Oooohhh We're Halfway There....

These past 6 months have been ah-mazing!  As I sit here and reflect on the past 6 months, it's almost hard to believe that we had a life before Gracie (which is a horrible yet wonderful feeling all at the same time).  Since this little blog has been pretty neglected for awhile (with good reason), I've decided to do a little month-by-month update.

This first month can be described in 3 words...emotional, exhausting, and loved.  Everything about having a newborn was familiar, yet completely different.  The honest truth is I don't remember a lot about this month.  I was in a fog.  Not only was I completely exhausted due to little sleep because of a hungry little monster, but I was emotionally drained.  September 26th marked Hailey's first angelversary.  I had this wonderful little blessing in my arms, yet my arms were aching for my oldest.  Fear and anxiety were two feelings I had a hard time shaking this month.  Grace was such a trooper though.  She had the typical newborn issues...wanting to be awake when it was time to be asleep, wanting to eat whenever, etc.  But she did what no one else could do for her momma...fill my heart with the purest joy.  Blessed is what I would like to remember this month as.

Hahaha...this picture cracks me up!  Welcome to month two!  November was probably the roughest month Gracie and I have had together.  Colic set in and Mike was traveling like crazy.  Luckily, I have awesome friends and family who would bring me dinners and give me a break if I needed it.  Thank you for that!  What I always hope to remember about this age is how much noise she made all the time.  I would tell Mike that God gave us a noisy baby to ease our fears while she slept.  Little did I know that this noisy baby would turn into a little lady with a lot to say!  In Grace's second month we celebrated her first holiday...Halloween!  She was the cutest little witch around and we had tons of fun playing dress up all week in halloween outfits.  Grace was also baptized this month.  This day was wonderfully beautiful and filled with lots of love for our little lady.  We are so blessed to have the support of Pastor Paul.  He has been with us through the highest of the highs and lowest of lows.  Even though that moment was filled with difficult flashbacks for the three of us, we celebrated God's greatest gifts...our sweet girls.

Month 3 was the start of Gracie giggles!  That sound is the best sound in the whole world.  Mike and I got it on video the first chance we had.  Giggles is one of the things we missed with Hailey.  We got to hear it once...the Sunday before she passed away.  We were picking her up from Helen's after the Maroon 5 concert.  When I think back on it, it's like I'm there except without sound.  I hate that I can't remember that sound.  I will treasure the videos we have a Grace laughing forever.  Grace really became alert this month.  She was slowly but surely coming out of her colic stage (praise Jesus) and was starting to develop the sweetest little personality.  We spent a lot of time with family this month.  Thanksgiving came and went.  We had a visit with Santa (I cried more than she did) and we spent 4 glorious days with our favorite family in a cabin in Oklahoma.  It was a great month!

I think I'll separate month 4 into two parts-beginning and end.  We had 104 amazing days with Hailey.  Even knowing what I know now, I wouldn't trade those days for anything.  Ever.  But knowing that it can all come crumbling down, I lived in constant fear just waiting for something to happen.  My faith was gone.  When I got into a funk, I couldn't pull myself out.  It was horrible.  On day 105, December 18th, we were able to breathe a little easier.  Except for the fact that now we really had no clue what we were doing.  Uncharted parenting territory.  This brings us to the other half of month 4...Christmas!  We had a wonderful time playing Santa and celebrating with our family.  We ended the month with Grace's first plane ride to the Poconos to celebrate the wedding of Desirae and Rick.  Month 4 is one I will never forget.

Month 5 was sleepless.  For some reason, Grace went from sleeping through the night to waking almost two times every night to eat.  Her naps were no longer than 45 minutes and mama was loosing her mind reading all about what should be done to fix it.  Luckily, Mike snapped me out of that and we just stuck with our new bedtime routine and took advantage of snuggles.  I just had to remind myself that those sweet, sleepy moments wouldn't last long.  Grace's attention in the world around her exploded this month!  She is so focused during playtime and attentive to people's voices.  We can now roll from our back to our belly and still babble up a storm!  It's amazing how much can change in such a short amount of time.

Gracie is 6 months old.  She rolls all over the place.  Sleeps without a swaddle.  Has a blankie. And is trying new foods.  She has her momma and daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger and may be a tad spoiled.  Loved, I meant loved. haha.  This month was spent with lots of daddy time.  Mike hasn't had to travel much at all since the new year and this month we have taken full advantage of that.  The weather has trapped us inside a lot and sickness brought our whole house down for a week.  It was the best!  I think my perfect day would be spent in our pjs all day, playing with Gracie, and watching Netflix/dvr on the couch with my love.  Basically, I had a whole month of my perfect day :)  Happy 1/2 birthday sweet love.   You are my tiny miracle and I am so excited to see what the next 6 months bring.