Growing, Growing, Gone

"Cherish every moment with you're new baby.  Time goes by quickly, and before you know it, they're grown up and moving out!"

If you're a new (or old) parent, you've probably heard this before.  Heck, you've probably told other new parents this. And, while this is absolutely true (I can say this with my whole 13 months of experience), when people told me this, the amount of guilt I would feel if I put her down was absolutely overwhelming.  She was changing so quickly, and I was terrified of losing a single moment with her. I was determined to hold her every single possible moment, whether we were eating, sleeping*, walking, playing, etc. this baby was going to be cherished!

A few months later, I realized I could actually put her down, and not only would she be ok, but she wouldn't change so much or so quickly that I wouldn't recognize her when I picked her up! Now that Elliot is FINALLY sleeping through the night in her own crib (it only took 11.5 months)**, she won't let me rock her to sleep or cuddle with her anymore.  I miss this terribly and wish more than anything in the world that she would let me rock or cuddle with her, but alas, my independent child will have nothing of it! Rocking her to sleep in the dead of night are some of the memories I'm happy I cherished and will remember for a lifetime!

Here are a few pictures of E Baby growing:

Our newbie E Baby all cuddled up and a bundle of love!

I'm not really sure what's going on in this picture.
I kinda dig it though!

The bouncer was a sure fire way to get and keep E Baby to sleep!

Love this cross-eyed face!

The night we moved to Louisiana.
We put her in her closet so she wouldn't hear us moving stuff around!

I was cleaning up Elliot's room and she was quietly sitting in her bouncer.
I heard her squirming around, and turned around to find her head band covering her eyes!

Working so hard to sit up while Mommy does laundry!

Needless to say, this is the day the bouncer was put in storage!

Today (6/6/12)
I brought out the bouncer for our littlest nephew, Cannon.
Elliot wanted to make sure it was up to par for him!

I didn't exactly mean for today's posting to turn out like so, but for some reason this has really been on my heart lately. While I wanted to kick every single person who told me this in the shins it hut when people told me this, I'm a little glad they did.  I'm taking in ever single moment as possible while she's growing and growing, because I know that in the blink of an eye, she'll be gone and starting a journey of her own.

*I feel like I need to clarify that people telling me this was the main reason I let Elliot sleep in bed with us, and by the time I was capable of putting her down without feeling guilty, she had gotten used to sleeping in our bed.

**We are the evidence that letting your baby cry it out works.  I was against it before, but I am its biggest advocate now!

Until next time...

Love, 

Jill