Lucy is Eight Months Old Today!

Will is out running some errands with Lucy this evening, so as you can see I am catching up on some blog posts! Lucy is eight months old today, and a lot has changed in this last month.

I had one wish this past Christmas - to see my little Lucy feel better. As many of you know, Lucy has had some serious sleep issues during her short eight months of life and was pretty miserable as well. Will and I took her to a series of doctors and still couldn't find answers to why Lucy seemed to be in pain most of the time, and why she just plain wouldn't sleep. We tried alternative medicine, cranial sacral therapy, chiropractic care and a ton of 'sleep help' books but nothing seemed to help her get comfortable enough to sleep. We began to get seriously concerned when Lucy stopped gaining weight for over two months. Finally, on the recommendation of a new friend of mine, we took her to see a Nurse Practitioner who my friend had taken her sleepless son to with some success. Our new NP was wonderful! She listened to our concerns and didn't write us off to 'poor sleep hygiene' as our last doctor put it. She also agreed with us that a sleepless baby was by no means manipulating us as our second to last doctor put it. She diagnosed Lucy with Silent GERD (basically acid reflux without vomiting), and referred us to a pediatric gastrologist. We finally got in to see the gastrologist the week before Christmas and he put Lucy on Prevacid which has made a world of difference in Lucy's mood and sleep! She is now taking two naps a day and sleeping between 10-12 hours at night. She is still getting up to eat throughout the night, but the screaming and sleeplessness is finally gone. Will and I couldn't be more relieved to see her comfortable and happy. She is like a completely different child! Lucy has even become more vocal overnight it seems too - her cries are heartier and she is babbling baby talk now. Before she would just make sounds like someone trying to warm their hands up on a cold day. The doctor told us that most babies are diagnosed with GERD within the first month of life, but because Lucy's went untreated for almost eight months that it could take another eight months before Lucy doesn't associate pain with sleep. So, we are by no means out of the woods with sleep, but we are definitely on the right path now and it seems she is catching up on her growing by leaps and bounds. It is truly a Christmas miracle for us.

Lucy has developed a fascination with gravity this past month and likes to drop her toys one by one from whatever surface they were on, and then expectantly stare at her Daddy until he gives in and picks them all up so the gravity experiment can begin again.

She continues to enjoy looking out the window from the back of our couch, and can easily pass a half hour watching the world go by through our front window.

Lucy loves to play with Will or I and prefers not to play alone. She is now scooting around on the floor. We have been using the Christmas tree as incentive to get her to crawl. We place her on the ground a couple of feet from the tree, and Lucy excitedly starts crawling... backwards. It is so funny to see the surprised look on her face as the tree gets farther away from her. Finally, she lets out a cry as if to blame us for the tree getting farther not closer from her efforts. Here she is in the below picture, after she backed herself into a wall.

Lucy knows how to smile for the camera and now hugs her dolls and stuffed animals affectionately too. She has added wet sloppy kisses (that sometimes involve her teeth!) to her affection repertoire and also likes to snuggle now too.Lucy no longer smiles at strangers. However, she will still smile spontaneously at children - babies, toddlers, and even kids up to teenagers. She loves kids! She also tries to reach out and touch them while excitedly kicking her legs, pumping her arms and babbling baby talk.

Lucy has become a pickier eater. She would prefer to only eat bananas if she had the choice. She also would prefer to kick anything remotely close to 'baby food' to the curb and eat whatever is on mine or Will's plate instead.

She is starting to recognize more words and we think she even knows her name as Lulu. She definitely knows "eat", "mama", and "daddy." She also will nod her head up and down when you say "yes" and will wave her hand at you if you say "hi" or "bye."

Below are pictures we had taken of Lucy for her Eight Month milestone.

Also, some of you have told me that you have been unable to leave comments on the blog. I have changed some settings around, so hopefully you can leave me a note now. Let me know if you still can't!

