Born in the USA

to pierce or not to pierce, that is the question!

I've talked myself in circles, gone back and forth,

overanalyzed to the max, and I'm driving myself crazy.

I need to make a decision, file it in the back of my

 head with the archives, and be done with it.

 because it's going to be a very long 18 years if

 I'm already struggling with something this senseless!

The arguments I have been having with myself are as follows:

If I get Lyla's ears I'm only continuing with the family tradition.

My mom had my ears pierced when I was only 3 weeks old.

It is not a family tradition.

That is just a lame excuse for you to justify getting Lyla's ears pierced.

Okay, yes. You are right.

______________________________________________________

  

 If you don't pierce them soon it will only lead to

 higher risk of her ears getting infected.
She will soon discover her ears are attached to her head

 and they will become her new favorite toy.
But it's going to hurt. And she is going to cry.

I don't want to make her cry.
She will quickly forget about the pain.

 It will be easier to deal with her now,

rather than when she is a older and can complain.
Plus, when she is older you will likely make several

attempts to pierce her ears before she finally musters

up enough courage to follow through.

So what! An important part of life is over-coming your fears.

Even if she chickens out 10 times, she will be so proud of herself in the end

and the sense of accomplishment will be all worth it.

_______________________________________________________

I want Lyla to make the decision for herself.

What if she doesn't even want her ears pierced?
What little girl do you know that doesn't want her ears pierced?

Well, none. But what gives me the authority
 to alter her physical appearance?

You are her mother. You have absolute authority.

I don't want to corrupt her innocence. She is pure and perfect.

You are really overthinking this. Babies with pierced ears are adorable!

I ask myself this...

Why is it embedded in my head that my little girl needs her ears pierced?
Why can't I just let her be a baby?

As a parent, I know there will be a lot of decisons I have to make for Lyla.
A lot of those decisions she probably isn't going to like very much,
but she's just going to have to deal with it simply

because I'm the adult and I know what's best for her.
I will always make decisions when it comes to her health & safety.
However, I'm going to try my very hardest to allow

 Lyla the freedom to express herself when it comes to her physical appearance.

After debating with myself and weighing the pros and cons,

I've decided all my reasons to pierce her ears are selfish ones.
And although it would be super cute, I think I will resist the urge.
I know in the long run she probably isn't going to care
whether I pierced her ears or let her make the decision for herself....
but it's an important decision to me now. I care now.
What's the rush anyhow?

Eventually she will be influenced by her surroundings

 and will probably beg to have her ears pierced on her own.

Buuuut, I had to satisfy my temptation to turn
my baby girl into a product of America somehow....

BEHOLD!

Trying to Capture a Smile

This Week

There is no question how much love I immediately felt for Lyla

from the moment she took her first breath and was placed on my chest.

I loved her instinctively.

However, I am falling more and more in love with this girl every day....

and I am beginning to feel that the feeling is mutual.

Our bond is growing and it is truly everything I ever imagined.

Oh, and although it seems impossible, she is getting cuter by the day.

I could seriously just stare at her for hours.

She is crying SO much less and it's such a relief.

This week I found myself preparing for a cry session,

only to find that the grunting noises were actually the beginning of baby-babble.
It is so adorable to watch as she concentrates so intently to make her

lips form to create the smallest 'coo' sound.

And then she seems so proud of herself afterwards, ahh so cute.

She is smiling very regularly now.

I've noticed that the biggest grin emerges as I'm changing a very yucky diaper.

I wonder if she thinks it's amusing that I have to clean her mess, or

perhaps she is smiling about the foul smell she just created.

Regardless, I would change one million poopy diapers

if it meant seeing that big smile on her face!

With the exception of once or twice, she hasn't started giggling quite yet.

I just can not wait for the giggling to begin!

Also, she is finally settling down at work.

I am so grateful to work for someone (my uncle) who allows me to

 bring my little angel with me to the office.
I was pretty discouraged at first because it seemed Lyla

would cry from the instant we walked in the door until the moment we left.

This week, she hardly cried at all.
If she wasn't sleeping, she was completely content just hanging out on on my desk.

I'm still not as productive as I know I can be,

 but we're making progress and that makes me happy!

