Going Back to Work

We now have a whole new "normal" to figure out now that I'm back to work.  I felt like I was JUST getting the hang of being home all day.  I was finally in a really happy place.  Zoe was finally in a happy place (thank you end of colic!).  We had a good schedule going and the weather was finally turning warmer.

Enter the end of my six month leave.  Suddenly, I now have to get myself ready in the morning plus feed a tiny human.  How it takes me so long to get out the door, I have no idea.  I only have to give her a bottle, and Aaron takes care of the rest.  But some days her sheets are gross and I have to change them, or she pooped through her PJs and I have to soak them, or she is just so darn stinkin' cute I have no desire to leave her (which is pretty much every day) so I dawdle a little longer.

Her naps at day care are hit or miss.  One day she might nap 4 MINUTES (I still find it hilarious that they record this...at least I know they are serious about their license :) ) and then maybe another half hour nap.  But other days she'll nap for an hour and half plus a forty-five minute nap. 

And I can't stop worrying about her all day.  I stare at the clock just waiting for 4:45 to hit so I can shut down and get to my car as fast as my heals will take me and then curse at the traffic for taking me 45 minutes to get to my little goose.  She's the highlight of my day and I hate that during the week, I only get a good 1.5-2 hours at most with her before it's bedtime.  And lately, she naps on the way home and in her car seat until 6:30 which cuts down our time together even more.

Then enter all of my other tasks around the house that I cannot seem to fit in.  Like cleaning.  I went TWO whole weeks without cleaning my house.  So not like me.  But I just didn't have time (I scrubbed yesterday for the record).  And laundry, and grocery shopping, and miscellaneous errands, and doing yard work, and cooking a meal that's not a sandwich or salad. 

My mom promised that it's just this stage of life.  She had the same hurdles to get over when we were little.  And she said I just have to get in the mindset that my house may not be clean, uncluttered yes, clean no.  And other things may need to fall through the cracks.  But I won't be able to get back those baby giggles or tub splashes that I missed because I was so obsessed with the to-do list I never seem to be able to finish.

I know we'll figure this all out eventually.  And as much as I miss her during the day, I know Zoe loves school and she's meeting new friends and learning to adapt to new situations.  And I get a little me time with adult conversation.  

And I rarely have to change a poopy diaper (thank you Zoe for always taking care of business during the day ;) ).  At least there is a small upside!

Getting to spend time together OUTSIDE after work is the
highlight of my day.  LOVE those thigh rolls :)

First Mother's Day

Technically, I had a half celebration last year when my mom took me shopping for maternity clothes and my dad bought me a rose from church :)  But this was the first year with out little goose really here.

We spent the weekend at my parents since I had a training in GR and it was my sister-in-law's 30th birthday party.  For Mother's Day, we had brunch at my in-law's.  Zoe and daddy made me a perfect handmade card (Zoe even did a nice crayon drawing on the inside), a hand print keepsake, and got me a bead for my bracelet.  And Aaron even went grocery shopping for me when we got home...this was big!

Poor Zoe has definitely been working on building her immune system in the short few weeks she's been at day care.  She had a little stomach bug earlier this month and become and runny, snotty mess Mother's Day weekend.  Needless to say, I was up until 5am holding her upright Saturday that weekend night so that she could get some sleep and be able to breathe.  It's crazy how fast you forget the newborn days of sleep deprivation.  We've been living in a nice bubble with a baby who sleeps through the night for a LONG time now (I'm hoping I'm not jinxing myself...).

Mother's Day weekend was a good reminder that this really is hard work, but so worth it to see her smiles all day on Sunday. 

I hope everyone had a very, Happy Mother's Day.  Ours was perfect!

Zoe Louise | Six Months

Six months....a half a year!  I can't even wrap my head around how old you are getting so fast.  You are so big and doing so many new things.  I hardly even have to prop you up at all for these pictures. You are pretty much sitting on your own (although you still have spills so mommy and daddy make sure to be right by you).  And our last month together :(  

Stats:  26 inches long (50th percentile), head is 17.25 inches (90th percentile), and weight is 17 lb 2.5 oz. (68th percentile).  You're creeping up there on weight girlie!  But I'm good with it...your little thigh rolls are too cute for words :)  

Likes:  Eating.  White noise CD.  Bath time.  Your mobile.  Momma Sofie.  Mr. Hungry Caterpillar.  Daddy's crazy songs.  You also love your hands and feet.  Anything you can get your hands on basically - my hair, my glasses, sweatshirt strings, etc.  You are very, very grabby this month.  No jewelry for mommy right now.  Sleeping on your tummy...who knew I'd be saying that after the first few days we had when you learned how to roll!

