at home together. Here are some pictures of our adventures today. I never thought I would have so much fun entertaining a one month old.

Morning Nap Time on our Boppy Pillow(aka Mom's chance to eat breakfast)

After a little bit she got REALLY relaxed in her Boppy pillow nap.

Playtime on our activity mat

Not quite sure about all the lights and colors of our activity mat

Lunchtime nap in our new swing. Like my bear ears?
Afternoon nap actually in the bassinet.

Our dear child loves to fall asleep to cricket noises, but if it works I'm happy.
It may seem like she sleeps all day, but it's really hard to get a picture of her while I'm holding her or playing with her while she's awake. Plus I figured in a few years I would enjoy seeing pictures of when she would take more than one nap a day.

Wendy

Pics Galore

Okay, so Chris is home and keeping Taylor content so that I can post some Taylor pictures on here. I know this is a lot of pictures, but she is now 3 weeks old and I've only done one posting of pictures. I have to catch up a little.

This is a picture of the day Taylor came home from the hospital.
She loves to sleep all curled up in a ball like this.On her second day home, she discovered her thumb and started sucking on it.
Check out the sticky-upy hair.

Thank you for the cute outfit Misty!

This is of our first trip that was not to the doctor's office. I think I was more excited than she was to get out of the house!

Working on our sun time.

I just love her feet!

This is the bassinet that she sometimes sleeps in and
gives me a few minutes to brush my teeth or pee.

Our first full bath on 4/28. She did not like it very much.

She just looked too cute in her froggy bath towel after her bath.

Awake Taylor.

My two favorite people.(Daddy-daughter bonding time)

Our first attempt at a picture in her Texas Tech outfit. It's still a little big for her!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Love,
Wendy

She's Here

And announcing the most beautiful baby(I'm a little biased), here is Miss Taylor Michelle Lambert
She was born Monday, April 14th at 7:25 am weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. That would be Chris' finger that she has a hold of in this picture and she's had a hold of that finger ever since! She has a ton of hair, so the nurses made a little mohawk for us. She looks even cuter in the hat that the nurses made for her. Chris told them how excited I would be that she had hair so that I could use all the bows and they made a bow for her hat. Taylor has the most beautiful blue eyes that you can see even better here.

Now, one of the best non-Taylor pictures would have to be of what Chris saw as they were taking care of Taylor in the nursery.

This would be Desha, my mom, Kellie, Jeff, Chris' mom, and Chris' dad all huddled around the nursery window to see Miss Taylor.

This would be our second family photo. The first one was while I was still in the operating room, but this one is much better of us all. This next photo is of Chris and Taylor while we were still in the hospital. She's already his couch buddy and found that perfect spot on his chest to snuggle in and watch TV with him. Poor Chris slept on this couch for 3 nights and was definitely ready for us to be released from the hospital.


We got home last week and have been enjoying the new adventures of parenthood. Taylor has definitely kept us on our toes, but has truly been a wonderful baby so far. We've survived one week now and I think she's going to keep us. I am starting to find a balance to my days and Taylor managed to sleep for an hour so that I could get this posted. Here are some things that I have learned to appreciate after one week of motherhood:
- I never knew I could love someone as much as I love my husband
- I still can't believe that they let us take her home from the hospital without signing our life away like we had to for the dog at the Humane Society
- I couldn't do this without all the support from Chris and our family. Thanks Mom for stocking the fridge and cooking! Thank you Terrie for coming over every morning to help us move downstairs!
- That I won't break Taylor and most of the time I can reposition her while she's sleeping and not wake her.
- The diapers don't bother me like I thought they would.
- Daytime TV isn't all that great
- Our dog has been wonderful with the baby and checks in on her when she cries
- Naps are most treasured now than they were in college

Off to go spend some time with my precious girl.

Love,
Wendy

Last Email Update

I just sent out our last email update to friends and family about Taylor. I may do one more post before she gets here, but thought I would go ahead and post the update on here too:

It's our final update before our baby girl gets here and we cannot wait for that day to get here! It has been such a wonderful journey and an experience that I would not trade for the world.(Even when my ankles are so swollen that I could barely walk or when any smell bothered me in the first trimester) I have truly enjoyed every moment of pregnancy and look forward to all the moments of motherhood that will fill the rest of my life. If you wish to follow Taylor and all our parenthood adventures you are welcome to subscribe or read my blog at www.wendys-whims.blogspot.com It won't be updated a whole lot in the beginning, but I will try to update at least once a week for a while.