Merry Christmas

Christmas with Lucy was definitely a happy day, but not without our moments of sadness missing Luke. It means so much to us, all of our family and friends that were not afraid to remember Luke by name this Christmas and to help us keep his memory alive. Truly, your kindness towards us as we continue to miss our Luke means more than we could ever say.

We are still having a hard time accepting the fact that there is nothing on earth that will ever fill the void of missing Luke. No matter how happy Lucy has made us, she does not replace her older brother - and we wouldn't want her to either. She is her own person, our second born. Last Christmas Will and I had a hard time getting through the holidays. This year was easier, and we were able to start some holiday traditions that included Luke. I made stockings for both Luke and Lucy with their names on it. On Christmas Eve, we filled Lucy's stocking with presents and filled Luke's stocking with a letter written by Will and I. Each year we will write our son a letter, recapping our year without him, and telling him how much we love him. When Lucy is old enough, she can draw him a picture and put it in his stocking to help remember him by. For Christmas, Will gave me a beautiful necklace with Luke's birthstone on it. Lucy wore the necklace pinned on her dress over her heart to represent her brother in heaven when we had her Christmas pictures taken. It's times like that - Christmas pictures, hanging our stockings, and all of our other family traditions - that we really miss Luke.

The below picture was taken on Christmas Eve with Lucy in her PJ's, gesturing just how many presents she thought Santa was going to bring her.

Here Lucy is trying to figure out how to open her present from Santa.

Lucy found the boxes her toys came in even more interesting than the toys themselves!
By the end of the day, Will and I were the ones opening Lucy's presents. I think she was a little over stimulated by it all!

After opening presents at our house Christmas morning, we headed out to the cemetery to visit Luke and to decorate his grave blanket with Christmas ornaments. The weather was less than ideal. It was pouring rain and freezing cold. After we put the ornaments on his grave blanket, Will and I huddled with Lucy under our umbrella as we talked to Luke. All of a sudden a huge gust of wind surrounded us. It was so strong we had to put the umbrella sideways to keep the rain off of us. We felt like it was Luke wrapping us in a hug with the wind. It definitely choked us up. But then the wind wouldn't let up, and was literally pushing us towards our car. I think Luke wanted us to know that he is still with us, but that he wanted to see us get on with our day and enjoy Christmas with Lucy. We got the message and got out of the rain and headed to Grandma's house.
Lastly, here are some of the Christmas pictures we had taken of Lucy.

I like to think in this picture below, Lucy is looking up at Luke in Heaven.

This last one is a favorite of mine - to me it captures the joy of Christmas through a child's eyes.

Merry Christmas!

Seven Months

What a month it has been for our little Lucy! She is developing quite a personality which catches me by surprise more often than not. I feel privileged to watch the miracle of a new life growing, learning and changing before my very eyes every day. It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that she isn't staying the same. The growing, learning and changing is something we didn't get to watch Luke do. As much as I picture what he would have been like at one month, one year and now approaching closer to two years old, my visual memories of him are of the day he was born and of that same day where we had to say goodbye. He is forever immortalized as my newborn baby in my heart and mind. I have been missing him more than usual these past couple of weeks. Maybe with the upcoming holidays, or maybe because that is just how grief is. Thanksgiving does remind me of Luke though. One of the scariest days of my life was two years ago, the day before Thanksgiving, when we had an amnio to determine exactly what health issues Luke had. Then came the joyous news, on the day after Thanksgiving, that our baby would surely live! Such contrasting emotions on as complete opposite ends of the spectrum as you can get. The hope we were given on the day after Thanksgiving two years ago carried us through our first and last Christmas with Luke. I just remember Christmas morning when I was pregnant with Luke how Will and I couldn't wait until the following year when we could see Christmas through Luke's eyes. Part of me wishes that we knew that it was to be our only Christmas with Luke, and the other part of me realizes that at least we got one Christmas with Luke that was filled with innocent hope. Okay, so maybe the reason I have been missing Luke more than usual is because it's the holiday season now, and my family just doesn't feel complete without him here. But, Lucy is here now, and we are definitely looking forward to seeing Christmas through Lucy's eyes for the first time. And some day when she is old enough to understand, she will help us keep her brother's memory alive through the holiday season.

