10th Anniversary
All Dressed Up
Always a Lady
Bathtime Bunny
My Family
Hangin' Out, Watching Some TV
Playing
Hungry Kitty
MMMM . . .Love That Baby Smell!
Enjoying Some Pumpkin Roll With Aunt Jess
Peaceful
Two week recap November 25, 2009
Well, it has certainly been a crazy couple of weeks.
MAGGIE’S HEAD
First of all, let’s talk about Maggie’s head. Two weeks ago at her 2 month well baby appointment, the pediatrician noted that the soft spot on the top of Maggie’s head felt smaller than it should. Her exact words were “Do not panic. I will tell you if/when you need to panic”, but to be on the safe side, she sent us for an ultrasound to get a better idea of what was going on since the ultrasound would be a lot more exact than just her touch. So I didn’t think much of it, and we scheduled an appointment the next day at Children’s Hospital to get it done. Needless to say, Maggie did not like having the lady squeeze gel onto her head and roll the wand around on it.
The next day, we got a call from the pediatrician’s office confirming that, yes, her soft spot is extremely narrow, but it’s still open. They were also worried about the possibility of it closing way way sooner than it should, so they told us to take her to get her head X-rayed so that they could see the bone structure of her skull. The nurse that I spoke to was very matter-of-fact and very calm and very helpful with answering my questions about where we needed to go. I called Children’s, found out that we didn’t need an appointment for X-rays, and thought that we’d just go the next day.
THEN I got off the phone and googled “soft spot closing early” and FREAKED THE EFF OUT. Terms like “severe mental retardation” and “surgery in the first year of life to relieve the pressure” were mentioned, among other equally scary things. Fifteen minutes later, Mike was pulling in the driveway from work and I was on my way down the steps to meet him with Maggie in tow. We made the drive in record time, did the whole fill-out-the-paperwork dance, and waited our turn.
Maggie liked the X-ray even less than the ultrasound. And it broke my heart to see her thrashing around on a big slab of metal with the protective pad over the rest of her body while three people tried to keep her calm and get all of the pictures they needed. It turns out that, for now, everything is OK. They’ll just have to keep an eye on her head measurements to make sure it’s growing the way it should and that the soft spot isn’t closing prematurely. So although it could be worse, I get that nervous fluttery feeling inside when I think about it and start to imagine what will happen at her next appointment if her head hasn’t grown.
DATE NIGHT
At the end of that week was our 10 year anniversary. Mike and I went out alone for the first time for a few hours while Mike’s sister watched Maggie. It was such a weird feeling for both of us to be out without the baby, and we spent a lot of the time talking about her and missing her, but it was nice to have some alone time with Mike outside of the house.
DAYCARE
Last Monday was my last day of maternity leave. We had decided to start Maggie in daycare that day and Mike took off work so that we could both take her, get her settled, and get our crying out of the way without having to rush off to work. We had a ton of errands to run for the American Cancer Society benefit that we do, so it worked out well that we kept busy while she was there so that we weren’t tempted to just sit in the parking lot and talk ourselves out of going back in to get her.
Daycare has worked out pretty well. We really like the staff and the facility. It’s very clean and they’re very organized and, most importantly, we’re comfortable with the care that she’s getting. The infant room is segregated from the other kids and the adults either have to take their shoes off prior to entering or wear booties over their shoes to keep the carpet as clean as possible for the kids that are crawling. Maggie’s in with 5 other kids, roughly 4-10 months old, so she’s the youngest.
Last Wednesday when I got there to pick her up in the afternoon, I saw that her crib had been moved from one side of the room to another. I asked about it and was told that she and the girl in the crib next to her were “talking” and waking each other up during naptime so they separated them. Yes, my 2 month old daughter got in trouble on her third day of daycare. For talking. I can only imagine what the teenage years will bring!
MAKING IT ALL WORK
We seem to have a pretty good schedule figured out for the mornings, and Maggie was very cooperative last week by staying asleep until WE were ready for her to get up. I get up and get showered, dressed, and dry my hair. Mike gets up and gets in the shower while I finish getting ready. I get Maggie up, change her diaper, and get her dressed. Mike starts to feed her while I get my lunch packed, and then I sit with them for a few minutes until it’s time for me to leave. Mike drops her off at daycare since he typically doesn’t leave the house until an hour after I do, so that’s one less hour she has to be there and can be with one of us instead.
She’s exhausted by the time she gets home. There’s a lot more for her to look at during the day now than there is at home and a lot more activity and it really wears her out. She’s been napping a little better at daycare than she was at home, and her caretakers are amazed that they can just lay her down in the crib and she’ll fall asleep since there are other, older, kids there that are so resistant to sleeping in a crib and have to be in a swing to fall asleep. I think I can honestly say that she gets her ability to sleep anywhere from me!
