Almost 10 months

I was thinking yesterday, that Lillian is the better part of a year old! She turns 10 months old tomorrow, and Wednesday marks 5 months exactly from surgery. Since she had surgery at 5 months, 1 day old... she's been post-op for as long as she was born pre-op, if that makes sense at all. I can't believe it's all gone so fast.

It's weird to think of her being almost one, because I still see her as so much of a baby. She still uses her swing and bouncy seat, she doesn't crawl, she has no teeth, know what I mean? Like at this age, Collin had been crawling for 2 months, had a tooth, was pulling up on furniture and cruising all over the room, and was in to everything. If we tried to put him in his swing/bouncy, he looked at us like he thought we were nuts. But, he also didn't fit - he was too fat for them!

It's hard not to baby her and encourage her to stay like a newborn - she was small, sick, and helpless for so long, it's almost routine. I was looking at her the other day, curled up in her crib, under her blanket, and she looked very much like a newborn still. She still seems so small in her big crib with her pink fuzzy blanket that I got her when we were discharged from Children's Mercy. It's Lily and Mommy's favorite blanket and it's used almost every night. When she's under her blanket, or in her infant carrier all bundled up, she seems to dissapear and no one would guess she's almost one.

I got to talk to another heart mom from Maryville last week, she is Dr. G's second case ever. She asked if she could talk to someone else who's been there, so St Francis called and gave me her number. There were so many similar things, except her baby is 5 mos old and already bigger than my 9 month old! But her baby has a VSD and they have surgery upcoming, and we talked for probably the better part of an hour. I tried to give her as much advice as possible, but sometimes it's hard to know what to say - even having been through it myself.

Lillian got some red and green themed hairbows the other day and I put in pigtails with the bows and it looked soooo cute. She's also been in her walker for the first time, it's the walker that keeps getting passed from my sister in law, to us, back to her, back to us, with each kid. She's not got a clue about the stepping motion, but she likes Winnie the Pooh on it.

I also wanted to get on here and give a big shout out and prayer request to Haley Mae and Stefan, both of which are undergoing open heart surgery today. Please keep them in your prayers - for a safe surgery and speedy recovery. Thinking of you guys.

More later. Thank you to all who continue to read this and check in on us.