Something to Laugh About

One of the websites I discovered during my pregnancy was thebump.com.
It is one of my new favorites as I emerge into motherhood and
I just wanted to share something I stumbled upon
this morning that gave me a good laugh.

You Know You're a Mom When....

“You write checks in crayon ’cause that’s all you can find.”

“Amazon shows my ‘recommended for you’ products as toys

and diapers -- not shoes and handbags.”

“You’re proud of someone for burping.”

“You say ‘I slept all night!’ and it was only for three hours.”

“You don’t own a purse anymore because a diaper bag carries all you need.”

“You care more about the consistency of poop than

other things that seemed important before.”

“You’ve got bags under your eyes and your hair’s a mess, but you don’t mind,

because you’re in love with your baby.”

“You hear your mother’s voice…coming out of your mouth!”

“You trade sexy tops for nursing shirts, cute skinny jeans for maternity pants,

 and nights out for rocking your baby to sleep.”

“You can put on makeup one-handed while baby sleeps on your shoulder.”

“TheBump.com is your homepage instead of Net-a-Porter.”

“Your Google search history is baby-related searches, like ‘best baby onesies’ and ‘is it normal when baby does…’”

“Your bottle discussions aren’t about wine.”

The Google search history amused me the most.
I was actually laughing at myself the other day as I reviewed my recent searches

 and found they were ALL baby related.

I'm seriously questioning how the world functioned before Google!
Happy Friday!

Challenges

My biggest challenge so far is sleep.
Hmmm, one of major things the little one depends on....

Here is why I am torn on the sleeping situation.
Aside from the first week of simply adjusting to having a newborn in the house

and trying several different sleeping techniques,
Lyla now refuses to sleep independently.
We originally established a routine of Kirk sleeping on the couch,

 while I slept in the recliner with Lyla in my arms all night.
I was actually okay with this only because it meant Lyla

would sleep for three, sometimes four, hours straight during the night.
Which ultimately meant more sleep for me!

Finally, my mom helped me realize that sleeping in the recliner every night was just not practical and I should work on establishing a better night time routine.
 The thing is I tried to put Lyla to sleep in her bassinet.
I tried and tried and tried.
But when I lay her down, she will not sleep longer than an hour at the very most.

The little spaz fidgets so much in her sleep that
 she usually startles herself and wakes up.
As opposed to sleeping in my arms, where I can comfort her
by holding her close when she wakes up, and then she quickly falls back to sleep.
And yes, I have tried swaddling, it just doesn't work for her.

This week I decided it was time to end the recliner sleeping....
and the transition hasn't been as horrible as I imagined.
However, we've picked up a new bad habit instead.
I put her in the bassinet at night,

 (hoping that she won't wake up, knowing that she will)

and when she does I put her right in bed with us.

She eats, we snuggle, and she falls back asleep until the early morning.

Kirk is not a fan of this at all.
He is worried one of us is going to roll over and smush our precious little girl.
And to be honest, I know it's not the best resolution to my recliner issue.
I know there are risks...but I'm being careful.
This isn't the picture perfect scenario I once imagined,
I'm just trying to figure this mom thing out!

I really thought I knew how I would "parent" my newborn.
I had everything planned out and knew how I would handle every situation.
I am realizing now, as a new parent, that you just have to do what works.
And for now, this works for us and it works for Lyla

However, my pre-baby "I'll never let our baby sleep with us" self
is pointing and laughing....ha ha ha.



On an unrelated note, I'm really starting to notice a change in Lyla.
She is smiling, making baby noises, and starting to interact with us a bit.
I think she is becoming more familiar with her surroundings
and enjoying her life as a newborn.
It is so incredibly awesome and so rewarding.

I will admit, I was really missing my pre-baby life at first.
Thankfully that postpartum yuckiness is over and
my new life is becoming a lot more fun than the old one.
(that's what I've been waiting for!)

Growing Up

 The baby is one month old today!

It's amazing how fast that first month flew by.
I really wasn't sure if I was going to
survive those first couple weeks...
but life is starting to feel normal again.

Lyla is getting used to this thing we call life,
and we are getting the hang of this parent thing.
Life is good.

We discovered she enjoys hanging out with
dad in the baby harness...

And the mom tried taking some pictures of the baby with a very pretty flower in her hair,
but clearly she did not like that one bit!