Ok people, this looks like my bottle.  Why isn't anything coming out??

You LOVE when people jump at you.  Our little neighbor Liam started doing it this week and you thought it was hilarious.  I tried it out myself the other day, and sure enough you giggled forever.  Wally is also suddenly funny too.  You giggle every time he licks you.

Dislikes:  Being burped during/after your bottle.  Being overtired.  Getting ready for bed after your bath.  You love the bath itself.  But you'd think we were torturing you when getting you in your PJs.

Biggest Achievement This Month:  Rolling from back to belly.  And making it 13 hours in the car on vacation!!

All tuckered out on the way home from SC.

Biggest Challenge of the Month:  The 45 minute nap intruder is still in full force :(  Sleeping more at daycare.  Sleeping in a hotel (I guess this one doesn't really matter since we don't go on vacation all that often).

Secret Tricks:  I now put you to sleep on your belly and rub your back for a little bit and you usually fall right to sleep.  If only you were allowed to go to sleep right on your belly at daycare.  It might solve a lot of problems.

Sleep:  You still take your last bottle at 7:30pm and are down by 8pm at the latest.  You are then down for the night until about 7am.  You take 3 naps during the day when at home, but not so much at daycare.  Two long ones that are around 2 hours or a little more and then a short catnap from about 5-6pm.  

Temperament/Personality:  You now purse your lips like you are contemplating something very deep and profound.  I wish we could capture it on the camera because you look so cute doing it.  You still babble away mostly to your toys although sometimes I can get you to talk to us :)  

Eating:  Still at 5 feedings.  You're now taking about 6 oz for each of your bottles.  I now nurse you in the morning and before bed.  So far that's easiest so we'll keep doing it as long as it's working.

We got the ok today from Dr. Butry to introduce real food!  Yay!  She said we need to work on getting you to eat a breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I'm so excited to see your reactions to food that actually tastes good rather than the bland rice cereal.  And now, I think I might mix in something tasty with your rice cereal.

Mmm...sweet potatoes!  First real food.

Randoms: All 6 month clothes, but I'm having to pack some of those away.  The ones that still fit JUST fit you so we'll need to get those 9 month clothes washed soon.  You are in size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 at night since you were leaking through your smaller ones.  We moved up to size 3 at day care as well since you were blowing out so many diapers.

Milestones:  Rolling from back to tummy.  You are starting to be able to tripod and even sit on your own sometimes.  And you can hold yourself up standing for a very short amount of time if I prop you up next to your pouf on you nursery floor.  Even though you prefer to sleep on your tummy, you still hate tummy time when you are awake so you haven't had much opportunity to crawl.

Look at me mommy!  I can sit on my own :)

Outings:  Vacation to South Carolina!  That's a post of it's own :)  We also went to Greenfield Village with Matt and his two little girls.  It was such a nice day and so nice to catch up with Matt and get outside.  You had your first trip on a carousel and a train.  You were happy when mommy held you on the carousel but didn't really like riding the horsey on your own.

We also celebrated Great Grandpa Menke's 90th birthday!  So many people came out to celebrate his special day :)

Favorite Baby Gear:  The stroller was a lifesaver on vacation.  It was the ONLY place you'd nap.  You also love the exersaucer if you can't see me.  This helps me to get a few things done in another room.  Once you see me though, you cry and hold your arms out for me to pick you up.

Comparison shots!

Love you Goose!  Let's make sure to live up our night and weekends together now that mommy has to go back to work :)

Vacation

I have really never taken long road trips.  My family always flew - probably because my parents had no desire to deal with three kids in the car for long periods of time :)  Aaron is the opposite.  Growing up with 5 other brothers and sisters, flying was obviously super expensive and super tricky.  So they drove everywhere.