So, back to the personality that Lucy is developing! My favorite thing that Lucy learned this month is how to give hugs. She will put her hands on each side of our face and squeeze them together while pressing her face as hard as she can into ours. This is usually with her mouth open, so it is a very sloppy and wet hug but we love it! She also has become quite good at reaching for the parent she wants - usually it turns into a game, and she'll reach back and forth for Will and I until she's distracted by something else. Lucy has figured out that strangers like smiling at her, so now she will smile excitedly first when she sees a stranger in the store or at church. It breaks my heart though when some strangers either don't realize Lucy is smiling at them, or they just plain don't smile back. It makes me wonder if all humans are born with a heart so open they smile whenever they see another person and if over time, once the smile isn't returned enough times, their heart eventually loses that spark of joy as well. So sad! If only we all kept that joy into adulthood.

Lucy still has a special smile reserved just for her daddy. She loves to watch for him to come home from work. When Will is about five minutes away, we go to the couch next to the front window, and peak over the edge while we watch for Will to come home. When Will pulls in the driveway, Lucy starts smiling. Once Will gets out of the car - Lucy starts pumping her legs up and down, her little heart starts beating a mile a minute, and she starts panting in excitement. It is the cutest thing. Then her daddy walks through the door and she can hardly contain herself. Unfortunately Will can't scoop her right up because he has to wash all the germs off from school first. But then! Oh, it is priceless to watch her hug her daddy hello!

Lucy has also accomplished many things physically this past month. At the beginning of the month her left bottom front tooth popped through, and two days ago the right bottom front tooth also made it's debut. She is also sitting on her own better, and gets the biggest kick out of sitting in 'grown up' chairs by herself. Here she is in a rocking chair, smiling for the camera.

The picture below shows Lucy sitting in our new Amish-made chairs that were finally delivered from our vacation to Shipshewana this past summer.

Lucy loves to bang the keys on the piano - here she is making some beautiful noise.

Lucy has discovered tags, zippers and strings this past month. Forget the toy - she wants the tag attached to it! Here she is below playing with the tag on her doll Brenda.

Lucy started eating table food this month. Her 'gateway' food was rice cereal, and then avocado, sweet potato and bananas. Her favorite so far is definitely avocado.

Lucy tried sweet potatoes for the first time on Thanksgiving. It was great to have her at the table with us. Will and I alternated between feeding her so that we could pace ourselves with the turkey and stuffing.

Lucy is still having difficulties sleeping. We are now seeing a new doctor who we really like, and she seems to think that Lucy may have acid reflux. She referred us to a gastrologist this coming month to see if we can find a way to help our little Lucy sleep better. If you could keep us in your prayers so that we find the cause of Lucy's sleeplessness, we would really appreciate it!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

LuLu the Littlest Lady Bug

Lucy was a Lady Bug for Halloween, and she helped make it the best Halloween ever for Will and I. We couldn't help but laugh every time we looked at her, and she would just stare back at us with a confused look on her face. She just couldn't figure out what was so funny!

Lucy and the Great Pumpkin!

We celebrated Lucy's 6 month birthday yesterday with a pumpkin photo shoot. We didn't really get any smiles out of her, but Will and I had a ton of laughs. I mean, look at those droopy cheeks and those beautiful eyes! If Lucy could have only seen herself, she wouldn't have been able to stop smiling.


It was definitely an interesting feeling, remembering how we felt on Luke's 6 month birthday. Lucy has made us so happy, and given us the ability to hope and dream again. Looking at her, we can't help but be reminded of her older brother and it is a strange mix of sadness and joy all rolled into one. In the below picture, Lucy is celebrating her dad's birthday. Again, we were reminded of how we felt last year on Will's birthday where the present he wanted more than anything was to have Luke celebrating with him. And although Will still wants Luke to be here more than anything, we can't help but feel grateful and happy that Lucy is here with us now.
This past month we brought up the highchair from the basement to help Lucy get used to sitting in it like a big girl. She loves to sit there now, and play with her toys while we take care of things around the kitchen. It is a big help to us, since she can entertain herself for longer periods of time now.

