Big Girl

I can't believe that Evy is now 3 months old. The jeans she is wearing in this picture make her look older. Jeans on a baby just crack me up!

Funny Faces

Vacation

It's a balmy 28 degrees here today, a 50 degree warm up from yesterday. This heat wave coupled with a massage, Starbucks and child-free trip to Target this morning has me feeling like I'm on vacation. As I browsed the selection of Pampers, sipping my vanilla latte, I felt a sense of relaxation sweep over me. Who needs Mexico?

I Own You

The swaddle owns us. Before it came into our lives no one slept. And now, we're afraid to kick it out of our lives. Life is so much sweeter with a swaddle in it. We've been slowly attempting to wean Evy from her swaddle but it's not going well. Without the swaddle she wakes crying after about 20 minutes.



What do you know about swaddling? Is it a problem to continue to swaddle? Some of the books I've been reading suggest it's ok until even 9 months. I like that answer. It's easier.

Confession

Until now I have not made it public. I have only confessed to a handful of people. I was afriad that a public confession would jinx it. For the last 3 weeks Evy has been sleeping through the night. UNTIL....the last couple of nights. Darn it! It's like winning the lottery only to have it taken away.

What I Know Now...

As my maternity leave ticks away it is funny to look back at how I envisioned my leave would be and contrast it with what really happened. I'll admit, I thought it would be a nice little "vacation" from work. I had visions of Martha Stewart running through my head. Being at home I would surely be able to bake, organize closets and enjoy some time decompressing. Oh, silly little naive first time mom. Here's what I know now...

1. Maternity Leave is Not a Vacation-During the first four weeks I would have rather been at work fielding phone calls from ticked off people, explaining to our board of directors that yes I do have a marketing plan, and teaching KW that eating from the mini-bar is not an appropriate use of an expense report. Compared to taking care of a newborn, work would have been a piece of cake! And, by the way the only cake baked on my leave was one that Scott whipped up from a box last week for his mom.

2. Just Say No-By all means say yes to the drugs...this natural childbirth stuff is for the birds. What I mean is that I have to just say no to visitors when feeling overwhelmed. Or, limit the number of visits each day. Since I was feeding Evy every 3 hours and each feeding took an hour it was difficult to fit in visits and sleeping for those first few weeks. Evy also did not have a predictible sleeping pattern (well, you could predict that she would likely not sleep) and I swear just when I would finally get her to sleep, which means I could sleep too, it would be time for someone to stop by. Next time, I will have to be more selfish with my time for the first few weeks.

3. Have a January Baby-At first I thought I would enjoy being on leave over the holidays. However, the craziness of the holidays just added to the craziness of having a newborn. Getting christmas shopping and wrapping done, christmas cards sent, and decorations up was not fun while trying to care for a newborn. I would have rather just been able to relax and enjoy the time with Evy. If we have a late fall baby again, I'll just be ignoring Christmas that year.

4. Enjoy the Time-It seems as though I was always wishing for the next step: "I can't wait until she can sleep through the night." "Won't it be nice when she can hold her head up." By wishing for the next step I think I missed savoring the moment that we were in. The leave went by in a flash and it's time I will never have back. Next time, I will savor it more.

Well, gotta go get that pie baked and blanket knitted only a few days left of this vacation.

New Tricks

We introduced Evy to her Bumbo seat (purple thing pictured below for all of you non-parents) this weekend. Her neck is getting very strong, but she's still a little too small for the Bumbo. It's funny seeing her sit up. Also, when we visted the daycare I noticed they had a lot of the babies on their tummies in the boppy (bean shaped pillow for all of you non-parents) so we've been trying it out at home. She's doing really well lifting her head.....we've always known she is advanced.