Mike and I don’t eat dinner until we put Maggie to bed at night. She’s been ready for her last bottle and to fall asleep by 7:00 each night, so we only have an hour and a half to spend with her before she conks out and I don’t want to waste that time eating dinner. While I was off, I spent a few Saturdays cooking in bulk and freezing meals, and that has worked out incredibly well. It seemed to cost an arm and a leg at the grocery store at the time, even though I would buy meat and the more expensive things when they were on sale. But the extra expense upfront has been well worth the time saved each night now. We’re eating a home-cooked meal and not wasting a ton of time cooking and cleaning up. And it should save some time at the grocery store now each week. Once we near the end of these meals—I made enough to last us through January—I’ll have to devote some time once or twice a month to stocking up, but it’s so worth it.
I’m also trying to get in the habit of laying out Maggie’s clothes for the week, and also my own, on Sunday nights, so that there are a few less things to think about in the morning during the week.
RETURNING TO WORK
Not as bad as I expected, but still tough leaving Maggie each day. I was overwhelmed at first, forgetting passwords and where to find certain files that I needed. But within a few hours I had gotten back into the swing of things and it was like I had never left. And even though I’m busy all day, the time seems to drag, which it never did before. Now I’m counting the hours until I can see Maggie again.
THE BENEFIT
Most of you know that Mike and I run a benefit each year for the American Cancer Society. It was this past Saturday, so we had all of the preparations for that combined with me returning to work falling in the same week—needless to say, it was a crazy week! This year’s event was fantastic. We had over 200 people, which is more than we had ever had before. We ended up getting some great silent auction items which brought in a lot of money. Donations are still coming in from people that couldn’t attend but want to contribute. We’ll be over $8000 this year once it’s all said and done, and that amazes me. With as tough as things are financially for so many, it’s great that people are able to open their wallets and contribute to such a good cause. Thank you to everyone that came to the benefit or donated online—we really appreciate it. And if you haven’t donated but have a few extra bucks that you’d be willing to part with, please visit our website.
The benefit has gotten a little bigger each year, and I’ve slowly been letting go of my need to be a control freak about how things happen that night. And, this year, with Maggie added into the mix, I think I realized that I can’t do it all. I tried to sell raffle tickets along with one of our friends that we recruited for the job, but my mind wasn’t on it. Maggie hung out in the Baby Bjorn for awhile, but she got really hot in it which made her fussy. And since she was awake later than usual, she needed an extra bottle. So I had to give up on the tickets, grab my sister-in-law to fill in for me, and take Maggie into a side room to settle her down and feed her. Mike was concerned about her being OK, so he was leaving his post by the door and having his sister’s friends fill in for him. Without the help of Mike’s sister, her friends, and our friend Jen, the night would have been chaos. Maggie was really good the whole night, smiling at everyone and wide awake early on, and then falling asleep in her chair for about an hour. But she woke up cranky at 11:30 and I knew she had had enough. We had gotten a room at the hotel a block away to make it easier at the end of the night, and it was definitely worth it. Mike and I took her back to the room and I stayed with her while he went back to clean up.
MAGGIE’S FIRST COLD
So many people have told me that daycares are cesspools of germs and illness, but this one gets blamed on me. I woke up with a cold last Monday. Bad timing with all we had going on last week, but I don’t have room to complain since I went all of last winter cold-free and flu-free. It got worse as the week progressed, and I started to lose my voice on Thursday. Saturday night at the hotel, I noticed that Maggie seemed to be a little congested, and by Sunday night it was definitely a cold. On Monday Mike decided to work from home and keep Maggie home from daycare so that he could keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t get worse. Technically, she could have gone since she didn’t have a fever, but he felt better knowing that she was being closely monitored. Other than the congestion, she was fine all day.
Monday night she went to bed at her usual time, but woke up 2 hours later because she was so congested. We put her in her chair and she fell asleep—I think the little bit of incline helped everything drain and made it easier for her to breathe. She slept in our room last night because we expected to be up a lot, but she slept pretty soundly until 5:00 this morning. We suctioned her, fed her, and she fell asleep in her crib. When I left the house a little before 7:00, Mike wasn’t sure how the day would play out, but she ended up sleeping until 8:00 and then he took her in to daycare—she was smiling and giggling and fine except for a little congestion. Same for today, so hopefully she’ll be back to normal in a day or so.
Well, that sums up my life for the past 2 weeks or so. Now I’m excited to have 4 days off work to spend with Maggie (and Mike too, of course)!
Someone in our house weighs 13lbs 1 oz . . . November 9, 2009
. . .and has been a bit cranky since her shots this morning. She’s taking a nice long nap and will hopefully feel better when she wakes up.
Two Months November 8, 2009
Somehow, two months have flown by. This next week will be my last week off work, my last chances to spend hour after hour, day after day in a row with Mags. I’ve always looked forward to the weekends, and once I go back to work I know I’ll look forward to them more than ever.
