TWELVE // DELILAH IS ONE!

It’s official: Miss Delilah Wren is ONE! Our little bird has taken one trip around the sun.

And what a trip it has been.

“The days are long but the years are short” has never felt more true … Especially so in these past two weeks in which the days and nights felt incredibly, exhaustingly long.

So let’s just get the not-so-fun part of this update out of the way first, shall we?

Week 51 — the week before her first birthday — was a doozy for Delilah, and her worried parents. Mama and baby got sick, but our sweet girl had it worst. A nasty cold (the second one in her short life) that had Delilah waking up from her afternoon nap on Monday (10/15) screaming because she couldn’t breathe through her nose escalated into croup and culminated with an overnight stay at the hospital on Wednesday (10/17). This was after already enduring an early-morning, three-hour stint at a local ER, bookended by visits to the pediatrician. The week felt like one big downward spiral. There were lots of tears from mama and baby, as Delilah was miserable not only from from the high fevers, stuffy/runny nose and hacking cough but also from all the doctors and nurses that kept examining her and the two breathing treatments she was given to help open her airway. If you know Delilah, you know she’s very shy and has a strong case of “stranger danger,” so all the poking and prodding, even if with just a stethoscope, was completely overwhelming and upsetting — for all of us. 

Despite having to sadly postpone Delilah’s birthday party, that weekend did see improvement. And on Tuesday, 10/23, her very first birthday, all that remained of Delilah’s cold was a runny, stuffed up nose and occasional cough. At the time of this writing, she is all better health-wise. What seems to be lingering, though, is the immense fear she felt at the pediatrician, the ER, the hospital... She may be a bit traumatized from the whole ordeal (and I don’t blame her!). Getting Delilah to sleep in her crib (and to stay asleep) has been a challenge, to put it mildly. Hopefully the memory of all those scary doctors and nurses will fade from her memory fast. 

(Unfortunately, Delilah did have her one-year well check at the pediatrician on Friday, and had to get three shots — poor girl can’t catch a break.)

__________

OK! Now onto happier things.

Stats: Our little bird has been weighed many times in the past two weeks and the numbers on the scale keep fluctuating; before she was sick she clocked in at about 18 lbs 12 oz. At her weigh-in yesterday (10/26) she was only 18 lbs 4 oz. Since she was born premature, I predicted that she wouldn’t hit 20 pounds by one-year. But she has been growing steadily along her curve — she has more than tripled her birth weight — and the doctor is pleased with her progress. And Delilah loves to eat, she’s just skinny! She’s happy and healthy in the 30th percentile. And no surprise here: Our string bean is lean and long! She grew 2 inches since her 9-month checkup and is now 30.5 inches long! That places her in the 90th percentile for height. Someone is taking after mommy :)

Tooth count: Delilah has three more teeth on the way (to join her cute bottom two). Both of her top canines have broken through, and her left bottom one is still working. It's been a big bulge with a white dot for weeks.

New skills: Delilah’s twelfth month wasn’t so much about learning a bunch of new skills as much as it was about refining the ones she already has. She is cruising now, mostly around the gate and new shelves in her play area. We joke that she sometimes “angry cruises” — she’ll be crying about something and step step step her way closer to mama. The first time she did this you could tell by her face that she literally didn’t know how she got to where she was! She cruised herself into a corner and when she stopped crying and mama moved positions, she didn’t know how to get back where she started. Since then her cruising has become more intentional though.

Delilah still loves to stand up and now she can actually stand independently (without holding onto anything for support) for a few moments. She’ll sometimes even do this while holding a toy or her snack cup. When she first began trying to balance on her own, you would see her deliberately let go of her support and hold out her arms and hands. She had this mixed expression of nervousness and amazement as she waited to see what would happen. She was testing herself! It’s incredible to see her challenge herself to learn and grow.

Favorites: She still loves putting things in and taking things out of containers. She’s obsessed with giving kisses — to mama, dada, the dogs, her stuffed animals, even books… anything that makes her happy. Our little explorer wants to crawl everywhere and she’s getting really fast! She’s fascinated with doors (will stare at them, actually) and thinks it’s fun to open and close them herself. She’s also strangely fascinated by ceiling fans — talk about easily amused! Our voracious eater has tasted more than 100 different foods and there’s not much she doesn’t like. She’s even interested in dog food, ha! Delilah does enjoy sharing her puffs with her pups, and finds it fun to feed them their own treats, too. While the Hot Dog Dance song is a perennial favorite, the Baby Shark song is also now on rotation as the go-to distraction during clean-up time after meals. Mickey Mouse never fails to garner a smile but Gymbo (and his songs) elicits just as much joy and excitement.

Personality: At one-year-old I would describe Delilah Wren as mostly sweet, deeply shy, sometimes silly, incredibly smart and a tiny bit sassy. (She has this funny way of tilting her head all the way to the side and giving a sly little smile — like she’s keeping a secret.) She is super observant and detail oriented and determined, sometimes stubbornly so! When she decides that she wants to learn or do something, she goes for it.  If another baby takes her toy, she won’t mind, she’s happy to share, but if that baby touches her food — forget about it. Ha! She’s a mama’s girl through and through but she adores her daddy and he can make her laugh like no one else.

__________

Even though Delilah’s birthday was several days ago now, it is still hard for me to believe that she is really one year old. Looking through old photos, I can’t help but wonder, “where did that baby go?” It’s so cliche but this past year really did fly by in the blink of an eye. Of course while in the midst of things it didn’t always feel that way. Each new phase brings new challenges. Right when you think you have something figured out or managed, the girl goes and changes the game! You want to hold onto time, slow things down, savor their babyhood, but then there are days you just want to Get. Through. It. Whatever the hard thing is that day, you’re just trying to get through… and then at some point you realize you still need to treasure the difficult moment because one day too soon they’ll also be a fuzzy memory.

Suffice to say, Delilah rocked our worlds when she came into our lives in the most unexpected way, and she has continued to surprise me, in both good and hard ways... At 6:08 pm on Oct. 23, 2017, everything changed. Everything got harder but better all at once. And at Year One that continues to be true. Motherhood isn’t easy. It isn’t glamorous. It isn’t always picture perfect. But it is the biggest joy and blessing of my life. Our journey to parenthood was a lesson in trust and patience and holding onto positivity, and I find those are the same lessons I keep needing to learn as a mama. This girl is teaching me, refining me. She has learned and grown so much in 365 days and I have too. We’re in this together, kid! 

Delilah Wren, knowing and loving you and calling you ours has been the most amazing blessing, an incredibly imperfect journey that really is only just beginning. Your Daddy and I dreamed of you, and still you are so much more than we could have ever hoped for... So keep on blossoming, my beautiful wild flower, and we’ll keep on loving you, forever and ever. 

Happy First Birthday, baby girl.