Now on to the doctor appointment.... Taylor's heartbeat was in the 130s-140s and still strong. My blood pressure is still low and no dilation at all. The doctor could tell that Taylor is still breach and we are still going forward with the C-section. Someone had their baby early, so we were able to be moved to Monday at 8:30am. The doctor will do a quick ultrasound prior to surgery to make sure that she's still breech and if she is then we will proceed with the C-section. If she has flipped then they will send me home and make me wait until 40 weeks before they induce labor. The doctor doesn't think she'll flip if she hasn't at this point. Our little girl should be here around 9 am if they get started on time. We will do our best to let everyone know as soon as possible how everything goes. I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind thoughts and support throughout the pregnancy. It is so wonderful to know how much this little girl is loved and she's not even here yet! Only 4 1/2 more days until she is!!!

Here are two of the pictures that Chris took of me tonight. Don't laugh too hard at my HUGE belly!


Just as a comparison, here is a picture of my from two months ago in the same shirt:

I think I've reached the limits of this shirt today!

Now quit laughing!

Love,

37 Week Update

Quick update for you...
Went to the doctor yesterday, Wednesday, for my weekly checkup and Taylor and I are still doing great. Taylor's heartbeat is around 150 and my blood pressure is still very low. My swelling is still just in my feet and ankles, but the doctor is still not worried about it too much. I don't think Taylor has turned, but they will do an ultrasound before the C-section to make sure that she hasn't. The doctor is hoping that there will be an opening at the hospital on Monday the 14th so that we can bump my C-section up, but as of right now we are still on for 11:30 on the 15th.

I realized that I didn't share the picture of Taylor from last week's ultrasound, so here is it. It's pretty hard to tell what you are looking at since they were having to take the picture from across my belly and Taylor's pretty swished in there right now. Turn your head to the left and look for the white blob in the center. That is her nose and lips and the dark spots right above it are her eyes. I think her arm is covering part of her face. Don't worry if you can't find her face right away, it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was looking at. I almost wondered if it was like looking at those 3D photos where you have to cross your eyes to see the image.

Here are some interesting facts about Taylor and my pregnancy that you might enjoy:
Taylor is very active after I have lemonade
She stays on the right side of my belly and kicks me when I try to sleep on my right side
We thought her head was her butt until we had the most recent ultrasound
I've had strawberries to eat almost every day of the pregnancy
She's always active around 9:30-10:30 at night(must get that from her nightowl father)
Taylor normally starts to be active in the mornings after she hears Chris' voice
My belly is large enough that I rest the Nintendo DS on it while playing(Chris got it for me so that I wouldn't get bored while trying to keep my feet up and swelling down)

9 Month Update

Well here we are at 36 1/2 weeks, or just a little over 9 months, and less than a month to go. Taylor and I got a good but interesting report at the doctor yesterday. We first went in for an ultrasound to see how big our little girl is getting. By the way, she is a little girl and we reconfirmed that! First off, she is being stubborn and is currently breech. For those of you unfamiliar to pregnancy terms like I was before this, that means that she is head up right now and in the wrong position for birth. Next, the doctor informed us that she is approximately 7.25 lbs! She truly is the little hippo that Kellie keeps calling her. See attached pictures and you'll realize that she has grown. I didn't even realize how big I've gotten until looking at the side profile of myself tonight. Holy cow! Back to the doctor visit. After the ultrasound we went down to see my OB. My blood pressure is still low, weight gain normal, and my swelling feet didn't seem to bother her. Due to Taylor's breech status we had to make a decision last night about whether or not we wanted to try inversion, or a process where they push on the belly and try to get the baby to turn. We've decided to not go with it and so the doctor had us schedule a C-section for 39 weeks. Taylor is now scheduled to be born at 11:30am on April 15th. She's going to love being a Tax Day baby! I am hoping that she doesn't wait that long to come since she's getting really heavy and now I know why! We are ready for this little girl to come. Her room is ready and now we just wait until she's ready. The past 24 hours have been a little overwhelming as we let it sink in how big Taylor is and that I'm pretty guaranteed to have a C-section unless she randomly turns between now and then. I guess our little girl is preparing us for what will be a very overwhelming next 18 years...25 years....not sure it ever ends. Our parenthood adventures begin now! For now I will leave you with the entertaining(they really are since I am just HUGE) pictures to go put up my swollen feet. I will save you the pictures of those just yet. We go back to the doctor every Wednesday until Taylor comes, so I'll email more about Taylor next week.


Love,