We stopped at a bar and all had a refreshing beverage on a hot day

Since I was still on maternity leave and Aaron has vacation saved, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to get away for a week.  Aaron came up with South Carolina, and after looking at the weather forecast, I was on board.  Airline tickets were ridiculous and since I'm currently not getting paid, we decided to drive.

Out on a walk

The drive down seemed to take forever.  Zoe had a rough time in her carseat (two diaper blowouts just on the way there) and just wanted to be out.  I don't blame her - how boring to stare at the back of the seat for hours on end.  But we were in that, "Woohoo, we're going on vacation, we're so excited!" mode.  Crying?  We could tune it out because we were SO.EXCITED.  We stopped halfway to give the girl a breather and spent the night in Tennessee.  

Driving the safari car at the aquarium after she finally woke up

The drive on the second day was gorgeous.  We both agreed we'd have to go back another time just to vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  And only 6-7 hours in the car?  Totally doable. 

Then finally....palm trees!  That's when I know I'm on vacation :)  And 80 degrees.  Since we left MI in the 40s, it was heaven.  

Walk on the pier

We walked around quite a bit (we had to enjoy the weather!), we drove to a plantation/garden, we went to the ocean, and to the aquarium.  Zoe LOVED the beach.  Absolutely loved it.  The water itself?  Not so much....she screamed when Aaron put her toes in.  And being the awesome parents we are, we decided we had to capture her reaction on film so we recreated it an hour later and caught it on video.  We are so mean...I can't wait for her to go camping this summer though in Traverse City.  She'll be old enough to sit on her own and I think she'll love playing in the sand. 

Loving the beach

Her naps and sleeping on vacation?  HORRIBLE.  She refused to nap in her pack n play.  We literally had to go on a walk for every single nap.  Which means they were short naps and probably not the best quality since she was being jostled around.  And she slept terrible at night (so not like her).  I never knew if she was hungry (growth spurt?) or just needed to cry a little before falling back to sleep.  But we were in a hotel and I didn't want to wake all of our neighbors up so most of the time I just caved and fed her.  Then her wake up calls were usually 6:30.  Then they creeped up to 5:30 and the final day?  5 am.  The only upside was that we got on the rode extremely early and were able to make it home in one day rather than two.  

Finally!

It was so much fun though to see her reactions to everything.  The sand was fascinating.  She slept for most of the aquarium but was completely enthralled by the fish tank once she woke up.  It's funny how the small things are so exciting to her which makes them that much more fun for us :)

Week One of Daycare

I guess I probably shouldn't count it as one week since she was really only there for three days.  But you get the drift...

As expected, I had butterflies in my stomach going to bed Tuesday night and woke up all jittery Wednesday morning.  I kept telling myself, "Just think how much you'll be able to get done today without any interruptions.  You'll be able to do so much without having to worry about bottles and naps."  It's funny.  Any other day I would kill for just a few hours of me time. But then when I have the time, all I can think about is the clock and when I get to pick her up.

Aaron and I dropped her off together.  He'll be doing the drop off normally, but I wanted to be there on her first day.  She was perfectly fine when we handed her off to Miss Mary.  I, however, didn't do so well.  Miss Linda and Miss Mary both have older children and told me over and over how hard it was every year to drop their kids off too.  They promised it would get better and reiterated that I could call or stop in as much as I would like.

I did my best to wait until noon to call.  At that point, little stinker hadn't napped yet which is so not like her and I had it in my brain that she would never nap, she'd get so overtired she'd be a nightmare at home, and on and on.  Have I mentioned I obsess over things? Yeah, it's a problem.  I picked her up at 3:30 pm and she had finally napped a little.  Two short catnaps, but I'll take it.  She had another catnap when we got home at her normal "catnap" time.  We had our parent group so she was up much later than usual, but she did pretty well considering how her day was completely off.

Thursday, still with the catnaps but she at least had a morning one. I had to pick her up again early for a doctor's appointment.  She snoozed away after we got home.

I know she'll figure out the napping thing.  And if she doesn't, oh well.  That's what I keep trying to remind myself.  There's nothing we can do at this point.  

All in all, I'm feeling much better.  The women are all so nice.  There are several babies so hopefully she'll make some friends that she'll follow through the program.