Life and Lily

MY STORY

So here is where the story starts......

Ive always loved children and when I left school I decided I wanted to to work with them, and so I studied for 3 years and got my BTEC National Diploma in Childcare and Education. I was around 19 at this point.
Enjoying taking care of children and working along side of them in the nurseries, I always knew I wanted to have babies, it was always just a matter of finding the right partner and when. I would of had them then if I could of.

Years carried on and I still wasn't settled and didn't have my family, but at 21 a new interest arose, Photography. I decided to go to Uni to get my Degree in my new found love. Having babies took a backseat and 3 years later I pass with a 2.1. I then decide to up and leave the small town of Burnley in Lancashire to head to London to pursue my photography.

This is when the years flew by, I was off working in fashion, photographing the catwalks, the lookbooks, and this is when suddenly i'm in my late twenties and i'm really feeling eager to be having a family.

This is when I met Lily's Dad (sadly not together any more) and eventually decided to have a baby. 

After 9 months of quite a easy pregnancy, 2 weeks of a wait that felt like forever as she was late, and not too bad of a birth, on the 18th of November at 10.40pm here arrives Lily, our beautiful daughter weighing 6lbs15.

At 28 years old I finally have my beautiful daughter.

 (you can read all about my pregnancy here and Birth story here)

ALL ABOUT LILY 

Lily is now over a year old and so I now will sum up a whole year in a few paragraphs, but if you look for the little links and want to read more you can as I have a more detailed blog on each stage.

Newborn

I decided I would breastfeed lily and she took to it like a pro feeding in the first 20 min, she has always enjoyed breastfeeding and i'm really glad its something we did. Lily was your typical newborn, she slept, fed, cried and pooped! You can read more about Lily's first week here
As early as 5 weeks old, lily had her first christmas. One thing she has always enjoyed from the very young age of 2 months was sitting up and she was so strong with supporting her head. At this age at night, she was waking me every 3 hours or so for a feed but would sometimes give me more. 

You can read more on lily as a newborn here.

Baby

Lily was quite a easy baby during the day, didn't cry much. She really enjoyed interaction with her toys and I would always be getting her smiling with her favourites which at the time were brown bear and her crinkly Lion toy. This is when we started to see some lovely beaming smiles.

Lily never really liked going on her front, but around 4 months old, she started to lift her head more and at 5 months push herself up. At 5 months old we decided to give Lily a Naming Ceremony, it was a beautiful day with family and friends and Lily wore my Gown that I wore when I was christened. You can see photographs of the naming ceremony here.

It was around this time that lily started taking more interest in her Toys and Tv shows, her favourite being In the Night Garden. Up to this day she can't not dance along with the songs. She also would also start to have a real good giggle that you just couldn't help but giggle with.
It as at this point she also fell in love with her Bunny. Bunny goes to bed with her every night and is the one toy she will always snuggle up with.

At 5 months we also started the weaning journey, just like breastfeeding lily took to this really well and she has always had such a good relationship with food. We started with blended carrots and she loved them. You can read more about lily's favourite food here.
By 6 months was saw signs of her first teeth, her bottom ones came through first and then her top. We were quite lucky as they didn't seem to bother her apart from at night time, and this is when sleep took a turn for the worse. Since turning 6 months to the age of 14 months, Lily hasn't slept for more than 2-3 hours, not once, leaving one very tired mummy.
It was around 7 months and Lily started to sit. One day she just wasn't and the next day just sat there perfectly. She was showing signs of crawling and I hoped that maybe it would be soon and that maybe it would help her sleep. I was wrong, and she didn't start crawling (belly shuffling) until she was 9 months old, and it didn't make a difference to her sleep.

The next 3 months flew by, Lily's crawling progressed and she started to pull herself up and stand with support. Her top teeth and bottom teeth had fully arrived and she started to eat more foods. She really started to enjoy outdoor activities more like going to the park, and going to soft play. She would also start to walk if you held her hands. It was all go and soon Lily was to turn 1 year old.

You can read more about lily as a baby in these links - 3-6 Months , 7-12 months

1 Year Old and Onwards

Before we knew it, it was the 18th of November and Lily was turning 1 year old. She had a great birthday with loads of presents and that day we headed to build a bear to let her choose her own bear. She chose a Lalaloopsy ragdoll. She had a fun packed weekend with soft play with her friends and a Miffy themed party with all her family around. 

You can read more about Lilys Birthday here.

Now Lily is 14 months old and around a month ago lily took her first steps. Each day she is getting more and more confident in walking. Lily has a huge interest in loads of different things, she loves to build with her Megablocks, and loves her figures and Wow toys. She still has a huge love for In the Night Garden and has started taking interest in a lot more of the Cbeebies shows like Balamory and Mr Tumble. One of her most favourite things to do is read books, and she loves story time before bed. She has a great collection of books that will keep growing and growing. 

Lily is starting to say some words, her favourite is asking "whats that" where we have to repeat what it is over and over. Other words she knows include fish, hiya, whats this and din dins.
We are still breastfeeding but starting to wean her onto cows milk and also going to be moving her into her own bedroom soon.

Why not check out our Pinterest board to see more of Lily's Favourite things.

This is where the story ends for now but only to be carried on in a blogging journey as Lily grows and learns. I hope you enjoy following and reading about our journey.