Lucy hit a funny and adorable milestone this past month. She can now put not one, but both feet in her mouth at the same time. The picture below reveals her new found ability, unencumbered by a bulky diaper - or clothes for that matter!

Last but not least, here is one of my favorite pictures from this month showing a new personality trait of Lucy's. When she is excited or happy, she sticks her tongue out as far as it can go (which isn't far, since it's tied!) and exhales loudly. At first I thought she had a sore throat or something, but as my mom pointed out - it's just Lucy being Lucy! Wow, we love this little girl! Happy Half Year Birthday Lulu!

Sleepless in September

Lucy is 5 months old today, and what a month it has been at our house! We have been going through "Sleep Boot Camp" in an attempt to get Lucy to sleep better. Our social calendar has been almost nonexistent as we focused on consistency and patience. I do think our efforts are paying off, as Lucy began the month getting about 9 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period - and being quite cranky - to getting about 11 and a half hours. She is much happier now, but we still have a little bit to go. I can only imagine how content she will be when she gets closer to the 15 hours a baby of her age should typically be sleeping. Who knows why she has been sleeping so little, but we are trying everything to modify that. I've been reading up like crazy on sleep and know way more about sleep cycles than I ever thought possible. Last week I took her to see a pediatric therapist that does cranial sacral therapy which so far seems to have helped the most. We go back this week, so hopefully we see even more improvements.

Here are some pictures of our little lady, as she pulled an "all-monther" (think "all-nighter" just without coffee, and for an entire month!).

Will took an early morning shift with Lucy on a Saturday morning this past month, and when I woke up to a quiet house, I got out of bed to investigate. I found Daddy and daughter sound asleep on the floor. You can't tell from the picture, but Lucy had her fingers tightly wrapped around Will's finger. When you are sleep deprived, it is amazing the things you will try to get Lucy to sleep!Here Will is trying to take a nap, but Lucy clearly has other plans.

When we weren't busy trying to get Lucy to take a nap, we were picking the plethora of tomatoes from our garden. Here's Lucy holding on to some of the harvest. It's a little ironic to me because a year ago at this time I was pregnant with her, and tomatoes made me want to gag!

We were excited when Lucy hit the four month mark, because it meant she could finally play in her little activity center we have for her. Her feet were a little shy from touching the ground, but we found something to put under them so that she could fit. She has a love hate relationship with the little purple hippo she is holding in her right hand. Nothing excites her more than to get that into her mouth, and nothing frustrates her more than not being able to.



Lucy loves to play on the floor. She surprised us both a couple of weeks ago when she rolled over as we were trying to put her pajamas on. Will and I think she was trying to escape bedtime. We were happy we both were there to catch this major milestone. She also has discovered her feet and likes to play with them while we change her diaper.Yesterday we went on our annual apple picking trip with the Timmerman side of the family. It was a big day for Lucy, as she represented the fourth generation of the Timmermans who have been picking apples in the same orchard for over 40 years. The Timmermans are extra excited because on September 24, another fourth generation Timmerman, Gavin, was born. Hopefully next fall Lucy and Gavin will be gnawing on apples together. Here we are below with Will's dad standing in front of a Golden Delicious apple tree.




Will's back at work now, and Lucy and I have found a new routine. We can still hardly believe that Lucy is finally here in our arms. When I was pregnant with her I couldn't wait to hold her and cover her in kisses. Little did I know just how kissable she would be with her chubby little cheeks. We still miss Luke in ways that we can't even begin to describe, but it is a comfort to be able to tell his little sister all about her big brother in heaven. And as we whisper to Lucy when she cuddles her head into our shoulder, Lukey is with us every day and is so proud of his baby sister.