Maggie has such a personality. She likes to “talk” really really loud–so loud that it drowns out the TV if it’s on. She’s becoming more and more aware of her surroundings and is getting more control when she moves her arms and legs. I’m starting to understand her a little better and am able to read her “signs”.
She’s a very happy baby. But when she’s hungry, it’s typically not a gradual progression. She goes from extremely happy to violent meltdown in a matter of seconds. Anyone who was in the post office in my area last week may have witnessed one of those meltdowns. It was so quick and so extreme that we left without mailing the packages just so that she could get fed as soon as humanly possible!
She’s such a good sleeper. She rarely WANTS to fall asleep (she’s very nosy and would rather look around than go to sleep), but once she does, it’s for long periods of time. She’s usually asleep by 8:00 or 8:30 each night and stays in her crib until at least 6:30 or so. She started doing that 3 weeks ago and at first I thought it was a fluke, but then it happened night after night. She’ll wake up in the middle of the night a few times, although she rarely cries. We’ll wake up because we hear her “talking” or moving around and go in and put her pacifier in and she’ll drift right back to sleep. Even when she wakes up in the morning, she’ll lay in her crib and “talk” to herself until we realize she’s awake and come in and get her. She’s even started sleeping during the day now. She used to only fall asleep for longer than 20-30 minutes if we went somewhere in the car. The 3 days we were home during the day in the past week I was able to lay her down in her crib and she took a 2 1/2 -3 hour nap each time. She still takes a 30 minute catnap in the morning and one later in the day.
She’s also a good eater. A REALLY good eater. She usually averages about 32 oz of formula in a 24 hour period, 6-7 ounces at a time. We go to the doctor tomorrow for her 2 month checkup and I’m anxious to see what she weighs. We went to our baptism class on Thursday night and there was a couple that had their 11 week old baby there. He was a smaller baby at birth, around 6 lbs, and is now over 8 lbs. I couldn’t get over the differences between the two of them; Maggie looked like an Amazon next to him! When the mother pulled out a 4 oz bottle to feed him, I almost laughed out loud–we gave up on the 4 oz bottles 2 weeks ago!
6 week pictures November 1, 2009
We had pictures taken of Maggie when she was 6 weeks old (almost 2 weeks ago . . .where is the time going?). The photographer said that there was no way a 6 week old baby would smile or hold her head up for pictures. We showed her, didn’t we?
Going Home October 25, 2009
On Friday Mike and I made a whirlwind trip to see my family.
We got up at 6:30, fed Maggie, showered, and packed an insane amount of stuff in the car for a day trip. We hit the road at 8:00, drove 175 miles, stopped at my grandparents, hopped back in the car to go to my Dad’s, and then went to see my Aunt Sue and Uncle Mike before getting back in the car and coming back to Pittsburgh. We even had a few more possible stops, but the timing just didn’t work out.
The drive there was uneventful, but coming back it poured down rain so hard that the wipers were useless. The fog over the mountains was so thick that we drove at 15-20 mph in some spots. There were fallen leaves all over the roads . . .in some spots you couldn’t even tell where the road was because it was so dark and foggy and rainy and the leaves covered up the reflective strips that had been guiding us. It took us 4 hours to get back to Pittsburgh, about an hour and 15 minutes more than usual. We got home at almost midnight, exhausted.
Was it worth it?
ABSOLUTELY!
Maggie with her great-grandparents
sticking her tongue out at her Pap
Maggie with Aunt Sue
Guess who slept in her crib last night? October 13, 2009
When Mike and I first got home from the hospital with Maggie, we decided to sleep on the couches downstairs to make things easier. I wasn’t supposed to be running up and down the stairs a lot, plus our bed is really high and would be hard for me to get into and out of (many many times) during the night.
It worked out really well, especially once it was determined that Maggie had reflux and we put her in her bouncy seat to sleep. She was sleeping within arm’s reach at night and checking on her consisted of rolling over and hanging my head off the edge of the couch.
It worked out so well that we were reluctant to move back upstairs. We had a good thing going and were kind of lazy about switching things up. Other than 2 short naps, I didn’t sleep in my bed for a month! Last Friday, we decided to bite the bullet. Maggie slept in the bouncy seat next to the bed, and all through the weekend she would sleep about 4 to 5 hours at a stretch during the night. The cats were glad to have us back in our bed, and it was nice to be able to stretch out and feel somewhat like a normal human being again.
Last night Maggie fell asleep downstairs around 9:30 or so, woke up to eat at 10:30 and fell back asleep a little while later. We carried her upstairs around midnight, and put her in her crib. She had been in it before during the day, but had only slept there for half an hour. Mike and I spent an anxious half hour or so staring at the monitor, but eventually fell asleep. She woke up at 2:30 to eat, then fell back asleep until 6:00. After I fed her at 6:00, I laid her down and sat in the chair peering over the crib and watched her put herself to sleep. She slept until almost 9:00.
I think we’re on the way to getting into a rhythm and finding a routine that works for all of us. We’re definitely headed in the right direction!