A Day at the Portrait Studio

Lucy had a big day today, as she hammed it up in front of the camera! You'd never know that she screamed most of the car trip there. She knows when to turn on the charm and we had a riot watching her pose for the different shots.

The Four Month Cat Napper

It's hard to believe, but Lucy is 4 months old today. Luke continues to be heavy in our hearts as he would have been 18 months old on the 19th of August. It was also a year ago on the 19th that we shared the news that we were pregnant again. A couple of nights ago, Lucy fell asleep in my arms and took our breath away with her resemblance to Luke.

It has been a busy last month for Lucy, and she is growing and learning by leaps and bounds. As usual, I will give the updates in pictures.

Here we are on the shore of Lake Huron where we rented a house with my family to celebrate my parents 30th wedding anniversary. We were supposed to be there an entire week, but to make a long story short, we ended up heading home after only two nights because the septic field backed up! Everyone kept their humor about them, and it was definitely a bonding experience. Looking back now, it was pretty funny, but while in the thick of it with sewage coming up out of the toilets and shower drains and flooding the bathrooms it was pretty stinky and messy. In the picture above we are sitting by a fire we built on the beach our last night there. Lucy loved the sound of the waves, and slept really well while we were there. To make up for our shortened vacation, we headed to Shipshewana, Indiana where we toured an Amish settlement, ate extremely rich and delicious food and baked goods and bought six dining room table chairs that are currently being built by an Amish guy named Casper. I'll have to remember to post a picture of them when they arrive, as they are absolutely beautiful.

Lucy is many things and especially cute, but she is definitely NOT a sleeper. Here she is in her swing, fighting a much needed nap. We find she sleeps great in the car, but other than that will only take 15 minute cat naps throughout the day. This makes it seem like we are trying to settle a fussy and sleepy baby for most of the day. She can't stand to miss a thing, and if there is anything new or remotely interesting going on she will refuse to sleep. She is getting better about sleeping at night, but of course last night proved us wrong when she decided that she preferred to be wide awake from 1:30 a.m. until somewhere around 4:00 a.m. We are assuming she finally did fall asleep - all we know is that the last time either of us looked at the clock it read 3:58 a.m. She woke me up somewhere after that about 6:30 a.m. It's amazing to me that she seems to require less sleep than her parents. We should have known she didn't need much sleep when she was wide awake the first few days of her life. We kept looking on with pride - "Look how alert she is!" As if to say, wow, we must have something special here. Every other newborn we've seen sleeps the day away! Little did we know how in for it we were! But seriously, we wouldn't have her any other way.
Lucy still loves her bath and insists that we run the water while she is in the tub. We've tried turning off the water in an effort to conserve it once her tub is filled up, but she starts crying as soon as the water turns off. Being the push overs we are for our Little Lucy, we let it run and brace ourselves for the next water bill. Lately, her favorite part of bathtime is getting dried off. She smiles and smiles in her little duck towel and even enjoys it when I swab out her ears with a q-tip. She is a creature of habit already - she knows when it is bath night (every other night) and if we forget - look out! She will cry and cry until we remember. And if we don't bathe her in the exact same pattern as every other time, she will also protest. Again, we think it is adorable - hopefully this isn't a precursor to OCD or something like that!

Here is Lucy with her dolly named Brenda that Grandma Timmerman gave her. She loves to chew on Brenda, and pretty much loves to chew on anything she gets into her hands. We think she is teething, which could also explain some of the sleepless nights we have been having. She is getting really good at grasping objects and putting them in her mouth - her hand eye coordination is definitely progressing.I think this above picture speaks volumes. Currently her favorite book to chew on - I mean read - is "The Belly Button Book."

Lucy has gained a couple of nicknames in her short 4 months of life, our favorites being LuLu and Mumma's Littlest Baby. In the above picture, LuLu pauses before answering her father's question on how to factor a simple polynomial function.

Will goes back to work on Monday, and his girls are going to miss him.